Acknowledgements

 

Firstly, I would like to thank the team at So Vain Books for their belief in the novel and for making the process of getting to publication as painless as possible, as well as for sharing their invaluable knowledge of the magazine industry and what stylists really do!

 

I would also like to thank the readers from the Romantic Novelist Association’s New Writers’ Scheme for their input and being the first people with industry knowledge to tell me the story was good enough for publication.

 

I’m sure I would have given up long before I reached this stage, if it hadn’t been for my wonderful writing family, The Write Romantics – Sharon Booth, Jackie Ladbury, Deirdre Palmer, Lynne Pardoe, Helen Phifer, Jessica Redland, Helen Rolfe, Rachael Thomas and Alys West – and particularly those who read the early drafts of AATS and encouraged me to keep going.

 

Thanks too to my beta readers – Jennie Dunn, Toni Hazard and Alex Weston. And most especially, for this version of the story, to my alpha readers Julie Heslington and Paula Stroud, who were the first people I felt brave enough to get feedback from. I can’t thank them enough for their honest and supportive critiques.

 

I also owe a debt to my friends and family for never minding if I was too busy writing to do other things. Especially to my mum for letting me spend hours reading whilst I was growing up, with my back pressed against a warm radiator and a book in my hands – heaven!

 

Last, but not least, thank you to my husband and children who have taught me all I’ll ever need to know about love. From among a thousand stars, I’d always pick you.