Gabriella Melendez

I represent young adult and adult fiction and am especially interested in books with crossover potential in the new adult age range. 

First and foremost, I am a lover of stories. I love that raw, heart-wrenching feeling, the moments of audible gasps and cheers, and that feeling when I just can’t put the book down regardless of whether it ends in a cliffhanger. I want a book to be obsessed with, and a book that can reflect aspects of the real world in a digestible format. Give me real issues you’d face in a setting that keeps me thinking about the story and characters after I put the book down. 

Young Adult: 

• In young adult fantasy, I want rich world building with a strong and clear magic system. I enjoy romance and am open to it being a central point of the story along the lines of A BALLAD OF NEVER AFTER, SERPENT AND DOVE, and RED QUEEN. 
• I love retellings of classic stories: fairy tales, myths, parables, pantheons, Shakespearean stories, etc. I love blending fantasy with existing stories from our past in a new and dynamic way like A COURT OF THORNS AND ROSES, A SONG OF WRAITHS AND RUIN, LORE OLYMPUS, etc. I am a particularly huge fan of Hades and Persephone and Beauty and the Beast retellings. 
• I’d love to see realistic fiction with mystery, thriller, heist/ spies. Give me complex, intelligent, and cunning characters who you can’t trust fully. 

Adult

• I am seeking adult books in the younger age range, for new adult readers. 

• For adult fantasy, I am looking for books with crossover potential from young adult.
• I am looking for commercial new adult stories with characters who are still figuring out their lives, young in their careers, post grads, etc. I want to see characters dealing with adult concepts for the first time like in FANGIRL, THE SEX LIVES OF COLLEGE GIRLS, THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA, and THE LOVE HYPOTHESIS. 
• Contemporary romance. I want to see nerdy protagonists with varying love interests. I want dynamic male love interests that don’t fall into the same archetypes of muscled, toned, morally grey. 
• Give me tropes! I’m a big fan of the various enemies-to-lovers/ rivals to lovers. I want to see real enemies-to-lovers (no one-sided pining from the male’s perspective with misunderstanding tropes). Give me smut a-la Ali Hazelwood or Tessa Bailey. 

In Both YA and NA: 

• I’m looking for books that are plot forward.
• Generational stories such as THE HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS and DREAMING IN CUBAN. Give me female-driven stories with complex families and multiple POV’s. 
• Speculative fiction with clear, concrete settings in the real world, a la THEY BOTH DIE IN THE END. 
• Magical realism, especially when linked to its Hispanic origins. I want a world with subtle magic that is genuinely never questioned or explained. *NOT LIGHT FANTASY* Please properly label stories when using this tag. Think THE INHERITANCE OF ORQUIDEA DIVINA and DREAMING IN CUBAN. 
• Underrepresented voices with specific interest in Latinx/Hispanic/Indigenous characters and authors. Their ethnicity and heritage does NOT have to be the main focus of the story. I am looking for dynamic Latinx characters facing intersectional issues. 

Niche Requests: 

• OUTERBANKS X GLASS ONION within small towns with a young cast of characters solving mysteries and riddles. 
• Something with fluff that gives you the same heartwarming, feet-kicking feeling of a teen movie from the early 2000s. 
• Travel adventures with lots of banter a la THE LOST CITY. 
• Contemporary romance or YA romance that has the classic gamer guy and reader girl in enemies to lovers come together because of a game, competition, or TTRPG.

Submission Guidelines

Please follow the link to my Query Manager page for submissions. Any unsolicited submissions sent directly to my email will be deleted.

QM: https://QueryManager.com/gabriellamelendez

Guidelines & Details