Devil in Spring (The Ravenels, #3)

by Lisa Kleypas

“I can’t marry you,” she said numbly. “I’d lose everything.”

Ugh, it sucked so much to be a woman in that timeperiod. Poor Pandora.

Pandora’s dress was disheveled, her bodice askew, and her gloves were missing. A few raised red scratches marred the surface of her shoulder. The pins had been pulled from her ruined coiffure during the carriage ride, allowing a profusion of heavy black-coffee locks to fall to her waist in waves and ripples. Her coltish form quivered like a wild creature held in restraints. She gave off a kind of . . . energy, of . . . there didn’t seem to be a word for it, but Gabriel could feel the irresistible voltage eating up the space between them. Every hair on his body individuated as he was flooded with the hot, humming awareness of her. Holy hell. With effort, he tore his fascinated gaze from her and bowed to Lady Berwick.

Hahaha i love that he is immediately drawn to her.

“I’ve never wanted to marry,” Pandora continued. “Anyone who knows me will tell you that. When I was little, I never liked the stories about princesses waiting to be rescued. I never wished on falling stars, or pulled the petals off daisies while reciting ‘he loves me, he loves me not.’ At my brother’s wedding, they handed out slivers of wedding cake to all the unmarried girls and said if we put it under our pillows, we would dream of our future husbands. I ate my cake instead. Every crumb. I’ve made plans for my life that don’t involve becoming anyone’s wife.”

I love Pandora so fucking much

He was charmed out of all reason as he watched her, this sandy, disheveled, storytelling mermaid, who seemed already to belong to him and yet wanted nothing to do with him. His heart worked in strange rhythms, as if it were struggling to adjust to a brand new metronome.

He wanted all her circles to lead back to him.

love this so much! This entire chapter is probably my favorite thing by kleypas ever.

Fact #35 No list of ideal feminine qualities has ever included the phrase “you kiss like a pirate.”

Hahaha

“That bloody son of a bitch,” he said softly. “If he were still alive, I’d beat him with a thresher’s flail.”

here. i think Gabriel loved her here.

“That’s not a sane comparison,” he said with a scowl.

unfortunate. her comparison is exactly correct but Gabriel is so steeped in societal sexism he can't see it

But no matter what else she gave up, this man was the thing she couldn’t lose.

i think she was falling in love for a bit, but this moment of realization is everything

Evie waited until he’d calmed himself before saying quietly, “You remember when I told you about the time your f-father was badly injured because of me.” “That wasn’t because of you,” Sebastian said irritably from the bedside. “Evie, have you harbored that absurd idea for all these years?”

I just adore them.

Ingredients: 2 cups milk ½ cup sugar ¼ cup cornstarch 1 tsp. vanilla or almond extract (almond is more traditional) Caramel syrup or fruit sauce (You’ll also need four teacups, small ½ cup bowls, or one of those molded silicone cupcake baking pans.) Directions: 1. Pour 1 cup milk into a small saucepan and heat to a simmer (steaming with little bubbles at the edges). 2. In a separate bowl, mix the other cup of milk, the cornstarch, and the sugar, and whisk until smooth. 3. Pour the contents of the bowl into the saucepan, and turn the heat up to medium-high. Keep stirring with the whisk, or the mixture will burn on the bottom and your blancmange will no longer be blanc. 4. When the mixture really starts boiling (major bubbling action) keep stirring for 20 seconds, then remove from the heat. Pour into four teacups, or bowls, or silicone cupcake pan. 5. Chill in the fridge for at least six hours, and serve with a drizzle of sauce. (If you used a silicone cupcake pan, unmold the cute little blancmanges onto plates.) 6. Eat delicately while reading a romance novel.

Blancmange ... Basically seems like vanilla pudding.