Amelie > Recent Status Updates

“First, the next step is always right in front of you. Pick your feet up and put your feet down.”

“We were in the dragon’s belly?”
“We are,” said Rupert, and he cracked a dark smile. “‘Shall I fear the dragon’s inners, where it keeps no armor to turn my blade?’ That from your famous ancestor, the Captain.”

“You can do this, because you can—and you will—do much harder things.”

“You’ve flown an ancient battle flag. Don’t strike your colors just because the guns begin to growl.”

There is only one Story. It began in the dark. It has many middles and many ends. You and I could chase it for lifetimes and only make it longer by our living. It is too sprawling for these pages and too big for this mouth.
We begin in a middle. We trace a smaller arc.

Always grateful for how N.D. Wilson has shaped my view of life as a Story with an awesome Author.

“And a happy New Year to you all.”

I’d forgotten that the end of this first book takes place at New Year’s. Fitting for my first read of this new year!

He opened his eyes, staring straight ahead. The future was invisibly dark, but to Rupert Greeves, it smelled like war.

“You’re going to hang in there,” she said. “That’s what you’re going to do. You’re a Smith. I’m a Boone. We don’t roll over.”

Diana is the best.

The green lawns, the sprawling gray lake, the blue sky walled with rowdy black clouds in the distance—the world around them was beautiful and alive. And they were somehow still alive in it.

They could never go back to who they’d been before.
He wasn’t leaving Ashtown, not even if it meant studying something.

I’m reminded once again how very young the Smiths are. And how believable all the character interactions and reactions and dynamics are.

What he felt was layer upon layer of ancient. The boy’s faint green irises looked like they had been beaten and polished more than the smoothest river rock, like they could see by nothing more than starlight—and they no longer cared to see at all.

NOLAN.

“Today, you two have become a brother and sister to me. Your brother by blood is now like my own, and I will do all that I can for him. I wish I could make you promises, but I cannot. Not when it comes to Maxi and Phoenix. For now, I will see what can be seen and hear what can be heard.”

Rupert Greeves. The legend. Honorable. Keenly aware of Justice. Loyal to all ends.

“My hat! My hat has fallen! In the grass! My hat is in the grass!”

Dennis is pompously adorable.

He dropped the stub of his cigarette onto Cyrus’s carpet. “Tonight,” he said, grinding the butt out with his bare foot, “I stop running. Someone else is gonna start.”

N.D. Wilson has a way of giving his characters the most honest, convicting, and sometimes chilling statements. (Horace has also entered the scene by now. Love that little lawyer.)

North of Mexico, south of Canada, and not too far west of the freshwater sea called Lake Michigan, in a place where cows polka-dot hills and men are serious about cheese, there is a lady on a pole. The Lady is an archer, pale and posing twenty feet in the air above a potholed parking lot.

So begins my third time adventuring with the Smiths. I’m ready (and do promise not to smoke in the library).

I love the cello.

Like the undying embers in a fireborn’s bones, hope endures. It needs only a kindling breath to reignite it. — Wisdom of the Horsemasters

The theme of stubborn, white-knuckled, onward-focused hope is so tangible and truthful in this series.

“What can I say, Sea-Demon? We mean to change the tides with you.”

I am such a sucker for this.

“You want to forgive your brothers? Do it in truth. Not in lies. Not by shrugging off the severity of what they did or trying to reason it away. If there was no wrong, Jakim, there is nothing to forgive.”

The direct wisdom here.

“It’s good to hear your voice again.
“It’s good to hear yours, too.”

Adjkdkgjgifosjskflfjsjaaaaaaah.

Fool Beast’s head swiveled, tracking them, and Markham itched to follow, but they were too few for a traditional attack.

Markham our Legend having actually named a horse Fool Beast.

The truths of Aodh are recorded in stone, emblazoned across the night sky, and etched upon the hearts of men.

Yes indeed, I’m highlighting every one of these sayings about Aodh, for they are glorious and beautiful.

But come fires or floods, she would see it through to the end.

That’s our girl.

“Do you remember?”

My heart is in pain.

“Pins and Needles” has me covering my mouth and squealing and grinning like I haven’t for a long time because I AM HAPPY.

“Why are you always blowing me up?”

JinYeong’s having a rough go of it. xDD

Palomena is an epic character among epic characters.

“Lochlan Stormgarden, you have the heart of a lion. If you give yourself the time to learn and the grace to make mistakes without losing hope, you will be the greatest king Myriad has ever known.”

I love when the covers of all the books on my “currently reading” shelf match somewhat.

I never sympathize with Anne so much as with the Rollings Reliable baking powder story competition.