
Hey everyone!
We are so excited to offer you a Cover Reveal event for Something Between Bitter and Sweet by Laekan Zea Kemp!
We can’t wait for everyone to sign up for this event. We are looking for Mexican, Mexican-American, and Latinx #OwnVoices reviewers. Allies are also welcome for this cover reveal!
We are hoping to get 100 people – Domestic and International – to help us with this Cover Reveal so don’t be afraid to sign up!


Laekan Zea Kemp is a writer living in Austin, Texas. She received her B.A. in Creative Writing from Texas Tech University and her M.F.A. in Teaching from the University of North Texas. She’s the author of the paranormal romance series, The Girl In Between. When she’s not writing she’s religiously re-watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, reading anything by Melina Marchetta, and teaching English as a Second Language to the most amazing teenagers from all over the world.

Something Between Bitter and Sweet
by Laekan Zea Kemp
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Release Date: April 6, 2021
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary

I’m Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter meets Emergency Contact in this stunning story of first love, familial expectations, the power of food, and finding where you belong.
As an aspiring pastry chef, Penelope Prado has always dreamed of opening her own pastelería next to her father’s restaurant, Nacho’s Tacos. But her mom and dad have different plans—leaving Pen to choose between disappointing her traditional Mexican- American parents or following her own path. When she confesses a secret she’s been keeping, her world is sent into a tailspin. But then she meets a cute new hire at Nacho’s who sees through her hard exterior and asks the questions she’s been too afraid to ask herself.
Xander Amaro has been searching for home since he was a little boy. For him, a job at Nacho’s is an opportunity for just that—a chance at a normal life, to settle in at his abuelo’s, and to find the father who left him behind. But when both the restaurant and Xander’s immigrant status are threatened, he will do whatever it takes to protect his new found family and himself. Together, Pen and Xander must navigate first love and discovering where they belong— both within their families and their fiercely loyal Chicanx community—in order to save the place they all call home.