Magic and Romance: Emiko Jean & Angela Velez

Emiko Jean (Love Me Tomorrow) and Angela Velez (Tangled Roots & Wild Dreams) sit down for a conversation about their newest Young Adult novels and the mysteries that lead their characters on unexpected adventures toward love. Humorously written and wholesomely sweet, both stories feature the challenges of coming of age but the heartwarming beauty of young love. Moderated by writer Katherine Cusumano.  

About Love Me Tomorrow:

From the New York Times bestselling author of Tokyo Ever After comes “an endearing, lightly magical romantic comedy” (Kirkus Reviews) about a girl who starts receiving letters from the love of her life—writing to her from years in the future.

What if your true love could write to you from the future?

Seventeen-year-old Emma Nakamura-Thatcher doesn’t believe in love, not after her parents’ bitter divorce. So when she attends the festival of Tanabata, her wish is simple: proof that love is real and can last.

Emma thinks little of her wish. . . . until she finds a note from someone claiming to be her greatest love writing to her from the future. It has to be a prank, right? But as the notes pour in, each revealing secrets only she knows, Emma is forced to accept the impossible: This is really happening. Someone is actually reaching out to her from across time.

But who? Ezra, the musical prodigy who makes her pulse race? Theo, the literal boy next door who’s known her since childhood? Or Colin, the overly confident, overly handsome, overly rich kid she meets while cleaning his mega-mansion?

As Emma races to uncover the identity of the letter writer, she’ll discover that love is more than real—it’s the most powerful force in the universe. And it’s been waiting for her all along.

About Tangled Roots and Wild Dreams:

Never Have I Ever meets Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute in this hilarious and moving YA coming-of-age about a girl juggling way too many lies, one very off-limits crush, and a secret summer internship—all while steering clear of the dreaded f-word: her future.

Ezzie Ramos is a champion secret keeper. Her brilliant-professor mami and nosy abuelita don’t know about her daily ritual (wandering the art museum), her college applications (hopelessly blank), or her summer plans (avoiding the dreaded f-word, a.k.a. her future, at all costs).

Ezzie’s biggest secret? She’s interning at Sprout, the urban garden she’s stunned to discover her father founded weeks before his death. All she knows about Papi begins and ends with his dazzling scientific research legacy—but what if he dreamed of a different path too?

With seven weeks to uncover who Papi really was, Ezzie must chase down every lead, even if it means tangling with Sprout’s star volunteer, Gabe McCalister, who couldn’t be more off-limits—or distractingly cute. But as Ezzie begins to put down roots at Sprout, she learns that secrets, like seeds, have a way of growing toward the light. . . .