This sequel is written with so much purpose. I could feel the emotion page by page, easily captivated. I was overwhelmed at the end for sure. This book packs an awesome punch, I was pulled by the imagination and altruism of the protagonists. A must read, entertaining, thrilling, awesome...I may have even had a tear....I said maybe

Those who don't face evil on the battlefield will try and tell you all the ways you can get evil to change

Chapter one opens with some fantasy Philosophical ideology...I was just captivated by the author inventive ways of these details that just magnifies the book.

TJ Lombardi Callsign Bloodbath- TJ always manages to have self improvement, positive motivation, positive affirmations and philosophy in his books- love it.

On my top 10. This author has his own style which is profound with Philosophical and Bad azz action, with in depth relatable cast of characters . It's a path few follow, but when the MC embarks on it, I see genuine growth, struggle, determination, I cheer them on. If you like adventure, humor, and some wisdom- I totally recommend I read this and actually felt it impact in my life from it. This is a Gem waiting for readers to catch on.

Pg 190, "That may be ... but is it not a fact the part of living a good life is coming to know and accept the fact that we have not done so? And also how we choose to honor those who have gone before us by remembering their example and working to live a better life with each day we have been given?"

PG.102 the master said," Somewhere in this world there is an enemy who you do not know, nor have you met, who is training with the sole intent of killing you." "They do nor care about the hour or conditions...they are solely committed to being ready to exploit that one moment of weakness. Therefore you must not be the one who is interested but one who is committed, for you must train and prepare to be the hardest person they will ever try to kill.

Wow

I can kick one of these frogs farther than you can!' and with that he took a 3 step stride and straight up kicked the f***ing frog all the way to the other side of the valley. So of course I accepted the challenge'

PG. 36, "the only song sung that day was of the boys screaming and crying out for their mothers" Whoa a book just escalated to on fire!!!!

You are not Fool's gold, shining only under a particular light. Whomever you become, whatever you make yourself into, that is who you always were. It was always in you. In you. You are gold. And returning to where your from will not change how you see yourself-even gold appears dull in some lights-but that is the illusion. And it always was. Tara Westover, Educated : A Memoir

"First find out what you are capable of, then decide who you are." - Tara Westover , Educated : A Memoir

The opening of the book " I'm not as I once was. They have done this to me, broken me open and torn out my heart. I do not know who I am anymore. I must try to remember." Wow....

It's not weak, you know. To feel things deeply, to want things. To need.

When mom drewback, her eyes were bright and she was smiling. "You are of me, Lorena, in a way that can never be broken. Not by words or anger or actions or time. I love you. I will always love you." She tightened her hold on Loredas shoulders. "You taught me love. You, first in the whole world, and my love for you will outlive me. If you had not come back..."

Tony curled his hand around the back of her neck, pulled her gently toward him, touched his forehead to hers; this was a man of the old world, a man who shut up and moved on and never stopped working. He poured all of his passion and love into the land. For his family. This touch was how he said, I love you.

But some days, I don't even make it an hour. I get out of bed, go downstairs, and I need to pour myself a drink. Because you know what I've learned, no matter how long I wait? That I will never be someone that is effortlessly good, it'll always be hard work for me, and I'm not that strong. I think some people are just born broken.😥

You don't get it yet, but you will. Soon, you'll have your own beautiful boy or girl who will look at you with their perfect little face and you'll feel love and hope and, mostly, you'll feel the weight of everything that's ever happened to you and everything that will ever happen to them and you'll want to run.

Because the reality is, I've been to so many places and not a single one has saved me

Mostly, I felt small everyday and blamed the city, thought maybe if I went somewhere unlike anywhere I knew I could be fixed and new and like I'd always wanted to be.

It doesn't seem like we get to choose who we like. I wish we could, it would all be a lot simpler if I could just decide to like someone

Love is certainly never safe, but it's absolutely worth it.

I have been reeling because I failed. Because I picked the wrong guy for me. Because I entered the wrong marriage. Because the truth is that at the age of 35, I have yet to love someone enough to sacrifice for them. I've yet to open my heart enough to let someone in that much.

People think that intimacy is about sex.
But intimacy is about truth.
When you realize you can tell someone your truth, when you can show yourself to them, when you stand in front of them bare and their response is "You're safe with me"-that's intimacy.

There are people who see a beautiful flower and rush over to pick it. They want to hold it in their hands, they want to own it. They want the flower's beauty to be theirs, to be within their possession, their control. Don was happy to be near the flower, to look at the flower, to appreciate the flower simply being.

If the definition of enjoying sex means that it is pleasurable, then I've had a lot of sex that I didn't enjoy. But if we're defining it as being happy to have made the trade, then, well, I haven't had much I hated.

"I've spent a very long time learning how to... spin the truth," she says." It's hard to undo that wiring. I've gotten too good at it, I think. Just now, I wasn't exactly sure how to tell the truth. I dont have very much practice in it. It feels antithetical to my very survival. But I'll get there."

When you're given an opportunity to change your life, be ready to do whatever it takes to make it happen. The world doesn't give things, you take things.

Her body changed, his body changing, familiar and foreign at the same time. When you married someone, you promised to love every person he would be. He promised to love every person she had been. And here they were, still trying, even though the past and the future were both mysteries.

She kissed him before he could say anything else. They made love desperately, the way they had when she was nineteen, touching Mr. Sanders for the first time. The image would have made her younger self blush. Two middle aged people gripping each other's bodies, knocking off the covers, as sunlight cracked through the blinds, the alarm clock blaring, calling each to a separate day.

The hardest part about becoming someone else was deciding to. The rest was only logistics.

Being anyone else was the thrill. To transform into a different person in plain sight, nobody around her even able to tell. She'd never felt so free.

"I'm sorry too," she said. "I just don't want you to hurt. I didn't mean-oh, I don't even know. I wasn't trying to act like I'm somebody special "
"Don't say that, " he said.
"Say what?"
He was quiet a moment, then he leaned in and kissed her. By the time she realized it, he was already pulling away.
"That you're not special to me," he said.

After love, forgiveness is the strongest glue holding every family together.

Now she knew how fragile life and love were. Maybe she would love him for only this day, or maybe for only the next week, or maybe until she was an old, old woman. Maybe he would be the love of her life.or her love for the duration of this war.or maybe he would only be her first love. All she really knew was that in this terrible, frightening world, she had stumbled into something unexpected. And she would not let it go again.

The only sounds were her breath and his, just Bea and the man she loved. He wasn't a fantasy, he wasn't a dream, and he wasn't a happy ending. He was warmth and wit and kindness, a certainty and a surprise. He was the person who could hurt her most in the world, and he was worth the risk.

I've told myself for so many years that I'm afraid of men rejecting me for the way I look, of them refusing to look past my size. But I was wrong - i don't need a man to look past my size. I need someone who'll see me and love me exactly as I am.

Its the hardest thing in the world. To have been that hurt, to feel that afraid, and to know that the only way you can be really, fully happy is to risk going through it again? Its a terrifying choice to make. But if you want to let someone be that close to you, its the only way.

You can live a long life never being hurt--and never quite being happy. If that's what you want.

The future, she thought, could not be predicted, and the shape of things could not be divided. To think otherwise was absurd. But they were young that morning, and they could cling to hope. Hope that the world could be remade, kinder and sweeter. So she kissed him a second time, for luck. When he looked at her again his face was filled with such extraordinary gladness, and the third time she kissed him it was for love.

It was easy to kiss someone when it didn't matter; it was more difficult when it might be meaningful.

Showing a sense of personal restraint that was almost out of character, the Count had restricted himself to two succinct pieces of parental advice. The first was that if one did not master one's circumstances, one was bound to be mastered by them; and the second was Montaigne's maxim that the surest sign of wisdom is constant cheerfulness.

For what matters in life is not whether we receive a round of applause; what matters is whether we have the courage to venture forth despite the uncertainty of acclaim

For when life makes it impossible for a man to pursue his dreams, he will connive to pursue them anyway.

By their very nature , human beings are so capricious, so complex, so delightfully contradictory, that they deserve not only our consideration, but our reconsideration- and our unwavering determination to withhold our opinion until we have engaged with them in every possible setting at every possible hour.

And when that celestial chime sounds, perhaps a mirror will suddenly serve its truer purpose - revealing to a man not who he imagines himself to be, but who he has become.

That adversity presents itself in many forms, and that if a man does not master his circumstances then he is bound to be mastered by them.