Meant to Be in Manila - Paperback
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Meant to Be in Manila - Paperback
$19.42
Sale price
$19.42
Regular price
by Mica de Leon (Author)
She's done with destiny. He's chasing the past. But fate has other plans.
Sophia Joaquin is done believing in "meant to be." After uprooting her life for love--only to be ghosted the moment she arrived in Vancouver--she's heading back to Manila, heartbroken and humiliated. Rafael Herbert, an architect and artist, is on a mission to win back the girl who ghosted him. By a twist of fate on their flight home, they meet and strike an unusual deal: he'll be her fake fiancé for her brother's wedding, and she'll help him track down his lost love. As they navigate Manila's bustling streets, old churches, and hidden gems, their fake romance begins to feel surprisingly real. Maybe love isn't about finding the right person--it's about finding the right person at the right time. And maybe, just maybe, that time is now. Before Sunrise meets Love Hard in this Romcom set on a walking tour of Manila, Philippines, following Sophia Eunice "Piayaya" Hermosa, a former Philippine history teacher, and Raphael Alfonso "Rafal" Herbert, an urban housing architect. Touring the city while seeking closure from their past relationships, they soon realize they're exactly where they're meant to be--with each other.Author Biography
Mica De Leon is a Filipino author of swoony romance comedies and science fiction fantasy novels. She won the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature in 2019 and 2022 for her essays on romance, feminism, history, fantasy, and Filipino identity, reflecting on the aftermath of Martial Law and the 2022 presidential elections in the Philippines.
She has published five books with Penguin Random House Southeast Asia: Meant to Be in Manila, Love on the Second Read (longlisted for The Asian Prize for Fiction in 2023 and translated into Indonesian and Korean), and The Seedmage Cycle trilogy: Winds of War, Veins of Power, and Seeds of Conquest Mica is the executive editor of Summit Books, publisher of Pop Fiction, IndiePop, MPress, and other trade publications in the Philippines. Before moving into publishing, she was a contributing writer for The Business Mirror and a journalist for several Philippine health magazines. She has also contributed articles to popfictionbooks.com.ph, cosmo.ph, femalenetwork.com, candymag.com, and spin.ph. Mica likes walking on the beach, dogs, cats, swoony and spicy romance novels, lengthy epic SFF novels, and Taylor Swift. Follow her on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Threads at @micadeleonwrites.
Number of Pages: 368
Publication Date: May 05, 2026