B.A. McRae’s Reviews > Rise > Status Update

“It was a small, ordinary thing— just
a mundane task, just something that someone needed to do. But to her, it looked like love.”

“Apparently carbs fix all emotional wounds.”
”They do,” Iris said cheerfully, steering Hazel toward the couch. ”That, and relentless friendship.”

“Her leg throbbed in slow, pulsing waves, but it wasn’t the pain that kept her rooted in place. It was the promise that he was coming. That, for once, she didn’t have to carry everything on her own.”

”It wasn’t simple, but maybe it didn’t have to be. Maybe it just had to be honest.”

I really love the humility of this line, it brought a tone of reflection to me in my own life.

“She stared at it, then at him. The pieces of the puzzle he’d set before her still wouldn’t press into place.
“You… brought me a bell?”

SWOOOOOOOON there it IIISSSSS

“In Boston, light pollution had always blurred whatever loomed above. Woven on the clearest nights, she could only ever catch a few of the brightest ones, scattered like crumbs. But here— here, the sky held things. The steady pulse of something older than her pain.”

“And for the first time in a long time, she let herself wonder: what if this wasn’t the end of something? What if it was the beginning?”

“You never know when someone might need something warm.” ☺️☕️✨