There are so many people who supported me with their actions, their friendship, and their love as I wrote this book, and I am so very grateful to all of them.
To the entire team at Hyperion Avenue, thank you so much for trusting me with this story, and for everything you’ve done to help this book become a reality. Jocelyn Davies, thank you for your thoughtful edits that made this book so much better, and for loving Izzy and Beau as much as I do. Marci Senders and Stephanie Singleton, thank you for this incredible book cover that I fell in love with immediately. Elanna Heda, Cassidy Leyendecker, Sara Liebling, Guy Cunningham, Jody Corbett, Martin Karlow, Meredith Jones, and Marybeth Tregarthen, thank you for all of your hard work in turning my manuscript into this beautiful book. And thank you so much to Lyssa Hurvitz, Seale Ballenger, Danielle DiMartino, Holly Nagel, Ian Byrne, Marina Shults, Monique Diman, Nicole Elmes, Michael Freeman, Loren Godfrey, Kim Knueppel, Vicki Korlishin, Meredith Lisbin, Vanessa Vazquez, and Samantha Voorhees for ushering this book out into the world and helping it find its readers.
Holly Root, you are a true gem. These past two years have been immeasurably easier because of you; this book is only a book because of your advice, your support, and your many, many pep talks. Thank you, so much. And thank you to everyone else at Root Literary: Alyssa Moore and Melanie Figueroa, thank you so much for all of your hard work on my behalf. Taylor Haggerty, many thanks for all of your excellent Santa Barbara advice! Kristin Dwyer, what a joy it is to work with you. Thank you for being exactly you.
Amy Spalding, thank you for all of your advice about this book, for being such a great research travel companion in Santa Barbara, and for your friendship. Akilah Brown, thank you for your advice, honesty, and friendship. Kayla Cagan, thank you for your brilliance, your humor, and the cheese balls. Thank you to Sara Zarr, who said “If you write, then you’re a writer” to me at a time when I absolutely didn’t think I deserved that title. Many thanks to Josh Gondelman, the king of pep talks. And thank you to the many other writers who gave me advice, companionship, and support throughout these past two years: Jami Attenberg, Melissa Baumgart, Robin Benway, Alexis Coe, Nicole Chung, Mira Jacob, Ruby Lang, Jessica Morgan, Julie Murphy, Samin Nosratt, Helen Rosner, and Emma Straub.
It’s not just that I wouldn’t have been able to write this book without my friends; I wouldn’t have made it through these past two years of a global pandemic without my friends. Nicole Clouse and Simi Patnaik, I love you so much. (Simi, I hope you’re happy now.) Jill Vizas, I don’t know what I’d do without you. Janet Goode, I miss you so much; I can’t wait to see you again. Kimberly Chin, here’s to many more meals together, and many more years of friendship. Sarah Mackey, thank you for helping me name all the things. All my love and gratitude to Joy Alferness and the entire Alferness family, Nanita Cranford, Nicole Cliffe, Jenée Desmond-Harris, Rachel Fershleiser, Alyssa Furukawa, Alicia Harris, Jina Kim, Danny Lavery, Kate Leos, Lisa McIntire, Caille Millner, Runjini Murthy, Maret Orliss, Samantha Powell, Jessica Simmons, Sara Simon, Melissa Sladden, Christina Tucker, Dana White, and Margaret H. Willison. I am endlessly grateful to all of you for making me laugh and cry, for all of the hugs, both in person and virtual, for always being there for me, for all of the phone calls and video calls and many many text messages.
Thank you to Meghan and Harry, for showing me all of the places a real princess would go in Santa Barbara. (Just kidding.) (Or am I???)
Thank you to my family, I love you all so much. I cannot list you all by name because we’d be here for four or five more pages, but know that I love you all so much, and I appreciate all of your love and support. Special thanks to my parents, who have always been there for me. Mom, you’re the greatest (I know you know that, but I have to say it). Dad, I love you so much.
Thank you to all of the libraries and bookstores who have worked so hard over these past few years to get books to readers. Special thanks to East Bay Booksellers and the incredible staff there, and to Chaucer’s Books in Santa Barbara, which makes a little cameo in this book. And a thousand thanks to every teacher and librarian who encouraged and indulged my love of reading; I’m grateful for every single one of you.
And thank you to all of you reading this. Whether this is the first book of mine that you’ve read or the seventh, I am enormously grateful to you for taking the time to read my books. To anyone I gave a pep talk to over these past two years, thank you, you helped me even more than I could have possibly helped you. And for those of you who told me that my books helped you through these past two very hard years, I can’t thank you enough; you helped keep me going.
And if you’d like to read more of my writing, or see what comes next, go to JasmineGuillory.com!