Chicago, IL. January 1992.
When Jenny Adler shows up to her first day at a new job, she hopes it can be as simple as it is on paper - a few short months of doing paperwork and answering phone calls before she moves on to the next thing. It was never...
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To everyone who has made it this far, thank you so much for reading The Dream Before the Dark!
While this story isn't perfect by any means, this is the proudest I've felt when finishing a book. I planned more in advance for this story than I have for any of my others so far, so I'm really pleased that I was able to stick to the structure I was aiming for from the very beginning.
I think it's fascinating how story ideas can come to us in so many different ways. I first conceptualized Robert and Jen as the parents of the main love interest in the first book I wrote on here, The Search for Lily Myers, and it wasn't until a while later that I realized that it would be interesting to go back and time and tell the story of how their relationship started. I otherwise probably never would have thought to write a book that takes place in the '90s, but it was a fun challenge to try to forget everything I knew about their future and think about what would be going through their minds at the time when they first met. I hope to go back and re-write my other two books at some point now that I know infinitely more about Rob and Jen than I did when they were just background characters to me.
At the end of the day, this is obviously a romance book, but I hope it also came through in the writing that this is a story about reconciliation. I loved ending it in a place where Jen is learning how to forgive and move forward even though she knows that the past can't be undone. Those of you who have already read my other books will know that her ability to heal from difficult situations definitely informs what her character is like when we find her in the present day.
I know I've already rambled way too much, so I'll go ahead and skip to the part where I thank everyone who has helped me along the way.
To Emily, Steph, Ohlee, Phoebe, Thy, Kayla, Cate, and all the other people who I'm forgetting – you guys are amazing and I wouldn't be able to finish any of my books without your constant support. *mwah*
And to all my readers, thank you so much for giving this book a chance.
If you liked it, I hope you'll consider giving my other books a read, too. I'll be posting the preview for my next book very soon—it's my first attempt at enemies to lovers and I'm already super thrilled to dive into it.
