Julie Carpenter

“A surge of emotion constricted Nell's throat. Perhaps she'd been wrong to kiss him. Perhaps she was using him shamelessly.
But no.
That would imply that anyone would have done. Any man. Any friend. Anyone who might help to keep the storm of emotion at bay. But it hadn't been just anyone she'd wanted as she'd departed Lady Belwood's house this afternoon. It had been Miles.”
― Mimi Matthews, The Marriage Method

“Be loud,' he told her. 'Be opinionated. Be as much yourself as you wish -- and then some. Once we're wed, you and I will answer to no one but each other.”
― Mimi Matthews, The Muse of Maiden Lane

“For all Miss Corvus's progressive views, for all her insistence on looking to the future, this was a chamber firmly enshrouded in the past. A veiled room, all stale darkness and decay.
Miss Corvus had been similarly veiled the first time Effie had seen her that fateful day eighteen years ago in the London slum of St. Giles.
But Miss Corvus wasn't veiled now.
She sat in a green damask-upholstered armchair by the window, her uncovered face as white as wax. She was clad in stark black, just as Effie was-a plain, but impeccably tailored, silk dress worn over an abundance of petticoats and a formidable wire crinoline. A jet brooch gleamed at her throat, and an embroidered lace handkerchief was clutched in her pale hand.”
― Mimi Matthews, Rules for Ruin

“You could alter her face before you commit your preliminary sketch to canvas. That would be a way of respecting --"

"I want all of her," Teddy interrupted impatiently. "Her face. Her figure. Her silver hair. That's my star. It must be all or nothing.”
― Mimi Matthews, The Muse of Maiden Lane