The Saucy Wenches Book Club

People who are going to kiss do it with their eyes first.... You can see it coming a mile off. ~ Abbi Waxman, The Bookish Life of Nina Hill

Her worst advice: Think Botticelli. Be like Venus rising on a half shell, lips demurely closed, even her nakedness modest. My mother’s words of advice when I moved in with Peter ... “Dear Eleanor, I like your Peter very much. Please make an effort not to be so difficult all the time. Keep your mouth closed and look mysterious. Think Botticelli. Love, Mummy.” [snip] “If you want to make Peter happy when he comes home from work, ... put on a fresh blouse, put in your diaphragm, and smile.” Think Botticelli. ~ Miranda Cowley Heller, The Paper Palace

“We’re dead in space. We’re stuck here forever.” “Not forever,” .... I perk up. “No?” “No. Orbit decay soon. Then we die.” ~ Andy Weir, Project Hail Mary

How do you explain it when you find in someone what you’ve been waiting for your whole life? Do you call it fate? It feels lazy to call it fate. It’s more like finding your way home—where home is a place you secretly hoped for, a place you imagined, but where you’d never before been. Home. When you weren’t sure you’d ever get to have one. ~ Laura Dave, The Last Thing He Told Me

Love is forgiveness and patience and faith and every once in a while, it’s a gut punch. That’s why it’s a dangerous thing, when you go loving the wrong person. When you love somebody who doesn’t deserve it. You have to be with someone that deserves your faith and you have to be deserving of someone else’s. It’s sacred. ~ Taylor Jenkins Reid, Daisy Jones & the Six

She’d read most everything in the palace library, some things twice. It was one of the few ways to soothe her mind when it started churning and spilling over itself, connecting fears in spiderwebs she couldn’t disentangle. The scent of paper, the orderliness of printed words, the sensation of page edges beneath her fingers smoothed the waves of her thoughts to placidity. ~ Hannah Whitten, For the Wolf

“People thought that being one of a kind made you special. No, it just made you lonely. What was special was belonging with someone else.” ~ Brit Bennett, The Vanishing Half

“Maybe things can always get better between people who want to do a good job loving each other. Maybe that’s all it takes.” ~ Emily Henry, People We Meet on Vacation

Surprisingly, she didn’t know basic things, like the fact that you’re supposed to lick the beaters clean. That’s the whole point of baking. ~ Janet Skeslien Charles, The Paris Library

“Achilles was looking at me. “Your hair never quite lies flat, here.” He touched my head, just behind my ear. “I don’t think I’ve ever told you how I like it.” My scalp prickled where his fingers had been. “You haven’t,” I said. “I should have.” His hand drifted down to the vee at the base of my throat, drew softly across the pulse. “What about this? Have I told you what I think of this, just here?” “No,” I said. “This surely then.” His hand moved across the muscles of my chest; my skin warmed beneath it. “Have I told you of this?” “That you have told me.” My breath caught a little as I spoke. “And what of this?” His hand lingered over my hips, drew down the line of my thigh. “Have I spoken of it?” “You have.” “And this? Surely I would not have forgotten this.” His cat’s smile. “Tell me I did not.” “You did not.” “There is this too.” His hand was ceaseless now. “I know I have told you of this.” I closed my eyes. “Tell me again,” I said.” ~ Madeline

“Where did you go? I was a little disconcerted.” “I needed a book in case of emergencies.” “You mean like being attacked by foul-mouthed highwaymen?” “No, I mean those moments when nothing important is happening, such as during travel. After supper. Before sleeping. Or whilst one’s opponent reloads their gun.” ~ India Holton, The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels

People think they want the truth but they’re always disappointed. It is invariably less interesting than the mystery. ~ Alexandra Andrews, Who Is Maud Dixon?

“Look, if you don’t want to feel an orgasm that starts in your toes and shakes your whole body, it’s no skin off my back.” ~ Taylor Jenkins Reid, Malibu Rising

“Do you know the best feeling in the world?” “Uh . . .” Nina shook her head, despite having some ideas. Liz glowed. “It’s reading a book, loving every second of it, then turning to the front and discovering that the writer wrote fourteen zillion others.” “Fourteen zillion?” “Or a dozen!” ~ Abbi Waxman, The Bookish Life of Nina Hill

From that point on, I guess I sort of realized that my imagination, which made life tolerable, needed to be kept a secret from the rest of the world. But if you keep something hidden away, all tied up, it’s hard to summon it when you really need it. ~ Kevin Wilson, Nothing to See Here

Today she felt especially comforted by the books that climbed the walls. They were a reminder that any knowledge she desired was hers for the asking. ~ Liv Constantine, The Last Mrs. Parrish

“I’m so ready for a glass of wine, my just big enough tub, and some Witcher. Lord knows I need a healthy dose of Henry Cavill in my life to remind me why I shouldn’t look into becoming a lesbian.” ~ Ivy Asher, The Bone Witch

It’s a simple idea, but also stupid. Thing is, when stupid ideas work, they become genius ideas. We’ll see which way this one falls. ~ Andy Weir, Project Hail Mary