I exchanged a look with Rory, and I knew he knew what it meant. It had taken me two months to say the three words that had terrified me for my whole life, but once I started saying them, I couldn’t stop.
‘Oh, trust me,’ Rory said, glancing between us, smiling, ‘we are.’
Acknowledgements
Writing Penny and Rory’s story was so much fun, but it would never have happened without the love and support of those around me.
My biggest thank you, as always, goes to Meg. My Editor extraordinaire, with the kindest heart and endless patience. Thank you for seeing what I see in those tiny seeds of an idea, for loving my characters as much as I do, and for being the brain behind that tricky structural edit process. I am so thankful to work with you and to be part of our romcom dream team. Thank you to the entire team at HarperNorth; to Taslima and Alice for their brilliant marketing, to Lisa Brewster for my gorgeous cover, and to everyone who helped get The Dating Equation to publication (and beyond!).
I started writing this book in the same month that I moved to London and embarked on a career in publishing, and it has been the greatest adventure of my life. Thank you to my team for supporting me as I balance both jobs, to Sian for being my biggest cheerleader and the best friend, and to Christina for going above and beyond to get my romcoms to readers.
In 2020 I wrote a book called Heartbreak Houseshare, about a girl who moves into a girls’ house to heal her broken heart. And then it happened to me. Thank you to Courtney, Cat and Sarah for showing me just how magic a girls’ house can be. There’s no one I’d rather share a camembert or sit on the stairs debriefing my day with.
Thank you to Beth and Ross, for making me snort laugh like no one else can, and to Rosie and Adam for trips to the beach and a shared love of tacos and frozen margaritas. To Ciara, who understands me to my core and who I’m so grateful to have met. I hope we’ll be chatting over cups of tea (and B&B rocky road) forever. These kinds of friendships last a lifetime, and I count my lucky stars for you all.
Thank you to my Mum for nurturing my love for reading - every inch of my life surrounds me with books, and I have no doubt that’s because of you. To Dad, for being the best soundboard for advice and for pushing me to achieve my dreams, and to Rachel and Taylor, who are a beautiful example of love and a great source of inspiration. To my Nana, for reading every book and teaching me to find the small joys in everything, and to my Mama and Grandad, who guide me from above.
And finally, it takes a very special person to support a writer (who by definition, overthinks everything) and I am so lucky to have you, Adam, by my side. Your advice and steady presence ground me and cheer me on, and I’m so thankful our paths crossed.
would like to thank the following staff and contributors for their involvement in making this book a reality:
Fionnuala Barrett
Samuel Birkett
Peter Borcsok
Lisa Brewster
Ciara Briggs
Katie Buckley
Sarah Burke
Alan Cracknell
Jonathan de Peyer
Anna Derkacz
Tom Dunstan
Kate Elton
Sarah Emsley
Simon Gerratt
Monica Green
Natassa Hadjinicolaou
Megan Jones
Jean-Marie Kelly
Taslima Khatun
Rachel McCarron
Ben McConnell
Petra Moll
Alice Murphy-Pyle
Adam Murray
Genevieve Pegg
Amanda Percival
Florence Shepherd
Eleanor Slater
