Sold in a rapid US pre-empt, an irresistible instant classic about the thrilling, often infuriating, rush of first love, guaranteed to sweep you off your feet. With a dash of the dreamy atmosphere of Anna and the French Kiss, a twist of Jenny Han’s heartfelt honesty and wit, and a heap of Lynn Painter’s authentic and magnetic characters, with a flair and heart that is wholly Mariko’s own, this new novel is destined to become a vital addition to the pantheon of YA romance greats.
THE MUSEUM OF MODERN LOVE
by Mariko Turk
Henry Holt, October 2026
(via Writers House)
Tonight, inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art—somewhere between the hours of 8 PM and 5 AM—Auden Peck will fall in love with Miki Kawamura.
That’s Miki’s plan, anyway. And the plan is destiny.
See, Miki’s grandparents fell in love after accidentally being locked in the Met overnight in 1965. And now, after too many almost-confessions, hopeless romantic Miki will finally tell her best friend Auden that she loves him by retracing the path through the museum that her grandparents took that fateful night.
But destiny has other plans. For it’s not Auden who joins Miki on her midnight tour, but Lou McSweeney—the world’s most jaded cynic, and Miki’s ex. How can she possibly confess her feelings for Auden when she’s stuck sparring with this arrogant jerk? And is it possible that her original plan was not destiny’s true course after all?
Mariko Turk is the author of The Other Side of Perfect and I’ll Be Waiting for You. She received her PhD in English from the University of Florida, with a concentration in children’s literature and lives in Colorado with her husband and daughter.

Natalie and Imogen were inseparable—Imogen was always the infuriatingly humble and intelligent one, while Natalie was the brave one, jumping into danger and new adventures. Despite their differences, one thing tied them together: their love of the supernatural. Every summer, they’d vacation with their parents at the famously haunted Harlow Hotel. Imogen fully believed in the tales of the supernatural, while Natalie saw ghosts stories as nothing but pure fun. Natalie has never been a believer.
Last year, Alina Kane was a ballet dancer who was accepted into one of the country’s top programs on a professional track. Then, she shattered her leg. This year, Alina has two metal plates holding her bones together, exactly one friend, and zero chance of a ballet career. She is an aimless high school junior who got roped into doing the spring musical because her previous coping mechanisms (namely laying in bed eating Cool Ranch Doritos while watching contraband ballet videos) were ‘depressing everyone around her.’ And when she is cast in a sexy role opposite Jude, the (charmingly? annoyingly?) laidback lead, it seems she must transform from a ballet swan into someone else entirely. As she starts to get used to her new normal, Alina begins to re-examine her broken dream. Maybe ballet wasn’t the beautiful thing she always thought it was. Maybe it didn’t give half-Japanese girls like her the same chances it gave to white girls. Maybe it made her afraid to speak up. The problem is, Alina still loves ballet. But now she wonders if it’s stupid to love something she can’t do anymore. If it’s wrong to love something that’s so flawed. And if it’s bad to fall in love with someone when her heart was just broken, along with her leg.