Author Interview: Lemons and Lies by Alexis Castellanos

Alexis Castellanos serves up all the best YA ingredients in Lemon and Lies: fake dating, academic deals, and a rivalry between small-town bakeries that’s as sharp as it is sweet. With Valeria and Gage at the center of the drama (trading barbs, nursing almost-kisses, and navigating family expectations) the story blends Cuban girlhood, community, and romance into something heartfelt and delicious. In our conversation, Alexis shares the joy of writing banter-filled festival scenes, the personal memories woven into Valeria’s character, and the surprising “sweet and sour” moments that brought this love story to life. Check out our interview below and pick up Lemons and Lies, out tomorrow!

Lemons and Lies

by Alexis Castellanos
Published by: Bloomsbury Children's
on September 16th, 2025
Genres: Contemporary, Contemporary Romance, Young Adult
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A sweet meet-cute or a scheme destined to turn sour? Fake dating, family drama, and foodie fun combine in this YA paperback original.

Valeria Morales' senior year is not off to a great start. Her twin brother Adrian isn't talking to her, she's realizing all of her friends were actually his friends, and now she's failing math. Enter Gage Magnussen. Gage isn't looking to take on any tutoring gigs now that his standing as valedictorian is at risk after letting a catastrophic breakup distract him--not to mention his demanding parents expect Gage to coordinate their yearly charity auction alongside his cheating ex. So Valeria offers him a If he helps her pass, she'll take over event planning AND pretend to be his girlfriend. A win-win-win!

But as their study sessions move to deep conversations and their fake dates begin feeling realer and realer, is it possible the lemons they've been dealt will turn to lemonade? Or will this arrangement only sting?

Interview with Alexis Castellanos

Fake dating, tutoring deals, AND rival bakeries…there’s a lot of delicious drama here. Which part of Valeria and Gage’s scheme was the most fun for you to write?

The fall festival! Valeria and Gage’s banter was so fun to write and that chapter is just a constant back and forth between them. It has a wound healing scene (one of my favorite tropes) and a surprise cameo from everyone’s favorite rejected love interest (James Locicero), and an almost kiss scene.

This book is such a love letter to Cuban girlhood and small-town life. What’s one detail you included that feels straight out of your own memories?

A lot of Valeria is inspired by my surly teenage self. I kept a LiveJournal when I was a teenager and one of the things I do to prepare myself to write YA is to go back and read some of my entries. In many ways, Valeria might be the most personal character I’ve written. The one detail ripped from my own life, though? That would be sneaking out of my house via the doggy door and cutting myself on the chicken wire on our fence as I jumped off. I wasn’t going to hang out with a cute boy, though. I snuck out to go with my friends to cover someone’s car in shaving cream.

Between the family drama, the romance, and all that bakery rivalry energy, what’s your favorite “sweet and sour” moment in the story?

I really liked the scene in the van where Gage scared Valeria by accident. I have a scene in every book I write where the character catches me by surprise. In Guava and Grudges it was the scene where Miguel and Ana Maria are in the bakery at night and she’s trying to convince him to stay away. Then Ana Maria brings up the time her grandfather was poisoned by his grandfather, and I remember being so confused as I was writing because I was like, “he did? That happened?? I didn’t know that!” But those two had such good chemistry that their banter always had fun surprises like that for me.

The van scene with Valeria was the same, I didn’t know the details of the scene, just the big strokes. When she hits her head and calls limes “limes” instead of “lemons” he asks her if she was concussed and it ends up being this cute moment between them that I had not planned! I love those moments, it really feels like the characters are leaping off the page.