Love and Other Natural Disasters is the fake dating romcom to kick off your summer

When romantic teen Nozomi heads to San Francisco to spend the summer with her family, she’s determined to find a fairytale romance after the girl of her dreams shuns her at the end-of-the-year party in Misa Sugiura’s Love & Other Natural Disasters.

Enter Willow, a gorgeous and dreamy heartbroken girl, who wants to use Nozomi to make her ex, Arden, jealous as she’s moved on with her new girlfriend, Dela.

It’s a classic fake dating plot that the reader knows as well as Nozomi does. And she’s determined to use all the tropes to her advantage to win over Willow before Willow can win back Arden, including letting Willow make her over into the girl of her dreams.

But in the meantime, a “wishful” art project brings Dela and Nozomi closer together, and Nozomi realizes that she may have had her eye on the wrong girl all along, despite the fact that they couldn’t be more different.

Romance isn’t the only thing on Nozomi’s plate, however. She has to navigate her parents’ recent divorce and her homophobic grandmother’s progressing dementia, and what it all means with her strict definitions of love–or what she’s always thought love meant.

A sweet and funny romantic comedy, Love & Other Natural Disasters is a heartfelt examination of what it means to love “…someone the way they need to be loved…” and what it means to learn that, both as a daughter, caregiver, and as a romantic partner.

Beyond the familial plotlines, Sugiura utilizes fake dating and enemies-to-lovers tropes, making for a bubbly, frothy rom-com full of heart. Fans of romance will love the unique spin on well-loved tropes, particularly with queer protagonists of color rarely seen in the romance genre.

Sugiura also plays with the rom-com makeover trope effectively, allowing a level of subtlety to come through in a sapphic romance that lets Nozomi play with her gender identity while also exploring how far she wants to stray from her true self, a narrative that will resonate with importance for young readers. Pick up your copy today.

Love & Other Disasters is on sale now wherever books are sold. Let us know if you add it to your TBR pile.