"Love feels no burden, thinks nothing of trouble, attempts what is above its strength, pleads no excuse of impossibility; for it thinks all things lawful for itself, and all things possible was what the justice of the peace had said, quoting Tomas à Kempis. Why did the quote that was meant to strengthen them only weaken her?"


While Children of Liberty holds the foundation, Bellagrand carries all the sorrow in Harold & Gina's unfortunate love story. I knew reading this would be hard. It was 80% sadness. It broke my heart. Repeatedly. I questioned why I ever loved their story to begin with. Repeatedly. I thought, why continue if you know it does not end in happiness? But it made my heart full too. I love the cathartic process I go through when reading a Paullina Simons book. I can always expect to channel a magnitude of emotions through her writing. I felt the love, frustration, hope, anguish, and heartache. The skill that allows this author to evoke so much from tragedy is beyond me. It was ugly, but it was supposed to be. It served its purpose.


"Was it wrong to build a house like marriage, even a mansion like their marriage, on the ashes of someone else's devastated heart?"

"The Russian angst is too depressing for a man in a cell. Everything is terrible and everyone is about to die. And then they do die. What's wrong with those Russians and their entire line of literature?"

"I once wrapped you in myself," she said to him, "but you have wrapped me in your shallows. And yet look how deep they are."

"You can only live one life. We all have to choose. Like before. Either Boston or Bellagrand. One or the other. You can't have both."
Bitterness flowed through her on the dry banks of her empty rivers. "And now, as my ultimate punishment," said Gina, "I will have neither."