Acknowledgments

I am starting to feel like a broken record, because when I sit down to write acknowledgments for any Inheritance Games book, all I can think—and what I inevitably end up writing down—is that I am so beyond blessed to work with the incredible team at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers and with everyone at my literary agency, Curtis Brown, especially those who have been with me since my very first book. I don’t think I will ever reach a point where I am not awed by how incredible all of you are at your jobs and how lucky I am to have your unparalleled expertise, instincts, and dedication behind me and these books.

For Games Untold, I am particularly grateful that when I said to my editor, Lisa Yoskowitz, “What if, instead of the book we had planned, I did an anthology of novellas and short stories, heavy on romance—and relationships of all kinds—that also advances the overall mystery in The Grandest Game?” she did not even bat an eye before going all in on the idea. Lisa, I cannot tell you how much joy it brought me to write these stories and share them with you first. That you loved them the way I do, right from the start, means the world.

I am also just blown away by the cover that the dynamite team of Karina Granda and Katt Phatt created for this book. I asked for romantic, and you gave me beyond romantic, the absolute perfect cover, which fits this book in every way. I’m also very indebted to the incredible sales and marketing teams that did double duty with two Inheritance Games releases this year! Thank you, Shawn Foster, Danielle Cantarella, Claire Gamble, Katie Tucker, Leah CollinsLipsett, and the rest of the HBG sales team for getting this book out there in so many ways, and to Savannah Kennelly, Bill Grace, Emilie Polster, Becky Munich, and Jess Mercado for your marketing and design brilliance! From the Hawthorne Vault to collectable cards, you make this process so much fun for me and for readers. And thank you also to my School & Library team of Victoria Stapleton, Christie Michel, and Margaret Hansen; I am so grateful to the librarians and educators who have supported this series and to all of you for getting it into their hands.

Thank you to Kelly Moran for your support across two releases this year, and to Marisa Finkelstein, Andy Ball, and Kimberly Stella for juggling overlapping deadlines on both books! And a special thank-you to the copy editor and proofreaders in this book, who went above and beyond to make sure that everything lined up with the rest of the series as it should: Erin Slonaker, Jody Corbett, and Su Wu. Thank you, Alexandra Houdeshell, for all that you do, and, as always, thank you, Megan Tingley and Jackie Engel, for creating and leading this unparalleled team.

I am also incredibly grateful to my publishers around the world and to the translators who have to work three times as hard with all my riddles and word puzzles! Thank you to Janelle DeLuise, Hannah Koerner, Karin Schulze, Jahlila Stamp, and all of the co-agents who have had a hand in bringing these books to readers all over the world, and to Anthea Townsend, Chloe Parkinson, and Michelle Nathan for bringing me to the UK to celebrate the release of this book!

As I said at the beginning of these acknowledgments, I feel like I cannot help repeating myself book after book, but thank you to my agent of many years, Elizabeth Harding. I cannot tell you what it means to have you in my corner not just professionally but as someone who has known me since I was a teenager and seen me (and my career) through so many life changes. Thank you, Holly Frederick, for your work in film and TV rights on this project and so many others over the years, and to the teams that I cannot name working on those projects—you know who you are! And thank you to Eliza Leung and Manizeh Karim and everyone else at Curtis Brown—for everything.

Finally, I can’t end these acknowledgments without thanking the family and friends who get me through deadlines and stress and wondering if I can do it with each and every book. Thank you to Rachel Vincent, for always being there, always being happy for me, always knowing the word I’m looking for, and always knowing the exact right question to ask to break me out of a writing slump. Thank you, Mom and Dad, for letting me use your house like a writing retreat, and for being there with food and company and hugs every time I come up for air. You’re the best parents in the world, full stop, and the most incredible grandparents to my boys, and I truly could not have finished this book without you.

And on that note, thank you also to my boys, who may have inspired that scene where Xander is a sloth… and one or two others. Once you’re old enough to read these books—if you read them—please do not adopt Hawthorne Secret Santa as your own. And thank you for not breaking any of your bones or any major parts of the house while I was writing this book.

Finally, thank you to my husband, who is undoubtedly the reason that no bones or major parts of the house were broken while I was writing this book. Thank you for your partnership, your love, your support, and your habit of asking exactly the right questions about any given book.