. scrawly line of something important .

There was a beast in there. But there was also a girl who was afraid of being a beast, and who wondered if other people had beasts in their hearts too. There was strength, and there was also just the determination to look strong. She guarded herself like a secret.

--

Sometimes I think that maybe we are just stories. Like we may as well just be words on a page, because we're only what we've done and what we are going to do. But then I look at the things I've seen and done, and I become a long scrawly line of something important.

--

There was no twinkle in his eyes.
"Maybe I just love some of you. Maybe not enough."
Tiger Lily blinked at him, and she didn't understand how anyone could only love a part. Her greedy heart didn't work that way.

--

"I could never leave," Pine Sap said.
"Why?" she asked.
Pine Sap shrugged, and gestured in the direction of the village. "Because I think people must be the same everywhere. Only these people are my bones." 

--

There was a fair warning at the beginning of this book. This story would pull no punches. This was one that you needed to pull your big girl britches up for and just grit your teeth. Something bad would come. You only needed to wait for the shoe to drop. Because you see, Peter Pan? He was always destined for only one girl, and I'll give you a little hint: Tiger Lily could never be Wendy.

I let every word of this sweet book roll over me. My eyes devoured the aching words. At the end of this book, a book that was so unlike anything I'd read in a long, long time, I found myself shaking my head, whispering yes, yes, yes.

Doesn't every girl have a Peter Pan?

Tiger Lily on Amazon

xoxo, B.