I wasn’t sure how to celebrate my rereads for 2017.  I don’t really want to review them again, since my opinions haven’t changed.  I still think these books are awesome!  So, instead I’m going to post more of my favorite quotes throughout the year, from all the books I pick to reread.  This month it was the Captive Prince trilogy, and How to be a Normal Person.

Please be warned that these are quotes, so there is the potential for spoilers.  Especially in the Captive Prince spoilers.  Proceed with caution.  🙂

How to be a Normal Person

I know everyone is probably so sick of me and this book, but I can’t stop.  It’s just such perfection.  The reread only made me love it more!  Gus and Casey have the most unique relationship, from any romance novel I’ve ever read.  And TJ is the King of writing dialogue.  I could read the silly banter between Casey and Gus for the rest of my life and still not be sick of it.  

Here are some examples.

“His aura is red.  Like his eyes.  It mixes strangely with your brown.”
“That’s super,” Gus said and realized he was not a sixteen-year-old girl and immediately struck the word super from his vocabulary.

♦♦♦

“Elevators only kill approximately six people a year,” Gus said, because he couldn’t not say it.  “Stairs kill thousands.  If anything, I’d want to take the elevator to increase my chances of not dying.”
They all stared at him again.
“It’s true,” Gus said.  “Look it up in the encyclopedia.  I did.  That’s how I know.”
Bertha snorted.  “Gus, it’s 2014.  I can look it up on my smartphone.”

♦♦♦

Casey squinted at him.  “The wall?  I think it got there when the house was built.”
“Yeah,” Gus said because he was nothing but confident.  “Cool, man.  Cool.”  And then, much to his horror, his hands became independent of his body and made finger guns, pointing them at Casey.  His mouth, unable to resist, abdicated control to the power of the finger guns and he said, “Pew, pew, pew.”
He quickly came to the conclusion that finger guns could never be brought out with confidence, no matter who the person was.

♦♦♦

Kale and tofu salad turned out to be disgusting.
But Gus was monitoring his opinions because the Internet told him to.  He was controlling his emotions because it was the normal thing to do.  He was also choking down something that tasted like a leafy green asshole.

♦♦♦

Later that night, he cooked a TV dinner that came out looking nothing like the picture on the box.  BEEF ENCHILADAS! the box said, but Gus was convinced it should have said BARF ASSCHILADAS!

Captive Prince

I’ve been dying to reread this series since the moment I put down Kings Rising.  I knew that I needed to wait until 2017, because at the time Goodreads didn’t have a way to mark a book as a reread, but it was killer.  There’s something special about Laurent and Damen, and I needed to know if it was a fluke or if this series was as good as I remembered.

It was.  It was almost better.

‘That’s right, I’m still captured,’ said Damen.
‘Your eyes say, “For now,”’ Laurent said. ‘Your eyes have always said, “For now.”
– Prince’s Gambit

♦♦♦

Torveld favoured Laurent with another of those long, admiring looks that were starting to come with grating frequency. Damen frowned. Laurent was a nest of scorpions in the body of one person. Torveld looked at him and saw a buttercup.
– Captive Prince

♦♦♦

He wasn’t sure how it would be, but when Laurent saw who was beside him, he smiled, the expression a little shy but completely genuine.  Damen, who hadn’t been expecting it, felt the single painful beat of his heart.  He’d never thought Laurent could look like that at anyone. – Prince’s Gambit

♦♦♦

“I miss you too,” he said. “I’m jealous of Isander.” 
“Isander’s a slave.”
“I was a slave.” 
The moment ached.  Laurent met his gaze, his eyes too clear.
“You were never a slave, Damianos. You were born to rule, as I was.”
– Kings Rising

♦♦♦

Don’t think, he’d said, because it was easier than saying, Take me for who I am.
He couldn’t bear that suddenly. He wanted it without pretenses, without excuses, his fingers curling hard into Laurent’s hair.
‘It’s me,’ said Damen. ‘It’s me, here with you. Say my name.’
‘Damianos.” – Kings Rising