Our agent, Holly Root, is most likely made of magic and cupcakes and stardust and unicorn tears. We aren’t sure, of course, but it just seems impossible that someone so amazing could come from this humble planet.

Thank you to Adam Wilson, our hilarious editor and the name we most love to see in our margins. The list of our favorite Adamisms is getting so long we had to start a spreadsheet. Thanks for putting up with our ridiculousness, and for making us want to do it right the first time.

Thanks to Mary McCue and Kristin Dwyer, our publicists at Simon & Schuster Gallery. Your excitement and support already have buoyed us immensely and we kind of just want to sit across your desk and gaze at you adoringly. To everyone at Gallery: Jennifer Bergstrom, Ellen Chan, Natalie Ebel, Julia Fincher, Liz Psaltis: thank you for everything you’ve done to edit, promote and support Beautiful Bastard and Beautiful Stranger. Simon & Schuster must be a fantastic place to work because you are all gems.

To our writing buddies and readers: Erin, Martha, Kellie, Anne, Myra, Amy, Tonya, and Moi: thank goodness you loved it the first time around because we don’t think we could have rewritten it in a week. HA! HA! ::drinks:: We don’t love our books until we’ve fixed what you say is wrong with them.

Alison and Anya, many thanks for your help with NYC, even though it may horrify you to know what we’ve done with the information. (Who are we kidding—you’re aware.) Helen, thank you for taking the time to help with the Britishisms. And Ian: yay for getting drunk with Lo often enough that she can imagine every single curse word in your accent! Spangly, your help in the art world was invaluable because, if left to our own devices, we would have referred to only the Mona Lisa and imagined sculptures made from beakers and nail polish. Lauren Suero, thank you eternally for all your work on the promo side. You are a wealth of knowledge (and awesome shoes).

More love than we can express to our readers, both old and new. Thank you for cheering us on and for your continued support. We couldn’t do any of this without you. If you prefer to keep your panties intact, at the very least we hope you get ravished in a library.

And finally: Christina, you are the calm to my wild. Lo, you are the wild to my calm. Doing this together is the most fun. Let’s have cake.

CHRISTINA and LAUREN, a writing duo that has been swooning over romance novels for as long as they can remember, are the authors of Beautiful Bastard from Gallery Books. Separated by the pesky state of Nevada, these co-author besties speak several times a day, agree that Ruby Pumps is the best nail polish color ever, and would, if given the choice, spend all day staring at the ocean from the San Clemente pier. You can find them online at ChristinaLaurenBooks.com or at @seeCwrite and @lolashoes on Twitter.