If you’re a huge fan of Girl Mans Up, as I am, then you know this is an exciting day on the site, because I get to reveal the cover of M-E Girard’s sophomore queer YA, Then Everything Happens at Once, releasing from HarperCollins on January 31, 2023! Here’s the story:

From the Lambda Award–winning author of Girl Mans Up comes a stand-alone sex-positive coming-of-age story about a teen exploring feelings for her best friend and a new crush as her rocky relationship with her own body and a pandemic threatens to sabotage everything.

Sixteen-year-old Baylee has never been kissed, but she wants to do way more than that. She’s had a huge crush on her gorgeous best friend and neighbor, Freddie, for years, but since she doesn’t look like the type he normally dates, the judgmental voice in her head tells her he’ll never see her as more than a friend.

Then Baylee meets Alex online and she starts to fall for this sweet, funny barista who likes her just as she is. But when Freddie makes a move on Baylee and a virus shuts the world down, Baylee finds herself torn. Everything is happening at once, and she is left navigating the messy waters of love and desire. It helps that she’s observed her friends’ relationship drama, so she knows exactly what mistakes not to make . . . right?

And here’s the gorgeous cover, illustrated by Adams Carvalho and designed by Joel Tippie!

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | IndieBound

M-E Girard’s debut, Girl Mans Up, won the Lambda Literary Award and was a finalist for the William C. Morris Award. She lives just outside of Toronto, Canada, where she splits her time between writing YA fiction, being a mom to a toddler, and working as a registered nurse. M-E dedicated the bulk of her nursing career to working with special-needs kids, and more recently she was an ER and ICU nurse during the first waves of the pandemic. A 2013 and 2015 Lambda Literary Fellow, M-E is a proud feminist who is endlessly fascinated with what it means to be a girl—especially a queer, fat girl. You can find her online at www.megirard.com.