WoW: This Could Be Forever by Ebony LaDelle

This bookish meme tells the blogosphere what we’re waiting patiently (and sometimes not so patiently) for! It’s hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine!

This compelling and complex romance about love across cultures follows a Black girl and Brown boy who find themselves—and each other—while pursuing their passions the summer before college.

Deja’s got a plan. The first in her large family to go to college, she wants to study chemistry and sell natural skin care products, like the ones she already creates from plants grown on her family’s North Carolina farm. It all starts with the Onward Bound summer program at the University of Maryland, the summer before school officially starts.

Raja’s got a dream. His traditional Nepali parents want him to study engineering and settle down in an arranged marriage, but his passion is art, and he wants to open his own tattoo parlor one day. In the meantime, he’s apprenticing at a tattoo shop in College Park, Maryland.

When Deja walks into the shop where Raja’s working, they both start crushing hard—over the course of the summer, they fall more and more deeply for one another. But the closer they get and the more their lives entwine, the more they find that dating someone who doesn’t match your parents’ expectations is harder than they ever imagined.

Can they bridge the divide between the vision their families have for their futures and the lives—and love—that are starting to feel like destiny?

Published by: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Expected Publication: May 20, 2025

Why I’m Waiting: This is Ebony LaDelle’s second novel. I’ve been waiting on this book when I had no idea it was even a thing. I’m talking as soon as I closed Love Radio I was ready to read her next thing. So here we are now. This one sounds like it will be a bit of a mess, but I’m expecting to see more of the cutesy romance and the learning that happened in Love Radio. I’m super excited and I can’t wait to get this in my hands!

What about you? Have you read her other one? Will you read this one? What do you think of the cover? Let me know in the comments!