The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year

by Ally Carter

Because Maggie wasn’t fine—but she would be. As soon as her stomach stopped growling and her head stopped hurting and this last first was finally over.

Lance’s voice took on a lascivious tone; he sounded like the reason they invented penicillin—“she’s

She was an open wound and he was full of salt.

and had a crisp, British accent that called to mind boarding schools and polo matches and names that were spelled Chumbledown but were pronounced Randolph.

Maggie was babbling and rambling. It left her feeling guilty for reasons that didn’t make sense and embarrassed for reasons that did. But, most of all, she felt . . . strange. Like there was something hot on the back of her neck, a tingling and a prickling and—

Maggie wanted to pull the words back. It was like she’d said way too much and also too little and the awkwardness descended like a fog.

and the damp denim felt like a straitjacket on her calves. She wanted to change. To run. To vibrate right out of her own skin.

I love the way she describes feelings

She was letting her imagination get the better of her, but her imagination had also paid the bills for the better part of a decade, so her imagination, frankly, deserved the benefit of the doubt.

“What if I act like that’s always been your name?” She brightened. “You’d do that?”

I KNEW IT!!

The elevator started to move, but Ethan wanted to go back to standing still because that was the first time in a long time that he had felt like moving forward.

And a man who was leaning toward her like a flower leans toward the sun.

Maggie gave him a look like this would be the best Christmas ever if it weren’t for all the almost dying.

“In the end, he got my house and my savings and my best friend—did I mention that part?” Maggie laughed to keep from crying. “But I got to keep . . . myself.”

That’s what Child Maggie must have looked like, high on too many cookies and Eleanor Ashley novels, filling up notebooks and spying on neighbors. He wanted to go back in time and be her very best friend.

and Ethan thought he might spend the rest of his life chasing the rush of making Maggie smile in that long, dark hallway,

unsurprised to find Ethan standing there, taking up every ounce of space like his day job had been Door or Gate or Human Barricade.

Like she was adorable and sweet and his favorite kind of candy.

At that moment, Maggie was high on adrenaline and kissing and the all-consuming rush of being right.

She needed to brush her teeth and put on fancy underwear and also go back in time and become the kind of person who owns fancy underwear.

And he wanted nothing more than to kiss her tears and kill her demons.

“The book burner does favors?” No one had ever sounded more aghast and that just made him love her more. “Ethan. No!”

“Why—” “Because it’s you!” The words were already out there, turning to ice in the frosty air, and Ethan couldn’t bring them back. And worse, he didn’t want to. “It’s always been you, Maggie. Losing my job? It was nothing. I was glad to be rid of it. Losing my mom? It sucked but it was a long time ago and I’ve made my peace. But losing you? It would break me.” He felt his pulse change rhythms, like his heart had found a gear he didn’t even know it had. “It would break me in ways that would never, ever mend.”

Her voice trembled. “Is this about Tucson?” Did she really not know? “It’s about every time I’ve ever seen you.

backhanded jabs she could have handled, but Maggie no longer knew what to do with kindness. She didn’t trust it.

and Maggie busied herself, opening cabinets and trying not to think about the last few hours. Or the last few days. Or the last few years. Maybe it would be better not to think about anything ever again?

It might have been romantic if it hadn’t been for all the almost dying.

“You know, if mankind has one universal superpower, it’s gaslighting women into thinking they’re the problem.”

I did not know this would be such a big plot of the book but I am HERE for it

“Sir?” James sounded as if this was something they cover on the first day of butler school. “If I might make a suggestion . . .”

Ethan was already prying open his present, that little boy look on his hot guy face again.

Because sometimes it’s enough just to have been there for the most wonderful crime of the year.