The True Love Experiment

Fizzy: We move in together next summer.

Connor: When it feels right, I ask Stevie how she would feel about having a fellow Wonderland stan for a stepmother.

Fizzy: I accept your proposal before the question is even out of your mouth.

Connor: Our wedding is the best party ever thrown.

Fizzy: Debauchery is my brand.

Connor: And every day of my life from this point forward, I will be able to sincerely say I love and cherish you with every fiber of my being.

Fizzy: Jesus Christ that’s swoony. Can we get started on this future now?

Connor: Yes, my darling. We can.





acknowledgments


When we finished The Soulmate Equation in 2020, we assumed we’d written everything we intended to in that world. Jess, River, and Juno found their happily ever after, and that was that. You, dear readers, had other plans. Soulmate was released in May of 2021, we (virtually) headed out on tour, and at literally every event we got the same question:

Is Fizzy getting her own book?

We were a little thrown. We create secondary characters for lots of reasons—to puncture moments of tension with comedy, to challenge the heroine on her journey, or to provide a satisfying B-story arc—but rarely are they there to become stars in their own right. We never had a good answer to this, but the more people asked, the more we realized we really needed one; saying “Never say never” didn’t fly with many of you. And then, one day, the right idea appeared. It probably didn’t happen like a light bulb going on, but in hindsight it feels a little like that, like the beginning of Fizzy’s story just popped up in a conversation between the two of us: she had lost her joy, and finds it again in the most unlikely place—with a man who evades all of her attempts to slap a convenient label on him, who sees her many layers and depths, and who finds his own joy in her infectious exuberance.

To be clear, if we had planned on writing a romance author as a main character from the get-go, we would have probably created Fizzy a bit differently in The Soulmate Equation. Romance authors are, to put it bluntly, given a lot of shit for what we do. We get asked in interviews whether we are writing our fantasies; we get asked what our fathers and husbands think of our careers; we get asked if we’ve done everything we describe in our books. So, for obvious reasons, we struggled at first to know how much to lean in to Fizzy’s sex-positivity and exuberant dating life. We didn’t want to play into those outside stereotypes. But it turns out that it was as easy as typing the word Prologue. Fizzy flowed out of us like we were exhaling. It meant that the real trouble blindsided us: What hero could possibly deserve her?

It took a while to find Connor in the pages. He’s a quieter hero, a sturdy, bedrock presence. We wrote him in layers, carefully carving him into the story with each passing revision until he was as fully formed and dimensional as was our bold and bright Fizzy. And tonight, as we read it through one last time before it goes to press, we think it is the best thing we’ve ever done. The True Love Experiment is the thirtieth book we’ve written together and is our love letter to romance and fandom and fangirls everywhere.

And as always, although we write the words, it takes an enormous team of wonderful people working tirelessly behind the scenes to get it into your hands.

Holly Root, our Diamond Match, we must always put you first. You found us in the slush pile almost exactly eleven years ago; twenty-nine published books later and we still stare at you with heart-eyes. You are wise and kind, funny and intuitive, ruthless and brilliant—perfect for us in all ways. Kristin Dwyer is our PR Rep, our Precious, our safe space. Thank you for getting our books into the world, for wearing dorky hats with us at Disneyland, and always being up for book tour hotel breakfast. Dracarys.

Jen Prokop is one of the most brilliant freelance editors we have ever worked with; she finds the weak spots in our manuscript like it’s her superpower. Thank you for your careful reads, your wonderful insights, and always having the perfect book recommendation at your fingertips.

We’ve said it before, we’ll say it again: Gallery / Simon & Schuster has been the best home to us for every single one of our books. Jen Bergstrom is the rare kind of publisher who manages to balance mentor, champion, coach, friend, and businesswoman without ever losing an ounce of professionalism. We are truly in awe of the team you’ve built. Hannah Braaten, working on Fizzy with you has been the most fun; thank you for perfectly representing us in every room and helping us make this one exactly what we hoped it would be. Enormous thanks to the rest of the brilliant editorial team, Abby Zidle, Aimée Bell, Andrew Nguyên, Sarah Schlick, Mia Robertson, Frances Yackel; sales powerhouses Jen Long, Eliza Hanson, and all of the reps we promised our firstborns to—hope they’re behaving themselves, LOL; our amazing publicity team, Lauren Carr and Sally Marvin; marketing geniuses Mackenzie Hickey and Anabel Jimenez; the ever-patient and brilliantly creative art directors Lisa Litwack and John of the Mustache Vairo (you can never shave it; think of all the acknowledgments we’d have to edit). Our brilliant copyeditors find our mistakes and make sure the world never learns that we can’t correctly place a comma or ever use a calendar. Production editor Christine Masters is called “the amazing Christine” in pretty much every email and deserves it. The Simon Audio team is full of stars: Sarah Lieberman, Chris Lynch, Louisa Solomon, Tom Spain, Desiree Vecchio, Gaby Audet, Taryn Beato, and Sophie Parens. Thank you to every person who touches our books, whether with a computer or doing the physical work of putting them together and getting them where they need to go.

Heather Baror-Shapiro, thank you for getting our words into the hands of readers across the globe. Mary Pender-Coplan, you are pure magic. Your calls are our favorite. Matt Sugarman, thank you for always representing our interests with the deepest commitment; you are a badass. Molly Mitchell, thank you until the end of time for managing the calendar and keeping us organized. You are GOLDEN.

To the friends, colleagues, and author idols who inspire us, share our fangirl screams, or who keep us from being messy all over the Internet, we love you: Erin Service, Katie Lee, Kate Clayborn, Sarah MacLean, Ali Hazelwood, Susan Lee, Jennifer Carlson, Jessica McLin, Brie Statham, Amy Schuver, Mae Lopez, Laura Wichems, Kian Maleki, Bianca Jimenez, Jori Mendivil, Cathryn Carlson, Ysabel Nakasone, Adriana Herrera, Katherine Center, Jen Frederick, Diane Park, Kresley Cole, Erin McCarthy, Sally Thorne, Sonali Dev, Alisha Rai, Christopher Rice, Sarah J. Maas, Sarah Wendell, Tahereh Mafi, Ransom Riggs, Stephanie Perkins, Helen Hoang, Tessa Bailey, Rachel Hawkins, Rosie Danan, Rachel Lynn Solomon, Rebekah Weatherspoon, Leslie Phillips, Alexa Martin, Jillian Stein, Liz Berry, Brittainy C. Cherry, Andie J. Christopher, Candice Montgomery, and Catherine Lu.

To Lo’s Blue Flowers: I adore you all so much.