Astrid Parker Doesn't Fail (Bright Falls, #2)

by Ashley Herring Blake

“There’s running from something,” Angela said, “and there’s running to something new.

everyone—was vibrant and funny and brazen. Everything Astrid wasn’t. Everything she sort of wished she was.

“Imagine it’s something you hate. Or someone. The forty-fifth president. Racists and homophobes. Brussels sprouts.”

She felt suddenly lost and overwhelmed. She knew it was juvenile—she was thirty years old and a professional, for god’s sake—but she was starting to believe you were never too old to feel lonely, to wonder where you belonged in the world.

“I didn’t let myself understand. My whole life, I’ve waited to feel like this.”

She simply shook her head, that disapproving press of her mouth like a gun shot through her daughter’s chest.

All that mattered right now was getting everything out, every single thing she hated about herself, her life, what she’d done to Jordan. Her tears were like a detox, coursing through her body and wiping it clean.

it was as though her head and heart were in constant dissonance—she knew they loved her, but she hadn’t let them love her the way she needed to. She hadn’t let it be enough.

“You deserve a grand gesture.”