The Honey-Don’t List by Christina Lauren

 

We outlined this book together in Salt Lake City on a giant whiteboard and with about seven thousand Post-it notes. It was amazing! It was exciting! It was the best weekend ever!

Sometimes the idea is shinier than the first draft, and this was definitely the case with The Honey-Don’t List. The idea was so clear in our heads; when we outlined, we were cracking each other up. And then we sat down to write and it was like making a huge mess in the kitchen and then pulling a very deflated cake out of the oven. It just didn’t come out the way we’d imagined it.

But that’s our process lately, we realized—draft fast, edit later—and after twenty-plus books together, we’d finally hit a point where we didn’t panic if it wasn’t perfect from the start. We dove back into edits a few times, and each time the book got a little closer to the one you’re holding right now. By the time we handed in the copy edits to our editor, we had made the book everything we wanted it to be when we sat in Christina’s kitchen, surrounded by a rainbow of Post-its.

The bottom line is that we are lucky to do this together, and have created a friendship and partnership that is truly meaningful, both creatively and personally. We love working together, we love that we get to do this career as a team, and we love you all for picking up and reading our books.

We also love our agent, Holly Root. Quite frankly, anyone who’s ever met Holly knows she is the most together person in publishing. So wise, so calm, so supportive, and such a badass.

We love, too, our editor, Kate Dresser, who sees the deflated cake come into her inbox and says, “I see what ingredient you left out!” … and then finds five hundred more ingredients we left out in the first draft. Sometimes the book she gets probably feels more like a bowl of batter than a fully baked cake, but with her big, amazing brain, we’re able to draw out every flavor we’d planned. And then our brilliant and adorable PR rep Kristin Dwyer comes in and makes everyone taste the cake and shout publicly that it is tHe bEsT cAKe EvER!!

Are we diving too deep into this baking metaphor? Perhaps.

Moving on.

Did you know that dystonia is a very real and—in this case—very personal motor disorder? My (Lauren’s) family has an as-yet unidentified genetic variant of this disease, which is one that affects the central nervous system, specifically the parts of the brain that control movement. While my father eventually succumbed to secondary effects of dystonia, my sister is living quite capably and with only minor symptoms thanks to regular botulinum toxin treatment of her oromandibular dystonia. Many readers may not realize that Botox isn’t just for wrinkles; in fact, a majority of Botox use is for the treatment of movement disorders—such as dystonia—but also spasticity caused by multiple sclerosis, stroke, and various other neurological conditions. An organization that works tirelessly to advocate for patients afflicted with dystonia is the Dystonia Medical Research Foundation. My family—and many others—are very grateful for their work. They can be found online at https://dystonia-foundation.org.

So an enormous debt of gratitude goes out to Erin Service, for reading this book with a particularly sensitive eye to the daily life and internal thoughts of a woman living with dystonia. Although Carey’s condition presents differently than yours does, we hope you see a bit of your bright, optimistic, and brave spirit in her. Anyplace where we’ve messed up or been insensitive is completely on us. Thank you for always reading our books early, but especially this one.

We are very lucky to get to work with all of the spectacular people at Simon & Schuster in the Gallery Books imprint. This is the hardest-working team in book business, y’all! Thank you to Carolyn Reidy, Jen Bergstrom, Kate Dresser, Aimée Bell, Jen Long, Rachel Brenner, Molly Gregory, Abby Zidle, Anne Jaconette, Anabel Jimenez, Sally Marvin, Mackenzie Hickey, Lisa Litwack, John Vairo, the entire Gallery sales force and subrights groups—we adore you all!

Thank you to every bookseller who hands our book to a new or longtime romance fan. Thank you to all the librarians for scraping that budget to get our books stocked—we know what a balancing act it is, and that you take it on for the sheer love of books. Thank you to the reviewers, Book-stagrammers, BookTubers, and all our loves on Twitter and Facebook—we love seeing your enthusiasm!

Thanks, Mr. and Mr. Christina Lauren, for being proud of your wives for doing the thing.

Thank you to my adorable Christina for being the zing in this amazing writing partnership. A decade of writing together and we’re still having a hella good time! I heart you very, very much.

To my wonderful Lo, I’m writing this on your birthday (September 10! My little Ravenclaw Virgo), and I’ve spent a lot of time today going through photos and thinking about what a huge impact you’ve had on so many different parts of my life. I’m a better writer because of you, a better friend and mom and wife and person. I have no idea what I did in a past life to deserve you, but I hope I’m smart enough to do it again. I love you so much. Meet you at the Tower of Terror turnstile!