Sweet Peril (40 page)

This book was hard for me. It took many, many drafts before the story in my heart finally came clear and I fell in love with it. I could not have done it without the help of a ton of people.

For supporting and encouraging me, along with providing invaluable feedback, I thank my friends and beta reader/critique partners: Kelley Vitollo (for saving the brownies from burning), Jennifer Armentrout (from saving Kai from you know what), Evie Burdette, Sharon M. Johnston, Jolene Perry, Meredith Crowley, Courtney Fetchko, Brooke Leicht, Leigh Fallon, Morgan Shamy, Jolene Perry, Nicola Dorrington, Liz (midnightbloom), Ezmirelda, Carolee Noury, Gwen Cole, Corri Ell, Bobbi Doyle, Carrie McRae, Ann Kulakowski, Janelle Harris, Joanne Hazlett, Hilary Mahalchick, Holly
Andrzejewski, Kristy Finucan, Christine Friend, Danielle Daniels, Valerie Friend, Meghan Lublin, and Carol Moore.

For English dialect help I thank the lovely Chanelle Gray.

For their endless squees and hard-core love, I thank my fans, especially those in the blogging community—my Kaidan groupies. You all are like jet fuel for authors. You power us. I especially want to thank Danny, Jenny, Tara, Mindy, Rachel, and Jaime for going above and beyond.

For putting me at ease; believing in me; and giving me a simple, brilliant revision idea, I thank my amazing agent, Jill Corcoran.

For all their exhaustive work on my Sweet books I thank my A-team at Harper: Alyson Day (my editor), Alana Whitman, and Alison Lisnow.

For having my back from afar I thank my family members, Jim, Ilka, Lucy, Frank and Heather Hornback, and Jeff and Dan Parry.

For being my most enthusiastic fangirl I thank my mom, Nancy Parry.

For many babysitting hours and a constant supply of hugs I thank my in-laws, Bill and Jane Higgins.

For countless belly laughs I thank my children, Autumn and Cayden.

For loving me through it all, I thank my husband, Nathan.

And for it all—for allowing me to live far beyond my dreams, in that magical land where imagination meets reality, I thank God.

Wendy Higgins
is the author of
Sweet Evil
, the first in the trilogy. She was born in Alaska, grew up an Army brat, and lived on five different military bases across the US, finally settling in the Washington, DC, area. She attended George Mason University for her undergraduate degree in Creative Writing, and Radford University for a Masters in Curriculum and Instruction. A former high school English teacher, Wendy was active in VATE (Virginia Association of Teachers of English). She lives in northern Virginia with her husband and two children. You can visit her online at www.wendyhigginswrites.com.

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Cover photo © 2013 by Howard Huang

Cover design by Tom Forget

HarperTeen is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

SWEET PERIL

Copyright © 2013 by Wendy Higgins

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ISBN 978-0-06-226594-4

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FIRST EDITION

EPub Edition © APRIL 2013 ISBN: 9780062265951

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