Unexpectedly Yours

What happens when a lie meant to protect the heart becomes the thing that tears it apart?

In Unexpectedly Yours, JP Brome delivers an unforgettable young adult romance brimming with emotional depth, layered characters, and a love story that defies distance, deception, and cultural expectations.

Riley Carter never expected to fall for the boy on the other end of the phone. When she agrees to help her manipulative roommate Duri maintain a long-distance relationship with Yu Joon-a South Korean chaebol heir recovering from a traumatic accident in Seoul-Riley assumes it’ll be a temporary favor. One text here. A sweet message there. Nothing more.

But then the messages get personal.

Late-night confessions turn into inside jokes. The boy behind the screen becomes real. And Riley realizes too late: she’s falling in love with someone who doesn’t even know her name.

Meanwhile, across the world, Yu Joon is holding onto those texts like a lifeline. Haunted by his accident and suspicious of the truth around him, he clings to the girl who calls herself Duri but feels entirely different. When he finally travels to Philadelphia to meet her, nothing prepares him for the truth: the girl in his texts is not who he thought.

And Riley Carter? She’s not supposed to exist in his story at all.

What follows is a sweeping emotional journey that takes readers from the elite halls of the Wharton School to the luxury towers of Seoul, South Korea, and into the lives of three young people caught in a dangerous triangle of secrets, scandals, and sacrifice. As love is tested and loyalties shift, Riley and Yu must decide: Is the truth enough to rebuild what was never meant to be?

Riley Carter is no stranger to pressure. Daughter of two high-achieving professors, Riley has always felt the weight of expectation on her shoulders. Wharton is her dream, her shot at independence, and her way out of her overbearing mother’s shadow. She excels academically, gains the admiration of classmates, and quickly rises in campus circles. But behind her polished exterior is a girl aching for something real-a connection that doesn’t require a curated resume.

When Duri Kim, her glamorous and secretive roommate, asks Riley to send a few texts to her boyfriend while she juggles family pressure and her social image, Riley reluctantly agrees. But Yu Joon’s messages are sweet, sincere, and strikingly different from the polished persona Duri always described. Riley finds herself unraveling in his words, longing for a boy she never met.

Yu Joon, heir to the powerful Joon Group, is not just another rich kid. Trapped by legacy and family expectation, Yu is the golden son with a soft soul. After a life-threatening car accident, he struggles with memory gaps, broken trust, and a growing sense that the world around him is a carefully curated illusion. The only thing that feels real? The texts from Duri.

But when he arrives in the U.S. to visit her, everything falls apart.

He finds two girls. Two truths. And one broken heart.

Duri Kim has always been the girl with the plan. Beautiful, connected, and brilliant at manipulation, she knows how to control a narrative. But when her carefully constructed lie begins to spiral, she does everything to hold onto what she believes should be hers: Yu Joon. Even if it means faking photos, hiding a shocking pregnancy, and weaponizing family alliances.

As the story unfolds, readers are pulled into a world where:

• Love is tested by betrayal.
• Friendship is shattered by ambition.
• And the past refuses to stay buried.