YOU x ME
by Ayla Vejdani
Released: May 26, 2026
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Why this book and why now?
You x Me is a series of queer, BIPOC love stories. These modern entanglements are the kind of romances that make us lose sleep, love letters to the friendships we can’t live without, and a celebration of our endless journeys of self-discovery. Each chapter focuses on one couple’s story, then is weaved together with common through-lines of family ties, overlapping characters, and interwoven plot. The series tells the love stories of queer, immigrant, Indigenous, and diasporic characters. The novels will provide you with an escape, make you laugh a little, and get you hot and hopeful. As Maya Angelou encourages, the stories call readers to “have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time.”
Romance novels are the highest-grossing fiction genre worldwide, outperforming mystery, sci-fi, and fantasy. Yet despite the genre’s massive success, queer BIPOC romance remains significantly underrepresented, revealing a major gap in whose love stories are being told and celebrated. QTBIPOC folks are forced to code-switch. If we want something light and fun, we have to accept ignorance, or, if we want our multilayered stories represented, we have to sacrifice lightness. My stories hold these needs in tandem: keeping it light, while keeping it real.
Is there anything you wish readers knew before diving into this book?
I wrote this book on a rooftop, beneath moonlight, in conversation with my future self. I was going through a difficult transition in my life and wished that stories like these existed: stories that acknowledge the multiple crises of our world while prioritizing pleasure, beauty, and joyful love. These stories wanted to be born, so I birthed them and now they are yours to enjoy. My hope is that you feel seen, held and loved — whole.
What’s one fun fact about your book that most people wouldn’t know?
I curate the readers’ experience with supplemental multimedia “bonus” content for each chapter. By choosing significant vignettes from each story, I create interactive materials for reader engagement. For example, in a chapter featuring a romantic cooking scene where the characters make a Persian dish together, I provide a real recipe that readers can make. Where my characters create playlists together, I offer real playlists accessible to readers online. It is my hope that this experiential bonus content will enable readers to feel more connected to the stories and to their own agency in curating loving, connected communities.
What 3 things would your main character want with them if they got stranded away from civilization, and why?
There is a mosaic of “main” characters appear in the book, but I believe that they would want:
1. Their chosen people — community is at the centre of all their stories
2. They’d want music — some how some way, if their stuck might as well be able to dance
3. They’d want something to write with and write on — they all will have great stories to tell
Which character do you relate to the most, and why?
I’m all of them and none of them, my feelings are my muse, so as I dig deeper into the emotional landscape of the couples I somehow will always show up on the page. If I’d have to pick I’m a combination of Ale/Noura/Nilou and a little Goli.
If you could spend a day with one character from the book, who would it be and why?
I’d date Paz. 😉
What song does your character put on to start your book launch party?
Actually every chapter/couple has their own playlists, listen here: https://open.spotify.com/user/msiamayla
If your book had a scent, what would it smell like?
A mix of: Rose (see cover), oud (for all the characters from SWANA characters), tonka bean (for the latine characters), and a touch of cedar (for the Indigenous characters)
Your characters are throwing a party—what’s the theme?
Love + Revolution
Do you outline your books in detail, or do you prefer to discover the story as you write?
The stories play in my head like a movie and I transcribe them. I sometimes will have a general idea that I’m working with or through, but mostly I get curious about the characters and let them tell me their story.
Do you have any writing rituals or habits?
Tea, a candle, and preferably, cosy.
