Karla Montalván in conversation with Juanita Velez

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Marisol Varela, a Cuban American muralist living in present-day Madrid, isn’t just dealing with a failed engagement, she is confronting a generational curse that has doomed every woman in her family to a life devoid of lasting love. Desperate to break the pattern, Mar dives headfirst into past life regression therapy, determined to uncover the root of her lineage’s heartbreak.

Transported across centuries, Marisol relives three tumultuous lives as a rebellious female painter in 1482 Florence, a shrewd prostitute entangled in espionage during the final years of the Spanish Inquisition in 1808 Madrid, and a resilient gay man navigating the precarious waters of the 1980s SoHo AIDS epidemic. No matter the era, fate’s cruel hand always snatches away true love.

Amid the upheaval of her incarnations, one figure appears again and again, Dario, an enigmatic Italian poet whose magnetic presence seems to transcend time itself. As their fates intertwine across centuries, Marisol must confront the weight of her family’s curse, along with the possibility that true, timeless love may not be what she always imagined.

Published in English and Spanish, this genre-blending novel explores immigration, gender, queerness, and art as survival, offering an emotionally resonant, book club–ready story.

Language provided by publisher.

This event was previously scheduled on July 28, 2026.

Karla Montalván is a Cuban-born writer shaped by migration, memory, and longing. Born in Havana in 1994, she migrated to Ecuador as a child and later settled in Miami. A graduate of Miami Dade College and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she has spent the past decade telling stories centered on identity, gender, and diaspora. Her work has appeared in People, People en Español, Cosmopolitan, and mitú. The Sun and All the Other Stars is her debut novel. 

Juanita Velez is a Colombian-born global marketing and DEI executive at Delta Air Lines, where she leads enterprise strategy across commercial and operational teams, shaping inclusive brand storytelling and customer experience for 100,000+ employees worldwide. A former Head of International Social Media, she scaled global sponsorships and international brand launch campaigns across 11 markets and 10 languages. Juanita is also an Adjunct Professor at Emory University, teaching Venture Capital in Minority Entrepreneurship. She founded a nonprofit, HYPE Hispanic Young Professionals and Entrepreneurs that is celebrating a decade anniversary this year. She has been recognized as a Emerging Leader of the Year by United Way, Georgia 40 Under 40 leader and as one of the Most Influential Latinos in Georgia, but her most important title and recognition is being a mom to her 5 year old daughter, Sol.