Meet the Characters

• Birth Date
  April 12, 1986 (age 27/28) in Pernoo, Finland
• Heritage 
  Pardo Brazilian (on mom’s side), South African: Zulu and Dutch (on dad’s side);
  raised with influences of Finnish, Colombian and German culture.
• Occupation
  Anthropology professor at the California Institute of Natural and Social Sciences and researcher at the UCLA Center on the Everyday Lives of Families (CELF).
• Special characteristics
  She mostly wears two outfits: a white pencil dress and an oversized UCLA sweatshirt—both have sentimental value to her.
  She always wears an angel-wing-shaped golden locket, which she toys with when she experiences emotional distress.
  She says things unfiltered, every emotion is easily readable on her face, and she lacks social skills.
  She’s covered in scars from her unusual childhood.
  Her large, secluded house is home to a random collection of rescued animals.
• Hobbies
  Reading, singing, making her own clothes, gardening, spending time with her giant family.
• Lookalikes
  Models Arlenis Sosa, Laís Ribeiro, and Jasmine Tookes.
• Behind the name
  I did make the name up because I wanted a unique name for this very special character who is inspired by two amazing women I got to meet in real life, Lu (full name Luisa—Colombian) and Lumi (full name Luminita—Romanian). The first part of the name “Lumi” is based off the Romanian word “lumină” which comes from Latin “lūmināre”—to light, illuminate, enlighten. “Lumi” also means “snow” in Finnish (she was born in Finland).
  The ending of the name “ana” is based on my best friend’s name Anna, which is spelled “Ana” in Spanish, anglicized form of the Hebrew word “chaanach”, meaning gracious, full of grace, mercy.
  I wrote Lumiana as a personification of enlightenment and a deep connection to nature.

• Birth Date
  April 12, 1986 (age 27/28) in Pernoo, Finland
• Heritage 
  Pardo Brazilian (on mom’s side), South African: Zulu and Dutch (on dad’s side);
  raised with influences of Finnish, Colombian and German culture.
• Occupation
  Anthropology professor at the California Institute of Natural and Social Sciences and researcher at the UCLA Center on the Everyday Lives of Families (CELF).
• Special characteristics
  She mostly wears two outfits: a white pencil dress and an oversized UCLA sweatshirt—both have sentimental value to her.
  She always wears an angel-wing-shaped golden locket, which she toys with when she experiences emotional distress.
  She says things unfiltered, every emotion is easily readable on her face, and she lacks social skills.
  She’s covered in scars from her unusual childhood.
  Her large, secluded house is home to a random collection of rescued animals.
• Hobbies
  Reading, singing, making her own clothes, gardening, spending time with her giant family.
• Lookalikes
  Models Noah Mills and Tobias Sorensen, mixed in with a little John Mayer, who inspired the story.
• Behind the name
  Johnny’s name was inspired by the movie Because I Said So, starring Gabriel Macht (known for the TV show Suits), who plays a musician named Johnny. One of my favorite actresses Lauren Graham (known for one of my favorite TV shows Gilmore Girls) also stars in that movie.

• Johnny’s on-and-off girlfriend for the past year.
• She’s a beloved supermodel and fan of the Art Deco era.
• Her name and personality is inspired by Andie Anderson (the lead character in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days) and women’s rights activist Victoria Woodhull, who was nominated as the first female candidate for the United States presidency in 1872.
• Lookalike: Dutch model Doutzen Kroes

• Johnny’s best friend since they were 13, virtuoso drummer, and coffee addict.
• He was a foster child of the Arendt-Garcías until his Japanese grandmother Mineko Tsukino got custody of him.
• He’s best friends with Lumiana’s brother Shawn.
• I named him after American actor Adam Brody (because of his similar personality) and fictional character Usagi Tsukino a.k.a. Sailor Moon, a manga series I was quite obsessed with in middle school.
• Lookalike: Japanese-Brazilian fitness model Hideo Muraoka

• CJ is Andie’s lifelong best friend and an actress obsessed with old detective shows, especially MacGyver.
• Her name is inspired by White House Press Secretary C. J. Cregg on one of my all-time favorite TV shows The West Wing. McAllister is a street in San Francisco that I saw from my living room window when I wrote this novel in late 2012.
• Lookalike: Isla Fisher

Johnny is the lead singer and guitarist.

Adam Tsukino is the drummer.

Earl Jones is the flirty keyboarder.

Toni Giacomo is the bassist and oldest band member.

Jason Graham
Johnny’s older brother. He’s a partner in one of LA’s top law firms and handles Johnny’s legal affairs.

Jack Graham
Johnny’s younger brother, named after one of my favorite musicians, Jack Johnson. He’s married to his childhood sweetheart Linda and they have two-year-old twin boys.

Jerold “Jerry” Graham
Johnny’s father.
He and Johnny’s mother are divorced.
His parents (Johnny’s grandparents) are Margaret Graham, the clan’s matriarch overlooking the Graham fortune and Jonathan Graham, who suspiciously disappeared two decades ago. All of the Grahams are either lawyers or businessmen except for Johnny.
Jerry is a lawyer and part-time Economics professor who met his ex-wife at Harvard Law.
He’s suspicious of technology and named after one of my all-time favorite people, activist Jerry Mander.

Eleanor Brent-Graham
Johnny’s mother, a badass attorney, and Jerry’s ex-wife.
She always wanted to have a daughter and when she was pregnant with one and the baby died, her marriage didn’t survive.
She received the palatial house in her divorce and is sleeping with her accountant Jeremy Gardner, who, as Johnny pointed out, resembles Jerry Graham a little too closely.
She is named after former First Lady of the United States Eleanor Roosevelt, romance author Nora Roberts, and early women’s rights activist Margaret Brent.

Parents (deceased):
Malia Alves and Delani Harding
Guardian (deceased): Esperanza
Adoptive parents:
Emma Arendt and Fernando García
Adoptive siblings: there are 19, mentioned are Candela, Shawn, Dr. Garon Arcus “Gus” Young, Milo Sy
Adoptive aunt: Marisa Arendt

Others: Jordan “Jayjay” Jackson, Anna (read the book to learn more about them)

Shawn

Lumiana’s adoptive brother and best friend. He has anger issues and works in Special Ops.
Aside from his temper, he’s inspired by Shawn Spencer, the ‘psychic’ detective on one of my favorite TV shows Psych.

Jordan “Jayjay” Jackson
Jayjay is Lumiana’s first love and Anna’s biological dad.

He was UCLA’s former star basketball player for the Bruins until he blew his knee out in a motorcycle accident.

He died in a car crash in spring of 2009.

He was an orphan of Japanese and Xhosa (South African) descent. 

He was 20 when he met a nearly 16-year-old Lumiana at UCLA, giving her directions. 

Anna Jackson Harding
Lumiana’s feisty 7-year-old adopted daughter.

Her biological parents, Jordan Jackson and Fumi Nakama are deceased.

She’s of Japanese and Xhosa (South African) descent and unusually small for her age because of an underproduction of growth hormone in her pituitary gland.

Candela Gambaro
Lumiana’s sister and the one who brought her home with her when Lumiana was 16.

Garon Arcus “Gus” Young
Gus is one of Lumiana’s adoptive siblings. He’s Jamaican, has a medical degree from Stanford and is one of America’s top surgeons. He works at Community General but also owns his own practice. He is inspired by one of my favorite actors, Dulé Hill, who played Charlie Young on The West Wing and Burton “Gus” Guster on Psych. There are quite a few Psych references in the book because of that. I basically learned English and American pop culture from that show.

Milo Sy
The oldest of the Arendt-García foster children, and a successful Jazz musician. His name is inspired by American actor Milo Ventimiglia (Gilmore Girls) and French actor Omar Sy (The Intouchables).

In order of appearance:

Ben Richstone
Johnny’s uptight manager.

Juliana “Jules” Porter
Johnny’s spunky publicist.

Dr. Wheeler
Dean at the California Institute of Natural and Social Sciences. She’s Lumiana’s boss, Jamaican, and inspired by Dr. Camille Saroyan on the TV show bones.

Mineko Tsukino
Adam’s grandmother and Johnny’s surrogate grandmother. She owns the tattoo/record shop Johnny B. Goode and is the artist behind Johnny’s tattoos. 

Esperanza
The woman who found Lumiana in the woods and raised her in isolation for a decade. Esperanza means Hope in Spanish, which is what the character represents. She was inspired by an old housekeeper I met in Villa de Leyva, Colombia.

Mike & Peyton
Mike is in charge of the Jonata reservation’s security and maintenance. He, his wife, and his daughter Peyton live in one of the 6 houses on the remote Jonata reservation. They’re originally from Nigeria. Peyton is Anna’s best friend and a big fan of Johnny’s ex Andie Woodhull.

Linus
A young security guard at the Jonata reservation.

Magnum
Johnny’s exceedingly tall bodyguard/security advisor and personal trainer

Uncle Sam
The Arendt-Garcías’ security advisor and former Navy SEAL who mentors Shawn.

Janice/Jan
Bubbly nurse at Community General. Big fan of Johnny.

Ruby Kyle
Stunning nurse at Mansfield Park. She and Janice formed an unofficial Johnny Graham fan club when they were 13.

Tamra
Chief Nursing Officer at Mansfield Park.

Jonata

Casa De Esperanza

Las Madres Forest: a fictitious addition to Los Padres National Forest near Ojai, California. 

Las Espitas: a fictitious small town in Ventura County, California, near Ojai and Fillmore.

California Institute of Natural and Social Sciences: fictitious institute in Las Espitas, where Lumiana works as a researcher and Anthropology Professor. It’s inspired by the setting in the TV show Bones.

Community General Hospital: fictitious hospital in Los Angeles, California.

Mansfield Park: fictitious upscale assisted living facility in the suburbs of Los Angeles, California. Inspired by the Jane Austen novel.