author's note

                                    

                                          
What a year it's been! I started planning The Search for Lily Myers in April of last year and began writing in May. It feels crazy to be wrapping up this book almost exactly a year after I came back to writing.
                          
I have a lot I want to say, but I wanted to start by thanking you guys for all of the love you've given me and these two books. You've helped me to stay motivated during a really difficult year and I appreciate it so much. When everything else in life was going badly, I could at least turn to this little community online to feel supported and have an outlet to be creative. My school schedule forced me to write this book a lot slower than the last one and there were many moments where I thought about giving up, but your support pushed me to keep going. 
                          
I want to give a huge thank you to my friends Phoebs, Steph, Ohlee, Kayla, and Ren, who are constantly cheering me on and making me laugh. I love sharing our writing struggles and triumphs with each other and reading your comments on my stories. I've learned a lot from you as authors and can't wait to keep reading the brilliant stuff you come up with. 
                          
A massive shoutout to my beta reader for staying so invested in these stories for a whole year. I probably annoyed you at some point with my inconsistent writing pace, but it means the world to me that you're just as excited to talk about my writing as I am. 
                          
It's so bittersweet to finally say goodbye to these characters after being with them for two books, but I'm really happy with how their journeys unfolded. To me, The Search for Lily Myers and The Way We Learned to Love feel like two halves of a whole. Lily Myers was more fast-paced and plot-driven whereas in this one, the fact that you already knew a lot about the characters gave me a lot of space and freedom to dig deeper into their psychology and show sides of them that you didn't get to see in the previous book. I think that they complement each other really well and I'm proud of them both for different reasons! 
                          
These characters have been at the forefront of my mind every day over the past year, so saying goodbye to them really feels like saying goodbye to a friend. I'm overly sentimental, so I wrote a little note about what I love the most about each of them and how they've impacted me. Feel free to skip if I'm too much of a clown for you to handle, but here we go—
                          
Lily, you sweet sunshine girl. You reminded me to take joy in the little things like beautiful weather and a nice cup of coffee. That it's okay to be playful and silly. That there's power in forgiveness. That you're never too broken to love and be loved. That struggling with things for a long time doesn't make you a failure. I put you through a lot of pain, but I like that you never quite figure everything out. So many protagonists get their perfect ending so neatly wrapped up in a bow, but you still have so much learning and loving to do. Life isn't always a straight line from Point A and Point B, but the journey can still be a beautiful thing. 
                          
Liam, I had no idea when I started writing The Search for Lily Myers that you were going to become so near to my heart, but your story jumped out from between the lines and begged to be told. I'm so glad I followed that instinct and did. This book wouldn't have happened without you. You taught me that asking for help is one of the strongest things a person can do. To be patient with the ones we love. That there is always a way out of the dark and it is always worth fighting for.  
                          
Amelia, you might have only gotten a few lines in this book, but your story paved the way for all the others. I poured so much of my own heart and my own feelings and experiences into you. You reminded me to talk less and listen more, to open myself up to love even though there's a chance of me getting hurt. Your story is flawed (shoutout to that 3-year writing hiatus I took before Lily Myers) just like I am and just like you are, but I am so grateful that I got to tell it. 
                          
Henry, it all started with you. You were the character that drew me in and handed me the keys to building this universe. I have spent an embarrassing amount of time thinking about you over the past year. Spending these two books with you and watching your story reveal itself to me has been the most rewarding writing experience I've ever had. You told me to be kind. To not easily anger. That life is cruel, but that doesn't mean we have to be. And that it is always better to love than to not. Always. 
                          
The good news is that although it's time to let these four characters go, I'm not saying goodbye to the Lilyverse (yes that's what we call it now don't question it) entirely. Most of you already know this by now since the preview is already up, but my next book, The Dream Before the Dark, is going to jump back to the 90s and tell the story of how Henry's parents met and fell in love. I never anticipated that I'd end up turning their story into a book, but I inevitably thought about them a lot when I was developing Henry's character further for this book and realized that there was a story worth telling there. 
                          
I'm not completely sure when the first chapter of that book will go up because I'm about to be taking final exams and graduating college, but I thought I would leave you with a tiny teaser! I hope you enjoy it ♡
                          
...
                          
THERE WERE MANY PLACES in which Jenny Adler could envision meeting the man of her dreams. At a dinner party with mutual friends. Or she'd find him at the art museum, wandering through the galleries and thoughtfully admiring the paintings. At her friend Celie's coffee shop—maybe he sat next to her by chance and they struck up a conversation. Perhaps someday off in the future, if she could ever get a God-forsaken master's degree, she'd travel the world presenting her groundbreaking research and just so happen to stumble into a handsome man in the Italian Riviera. Or maybe she'd just meet him on the L. She wasn't picky. 
                          
Yes, there were many places in which Jenny Adler could envision meeting the man of her dreams.
                          
But St. Catherine's Catholic School was not one of those places.
                          
...
                          
Thanks again for all of your support and I'll see you soon with the new book!
                          
All my love x