Emily first turns up in Stereotype as someone who discusses with Abi “the human need to label people”. (So naturally she was going to end up kissing girls.) She needed her own story, which covers not only the events of Stereotype but also extends beyond that in both directions.

This book was ridiculously fun to write at times, with figuring out how all these different people fitted into Emily’s life, and at others less so – Hugh’s manipulation of Emily, for example.

Originally I wanted to call this Happily Ever After, because of some of the fairytale references in the book, but Poolbeg had another book coming out with that title, so eventually we went with Good Girls Don’t, from a line in the book. Part of me thinks this is a slightly provocative title and implies that not being a nice-girl-with-a-steady-boyfriend is racy and naughty and all that, but another part of me thinks it’s quite apt – after all, Emily’s not “good” in many ways, but her sister, who is, is completely bigoted, and Lucy, who is now that she’s ‘reformed’, is fairly manipulative and thoughtless at times. Meanwhile Emily skips school – to go sort out other people’s problems. She’s one of the good ones, even if she does go into school with blue hair and a hangover some days.

This is also the first book I’d written since Being Her Sister in which there’s a romantic happy ending for the character as well as a kind of personal resolution. Much as I enjoy not having the hero and heroine skip away into the sunset at the end of books, it was long overdue for a leading lady to find her prince… or princess.