To Iga Fatalska, thanks so much for your help with the Polish language aspects to this novel. Mindy, thanks for all of your help over the course of this year. To Aunty Lola—thanks for convincing me to walk all over Warsaw during those stinking-hot summer days of our trip in 2017. Maybe I complained at the time, especially on that one day when we did 40,000 steps, but I couldn’t have written this book without the research I did on that trip and it turned out that seeing so much of Warsaw by foot was handy after all! To all of my writer pals—especially Sally Hepworth, Lisa Ireland, Kim Kelly, Pamela Cook and Vanessa Carnevale. At different times, each of you imparted some wisdom or encouragement that kept me going while I was working on this book, and I am so grateful to have your friendship and support.
Dan, Maxwell and Violette, yet again I am sorry for how impossible I am to live with when I’m writing, and I know this book was particularly tough. Thanks for loving me anyway. And to Mum and Dad, thanks for emergency babysitting, Tim Tams and cups of tea.
To my agent, Amy Tannenbaum, and the entire team at the Jane Rotrosen Agency. I am so honored and grateful to be working with you—and, Amy, thanks for always going the extra mile. And to Susan Swinwood and the team at Graydon House, Harlequin and HarperCollins, you have made so many of my dreams come true and I am so thankful to know that my stories are in such capable and skilled hands.
To booksellers and librarians, you superstars who place my books in the hands of readers, thank you, thank you, thank you. And to the bloggers, bookstagrammers, reviewers and to anyone else who has recommended my books to someone else over the years—thank you so much for believing in my work and spreading the word.
And finally, to readers. I still sometimes pinch myself—it seems a dream that anyone wants to read my books. Thank you for journeying through these stories with me.