MILO: No.
BROCK: Definitely no.
DIEGO: Not a hundred percent functional, no.
HEATH: Exactly.
MILO: So is that what you’ve learned? That no one is in a functional relationship, and we’re all just screwed up and screwing everyone else up?
HEATH: It’s bigger than that. You know how they say love makes the world go round? That’s not quite right. Love runs the world.
MILO: It doesn’t care who you are, either. When love comes for you, you’re done.
BROCK: Like the grim reaper?
DIEGO: More like a psychopath.
HEATH: Doesn’t matter what you call it, the result is the same: Love always wins.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
So many people to thank for making this book happen, starting with my agent, Barbara Poelle, and my editor, Jen Monroe. They let me throw out the terrible book I wrote during the early days of the pandemic and I wrote this one instead （which hopefully is not terrible）。
Many thanks to the whole team at Berkley, including Lauren Burnstein, Dache’ Rogers, Jessica Mangicaro, Jin Yu, Jeanne-Marie Hudson, Craig Burke, Candice Coote, Tawanna Sullivan, Emily Osborne, and so many more. I appreciate everything that you do.
A special thanks to my incredible copyeditor, Elizabeth Johnson, who keeps me on point.
Much gratitude to my UK publishing team at Michael Joseph, including Joel Richardson, Grace Long, and the whole team across the pond for doing such a wonderful job.
To Sean Berard, my film and TV manager out in Hollywood, thank you for all you’ve done.
I am eternally grateful to so many booksellers and indie bookstores. Thank you for all of your amazing support, with a special mention to Pamela Klinger-Horn, Mary O’Malley, Elizabeth Ahlquist of Blue Cypress Books; Barbara Peters of The Poisoned Pen Bookstore, Maxwell Gregory, and McKenna Jordan of Murder By The Book, along with The Novel Neighbor, An Unlikely Story, Mystery Lovers Bookshop, Magic City Books, and so many more.
Two very special people have to be mentioned here. They had the winning bids at two separate auctions benefiting nonprofit organizations, and they won the chance to name a character in this book. I won’t name them here to protect their privacy. The names they gave me appear in A Twisted Love Story, though the characters do not represent anyone real and are completely fictional. Thank you both for bidding in these auctions!
Many, many people contribute to promoting a book, including the bloggers, Bookstagrammers, TikTokkers, and all the readers who recommend books to others. You are simply the best. A lot of authors, including myself, need you. Never forget it; I certainly don’t!
I have had the pleasure of attending many book club meetings over the past few years. The list is long and I can’t name them all here, but I am grateful you chose one of my books to read and it was a pleasure to meet you all!
Many authors are so gracious with their time and read an early copy of this book, including Christina Lauren, Sylvia Day, Jeneva Rose, Jaime Lynn Hendricks, Hannah Mary McKinnon, and Hank Phillippi Ryan. Hope to meet all of you in person one day! And a huge thanks to all the authors who help make the thriller community so supportive.
To my friends, family, and critique partners . . . thank you for putting up with me when I’m in the middle of writing a book. And when I’m not.
Last but never least, thank you to everyone who has read any of my books. I appreciate it more than you could ever know.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Samantha Downing is currently working on her next standalone thriller. A Twisted Love Story is her fourth novel.