Gleam Quotes

“You’re not the villain in my story.” “I am,” he says without remorse, his sharp jaw tight with tension. “But I’ll be the villain for you. Not to you.”
― Raven Kennedy, Gleam

“I’ve wanted you since the moment I laid eyes on you, Goldfinch. I was just waiting for you to catch up.”
― Raven Kennedy, Gleam

“Love happens in all kinds of ways. Fast. Slow. In bits and pieces, or immediate. Filled with lust, one-sided longing, a snap realization never noticed before. Deeply. Thoroughly. Love is a whisper we didn’t hear or a sound that drums in our ears and drowns out everything else.”
― Raven Kennedy, Gleam

“Shove down weakness, and strength will rise.”
― Raven Kennedy, Gleam

“You can’t cut off the strings of your puppet and still expect it to move for you.”
― Raven Kennedy, Gleam

“He may wear the crown, but I was the one who made it gold.”
― Raven Kennedy, Gleam

“But I'll be the villain for you. Not to you.”
― Raven Kennedy, Gleam

“But that's the curse of the survivors. We have to live with our dead.”
― Raven Kennedy, Gleam

“There comes a point in your life when you have to choose between having regrets and the possibility of making mistakes. I’d rather make those mistakes than live without ever taking a chance, because I’ve missed out on too much already. Taking chances can be like walking through a mudslide, where every inch of you gets stained, but regrets are the stagnant pools of deprivation, and I’ve been wading in them for far too long.”
― Raven Kennedy, Gleam

“You're going to find out just how far you can be pushed until you're tipped over. And when that happens, when you find your edge, just promise me one things. Don't fall. Fly." - King Slade Ravinger”
― Raven Kennedy, Gleam

“The world taught me that things could always be worse. I learned to always look up, to take what I could get, to settle. I became too blinded by my bright sides to see the truth. Sometimes, you look at the silver lining so much that you drift into denial about the clouds.”
― Raven Kennedy, Gleam

“My own good hated me, fought me, argued with me, but I didn’t care, because I watched her slowly come out of her shell, peeling back one layer at a time, and it was stunning.”
― Raven Kennedy, Gleam

“Though, it seems to me that trying and failing is better than giving up.”
― Raven Kennedy, Gleam

“Sometimes, you look at the silver lining so much that you drift into denial about the clouds.”
― Raven Kennedy, Gleam

“Truths are like spices. When you add some in, it means you have more layers to digest. You get a taste of things you were missing before. But if you add too many, life can become unpalatable.

But when those truths are repressed for too long, when you realize you've grown accustomed to the bland lies, there's no hope of removing the overpowering taste from your tongue.”
― Raven Kennedy, Gleam

“I want all of you,” he tells me, a newfound hunger in the depths of his green eyes that stirs heat beneath my skin. “Every piece, every memory, every minute, every inch. This isn’t going to be some casual dalliance. This isn’t going to be temporary. I want you soul, mind, and body. I want your trust and your thoughts. I want your past, your present, your future. So make very certain that you want me for the right reasons. Be certain that you’re choosing this, because once you do, there’s no turning back.”
― Raven Kennedy, Gleam

“I don’t choose him. Not anymore. I’m choosing me.”
― Raven Kennedy, Gleam

“You see a commander from another kingdom’s army coming toward your king’s favored, and your instinct is to back the fuck up?” he seethes.”
― Raven Kennedy, Gleam

“I don’t think gold’s your color, Commander.”  “I disagree. Gold has quickly become my favorite.”
― Raven Kennedy, Gleam

“I’m glad you’re choosing you,” he says quietly, and my lips part, like I want to swallow the rumble of his cadence. “You are?” I go completely still as he moves his hand and grips my chin, like he wants to make sure I’m paying attention. I am. “Yes, Goldfinch. Because I’m choosing you, too.”
― Raven Kennedy, Gleam

“... You can't reason with feelings. They do what they want, forcing you to endure.”
― Raven Kennedy, Gleam

“You’re not the villain in my story.”

“I am,” he says without remorse, his sharp jaw tight with tension. “But I’ll be the villain for you. Not to you.”
― Raven Kennedy, Gleam

“Careful," he says, baring his teeth in a wicked smile. "There's a saying about rocks and glass houses."
"I don't live in glass, I live in gold. So I can throw whatever damn rocks I want," I snap.”
― Raven Kennedy, Gleam

“That’s the thing about escapism. In whatever form, it always ends, and then we’re forced back into a reality that’s not nearly as satisfying.”
― Raven Kennedy, Gleam

“because there it is. The ugly truth that he never wanted me to know: that power doesn’t just come from magic. It comes from your own grit. And I have both.”
― Raven Kennedy, Gleam

“The blindfold has been ripped from my sight. Now, my heart doesn’t squeeze. My stomach doesn’t flutter. He broke something inside of me far more than just my heart. He broke my will. My drive. My voice. He broke down my very spirit, and I let him.”
― Raven Kennedy, Gleam

“My own good was stuck on a pirate ship, with an aura like a beacon that flared across the Barrens,’ he grits out, a thick spun voice meant to tie knots around me. ‘My own good was cowering before men who were nothing – fucking nothing – in comparison to her.’

All of my ability to breathe is gone as I stare at him in shock.

‘My own good hated me, fought me, argued with me, but I didn’t care, because I watched her slowly come out of her shell, peeling back one layer at a time, and it was stunning.’ He raises the finger in front of my face. ‘I got one touch. One taste, and if it was an act of selfishness, then you should know, it certainly wasn’t one-sided, Auren.’

I can’t blink.

I can’t think.

‘What…what are you saying?’ My chest heaves with the breathless question, like undulating waves in an uncertain sea.

I might drown in the depths of his bottomless eyes.

His teeth snap together, as if my uncertainty sets him on edge. ‘I’m saying that you are my own good. And for you, I gave you a choice, but you chose him.”
― Raven Kennedy, Gleam

“Men ruin all of women’s best laid plans.”
― Raven Kennedy, Gleam

“Finally, I can’t take it anymore. The silence, the scrutiny, the confessions lying at my feet like plucked fruit left to rot. “Are you going to say anything? I just admitted that I want you, and you’re just standing there.” Slade blinks. “I was processing.”
― Raven Kennedy, Gleam

“If only we could stop competing, stop the petty jealousies, stop letting men pit us against one another. Imagine what women could do if we started being loyal to each other?”
― Raven Kennedy, Gleam