The Queen of the Tearling (The Queen of the Tearling, #1)

by Erika Johansen

Carlin often said that history was everything, for it was in man’s nature to make the same mistakes over and over.

Stories moved Kelsea most, stories of things that never were, stories that transported her beyond the changeless world of the cottage.

Alcohol and governing went together badly; her books seemed to indicate that alcohol went badly with everything.

‘I am Death. I come quickly, I come slowly, but I am not cheated.’”

The future was only the disasters of the past, waiting to happen anew.

Even a book can be dangerous in the wrong hands, and when that happens, you blame the hands, but you also read the book.”

Time stretched years back and years forward, but nothing that came afterward ever had the power to wash away what came before.

There’s danger in a system of justice that makes no allowance for circumstance.”