The Saucy Wenches Book Club

“In my multifold years of life, I have learned that most people get along as best they can. They don’t intend to hurt anyone. It is merely a terrible by-product of surviving.”
Lisa Wingate, Before We Were Yours

It's hard to put into words what sometime you pick up in the ether, the quiet, cruel nuances of not belonging—the subtle cues that tell you to not risk anything, to find your people and just stay put.

Becoming
~~Michelle Obama

“Greedy can be bought, timid can be frightened, smart can be persuaded, but the zealots are immune to money, fear, or reason”
― Ilona Andrews, Sweep in Peace (Innkeeper Chronicles #1)

Pierce Brown’s Red Rising trilogy is a roller-coaster ride of action-packed space opera that kept me gasping and guessing right up until the last page.

About what would happen next (I was usually wrong).
About who would live to fight another day.
About whether I’d survive the next round of heart palpitations to finish the story.

These books ripped my heart to shreds and stomped all over the pieces a few times. But as a trilogy, they soared with intricate plots, flat-out amazing world building — that expanded with each book, and a hellaciously satisfying ending. The characters were diverse and often offbeat, with fascinating histories and a continuously evolving social dynamic that drove many plots.

This is rollicking sci-fi epic at its best, augmented with the excellent social and political commentary and philosophical introspection I expect in dystopian drama. If that whets your appetite for literary adventure, I hope you’ll let me tell you more about each book below. Minimal sp…

Life goes on, and in the going, reveals itself. Quit being so impatient.

Feverborn
~~Karen Marie Moning

Violence is a tool. It is meant to shock. To change. Instead, they normalize and celebrate it. And create a culture of exploitation where they are so entitled to sex and power that when they are told no, they pull a sword and do as they like.
~ Pierce Brown, Morning Star

“You learned appreciation when people proved your worth by spending time with you instead of money on you.”
Hailey Edwards, How to Claim an Undead Soul (The Beginner’s Guide to Necromancy #2)

He had been told by several people that he drank too much coffee, that it wasn’t good for him. As far as he was concerned, those people were just jealous and cranky because they didn’t drink enough coffee.
A Killer's Mind by Mike Omer

“He looks up at me with his night-colored eyes, beautiful and terrible all at once. “For a moment,” he says, “I wondered if it wasn’t you shooting bolts at me.”
I make a face at him. “And what made you decide it wasn’t?”
He grins up at me. “They missed.”
Holly Black, The Wicked King

She’s with me now. Anchoring me among these predators. Without her I could face my enemies, but I would not hold on to so much of myself. I would be darker. More wrathful. I count my blessings that I have people like her to which I can tether my spirit. Otherwise I fear it would run away from me.
~ Pierce Brown, Morning Star

“When I create works of art, I do it because it is part of me and I must create. But afterward, when the work is done, I hope that it’ll speak to people, that it’ll open up their hearts or their minds. That cannot happen if the art is buried for safekeeping.”
― Nalini Singh, Archangel's Heart

I sucked in a deep breath and moved faster, following the enchanted thread, tugging it, my desire for what we'd find on the other end becoming intemperate. I could only imagine why Callis would be enthralled with this city — how he thought he was going to make it his own, build a castle where the supernatural dripped with the rain and bebopped alongside the pentatonic scales. A spiritual nexus that drew the willing and beguiled the mundane. It was no wonder descendants of so many of the Great European witching families had ended up here. New Orleans was a place you wanted to be born from and die in. Even I, who'd been drained of magic for centuries, could feel her alluring whisper begging me to stay. 

The Cities of the Dead
~~Alys Arden

“Ruth,” a thin, raspy voice calls from another room in the house, “who’s at the door?” 
Did he miss the part where we broke into their home? 
Ruth’s gaze stays on Pestilence for a long time, moving from his bow and quiver to his crown, before settling on his face.
“I believe it’s one of the Four Horsemen, dear.” Her eyes flick to me. “And he’s brought with him a lady friend.” 
Laura Thalassa, Pestilence

Since reluctantly stepping into public life, I've been held up as the most powerful woman in the world and taken down as an "angry black woman." I've wanted to ask my detractors which part of that phrase matters to them the most — is it "angry" or "black" or "woman"?

Becoming
~~Michelle Obama

The night I met him, I sat spellbound at a reading my friend had dragged me to, his words softening the ground of me, so that when he looked up, those brown eyes could tunnel all the way through.
~ Lauren Groff, Florida

“There are many Beths in the world, shy and quiet, sitting in corners till needed, and living for others so cheerfully that no one sees the sacrifices till the little cricket on the hearth stops chirping, and the sweet, sunshiny presence vanishes, leaving silence and shadow behind.”
― Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

When Jada tossed her the spear, Barrons watched it fly end over end through the air, measured Jada a long moment and nodded.

"So it's ours again," Enyo said, catching and sheathing it in her waistband in a fluid movement. "Does that mean we've lost Mac?"

"No," Barrons said, dangerously soft. "I've lost many things. Mac will never be one of them."

Feversong
~~Karen Marie Moning

Words are a weapon stronger than he knows. And songs are even greater. The words wake the mind. The melody wakes the heart.
~Pierce Brown, Red Rising

“You got to the BAU because they didn’t want you anywhere else. So get over the size of your penis or your bed-wetting issue or whatever it is you’re compensating for, and man up. If you want me to back you up, you’ll have to keep up with me. And I move fast.”
A Killer's Mind by Mike Omer