I shake my head in amusement and delete the email. As usual, Grandma is right.
There really is no pleasing people.
“Did you see Ben before he left yesterday?” she asks.
I nod.
I have a text from Ben on my phone, sitting there unanswered since last night. I still can’t decide if he’s the best or worst idea I ever had.
Can I take you out when you get back to LA? I promise to ask fewer intrusive questions this time.
“Are you two going to see each other when you get back to Los Angeles?”
Savvy appears behind Grandma, casually leaning against the door. The dress from the wedding gone, replaced by jeans and the white tank top I used to see her in so often. A red bra strap peeks out at the shoulder. She grins at me.
“Fuck yeah you are,” she says. I can’t help but laugh, grin back at her, even as Grandma gives me a puzzled look.
I pull out my phone and type a reply to Ben.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Listen for the Lie was a leap of faith for me. It took two years of writing and rewriting and pinning color-coded index cards to giant boards to shape Lucy’s story into a book. I am eternally grateful to everyone who took this leap with me and helped bring the book into the world.
A huge thank you to my agent, Faye Bender, the first champion of this book, who believed in it with such passion and enthusiasm.
Thank you to James Melia for all your insights and positivity and for making me rewrite those last few chapters so many times. And thank you to Amy Einhorn for taking over and bringing the book over the finish line （and for making me rewrite the ending one more time—now it’s truly perfect）。 Thanks also to Lori Kusatzky for all your work making sure every stage of the process went smoothly. A big thank-you to Ryan Doherty for stepping in to take care of this book as it made its way into the world.
Thank you to everyone at Macmillan who put in their time and effort to make the book shine—I don’t always get to meet all of you, but I deeply appreciate your behind-the-scenes work.
Thank you to Shannon Messenger, who read a few chapters in the very early stages and told me that it did indeed make sense and told me to keep going. A shout-out to Kaitlyn Sage Patterson, who, when I shyly confessed I was thinking of writing an adult thriller, immediately said that the genre was a great choice for me. I thought of that often when writing this.
I am so grateful to the authors who took the time to read and blurb Listen for the Lie—Stephen King, Courtney Summers, Liane Moriarty, Alex Michaelides, Alice Feeney, and Chandler Baker. You are all amazing and I’m honored to have your words on my book.
Thank you to my mom and my sister, the only people I let read a completed draft before querying agents. I appreciate you reading and giving me hope that it was safe to send out into the world.
Thank you to all the authors who answered my questions and were so generous with their time when I was panicking about finding an agent who would like this book. Thanks especially to Maurene Goo for helping me find such a great fit.
And thank you to Laura （again）， Emma, and Daniel, with my apologies. This is what happens when you let a writer live with you for six months.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Amy Tintera is the New York Times bestselling author of several series for young adults. She earned degrees in journalism and film and worked in Hollywood before becoming an author. Raised in Austin, Texas, she frequently sets her novels in the Lone Star State, but she now lives in Los Angeles, where there’s far less humidity but not nearly enough Tex-Mex. Listen for the Lie is her adult debut. You can sign up for ebook updates here.
Founded in 2017, Celadon Books, a division of
Macmillan Publishers, publishes a highly curated list
of twenty to twenty-five new titles a year. The list of
both fiction and nonfiction is eclectic and focuses
on publishing commercial and literary books and
discovering and nurturing talent.