Acknowledgments

First, to readers: Thank you so much for inviting Meg and Reid into your imaginations and, I hope, into your hearts. It means so much to me to share this story with you, and I hope you’ll share in my thanks to some very special people who helped me bring it into the world.

Two exceptional women deserve so much of the credit for Love Lettering. My agent, Taylor Haggerty, is the first person to have ever heard my idea about Meg and Reid and the secret code they shared, and throughout the process of my writing this book—everything from the very first synopsis to the very final sentence—she encouraged me by reading pages when I stumbled and rooting for me when I got back up again. Taylor, I adore you, and I am so grateful for everything you have done and continue to do for me.

I have been fortunate to work with the incomparable Esi Sogah on five books now, and for each one, she has applied her keen eye for character, for story, for sound, and for sense to every one of my sentences. But for Love Lettering, a book that challenged me in unexpected ways, Esi did so much more— coaching me through the tough parts, accommodating me when I needed more time, and helping me see my way to the end more clearly than I would have been able to without her vision. And beyond all this: She is simply the most fun person to work with, the most fun person to know and be around. Esi, for all this and more, I owe you a front-row seat to some musical where you will take great joy in my hives of embarrassment.

The team at Kensington Books more generally has my sincere gratitude for believing in this book and for helping it make its way into the world so beautifully. For their work and support, I thank Michelle Addo, Lynn Cully, Jackie Dinas, Vida Engstrand, Susanna Gruninger, Sheila Higgins, Norma Perez-Hernandez, Lauren Jernigan, Samantha McVeigh, Alexandra Nicolajsen, Kristine Noble, Carly Sommerstein, and Steve Zacharius.

In the summer of 2018 I sat in a small, slightly overloud, somewhat poorly lit vegan restaurant in Brooklyn and met the brilliant Sarah MacLean for the first time, and to Sarah I owe a great debt—for loving this idea and for reading pages of it when I was stuck, and for becoming a devoted friend who has supported me a great deal. More generally, what I would say is that I am grateful, over these past few years, to have learned something that Meg learns in the pages of this book—being creative doesn’t mean being solitary, and so many friends in the romance community deserve my thanks. I can name only a small fraction of them here, for this book especially: Olivia Dade (who deserves particular credit for teaching me this lesson most patiently, and for helping me shape the first half of this manuscript), Therese Beharrie, Alyssa Cole, Jen DeLuca, Elizabeth Kingston, Ruby Lang, and Jennifer Prokop. Thank you for being writers I admire, and more importantly, thank you for being friends who listen and encourage and celebrate. I can only hope that for you I have done a small share of what you have done for me.

To my family (immediate, extended, and in-lawed!)—thank you for believing in me, even when I am doing my level best not to believe in myself, and thank you for your patience and kindness each time I undertake a new project. To my lovely, supportive friends, who had to keep me from drowning in a difficult time—Amy (who read every page of this book, sometimes as it was being written), Elizabeth, Jackie, Joan, Niamh, Sarah, (other!) Amy—you are more precious to me than I could ever say. Your voices exist in this book, hidden messages of love I sent you along the way.

Finally, to my husband—I hope you’ll take this as quite the compliment—you are and have been my inspiration, always. Thanks for spending hours chasing down signs with me in your not-favorite city, and thank you for never doubting I could turn those signs into something special.