Melissa

“I don't like that word," Nina said, advancing. "Call me Grisha. Call me zowa. Call me death, if you like.”
― Leigh Bardugo, King of Scars

“Her eyes very round, seven-year-old Altamira said, with perfect gravity, “That was some excellent Mary Poppins shit right there.”
― Sangu Mandanna, The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches

“I've read fairy tales, of course, and listened to plaintive love songs, but I never understood why anyone would wake up after a hundred years and marry the prince who broke into their bedroom for a kiss. Or dance with a stranger once and decide to spend the rest of their lives together. I always felt a baffled kind of melancholy when others raptured over love at first sight, like maybe something was wrong with me, maybe I didn't know how to love someone at all.
I didn't know it wasn't just me.”
― Margaret Owen, Little Thieves

“We all love Jamie too much to see him spend the rest of his life with only three decrepit old bags of bones for company."
"I'm fifty-six," said Lucie indignantly. "I'm closer to Jamie's age than yours! Watch who you're calling a decrepit bag of bones."
...
"Why is it you're never concerned about my romantic life, or lack thereof?"
"Darling, you said it yourself, you're fifty-six," Ian said soothingly. "You're an established spin - "
"If you say the word spinster, I'll skewer you on a spit.”
― Sangu Mandanna, The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches