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The Crush (The Ballad of Emery Brooks, #1) QUOTES

The Crush (The Ballad of Emery Brooks, #1) QUOTES

1 " A closet musician losing her music is like a baby losing its favorite blanket; when it's lost, comfort is shattered. "

― Allyson Kennedy , The Crush (The Ballad of Emery Brooks, #1)

2 " No one cares until something bad happens. Shoot, most people don’t even care then.
Oh, how much further from the truth could he have been? 
People care, my dear Sawyer. People care. But they often care too late. "

― Allyson Kennedy , The Crush (The Ballad of Emery Brooks, #1)

3 " All I want is a love like she and Grandpa had. How is that ever gonna happen if everyone sees me this way?”
“The ones who truly know you don’t, Em.” Ryanne says, making her way back to the door. “The right guy’s gonna memorize you like a favorite song. He’s gonna play it over and over again in his mind until it’s the only song he can sing. Don’t even worry about the ones who can’t match your beat. "

― Allyson Kennedy , The Crush (The Ballad of Emery Brooks, #1)

4 " Now that I think about it, haunting isn’t the word. The boy who claimed he hated love songs wrote and sang one so accurate, so accurate that it mirrored everything my brother lectured me about what love should be. He persuaded me to betray my own logic and fall for him. Hard. And yet, falling for him is slipping from a cliff, hurtling to my supposed death, but holding onto a semi-sturdy edge with shaking fingers. Just as soon as I thought we may be headed for a happy ending "

― Allyson Kennedy , The Crush (The Ballad of Emery Brooks, #1)

5 " I’ll admit to being a stupid, young girl with a hopeless crush who for some, preposterous reason, won’t give up on the boy she once gagged at the thought of loving. The boy who has a death grip on the shattered remains of her heart, the boy she knows will never give her the chance she craves, as his heart has already been won. The first and only boy she’s ever cried over. "

― Allyson Kennedy , The Crush (The Ballad of Emery Brooks, #1)

6 " As far as he knows, nothing has changed between us. I was indifferent before, and if I’m going to brave the storm, I’ve got to muster those feelings back up again. At least until we get out of here tonight and I can find refuge in the pages of my diary. "

― Allyson Kennedy , The Crush (The Ballad of Emery Brooks, #1)

7 " My hand flies across the first blank page, chicken-scratched lines I can barely decipher wielding the dark tale of my heart. At 5:15 a.m., the pen falls from my grasp and I tuck the notebook away.
I wrote my first love song, with his name in a heart to prove it. I wrote my first love song for the boy who knows no love at all. "

― Allyson Kennedy , The Crush (The Ballad of Emery Brooks, #1)

8 " As I’m sitting down, a spark flashes from the corner of my eye. She lights an unscented candle, the coy smile that Ryanne inherited appearing on her face. 
Scratch that again. I’m going to go make a new life for myself in the woods, away from people forever "

― Allyson Kennedy , The Crush (The Ballad of Emery Brooks, #1)

9 " Please don’t cry over me, Emery.” He runs his thumb over my knuckles. “I’m not worth that.”
“Don’t ever say that again.” My voice comes out weak, desperate. “You are. God kept you alive for a reason. That’s your worth. "

― Allyson Kennedy , The Crush (The Ballad of Emery Brooks, #1)

10 " I made it my mission to help him see the light, to reveal life has meaning. And in the process, he helped recover the meaning of mine.
My world thrived with him in it. I rediscovered my love for music, as he did his appreciation for love songs. We cultivated joy together, God by our sides, learning to combat small town politics and judgment by sticking together. We were Bama Boy and Grandma Emmie, following in the footsteps of my grandparents, playing parts in one of the greatest love stories Grahamwood has ever known. "

― Allyson Kennedy , The Crush (The Ballad of Emery Brooks, #1)

11 " He once told me not to cry over him, that he wasn’t worth it. That he wasn’t worth being cared about by anyone else. That he was replaceable. Discardable. Trash.
That’s what the world decided he was, but the world never knew Sawyer Alston quite like I did. Despite my love of a lifetime allotting me only ten months’ time, despite Sawyer taking to heart all the wrong things in life, he only ended up being wrong about one thing.
He was worth it to me. "

― Allyson Kennedy , The Crush (The Ballad of Emery Brooks, #1)

12 " And ever since the love of our grandparents sparked a change in my brother, when I watch Grandpa Amos lay Grandma’s favorite flowers at her gravesite the first Saturday of each month, I pray God will allow me to meet a man just like that. Someone who will show courage despite their circumstances to be with me, someone who will love me even after my final breath and would never consider stopping. Someone who will lead me to further pursue my relationship with Christ, who will teach every generation that comes through our family what true Love is.
But, as of right now, I’m fourteen years old, and have never had a serious crush. With all I have to live up to, who knows if I ever will. "

― Allyson Kennedy , The Crush (The Ballad of Emery Brooks, #1)

13 " Mr. Darcy regains my interest. As if he ever lost it.
“Mmhmm, thanks.” The phone clicks back in its charger. My sister springs up from the floor mummy-style. “That traitor!”
Okay, Darcy, see you later. I close the book. “Who was that? "

― Allyson Kennedy , The Crush (The Ballad of Emery Brooks, #1)

14 " All I want is my own love story, and all I get are fake chances with guys who don’t understand what love is. "

― Allyson Kennedy , The Crush (The Ballad of Emery Brooks, #1)

15 " Auden’s gone full-blown Lydia “Bennet and accused me of being Lizzie. Which, I don’t mind, but still.”
“Plain English here please, Em. You know I don’t speak Austen.”
“Neither does she.” I exhale "

― Allyson Kennedy , The Crush (The Ballad of Emery Brooks, #1)

16 " God, please help me,” I say into the empty restroom, words echoing off the walls. “Please help me live out Proverbs 4:23. Please help me guard my heart. Please help me to never settle for anything less than what You have planned for me. "

― Allyson Kennedy , The Crush (The Ballad of Emery Brooks, #1)

17 " I try to shake the thought away. “I don’t know what she’s talking about. He’s not nearly handsome enough to tempt me.” No one catches my Pride and Prejudice reference, of course. "

― Allyson Kennedy , The Crush (The Ballad of Emery Brooks, #1)

18 " Though I’m often complimented on my appearance and told I will someday break many a heart, I prefer a fictional man to the cat-calling scoundrels around town. I, for one, have no time for a boy who is interested in just anyone. "

― Allyson Kennedy , The Crush (The Ballad of Emery Brooks, #1)

19 " More than anything?” I lay back on my bed, closing my eyes. “I want a love like Grandma Adeline and Grandpa Amos had. I want to build a family from love. I want my future kids to have as strong of a relationship with their siblings as I have with Rider and Auden. I don’t want them to ever have to wonder if their parents love each other, because it’ll be obvious. I want future generations to look up to my future husband and me as much as I’ve looked up to my grandparents. "

― Allyson Kennedy , The Crush (The Ballad of Emery Brooks, #1)

20 " As much as it pains me, this little link with Sawyer isn’t ending anytime soon. Even though I swore I didn’t want any part in this escalating, something about this sullen mess of a boy gives me hope. And that’s a rare occurrence on a day like today. "

― Allyson Kennedy , The Crush (The Ballad of Emery Brooks, #1)