I brought my hand to the delicate shovel charm nestled just above my collarbone. “How about”—I thought of every single thing that had happened since I became a Debutante myself—“Good luck?”

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The longer I’m in this business, the more keenly aware I become of how lucky I am to have a truly one-of-a-kind team in my corner. I wrote the first draft of this book as the sleep-deprived mom of two kids under the age of two. I literally could not have done it without the incredible support and creative work of my editor, Kieran Viola. When I needed more time, she gave me more time; when the book needed more, she knew exactly how to get us there. Most of all, her love for these characters and this series got me to where I needed to be to get the story where it needed to be. An editor is a creative collaborator, a sounding board, a champion, and so many more things, all rolled into one, and I could not ask for a better one. Thank you, Kieran.

Another champion who deserves special recognition is my agent, Elizabeth Harding, who has seen me from being a teenager, writing YA from my college dorm room, to a professor/mom/writer attempting to juggle all three. I know very few writers who are still with their first agent; I am lucky to have found an incredible advocate and partner, right out of the gate. Thank you, Elizabeth, not just for this book (number twenty!), but for everything that’s come before. Here’s to the future!

A third person I’d like to give a very special thanks to for this book is Marci Senders, cover designer extraordinaire, who designed not just one but two amazing covers for each book in this series. So much of a book’s success relies on the cover, and I cannot communicate what a constant relief and blessing it is to know that I am in Marci’s capable hands.

I also owe a huge thanks to the rest of the Freeform Books team—particularly Emily Meehan, Seale Ballenger, Christine Saunders, Cassie McGinty, Dina Sherman, Holly Nagel, Maddie Hughes, Elke Villa, Frank Bumbalo, Mary Mudd, and Vanessa Moody—and to my team at Curtis Brown—particularly Sarah Perillo, Ginger Clark, Jonathan Lyons, Sarah Gerton, Maddie Tavis, and Jazmia Young. I’d also like to give a special thank-you to Holly Frederick, who has been my book-to-film agent for twenty books now and has been a more incredible advocate for all of my books than I could say.

Huge thanks also go out to the writing friends who see me through, book after book, especially Rachel Vincent, Ally Carter, and every last BOB. I’m also incredibly grateful to all of the wonderful authors who lent their support to Little White Lies, especially Jennifer L. Armentrout, Brittany Cavallaro, E. Lockhart, Rachel Hawkins, and Katharine McGee for their generous blurbs.