★ 02/10/2020
Gregorio (None of the Above) introduces Taiwanese-American Jocelyn Wu, 16, who is determined to save her family’s failing Chinese restaurant in central New York, and biracial (half black, half white) William Domenici, also 16, in need of both a paying summer gig and the “investigative skills” required to earn a more significant role at his school newspaper. A charmingly awkward meet-cute ends with Jos hiring Will to help the business. As feelings develop between the two, familial expectations and difficult truths—including the failing restaurant, Jos’s depression, and Will’s anxiety—threaten to quash their relationship. Gregorio introduces the protagonists through alternating perspectives, unspooling each character’s quirks and the ways their strengths, insecurities, and experiences affect them and those closest to them. Readers will come to this story for dynamic romantic and familial relationships, but they’ll stay for its smart exploration of depression, anxiety, and self-care. Gregorio doesn’t preach or prescribe, instead offering readers a safe space in which to consider and develop their understanding of mental health and, like Jos and Will, find the courage to ask for help if needed. Ages 12–up. Agent: Jessica Regel, Foundry Literary + Media. (Apr.)
★ 03/01/2020
Gr 8 Up—Jocelyn Wu has a plan to save her family's struggling Chinese restaurant in Utica, NY. With her father's reluctant approval she decides to hire a summer intern to help out at the restaurant and increase its online presence. Enter William Domenici, new intern and aspiring journalist looking for a story. Will and Jos hit it off; although they are very different, they have a lot in common. Jos, an American-born Chinese girl, and Will, the son of a Nigerian doctor and an Italian lawyer, are both entering junior year of high school and don't exactly blend into the background of their predominantly white, upstate New York town. Told in alternating first-person chapters, the story quickly immerses readers in the drama that unfolds over the course of the summer: Can the restaurant be saved? Will Jos and Will get together despite Mr. Wu's strict rules? Issues of mental health also come into play. Will, diagnosed with an anxiety disorder when he was younger, has spent years learning how to manage his anxiety with the help of his therapist. It is his sensitivity to mental health issues that enables him to encourage Jos to seek help for her depression. VERDICT Deftly navigating issues of race and mental health, as well as giving voice to the reality of American teens born to immigrant families, many of whom grapple with different cultural and familial expectations, Gregorio, a founding member of We Need Diverse Books, has written a heartwarming foodie rom-com. Recommended for fans of realistic fiction.—Ragan O'Malley, Saint Ann's School, Brooklyn
2020-01-19
Mental illness is no match for love in this diverse, compelling novel.
After years of missing New York City, Chinese American teenager Jocelyn Wu has finally gotten used to living in Utica. She’s got a best friend, a spot in a college-level film class, and has even found a bubble tea place. So when her father announces that their family has to move back to the city because their restaurant is bankrupt, she’s determined to find a way to stay. Her first step is to hire teen Will Domenici, a biracial (Nigerian/white) budding journalist who lives with acute anxiety. Sparks fly, and what started out as a summer internship becomes a full-blown romance—one that Jocelyn’s father, Mr. Wu, stipulates can continue only if the pair fulfills the terms of a contract that include raising the restaurant’s revenue by 30% before the end of the summer. With her happiness at stake, Jocelyn begins to suffer from her own mental health issues—ones that she’s not sure her relationship can survive. Gregorio’s (contributor: Our Stories, Our Voices, 2018, etc.) diverse cast of characters authentically navigate their mental illnesses through the twists and turns of a fast-paced plot, and the romance between Will and Jocelyn sparkles.
A sweet, entertaining romance. (author’s note, resources) (Romance. 14-18)
"Anxiety and depression can turn your brain into a fake news factory. With THIS IS MY BRAIN IN LOVE, I.W. Gregorio delivers a warm, honest, and timely story about friendship, family, love and asking for help when you need it. The chemistry between Jocelyn and Will is so crackling and irresistible, you'll fall in love, too."—Mary McCoy, author of Printz Honor Book I, Claudia
"If there's only one book you read this year, please let it be This is Your Brain in Love! Everyone needs to read this beautiful and important book not only because it manages to be both laugh-out-loud funny and grab-a-tissue moving, but it's a novel that can open eyes, change minds, and hopefully change lives. Gregorio's writing made my heart hurt even as I was falling in love with Jocelyn and Will, two characters as complex and real as you'll ever meet on a page."—Ellen Oh, author of A Thousand Beginnings and Endings
"Sweet, funny and full of feeling, This is My Brain in Love is a heartfelt and earnest look at mental health in the Asian American community. Gregorio captures so many truths about living with anxiety and depression in a story full of humor, wisdom and generosity. This is a book I needed as a teenager."—Kelly Loy Gilbert, author of Lost Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist Picture Us in the Light
"This is My Brain in Love is a sweet, honest love story about navigating mental illness, cross-cultural relationships, and self-acceptance. Humor and heart, happy and sad combine into a complex, contemporary romance as perfectly-blended as amah's dumplings."
—Mackenzie Lee, NYT bestselling author of The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue and Loki: Where Mischief Lies
"Line by zinging line, I.W. Gregorio's second novel delights your brain and steals your heart. A deliciously, delicately wrought tapestry of culture, families and the fragile parts of ourselves that we should all learn to embrace."—Abigail Hing Wen, author of Loveboat, Taipei
"Authentic and fresh, I.W. Gregorio serves up a first-rate romance between two teens whose differences may prove too hot to handle. This is my bookish heart in love."—Stacey Lee, award winning author of Outrun the Moon
"Amazing story of the struggle to balance love and brains, and instead finding joy. Absolute perfection."
—Laurie Halse Anderson, bestselling author of Speak and Shout
"A sweet, entertaining romance."—Kirkus
*"Deftly navigating issues of race and mental health, as well as giving voice to the reality of American teens born to immigrant families, many of whom grapple with different cultural and familial expectations, Gregorio has written a heartwarming foodie rom-com."—School Library Journal, starred review
*"Readers will come to this story for dynamic romantic and familial relationships, but they'll stay for its smart exploration of depression, anxiety, and self-care."—Publishers Weekly, starred review
"...will win readers with its sweet, sparky romance and its business-savvy plotline that celebrates young people working hard to overcome the odds."—BCCB
