Book Review: The Innocents

• Was this how mourning ended? Did someone fill the gaping maws of loneliness in an instant, or did life creep back by inches? (Page 2)
• “You expect me to make your life easier? Have you ever met any Scottish women? It’s not something we’re famous for.” (Page 7)
• “I’m only a lady in my spare time, and I don’t get a lot of that.” (Page 106)
• “I’ve never understood why prostitutes are considered worse than the men who use them. If there’s one thing I can’t stand it’s a hypocrite.” (Page 126)
• “I was taught justice is blind, but you also seem to want to make her as deaf and dumb, too.” (Page 158)
• “That’s one of the most sneaky and underhanded things you’ve ever suggested.” Nat’s eyes sparkled. “I like it.” (Page 181)
• The realization suddenly hit her that she’d been living again. Really living. Not just wading through the minutiae of existence as she’d been doing for the last few years. Visions of lost faces flashed across her mind’s eye, along with survivor’s guilt and a sense of loss. It seemed wrong to embrace any kind of satisfaction in the face of so much death, but she’d done it without even noticing. Life crept up on her and dragged her back in while she waded through nothingness. Was this recovery? Did the gnawing ache in her breast fade from black to shades of gray until it was light enough to reveal who she now was? Did she even know who she now was? (Page 208)