A new YA romance series follows three teenage friends as they study abroad across the globe
The Love in Translation series is written by different female authors of color, highlighting the study abroad experience of women of all different backgrounds
The ultimate goal of the series is to be turned into a hit TV show like The Summer I Turned Pretty or XO Kitty
As we count down the days to summer vacations — both real and fictional — a new YA romance series is sure to ignite your wanderlust and become the next teen sensation, following in the footsteps of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Emily in Paris, XO Kitty and many more.
The Love in Translation series from Joy Revolution (an imprint of Penguin Random House) follows three friends on their separate study abroad journeys around the globe. There’s Whitney Curry, the headstrong Black theater nerd in Love Requires Chocolate (August 2024), who studies abroad in Paris and quickly gets distracted by her grumpy soccer-playing French tutor.
And next comes her pal, art enthusiast Archi Dhawan, who falls for a secret prince while studying in Rajasthan, India, in the upcoming Love Craves Cardamom (out May 20).
The third and currently final installment in the series — Love Makes Mochi — will follow Whitney and Archi’s friend Lilyn, a Taiwanese-American goth fashionista whose queer love story unfolds in Tokyo.
Random House Children’s Books/Joy Revolution
‘Love Requires Chocolate’ is the first book in the ‘Love in Translation’ series.
As unique as the main characters of the series are the three authors, all relative publishing newcomers, women of color and the voices behind the fictional teenage love stories.
Virginia-based author Ravynn Stringfield kickstarted the series by telling Whitney’s Parisian love story in Love Requires Chocolate — her debut novel.
“I was excited because I hadn’t seen Black girls like that in this particular arena before and so I think my favorite thing about the series was that I got to write that type of girl into existence in this really swoony, dreamy, Disney princess-esque romance,” Stringfield tells PEOPLE. “That felt so big to me.”
Stringfield was thrilled with the opportunity to represent a character she could relate to in a big love story.
“I’m proud that I got to write a Whitney Curry because there’s so many girls like Whitney Curry who haven’t gotten a story like this,” she says. “One where the girl is by all intents and purposes ‘too much’ and she gets this really lovely soft place to land and this really beautiful love story.”
Ravynn K. Stringfield
Author Ravynn Stringfield poses with her debut novel ‘Love Requires Chocolate.’
The series is the brain child of YA author Dhonielle Clayton, the chief operating officer of We Need Diverse Books whose company Electric Postcard Entertainment helped package these study abroad romances into a series, with a different author penning each story. And Clayton believes the series is the perfect escape for readers of all backgrounds.
“[Marginalized people] deserve a soft life too,” Clayton tells PEOPLE. “And if we only see girls of color, queer characters, queer girls of color in heaviness, then that sends a message to young readers that their lives are always going to be heavy and that their purpose is to teach people not like them about the heaviness of their experience. And it’s so unfair.”
Emily Zeng
Dhonielle Clayton is the brainchild behind the ‘Love in Translation’ series.
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Working on the series has been a collaborative effort for the authors, too.
“I think Archi’s story is pretty informed by Whitney’s,” author Aashna Avachat tells PEOPLE of the main character of Love Craves Cardamom. “Whitney’s appearances in Love Craves Cardamom kind of encourage Archi to pursue her own love story too, one that she’s a little reluctant about in the beginning of the book.”
Random House Children’s Books/Joy Revolution
‘Love Craves Cardamom’ is the second book in the ‘Love in Translation’ series.
The Indian-American writer adds that she loves the possibilities that come with the series. “I feel like it’s the perfect way to go about this series to have different authors for the books so that each character can feel really fresh and also authentic,” she says.
And while all three books are a part of the same series, editor Bria Ragin shares that each book highlights its author’s distinctive strengths.
“What I love about the series is that even though the covers look similar, I do think Ravynn, Aashna and Stefany all have unique voices,” Ragin explains. “It does feel like a different journey each time, even though they’re all travel abroad stories. They’re companion novels.”
Emily Zeng
Author Aashna Avachat penned ‘Love Craves Cardamom,’ the second book in the ‘Love in Translation’ series.
Clayton adds that the individual authors helped her flesh out the characters she initially created through their own interests and passions.
“I just settled on the details once I talked to the writers and saw what they were very excited about,” she explains. “If a writer does a book with me, I really want it to sit alongside their body of work.”
For all three authors, the books also mark either their debut or sophomore novels, leading life to imitate art as they form friendships through the publishing process.
“I think in a sense, the Love in Translation series is a little meta because it’s like three authors, three friends, three fictional friends, three author friends,” Love Makes Mochi author Stefany Valentine tells PEOPLE. “It very much is like Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. It’s so cool to read the books, see the Easter eggs, that sort of thing.”
Karen Jialu Bao
Author Aasha Avachat holding her debut novel ‘Love Craves Cardamom.’
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“It’s really cool to see these characters have these DMs and group chats going and know that we have that too,” she adds. “Even though it’s fiction, it’s also real.”
As for the future of the series, Clayton has lofty goals for Love in Translation.
“My dream is to — and we’re working on it — set up a TV show so that we can see this,” Clayton says. “A TV show where people who loved The Summer I Turned Pretty and XO Kitty and To All the Boys I Loved Before, that kind of vibe, and kick off the next big, fun, swoony teen version of Emily in Paris where we’ve got the hijinks and all three girls and all of their love stories and beyond.”
For the series’ authors, seeing their characters come to life on the screen would be a dream come true.
Dru Valentine
Author Stefany Valentine is writing ‘Love Makes Mochi,’ the third book in the ‘Love in Translation’ series.
“It would be so incredible,” Valentine says. “I want to see the cast together IRL because they exist in my head. I’ve seen a little bit of fan art, but it would be so cool to see them on screen. They are so real in my mind, it would be so bizarre to see them really in the real world.”
Love Requires Chocolate is available now, wherever books are sold. Love Craves Cardamom will be released on May 20 and is currently available for preorder. And Love Makes Mochi is set to be released in February 2026.
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