Although most advice should be distrusted, particularly when it comes from myself. . . Keep an open mind, Miss Hathaway. One should never look a rich husband in the mouth." - St. Vincent

— Lisa Kleypas

A man's vanity is more fragile that you might think. It's easy for us to mistake shyness for coldness, and silence for indifference.

— Lisa Kleypas

And although I appreciated their kindness more than they would ever know, it's a fact that friends last longer the less you use them.

— Lisa Kleypas

And I wonder how Gage knew this is what my soul has craved. He turns me to face him, his eyes searching. It occurs to me that no one in my life has ever concerned himself so thoroughly with my happiness.

— Lisa Kleypas

And then another letter had come from Christopher, so devastating that Amelia wondered how mere scratches of ink on paper could rip someone's soul to shreds. She had wondered how she could feel so much pain and still survive.

— Lisa Kleypas

And then to Leo’s surprise, Catherine smiled at him. A sweet, natural, brilliant smile, the first she had ever given him. Leo felt his chest tighten, and he went hot all over, as if some euphoric drug had gone straight to his nervous system. It felt like … happiness. He remembered happiness from a long time ago. He didn’t want to feel it. And yet the giddy warmth kept washing over him for no reason whatsoever.“Thank you,” Catherine said, the smile still hovering on her lips. “That is kind of you, my lord. But I will never dance with you.” Which, of course, made it the goal of Leo’s life.

— Lisa Kleypas

Annabelle gave him a chiding smile. “If you’re implying that I’m spoiled, I assure you that I am not.”“You should be.” His warm gaze slid over her pink-tinted face and slender upper body, then sought hers again. There was a note in his voice that gently robbed her of breath. “You could do with a bit of spoiling.

— Lisa Kleypas

Annabelle, what happened to you?” Lillian asked the next morning. “You look dreadful. Why aren’t you wearing your riding habit? I thought you were going to try out the jumping course this morning. And why did you disappears suddenly last night? It’s not like you to simply vanish without saying—”“I didn’t have a choice in the matter,” Annabelle said testily, folding her fingers around the delicate bowl of a porcelain teacup. Looking pale and exhausted, her blue eyes ringed with dark shadows, she swallowed a mouthful of heavily sweetened tea before continuing. “It was that blasted perfume of yours—as soon as he caught one whiff of it, he went berserk.” Shocked, Lillian tried to take in the information, her stomach plummeting. “It… it had an effect on West cliff, then?” she managed to ask.”Good Lord, not Lord West cliff.” Annabelle rubbed her weary eyes. “He couldn’t have cared less what I smelled like. It was my husband who went completely mad. After he caught the scent of that stuff, he dragged me up to our room and…well, suffice it to say, Mr. Hunt kept me awake all night. All night, ” she repeated in sullen emphasis, and drank deeply of the tea.“Doing what?” Daisy asked blankly. Lillian, who was feeling a rush of relief that Lord West cliff had not been attracted to Annabelle while shoots wearing the perfume, gave her younger sister a derisive glance. “What do you think they were doing? Playing a few hands of Find-the-Lady?

— Lisa Kleypas

Any man,” she muttered, “who wanted to marry into the Hathaway family after this should be shut away in an institution.” “Marriage is an institution,” he said reasonably, retrieving her gown from the floor.

— Lisa Kleypas

A poor man needs the escape far more than a wealthy man does."" Escape," Amanda repeated, having never heard a book described in such a way." Yes, something to transport your mind from where and who and what you are. Everyone needs that. A time or two in my past, it seemed that a book was the only thing that stood between me and near insanity. I-"He stopped suddenly, and Amanda realized that he had not meant to make such a confession. The room became uncomfortably quiet, with only the jaunty snap of the fire to intrude on the silence. Amanda felt as if the air were throbbing with some unexpressed emotion. She wanted to tell him that she understood exactly what he meant, that she, too, had experienced the utter deliverance that words on a page could provide. There had been times of desolation in her own life, and books had been her only pleasure.

— Lisa Kleypas