To Lee, my husband and best friend in the whole world. Thank you for always believing in me, more than I believe in myself, and for loving me even when I abandon you for a world of fiction. I love you more than you will ever know. To Jack and Gabriel. You are my inspiration, my motivation and my reward. No matter what, you will both always be the best thing that ever happened to me, and I am so proud to call myself your Mum. Thank you to Mum and Dad for never ever letting me think that there was a dream too big for me if I didn’t work hard enough. On your shoulders, I could always see the whole world.
Thank you to my amazing friend Marie. I have no doubt that without you, this book would never have been written. Your faith and encouragement gave me wings and without you, this crazy dream would never have become a reality.
Thank you to my amazing and wonderful family, Gerry, Faye, Laura, Sarah, Boo, Gareth, David, Daniel, Ben and Dave. I can’t believe that I didn’t tell you about my writing for so long, but it was your love and support that helped me make it to the end.
To Vin and Ria, my cryptic friends. Thank you for all of the technical and other advice, for the beta reading and most importantly for encouraging me to put myself out there and make this happen. Lee and I are so lucky to have you as friends.
Thank you SO much to Adele for your wonderful swag. Your designs are beautiful and I'm so grateful for all your hard work and friendship.
A huge debt of gratitude goes to Lauren- Marie who has helped and supported me on this journey in so many ways. I can’t tell you how grateful I am for everything.
I cannot thank Louisa Maggio from LM Cover Creations enough. Not only did you create a cover that I love, you became the first friend that I made on this journey and I can’t wait to work with you again. Many thanks to L.J. from Mayhem Cover Creations for my fabulous website and teasers. You were a total blast to work with and endlessly patient with my lack of technical knowledge. Thank you so much to my editor Jenny from Editing 4 Indies. To say that you had a mountainous task with my manuscript is a colossal understatement. To Angel Dust for my wonderful book trailer. I truly love it, thank you so much. Thank you also to Cassy Roop from Pink Ink Designs for taking time away from your own book release to help make my dream a reality.
To Rachel V across the pond. I am so very grateful for the day that you answered my message. At the start of this book you were my first beta reader. By the end of the book you were my friend. So much of this story is owed to you and how you saw O’Connell. I am so grateful to you for everything, and I hope one day that we will get to meet in person.
To the amazing Lily M who was never too busy to beta for me at the drop of a hat. I hope that you will stay with me for many more books to come. Thank you to my other beta readers, Sue R, Ariel and Sarah. Thanks also to Natascha, without whom this book wouldn’t have a single credible location and Joey, who inspired my prologue. Your thoughts, insights and often, words of encouragement, have helped me more than you know.
I was so daunted when I first considered publishing and there are many people in the literary world that I have to thank for keeping me on track. Firstly, to author L.A. Casey who was never too busy on her own journey to help me on mine. I am, and always will be, a fan for life. To author James Oliver French. Your technical know-how continues to astound me and I’m so grateful to have travelled along this road with you. Thanks to author Julia Derek who gave me my first lesson in the basics of shaping a manuscript so that my editor wouldn’t throw it at me. Finally, to Whitney from A Literary Perusal, who painstakingly gave of her own time to help me make this into a better story. I have learned so much from all of you and I can’t thank you enough.
To all of my friends in Cardiff and Bristol for all of your support, no matter how long it’s been since I saw you last, and for so many happy memories that inspired so much of my writing.
A HUGE thank you to all my friends in Pentwyn including Cerianne, Ruth, Christine, Jodie, Sian, Cynthia, Kerry, Kevin and Amanda. I can’t tell you how much all of your support has meant to me.
Thank you to Ashleigh and Andrew for listening for months about every endless detail of my adventure without complaint. And for not stapling anything to me in all that time.
A MASSIVE thank you to each and every blogger who has helped me to get The Hurricane out there. So many of you give your own time and money to help and promote authors. You are, without doubt, the unsung heroes of the literary world. I can’t thank you individually, for fear that I will forget someone, but know that I am truly grateful for every one of you that has helped me along the way.
Last, but not least. My biggest thanks go to you the reader, for taking a chance on this book by an unknown author. Just to know that you have read it, is a dream come true.