A Thousand Heartbeats

by Kiera Cass

“Ate food. Went to the library. You know how reckless I can be.”

Ah, yes, what you did was totally "reckless." Guess that means you can't do stuff like that anymore.

you will eventually run into the castle. Or the ocean. One would hope you’re smart enough to tell the difference.” Nothing. Well, at least I thought I was funny.

I think you're funny!!!! Does that count for anything?

The night sky was the best dressed lady at court, the stars her finest dress and the moon her perfect crown.

Amazing quote.

I studied Cousin Nickolas again. Yes, he was stern, cold. But maybe with that came a deep sense of responsibility. He would probably dedicate his life to upholding and preserving what was important. As his wife, I’d certainly fall under that category.

Why tf is she marrying her COUSIN???????

“How can I help you?” he asked, his eyebrows crushed together as he looked at me. Vanish, I thought.

Badass. Icon. GIRLBOSS. I aspire to have an attitude like Annika Vedette.

“Blythe.” “A girl?”

Yes, and?

“But I’d hoped for passion, for a love that took reason by the shoulders and shoved it off a cliff. I’d hoped for a sense of freedom within the confines of my life . . . but that’s not going to happen for me.

I hear you loud and clear, girl friend.

“Love has a sound. It sounds like a thousand heartbeats happening at the same time. It sounds like the rush of a waterfall or the still of the world at daybreak. You can hear it at night, lulling you to sleep, and, in the middle of your darkest days, it breaks through like a laugh. “The thing is, some of us have been taught to listen for it, so when it comes, it’s all too easy to hear over the noise. For others, there are too many other sounds drowning it out. For them, it takes longer. But when it finally breaks through, it’s a symphony.”

Tears. Literal tears.

It had been fascinating to watch how love chipped the jagged edges from someone, made them sharper in some ways and softer in others. It left me, for the first time, awed by the prospect. Love was complicated. Complicated, but so unexpectedly beautiful.

Sobbing again, Cass.

I told myself that the noise I’d heard had been the rain. It was something hitting the mountain, or a tree falling, or anything else really. It would have made perfect sense considering the situation we were in. But every time Lennox smiled or touched me or even looked at me a certain way, I would hear it again. The sound of a thousand heartbeats.

Take that Rhett! I can't believe he was right, though.

But what was louder than all of that was the painful certainty that I’d finally felt the love I’d read about in hundreds of books, the overwhelming and crushing weight of true love. And it was attached to the one person I could never have.

Breaking down for her x3

For how could they have known that they were doing the exact same thing—holding on to the tiny pieces they had of one another and wishing desperately that the other was by their side?

Oh my Lord! I swear, this book is WAY too emotional

I understand now what love can do to you. And I understand what grief can do. Because grief is simply love with no one to receive it.

This book has aged me far beyond my years. I know evrything now! I finally understand.