She liked the way the French fell on her ears, mellifluous and soft. It sounded the way honey tasted.

She hated that her siblings thought she was cold or unfeeling. Just because she’d been brought up to keep her emotions hidden didn’t mean that she never experienced those emotions.

I swore that I wouldn’t kiss you again. Obviously I can’t keep my promises, even to myself. Not when it comes to you.

Someday, Avery, you’ll learn that it’s not much use running away from things if you have to eventually come back and face them.

Lust was so delightfully uncomplicated and straightforward, while female friendships were inevitably layered with conditions, and history, and unspoken rules of behavior.

I wish we could erase all those – those atrocities,” she stammered, and was surprised by her father’s reply. “Never say that,” he insisted. “Say you want to make things right, to build a better future. But erasing the past – or worse, trying to rewrite it – is the tool of despots. Only by engaging with the past can we avoid repeating it.

Love and trust aren’t the same thing.

Samantha, criticism is a good thing. It means you’ve fought for something.

Good luck in there,” he called out, but Avery was already a world away.

All of them preoccupied with their own small worries, clutching at their impossible dreams.