A Pessimist's Guide to Love (Heartsong, #2)

by Jennifer Hartmann

In a way, I think the spectrum of love is a lot like the color spectrum. What is love but a distribution of pigment and feelings when light is dispersed.

His body heat is the sun on my skin. His breath is new life, filling me from the inside out. And his words, his words— They are everything.

If there’s ever been an angel on earth, it’s Lucy Hope—divine, pure, so sweet it fucking hurts.

Songs are funny like that—you might not hear them play for years, but you still remember every word.

Words fade and scatter over time, but songs tied to life’s most precious memories live inside of us forever.

Her love language is every love language because love is just a way of life for her.

There’s no reason for suffering, but there’s always a reason to keep going.

“The only thing stronger than fear is our tenacity to overcome it.”

“Home is something I buried a long time ago,” he tells me, voice cracking with sentiment. A breath passes between us, a drumbeat. And then he whispers, “But I buried it inside you. Just in case I ever wanted to go back.”

“It was the end of something, and I know that can feel like the end of everything. That’s what it felt like for me, anyway.”

“Even a tragedy can have a happy ending. Sometimes we just need to write it in ourselves.”

I don’t know much about falling in love, but the way my heart stuttered when she skipped over to me with enchantment in her eyes, had me wondering if it was something I was capable of.

There’s no joy without grief, no fulfillment without loss, no laughter without pain.

She said that once something had a name, it had meaning. It became something tangible and real. It was brought to life, no matter how insignificant it was.”

Spring is here. And for the very first time, it doesn’t feel like the start of another long winter.

Emma was the girl who danced in puddles and made mudpies, telling me once that rain meant the sky just wanted to have a little adventure.

Within the tangled roots of grief, we stand to lose so much. But no one ever acknowledges what we stand to gain. Strength. Perspective. Appreciation. Resilience.