The Saucy Wenches Book Club

A new feeling floods me: That he and I are on the same side of an invisible line, and the rest of the world is elsewhere. Our very own Isola Bella. Sandbar accessibility subject to changes in sea levels. ~ Ali Hazelwood, Problematic Summer Romance

The ghosts laugh, not unkindly, despite my own cruelty. Bad things happen when women go looking in this story, they say, like in every other story. Don’t you know this? ~ Natalia Theodoridou, Sour Cherry

Bury my bones in the midnight soil, plant them shallow and water them deep, and in my place will grow a feral rose, soft red petals hiding sharp white teeth. ~ V.E. Schwab, Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil

Continents and countries come one after the other and the earth feels – not small, but almost endlessly connected, an epic poem of flowing verses. It holds no possibility of opposition. ~ Samantha Harvey, Orbital

“Belly laughs are one of the best things about being sentient, and you should never miss a chance for one.” ~ Dennis E. Taylor, We Are Legion (We Are Bob)

That was how it was. One day you had your own country. The next day you were a refugee. You were in a line, waiting to be someone again. To be legal again. Not to be nothing. ~ Ray Nayler, Where the Axe Is Buried

Under the subtle influence of the hare, my own wants have simplified. To be dependable in love and friendship more than in work. To leave the land in a more natural state than I found it. And to take better care of what is to hand, seeing beauty and value in the ordinary. ~ Chloe Dalton, Raising Hare

We can go on building and destroying until we either destroy ourselves or destroy the ability of our world to sustain us. Or we can make something more of ourselves. We can grow up. ~ Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Talents

“I saw a man who couldn’t keep his eyes off you. A man who hasn’t looked so happy in a very long time. I saw a man who finally found the kind of person he always wanted for himself. A best friend. A smart-ass. A brilliant, talented, caring woman, who deserves so much more than me.” ~ Carley Fortune, One Golden Summer

“I washed the Divining robes this morning.” The gargoyle led me down the nave. On the final pew, six silk robes waited. “It was an abundant chore. I am within myself with fatigue.” “Beside,” I murmured, peeling off my clothes. “‘Beside myself with fatigue’ is the proper expression.” The gargoyle’s stone brow knit. “If I were beside myself, there would be two of me, and the washing would have taken half the time.” ~ Rachel Gillig, The Knight and the Moth

I’ve heard it said that the sorrow of human life is that it ends. But I don’t think that’s the source of our sorrow. Everything ends, not just human lives. Days end. Species disappear. Planets die. No, the real sorrow of human life is that we feel. That’s our affliction. ~ Amity Gaige, Heartwood

“But to love Frances was to be always saying goodbye to the girl Frances used to be and falling in love again with the girl Frances was becoming.” ~ Taylor Jenkins Reid, Atmosphere