Olivia

“What's wrong with being in control anyway?" I demand, of the universe at large.

"Beats me."

"And what, just because I don't want kids, I would supposedly punish a pregnant woman for making a different decision than me? My favorite person's a pregnant woman! And I'm obsessed with my nieces. Not every decision a woman makes is some grand indictment on other women's lives."

"Nora," Charlie says. "It's a novel. Fiction."

"You don't get it because you're... you." I wave a hand at him.

"Me?" he says.

"You can afford to be all surly and sharp and people will admire you for it. The rules are different for women. You have to strike that perfect balance to be taken seriously but not seen as bitchy. It's a constant effort. People don't want to work with sharky women -"

"I do," he says.”
― Emily Henry, Book Lovers

“I read once that sunflowers always orient themselves to face the sun. That’s what being near Charlie Lastra is like for me. There could be a raging wildfire racing toward me from the west and I’d still be straining eastward toward his warmth.”
― Emily Henry, Book Lovers

“The ragged edge of his voice knocks the wind out of me. I fight the impulse to rein in my shock, and then it all clicks, the bits of Charlie I’ve been collecting like puzzle pieces becoming a full picture. Not the Darcy trope. Not the self-important, dour academic I met for one very unpleasant lunch. A man who craves complete honesty, the realist who doesn’t always understand when he’s not seeing realism. Charlie, who wants to understand the world but has learned not to trust it.”
― Emily Henry, Book Lovers

“Live, Manon. Live.”
― Sarah J. Maas, Kingdom of Ash