Warrior of the Wild(87)

Thank you so much, Nekro, for the breath taking ax illustration! It is better than anything I ever could have imagined. Liz Dresner, thank you for your astonishing design work! I hope you do all my future books, as well!

Starr Baer and Jackie Hornberger, thank you for your copyedits! There’s nothing more annoying than getting pulled out of a book because you found a typo. I appreciate the work you do so much!

Dillon James West, thanks for giving the manuscript a read and providing feedback when Holly and I needed fresh eyes! It was so appreciated!

And thank you to everyone else over at Macmillan Children’s and BookEnds who worked behind the scenes to make this book possible!

I had so many readers provide feedback on this book. I apologize if I forgot anyone!

Taralyn Johnson, thank you for reading this book so quickly and for going through so many early versions. Your feedback was invaluable, and it gave me the strength to let other people see this book, too.

Shanna, thanks for reading an early version and being so open with your feedback! Guess what? You were right!

Russ, thanks for letting me pepper you with questions about speargun fishing. I was so sad to have to cut the spearguns, but I still used so many of your insights in my underwater scene.

Thank you so much, Cale Dietrich, for giving this story a read! Publishing twins for life!!!

Charlie N. Holmberg, thank you for reading through my sample chapters and giving feedback. You’re awesome. So glad we’re friends and CPs.

Thanks, Emily R. King, for reading my initial pitch of this book. You are an amazing person and an inspiration to me. Thank you also to Kyra Nelson and Chersti Nieveen and Bridget Howard, for giving this a read!

Thank you so much, Sarah Talley and Megan Gadd, for reading this manuscript in its rough form. Your friendship means more to me than I can ever express.

Thank you also to all the Bookstagrammers, BookTubers, bloggers, reviewers, Twitter peeps, and internet friends for boosting and supporting my books. There are simply too many of you now for me to name you all, but thank you. I know who you are, and I appreciate all you do.

To my readers, new and old, thank you for supporting me. I wouldn’t get to do what I love so much without you. I hope you enjoyed Rasmira’s story as much as I enjoyed writing it.

I need to give a quick shout-out to Haley Gibson, who puts up with having a gamer and a writer as a roommate. You are awesome!

And lastly, to my family: Becki, Johnny, and Alisa, thanks for playing Overwatch with me in the evenings. I always look forward to it, and you guys give me the breaks I need from writing.

Mom and Dad, thanks for your constant support and love. Parents make such good villains in teen books, but I promise the fictional mothers and fathers are not a reflection of you.