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Famous Sarah Beth Durst Quotes

“Kiela bit into the pastry and was surprised by the burst of salt that prickled her tongue, the garlic that filled her sinuses, and the wonderful sweetness of... "What is that?" she asked as she chewed. "It's a kind of fish that used to be plentiful around Caltrey, the silver swift fish. I've been working on ways to highlight the flavor. Do you like it?" She'd tasted swift fish before, and it never tasted like this. The fish itself melted into the butter of the pastry, and when she swallowed... she felt as if she were inhaling the bright vividness of the sea itself. "It's incredible.”

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Book:The Spellshop
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“She picked a raspberry, stared at it a moment, and then popped it into her mouth. For an instant, it felt smooth and tasteless, and then she squashed it. Sharp sweetness exploded gloriously over her tongue. It was so overwhelmingly raspberry that it felt as if it invaded her skull and displaced every thought--- there was only flavor. Powerful, intoxicating flavor. She'd forgotten what a freshly picked berry tasted like. On Alyssium, the fruit was imported. There wasn't space on the city island for gardens or orchards or berry patches. The emperor had had his greenhouses, filled with delicacies, but a librarian... She hadn't tasted a just-ripened raspberry since her childhood. It tasted like a bite of sunshine. Caz poked her ankle. "Are you poisoned?" "I'm in ecstasy," she corrected. "Huh," Caz said. "You really think this will work?" Kiela opened her eyes and again surveyed the wealth of berries before her, a glorious chaos of ruby-red riches, enough to create many jars of jam. "I think it's perfect.”

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Book:The Spellshop
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“You could only have a relationship of any kind, be it family or friends or lovers, if both people were willing to reach toward each other. It wasn't, as some said, hard work in the sense of being unpleasant or tedious or painful--- that was a myth perpetuated by people with a vested interest in telling you to stay in a terrible relationship--- but it did require effort. You had to try.”

RelationshipsEffort
Book:The Enchanted Greenhouse
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“False moonlight bathed the greenhouse in a pale blue light. At the peak of the cupola, an imitation moon was cradled in a web of glittering strands. Swirls of sparkling cloud drifted through on a breath of impossible wind. The flowers were a deep blue, black, and gray--- the colors of a garden at night. Even their leaves were a dark gray. Starlike sparkles drifted up from the blossoms, as if the flowers were breathing out stardust. It smelled like jasmine.”

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Book:The Enchanted Greenhouse
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“The Great Library of Alyssium, with its soaring spires, stained-glass windows, and labyrinthine bookshelves, was the jewel of the Crescent Islands Empire. Its hallowed stacks were filled with centuries-old treatises, histories, studies, and (most importantly, in Kiela's opinion) spellbooks. Only the elite, the crème de la crème of the scholars, were allowed to even view the spellbooks, as only the rarefied few were permitted, by imperial law, to use magic.”

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Book:The Spellshop
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“What did this place used to be like?" Mulligan answered first. "Glorious, serene, vivacious. Ah, I do remember those days fondly. Every room full. Lively chatter over breakfast. Strolls through the garden and the surrounding hills. I have heard it claimed that the High King of the Goblins himself once chose to stay here in disguise, and that Auntie Zee simultaneously hosted the famed enchantress Isatre and her mortal enemy, the ruler of the Elind, without a single incident. They sipped juice at breakfast together and spoke of spring flowers, utterly unaware of who the other was." "That was a long time ago," Kendra said, clipped. "The glory days," Mulligan agreed. Calisa asked the more important question. "What do you think it would take to bring the inn's old guests back?" "Cake is a start," Kendra said, piercing another bite of the chocolate cake with raspberry jam.”

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Book:The Faraway Inn
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“I am not some minor jellyfish. I am the sea witch for the Eastern Seaboard, and I cannot be absent for an extended length of time. Auntie Zee understands this. If I am unable to return within twenty-four hours, there will be havoc.” Reaching room number three, Kendra flung open the door. Calisa was struck by the stench of seaweed. Sea witch, did she say? What was a sea witch? Eastern Seaboard? As in the Atlantic Ocean?”

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Book:The Faraway Inn
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“He also looked very handsome, even though there was a smear of dirt on his gold-hued cheek that she very much wanted to wipe off. She resisted the urge, though, since he was looking at her with so much confusion and alarm in his face that she thought he might flee if she tried. She knew what he was seeing when he looked at her: a short, plump, pastel-colored woman who was pretty in the same kind of harmless way that bunnies are pretty.”

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Book:The Enchanted Greenhouse
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“Gently, Auntie Zee said, “I am a traveler cat.” “A what?” Jack asked. Calisa was grateful to him for voicing the question. She had so many battering through her skull that it felt like she couldn’t speak. “It is a type of witch. Very rare. I was born with the ability to open and close portals.” A witch. “And the cat part of it?” Now she was smiling more broadly. “It’s how a portal witch recovers her powers. I have to transform into a smaller body, specifically a cat. It allows the magic to replenish— there’s less energy required to keep a smaller body alive. As for why a cat… I suppose the universe has a sense of humor. Cats are known for always being on the wrong side of every door.”

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Book:The Faraway Inn
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“Terlu flipped to the end to find a brief note about the authors: Kiela and Caz were the co-owners of a jam shop on the island of Caltrey. Kiela was formerly a librarian at the Great Library of Alyssium, where Caz, a sentient talking spider plant, had been her librarian assistant. She thanked her husband, Larran, as well as a list of friends. Caz thanked his partner, Meep. Yarrow wrapped his arm around her shoulders. She realized she was crying. "He's okay," Terlu said. "I did the right thing.”

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Book:The Enchanted Greenhouse
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“A unicorn stepped onto the path. Kiela gasped. Caz breathed, "Whoa." It was like moonlit water, so bright that tears sprang into Kiela's eyes as she looked at it. Shaped like a dreamer's idea of a horse, the unicorn was slender and graceful--- closer to a line drawing than an in-the-flesh creature. Its neck curved like a wave, with its mane as the sea foam. The longer Kiela looked at it, the more she saw that it wasn't as white as the moon, it was iridescent, like mother-of-pearl, with purples and reds and blues that swirled through its silvery white hide. Its horn was a slender spiral of gold. It regarded them with ocean-blue eyes.”

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Book:The Spellshop
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“She knelt on the walkway, and the plants bunched around her, each of them calling out their name: the philodendron was Dendy (he), the ivy was Risa (they), the orchid Amina (she), the calla lily Viria (she), the thistle Tirna (they), the fireweed Nif (he), the wax myrtle Ree (he), the prickly pear Hosha (they), the flytrap Sut (he), the morning glory Zyndia (she), the fern Mirr (they)... She committed as many names as possible to memory.”

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Book:The Enchanted Greenhouse
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“I like cheddar. And goat cheese, the soft kind that you can spread. It's really good with fig jam." "I especially like cheesecake." "Everyone likes cheesecake." "Except the lactose intolerant," Jack said. "Mm-hmm, it's probably a cruel joke to them," Calisa said. "Cake but not." Jack frowned. "You're right. In that case, we shouldn't serve it." "Unless you use cream cheese with lactase." "You can do that?" She knew it existed, but she'd never baked with it before. "I made a regular cheesecake last year. Trick is you have to cool it gradually, or it cracks. Probably same process.”

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Book:The Faraway Inn
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“She had memories of a quiet pool in the woods, where she'd retreat with her books, hiding from chores that needed to be done around the house. She remembered the sound of her parents after sunset, calling her to come home. The fireflies would flicker around her as it became too dark to read, but still she'd stay, to watch the fireflies over the water and listen to the birds and the squirrels settle in for the night and the night hunters, the owls and and the cats, begin to wake. Once, she'd even glimpsed a unicorn sipping from the pond, but it could have been only a white deer and a trick of the twilight. Another afternoon, her father had come with her, avoiding his chores too. They'd read books side by side, and her mother hadn't said a word when they'd returned. A week later, her mother had been the one to join her by the pond, arriving with lunch in a basket and presenting Kiela with a new unread book, a rare treasure on the island.”

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Book:The Spellshop
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“Despite the fact that most of the market's customers were dressed in draped fabrics while she and Jack were in shorts and T-shirts, no one stared at them. There was enough variation in the shoppers and the vendors that their differences were unremarkable: skin colors from blue to coal-black to pink to bronze to metallic silver. A few shoppers were covered in fur. One woman sported beige-colored wings. She had on a necklace of bird bones that fell down to her stomach. Another had talons instead of hands. He clicked them together in rhythm with his footsteps. Calisa could have wandered through the stalls forever, filling her eyes with all the impossible people and the beautiful oddities on display.”

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Book:The Faraway Inn
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“She drifted through life, wanting and reaching but never having, always feeling just a little lost and just a little empty and just a little lonely. "I'm just too sensitive." Yarrow grunted. "I don't know what that means." "I'm hurt when I shouldn't be." "If you're hurt, you're hurt. It doesn't matter if anyone else thinks you don't have a good enough reason. Pain doesn't require approval.”

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Book:The Enchanted Greenhouse
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