acknowledgments
When we finished The Soulmate Equation in 2020, we assumed we’d written everything we intended to in that world. Jess, River, and Juno found their happily ever after, and that was that. You, dear readers, had other plans. Soulmate was released in May of 2021, we (virtually) headed out on tour, and at literally every event we got the same question:
Is Fizzy getting her own book?
We were a little thrown. We create secondary characters for lots of reasons—to puncture moments of tension with comedy, to challenge the heroine on her journey, or to provide a satisfying B-story arc—but rarely are they there to become stars in their own right. We never had a good answer to this, but the more people asked, the more we realized we really needed one; saying “Never say never” didn’t fly with many of you. And then, one day, the right idea appeared. It probably didn’t happen like a light bulb going on, but in hindsight it feels a little like that, like the beginning of Fizzy’s story just popped up in a conversation between the two of us: she had lost her joy, and finds it again in the most unlikely place—with a man who evades all of her attempts to slap a convenient label on him, who sees her many layers and depths, and who finds his own joy in her infectious exuberance.
To be clear, if we had planned on writing a romance author as a main character from the get-go, we would have probably created Fizzy a bit differently in The Soulmate Equation. Romance authors are, to put it bluntly, given a lot of shit for what we do. We get asked in interviews whether we are writing our fantasies; we get asked what our fathers and husbands think of our careers; we get asked if we’ve done everything we describe in our books. So, for obvious reasons, we struggled at first to know how much to lean in to Fizzy’s sex-positivity and exuberant dating life. We didn’t want to play into those outside stereotypes. But it turns out that it was as easy as typing the word Prologue. Fizzy flowed out of us like we were exhaling. It meant that the real trouble blindsided us: What hero could possibly deserve her?
It took a while to find Connor in the pages. He’s a quieter hero, a sturdy, bedrock presence. We wrote him in layers, carefully carving him into the story with each passing revision until he was as fully formed and dimensional as was our bold and bright Fizzy. And tonight, as we read it through one last time before it goes to press, we think it is the best thing we’ve ever done. The True Love Experiment is the thirtieth book we’ve written together and is our love letter to romance and fandom and fangirls everywhere.
And as always, although we write the words, it takes an enormous team of wonderful people working tirelessly behind the scenes to get it into your hands.
Holly Root, our Diamond Match, we must always put you first. You found us in the slush pile almost exactly eleven years ago; twenty-nine published books later and we still stare at you with heart-eyes. You are wise and kind, funny and intuitive, ruthless and brilliant—perfect for us in all ways. Kristin Dwyer is our PR Rep, our Precious, our safe space. Thank you for getting our books into the world, for wearing dorky hats with us at Disneyland, and always being up for book tour hotel breakfast. Dracarys.
Jen Prokop is one of the most brilliant freelance editors we have ever worked with; she finds the weak spots in our manuscript like it’s her superpower. Thank you for your careful reads, your wonderful insights, and always having the perfect book recommendation at your fingertips.
We’ve said it before, we’ll say it again: Gallery / Simon & Schuster has been the best home to us for every single one of our books. Jen Bergstrom is the rare kind of publisher who manages to balance mentor, champion, coach, friend, and businesswoman without ever losing an ounce of professionalism. We are truly in awe of the team you’ve built. Hannah Braaten, working on Fizzy with you has been the most fun; thank you for perfectly representing us in every room and helping us make this one exactly what we hoped it would be. Enormous thanks to the rest of the brilliant editorial team, Abby Zidle, Aimée Bell, Andrew Nguyên, Sarah Schlick, Mia Robertson, Frances Yackel; sales powerhouses Jen Long, Eliza Hanson, and all of the reps we promised our firstborns to—hope they’re behaving themselves, LOL; our amazing publicity team, Lauren Carr and Sally Marvin; marketing geniuses Mackenzie Hickey and Anabel Jimenez; the ever-patient and brilliantly creative art directors Lisa Litwack and John of the Mustache Vairo (you can never shave it; think of all the acknowledgments we’d have to edit). Our brilliant copyeditors find our mistakes and make sure the world never learns that we can’t correctly place a comma or ever use a calendar. Production editor Christine Masters is called “the amazing Christine” in pretty much every email and deserves it. The Simon Audio team is full of stars: Sarah Lieberman, Chris Lynch, Louisa Solomon, Tom Spain, Desiree Vecchio, Gaby Audet, Taryn Beato, and Sophie Parens. Thank you to every person who touches our books, whether with a computer or doing the physical work of putting them together and getting them where they need to go.
Heather Baror-Shapiro, thank you for getting our words into the hands of readers across the globe. Mary Pender-Coplan, you are pure magic. Your calls are our favorite. Matt Sugarman, thank you for always representing our interests with the deepest commitment; you are a badass. Molly Mitchell, thank you until the end of time for managing the calendar and keeping us organized. You are GOLDEN.
To the friends, colleagues, and author idols who inspire us, share our fangirl screams, or who keep us from being messy all over the Internet, we love you: Erin Service, Katie Lee, Kate Clayborn, Sarah MacLean, Ali Hazelwood, Susan Lee, Jennifer Carlson, Jessica McLin, Brie Statham, Amy Schuver, Mae Lopez, Laura Wichems, Kian Maleki, Bianca Jimenez, Jori Mendivil, Cathryn Carlson, Ysabel Nakasone, Adriana Herrera, Katherine Center, Jen Frederick, Diane Park, Kresley Cole, Erin McCarthy, Sally Thorne, Sonali Dev, Alisha Rai, Christopher Rice, Sarah J. Maas, Sarah Wendell, Tahereh Mafi, Ransom Riggs, Stephanie Perkins, Helen Hoang, Tessa Bailey, Rachel Hawkins, Rosie Danan, Rachel Lynn Solomon, Rebekah Weatherspoon, Leslie Phillips, Alexa Martin, Jillian Stein, Liz Berry, Brittainy C. Cherry, Andie J. Christopher, Candice Montgomery, and Catherine Lu.
To Lo’s Blue Flowers: I adore you all so much.
Thank you to our UK pre-readers for helping us with Connor’s voice and vocab: Lindsey Kelk, Katy Wendt, Lia Louis, and Paige Thompson. Hopefully he sounds like a good Northern lad, but if he doesn’t, blame us.
After publishing The Soulmate Equation, we were thrilled to hear from so many of you who deeply hoped Fizzy would get her own book, and at the same time, we are very conscious that a story of cultural identity or self-discovery for a character of color isn’t ours to tell. It is hugely important to us that our books look like the world around us, and we hope we have balanced these two priorities: telling a love story for Fizzy that feels authentic, but which doesn’t feel to our readers like a co-opted story of Chinese American identity. If you are part of this community, thank you for picking up our book and giving it a try. Our deepest debt of gratitude goes to our Chinese American pre-readers: Jennifer Yuen, Patty Lai, Eileen Ho, Kayla Lee, and Sandria Wong. These women answered every question we had and read through multiple versions of this book. They shared their time, their memories, and most importantly, themselves. Jen, Patty, Eileen, Kayla, and Sandria: We are forever thankful. We hope we made you proud. Anything that we got wrong is entirely on us.
By now, our families know almost as much about publishing as we do. They have seen us through the drafting, editing, and publishing of over two dozen books, hundreds of events, and countless flails and celebrations. We couldn’t do any of this without them. Thank you, K and R, for celebrating our victories with gusto, commiserating through the struggles, and being proud, feminist husbands to your exuberant, fangirl wives. And thank you, C, O, and V, for being truly the most amazing kids, but thank you most of all for knowing how to make your own dinners when required. We love you more than words.
In case you couldn’t tell, Fizzy is obsessed with her readers, and so are we. Our characters rarely speak for us, but when Fizzy talks about seeing her books impact people, watching their TikToks and Reels, and seeing all their beautiful photos? That’s straight from us. We are nothing without all of you, and whether you found us at book one or book twenty-nine, whether you’re a reader, a blogger, a BookTokker, a Bookstagrammer, or a podcaster, or you just love shouting into our DMs about our stories, we are so grateful.
If you are a bookseller or a librarian, we love the hell out of you. May your skin always look great, and may you always fly through the Ticketmaster queue. Thank you for all your work and for helping our books find new readers.
If you follow us, have met us, or attended one of our events, you know that we treat fangirling like a professional sport. It runs in our (purple) blood, and when we love something, we love it with every fiber of our being. Fizzy and Stevie’s favorite band isn’t officially BTS, but the euphoric joy they bring people was absolutely inspired by them. We’ve thanked BTS in four books now, but the happiness and inspiration they give us could fill every one of these pages. Kim Namjoon, Kim Seokjin, Min Yoongi, Jung Hoseok, Park Jimin, Kim Taehyung, and Jeon Jungkook, you inspire us to love better, to be kinder, to collaborate with passion, and to grow as individuals. Thank you for your hard work, for your dedication to each other, and for sharing your boundless talent with the world. BTS and ARMY may be apart for a little while, but we will always be here, ARMY bombs ready for whatever comes next.
Christina, sunshine in human form. You are the glaze to my doughnut, the dimple to my smile, the Namjoon to my Jungkook, the exclamation point at the end of every one of my fangirl screams. I love this life we have made together, and sometimes still can’t believe it. Thirty books and we just wrote one that fills our hearts to the brim. What a ride.
To my Lolo, I have been the proudest bestie this year. You put out your own book (Scandalized by Ivy Owens, available wherever books are sold) and were the best coauthor/mom/wife/daughter/BFF anyone could wish for. To say I love you isn’t enough, but I think you know. I hope we write thirty more books together, go to five hundred more concerts, and find zero headless squirrels. IYKYK. You are forever my left quote.