Thank you to my editor, Carina Guiterman, for making me capable of writing the kind of novel I’ve always wanted to write.
Thank you to my agents, PJ Mark and Stefanie Lieberman, for their warmth, their wisdom, and their steadfast guidance. Thank you to Allison Hunter for her love and her belief.
Thank you to everyone at Janklow & Nesbit, and to everyone at Simon & Schuster, especially Sophia Benz, Hannah Bishop, Lashanda Anakwah, Maggie Southard Gladstone, Brianna Scharfenberg, Danielle Prielipp, Morgan Hart, and Dominick Montalto.
For conversations that have challenged me and inspired me in realms of creativity and beyond, thank you to Emma Brodie, Lily Brooks-Dalton, Nicole Corbett, Jonathan Darman, Sara Faring, Azadeh Moaveni, and Katherine Schafler. For their unwavering love, thank you to my parents, Ed Pitoniak and Kate Barber. For his beautiful heart, for his steadfast honesty, and for telling me to always bet on myself, thank you to my husband, Andrew Bartholomew.
This is a book about a woman making her way through a world that is still mostly dominated by men. I’ve spent a lot of time in recent years thinking about the women I admire, and the ways in which they raise me up. This book is for two magnificent women in particular: Nellie Pitoniak and Ruth Kim. Nellie and Ruth inspire me, every day, to try and better myself; even as they remind me, too, to accept myself just as I am. They have walked with me through so much. They make my life infinitely better. I love them, and I am lucky to be loved by them in return.