A huge thanks to my editor, the endlessly patient, kind, and brilliant Tessa Woodward, who finds the diamonds even when I send them to her in a sack of coal. To my agent, Alexandra Machinist, for letting me bask in her baddass brilliance. To the entire William Morrow and Avon team: Pam Jaffee, Imani Gary, Elle Keck, Kayleigh Webb, and Kaitie Leary, my endless gratitude for your tireless and creative support.

Finally, as always, my greatest thanks to you, dear readers; if not for you I would not enjoy the greatest of all privileges: living my dream.

P.S. Insights, Interviews & More . . .*

About the Author

Meet Sonali Dev

About the Book

Behind the Book Essay

Reading Group Guide

About the Author

Meet Sonali Dev

Award-winning author SONALI DEV writes Bollywood-style love stories that let her explore issues faced by women around the world while still indulging her faith in a happily ever after. Sonali’s novels have been named best books of the year by NPR, Library Journal, the Washington Post, and Kirkus Reviews, and they regularly garner multiple starred reviews. She lives in the Chicago suburbs with her very patient and often amused husband, two teens who demand both patience and humor, and the world’s most perfect dog.

Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.

About the Book

Behind the Book Essay

Any Jane Austen fan worthy of that title can identify the exact moment when they first connected with her work. My connection, ironically enough, was through a retelling. I was in seventh grade, growing up in Mumbai, when a TV show based on Pride and Prejudice came out. It was called Trishna. This was way back in the eighties, when the dinosaurs roamed the earth, decades before television shows became the norm for consuming stories.

It was a faithful scene-by-scene, character-by-character retelling that transferred Austen’s story to a contemporary Indian setting. Mr. Darcy was played by a popular male model, and all the girls in my school—years before Colin Firth stepped out of that pond in a wet shirt—were overcome by Darcymania. For me, however, the magic was Lizzie Bennet (named Rekha in the show), an opinionated, irreverent girl who didn’t bother with pandering to men (or anyone else for that matter) so they might find her desirable. It was like finding myself, like having the blueprint of who I wanted to be validated. The fact that she was loved for those precise reasons just made everything better.

I ran to the library, checked out Pride and Prejudice, and was lost forever. I followed it up with Emma, Sense and Sensibility, and Persuasion. I found all of Austen’s heroines to be delightfully fallible without a trace of self-loathing or self-recrimination, which seemed the norm for all the women in the literature I was reading. It was terribly freeing.