Acknowledgments

Thank you, Andrea Somberg, not only for picking me out of the slush pile and representing my work, but for providing invaluable vision, guidance and patience. Kerri Buckley, thank you for tightening loops that needed tightening and straightening dialogue that needed straightening, and, of course, for believing in this project. Thank you to the entire Carina Press team for supporting my work.

I appreciate every comment I received from my writers group. Thank you, especially, Jeremiah Goulka, JD Mayrant, Jon Moffat, Elizabeth Nellums, Barbara Reck, Melody Schreiber, Kellie Small, Chrisi West and Jeff West for your gentle spurring and helpful feedback.

Cate Cameron, Ava Jae, Laura Rueckert and Lisa Terry, I’m so privileged to call you ladies my CPs, and I can’t imagine succeeding in this without all of your wisdom and support.

It’s one thing for writers to swap their work, it’s another for friends to agree to spend hours reading and commenting on a book for nothing in exchange. Thank you, Kate, for all your encouragement and wonderful brainstorm-inducing ideas. Thank you, Tim, for talking sci-fi and superheroes with me and being an amazingly good sport when it came to the romance parts.

Thank you, Dana, for being an unfailing beta reader even as my adorable niece and nephews attempt to distract you. (Okay, I’m sure they sometimes succeed.) Thank you, Drew, for never doubting that I’d one day get that “yes” amidst all the “no’s”. And thank you, Austin, for always being up for a celebratory wine.

Thank you, Mom and Dad, for believing in my writing back when I wrote poems about constellations that scooped my second-grade-self out of bed.

Finally, thank you to that cute townie who bought me a drink at a Virginia bar when I was in college. You walk way too slow and know way too much about football and the Civil War, but there’s no one else I’d rather have as my best friend and my muse.