"Reuniting with her mother was her motivation.  She would slay dragons to get to her.  Mother was anchor.  Mother was comfort.  Mother was home.  A girl who lost her mother was suddenly a tiny boat on an angry ocean.  Some boats eventually floated ashore.  And some boats, like me, seemed to flat farther and farther from land."
-Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

"The lace curtain flapped in the kitchen window.  The breeze today was the kind you opened the shutters for, the kind that carried away old sin and flakes of sadness."
-Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys