The Enchanted Greenhouse (Spellshop, #2)

by Sarah Beth Durst

Emperor Mevorin liked to insist every action taken by the empire was for the good of its people, but far too many of its actions throughout history had been for the good of the empire, which was not—regardless of what the emperor espoused—the same thing. An empire, unchecked, was a selfish beast of insatiable hunger.

It wasn’t as if she’d had a grand heartbreak. She had no real trauma to explain why she was the way she was. It was more just years’ worth of little cracks in her heart, like in the glass panes of the failed greenhouses. Her family loved her, but she never really found her place with them on Eano. And the library … She never truly fit there either. She drifted through life, wanting and reaching but never having, always feeling just a little lost and just a little empty and just a little lonely.

Oof

“If you’re hurt, you’re hurt. It doesn’t matter if anyone else thinks you don’t have a good enough reason. Pain doesn’t require approval.”