Smart Girl (26 page)

Acknowledgments

Oh readers, I can’t even believe we’ve made it to the end of another book! It still boggles my mind that I wrote one of these girl’s stories down, let alone three! But here we are, and once again I have some gigantic thank-yous to make, so bear with me.

My sincerest thanks to Jodi Warshaw and the team at Lake Union. I am so grateful for your belief in Landon, Max, Miko, and me.

To my agent, Kevan Lyon—who I am positive will figure out any day now that I’m a total poser and drop me like a hot rock—I can’t believe I get to work with you and ask you advice. This blows my mind and tickles me pink. Thanks for all your help!

Mad love to Eryn Kalavsky for being the first reader, the eighth reader, and the hundredth reader of everything I write. Thanks for letting me whine about how I can’t figure out this plot or these characters or these words. You’ve heard it so many times, and it has to be annoying. Thanks for taking it like a champ just the same!

Thank you to Wendy Haworth, the incredibly talented designer of Los Angeles’s Gracias Madre, which was the inspiration for Liam and Miko’s restaurant project. Wendy’s aesthetic is incredible, and she’s an absolute peach for answering a million questions about design for me. Also, upscale vegan Latin cuisine is actually totally delicious—nobody is more surprised than I am.

Thank you to the amazing staff at Chic Media, who are my work family. It can’t be easy to work for a woman who spends half her time freaking out about a looming deadline for her next book, but you guys just take my crazy in stride. A big shout-out to Cortnee Brown for another beautifully designed cover. Thank you for always illustrating my dreams.

So much love to the members of my street team—affectionately known as the FORs. You guys are the coolest, and I can’t believe you like me enough to want to hang out on a private Facebook page and talk books, but I really appreciate it!

Last, but never least, thank you to my Brody, my Taylor, my Liam, my inspiration for every dream man I write. David, were it not for our first year together, I wouldn’t know how to write angst. And were it not for the thirteen years that came afterwards, I wouldn’t know how to write a happily ever after. Thank you for filling my life with so much love that it spills over onto the pages of my books.

About the Author

Rachel Hollis founded the LA-based event planning firm Chic Events at only twenty-one. Six years later
Inc.
magazine named her one of the top thirty entrepreneurs under thirty. She went on to turn Chic into the extremely popular lifestyle website TheChicSite.com, where readers log on daily for the tips and tricks she’s acquired after years of planning fancy parties for celebrities. She has designed and produced fabulous events for many of Hollywood’s elite, including Bradley Cooper, Al Gore, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Ivanka Trump, Rashida Jones, Jaime King, Sara Rue, and Cuba Gooding, Jr., just to name a few.

Rachel moved to Los Angeles to go to college and promptly met a boy named David, who was as handsome as he was funny. First she made that boy her best friend, and then she made him her husband. Eleven years later they have three equally handsome and hilarious little boys named Jackson, Sawyer, and Ford. They live in LA, where they spend their time doing super cool and sexy things, such as going to soccer practice and hitting up any restaurant where kids eat free with the purchase of an adult entrée.

Take this friendship to the next level by hitting up Rachel on any of the websites below. She’s so excited to be an author that she’d probably pee her pants if you actually brought it up on social media!

Twitter:
@msrachelhollis

Facebook:
/msrachelhollis

Instagram:
@msrachelhollis

Pinterest:
@msrachelhollis