The Saucy Wenches Book Club

None of us ever know all the possible courses our lives could have and maybe should have taken. It’s probably just as well. Some secrets are meant to stay secret forever. Just ask Pandora. ~ Liane Moriarty, The Husband’s Secret

I think that's why I love my iPod so much. I have music in my soul and can't get it out. Burned ~~Karen Marie Moning

The function of hate, as Sarai saw it, was to stamp out compassion—to close a door in one’s own self and forget it was ever there. If you had hate, then you could see suffering—and cause it—and feel nothing except perhaps a sordid vindication. ~ Laini Taylor, Strange the Dreamer

“Because naming things humanizes them. And once you humanize something, you are essentially recognizing its existence.” Laura Thalassa, Pestilence

“The greatest products of architecture are less the works of individuals than of society; rather the offspring of a nation’s effort, than the inspired flash of a man of genius...” ― Victor Hugo, The Hunchback of Notre Dame

He always thinks because I’m reading, I’m not doing anything. There is no greater plague to an introvert than the extroverted. ~ Pierce Brown, Golden Son

“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)

Source 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 ...

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