So," she went on, "it got me thinking about what cost beauty. Or for that matter, what cost anything? Would you trade love for beauty? Or happiness for beauty? Could a gorgeous person with a mean streak be a worthy trade? And if you did make the trade, decide you'd take that beautiful swan and hope it wouldn't turn on you, what would you do if it did?

It was like discovering that some part of you wasn't yours at all. And it made me wonder what else I couldn't claim.

Accepting all the good and bad about someone. It's a great thing to aspire to. The hard part is actually doing it.

The only trick was never giving more that you were willing to lose.

It's always very pure, that last moment before an ugly, unsettling truth hits someone. The most stark of before-and-afters.

I thought of all the times we'd been together, how I kept coming closer, then retreating, while he stayed right where he was. A constant in a world where few, if any, really existed.

It was a basic plot in any number of her books: girl strikes out, makes good, finds love, gets revenge. In that order. The making good and striking out part I liked. The rest would just be bonus.