Illusive (28 page)
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Like they say, it takes a village. Or in my case, a large city. Here we go.
Brittney Vandervelden, for not drop-kicking me out the second-story window. Padraig Maloney, for letting me bounce ideas off him at one in the morning. Nikki Krueger, for all those walks and being my first shipper. Becky Gissel, for going with me to all those superhero movies. Katie Matlack, for believing in my stories waaaay back when. Kasey Jakien, for giving me that copy of Lloyd Alexander; Roman Jakien, for going along with all that make-believe. Bob, for the pen. My grandmother, Mary, for letting me crash at her place those two months. And to other various family/friends—thanks for all the support.
My family at Gallery Bookshop. I couldn’t ask for a better group of people to work with: Christie, Sally, Terry, Katy, Johanna, Jane, Joan, Thelma, Mary, Alena, and Sichelle.
My agent, Quinlan Lee, for being a constant source of support and knowledge. To Josh and Tracey at Adams Literary, thank you so much.
Editor extraordinaire, Pam Gruber, for taking this story to the next level, for both reassuring and challenging me, and for believing in this book when I was ready to throw it against a wall. Working with you has been an absolute pleasure.
The Little, Brown crew, for all their amazing behind-the-scenes work: Joel Tippie, Tracy Shaw, Andy Ball, Frieda Duggan, and Jackie Hornberger. And to those who gave this book a chance: Andrew Smith, Alvina Ling, and Megan Tingley. I’m so grateful to all of you.
My mom. For being the Lorelai to my Rory.
Which brings me around to you—yeah, you. Writers can’t exist without readers. Maybe you picked this book up at random, or maybe you follow me on Twitter, or maybe you’re a distant relative and wondering what I get up to, or maybe you meant to grab the book a little to the left and ended up with this instead.
Thank you all the same.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2014 by Emily Lloyd-Jones
Cover art by jdrift design
Cover design by Tracy Shaw
Cover © 2014 Hachette Book Group, Inc.
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
Little, Brown and Company
Hachette Book Group
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Little, Brown and Company is a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
The Little, Brown name and logo are trademarks of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.
First ebook edition: July 2014
ISBN 978-0-316-25458-8
E3