My Plain Jane (The Lady Janies, #2)

by Cynthia Hand

Reader, you know that feeling when you say good-bye to someone and then you walk in the same direction with them, but you’ve already said good-bye and everything is awkward?

Crying, she told herself sternly, does not indicate that you are weak. Since birth, it has always been a sign that you are alive.

came over to see what the ruckus was, Jane implored her to tighten the corset for her. Her neighbor acquiesced and then left her with this piece of advice: “Friends don’t let friends corset alone.”

There was only one conclusion Jane could draw from the style and design of the dress and it was this: it had to be thought up by men. Then women could in no way outrun them, and with the lack of oxygen to the brain due to a rib cage the size of a fist, they could not outthink them. And with the bright colors, they couldn’t hide. No running, no thinking, no hiding.