“For the first time, Jacqueline heard Charisma sound less like an enthusiastic girl and more like a woman whose hard won maturity had cost her dearly”

“She wasn't used to being the kind of woman whose house had a study. It sounded to her like she lived on the damned Clue board.”

“Benny gave her an admiring look. He had never heard a woman swear so much in such a short time. He thought it sounded delightful.”

“Instead I sounded like a little girl on her first day of kindergarten. My name is Bee, and I like coloring and horsies.”

“And as for the Lightwoods," Simon said, "it's not that I like them that much. I mean, I like Isabelle, and I sort of like Alec and Jace, too. But there's this girl. And Jace is her brother."When Samuel replied, he sounded, for the first time genuinely amused. "Isn't there always a girl.”

“Plainly, she is quite besotted by him,... a girl, a young girl, and she is falling in love for the first time in her life. ...little Kitty Howard at a loss, stumbling in her speech, blushing like a rose, thinking of someone else and not herself is to see a girl become a woman.”