"'Even though I wasn't there when it happened, I think the summer really began with the fire.'" (Prologue, p. 3).

"Sometimes she wished her father had started her on the electric guitar. Or at the very least, singing lessons. What was she supposed to do with an ability to play the piano?" (Chapter 1, p. 10).

"He'd known she would follow them. They always did. Especially the new girls in town. That was the thing with girls: the worse he treated them, the more they wanted him. They were stupid like that. Predictable, but stupid." (Chapter 4, p. 38).

"Under normal circumstances, Ronnie probably would have appreciated an evening like this. In New York, the lights from the city made it impossible to see many stars, but here, it was just the opposite." (Chapter 6, p. 57).

"What mattered was that she allowed him not only to find his passion, but to pursue it...