The Museum of Modern Love

by Mariko Turk

AN INSTANT USA TODAY BESTSELLER

"A yearning rush that builds into a full tidal wave of desire."
—Stephanie Perkins, New York Times-bestselling author of Overdue and Anna and the French Kiss

DELUXE EDITION featuring printed edges!

Tonight, inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art—somewhere between the hours of 8 PM and 5 AM—Auden Peck will fall in love with Miki Kawamura.

That’s Miki’s plan, anyway. And the plan is destiny.

See, Miki’s grandparents fell in love after accidentally being locked in the Met overnight in 1965. And now, after too many almost-confessions, hopeless romantic Miki will finally tell her best friend Auden that she loves him by retracing the path through the museum that her grandparents took that fateful night.

But destiny has other plans. For it’s not Auden who joins Miki on her midnight tour, but Lou McSweeney—the world’s most jaded cynic, and Miki’s ex. How can she possibly confess her feelings for Auden when she’s stuck sparring with this arrogant jerk? And is it possible that her original plan was not destiny’s true course after all?

For fans of Lynn Painter and Jenny Han, The Museum of Modern Love is an irresistible instant classic about the thrilling, often infuriating, rush of first love, guaranteed to sweep you off your feet.

Genres: Romance, Young Adult, Contemporary, Fiction, Contemporary Romance, Audiobook, New York

298 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 13, 2026

About the author

Mariko Turk is the USA Today Bestselling author of three novels for young adults. She studied creative writing at the University of Pittsburgh and went on to get her PhD in English from the University of Florida with a concentration in children’s literature. She now lives in Colorado with her husband and daughter.

Her debut novel, The Other Side of Perfect, was a YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults 2022 pick. Her next YA novel, I'll Be Waiting for You, won the Colorado Book Award for young adult fiction. Her third book for teens, The Museum of Modern Love, is a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection.

For updates, follow her on Instagram @marikoturk or sign up for her newsletter here! https://www.marikoturk.com/

Reviews

[emma · Rating 3.75 out of 5]

hard to imagine a better setting for a love story than "trapped overnight in a museum"

(thanks to the publisher for the e-arc)
(review to come)

[Susan Carolynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now I want to spend a night trapped in a museum, specifically the Met, even more than I did before reading this book! The Museum of Modern Love was so cute and romantic. Perfect if you love an NYC setting and a Lynn Painter-style of rom-com.

I adore these types of YA rom-coms because they're wholesome, a bit angsty, and the romantic drama is highly entertaining. The slight love triangle was creative. And even though this was a bit insta-love-ish, it made sense because the romance was second chance and forced proximity. So there was history there, instead of Miki and Lou having never met before, then falling in love instantaneously.

I also loved the twist at the end, and it surprised me in the best way possible. I love how this book highlighted love in a romantic way, yet showed love is all around.

I do think some of the descriptions of art became a bit repetitive. You definitely have to be a visual reader who can conjure up vivid images in your head of the art. But as an art and museum lover, I liked how this introduced me to new pieces of art, and it was so fun to look up pictures of all of the pieces Miki and Lou saw on the tour!

Thank you so much to Fierce Reads for sending me a copy of The Museum of Modern Love. As always, my reviews are one hundred percent voluntary and all opinions are my own :)

[Joan He · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE definitive love letter to all the art obsessed romantics out there and yes that includes myself

[CynnieRose · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great love letter to that classic book, art, museums, and family. I was looking up paintings and museum artworks like it was my job!
I was truly touched by her grandparents' story, start to finish.

[Danielle Pulliam · Rating 3.75 out of 5]

**𝔄ℜℭ ℜ𝔢𝔳𝔦𝔢𝔴** 𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔐𝔲𝔰𝔢𝔲𝔪 𝔬𝔣 𝔐𝔬𝔡𝔢𝔯𝔫 𝔏𝔬𝔳𝔢 𝔟𝔶 𝔐𝔞𝔯𝔦𝔨𝔬 𝔗𝔲𝔯𝔨

Release Day: October 13, 2026

3.75⭐️1🌶

This was a little cute and sweet rom com that reminded me about a book that I read as a kid that I had totally forgotten about. The book is From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg, where two young kids live in the Museum of Modern Art Museum in New York City, and they bath in the fountain ever night and collect coins from the fountain to buy food the next day. It's a cute and sweet little kids book, and this definately was a version, but for adults.

Minor Spoilers Ahead:

Miki Kawamura is a hopeless romantic and has grown up as an only child of a divorced couple dreaming about one day finding the the love of her life. Auden Peck was in classmate back in middle school before she moved and they connected over their love of art on one of their field trips to an Art Museum. They have been texting back and forth ever since.

When Miki and Auden get a summer internships together at the Modern Museum of Art in NYC, Miki sees this as her opportunity to recreate her grandparents "Tour of Love" through the MOMA at night where they will spend the whole night together looking at art and talking and fall in love.

But not everything goes as planned and Auden is required to help with a last minute relighting of new exhibit, and Miki is forced to get her social media videos done with her ex from last summer Lou, who dumped her in a very unceremoniously.

This was a very cute coming of age/first time love story with a backdrop of the MOMA, which I love. So, It was a fun fast read.

Themes/Tropes:
🍁Second Chance Romance / Enemies-to-Lovers
🍁Locked-In / Forced Proximity
🍁Best Friend's Brother / Childhood Crush
🍁Grumpy vs. Sunshine
🍁Idealized vs. Real Love
🍁Art as a Mirror for Emotion
🍁The Weight of Family Legacy

TW:
✨Historical Trauma & Racism (Mild)
✨Grief and Loss
✨Divorce & Family Strain
✨Mild Language and Romance

Thank you to @netgalley for this ARC copy!

[Ali Nurmikko · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5 rounded down. Unfortunately, this book was too YA for me. Book the writing and the subject/context was just too juvenile for me. The overarching plot was super cute- a night in the Met between Miki and her long-distance-best-friend-secret-love recreating the love story of her grandparents.. It was hard for me to get past the very high school talk, but I think the author did a good job at creating the dialogue for the intended audience.

I don’t love a miscommunication trope and I really didn’t love the actual plot of Kiki falling in love with her ex-boyfriend, Lou, from last summer and then pretty much leaving the whole main idea of Auden to dry up.

The book was fun, just not for me personally! I think this would be well liked by the middle school/young high school audience!

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group for this arc!

[Aggie · Rating 3.75 out of 5]

This book is a captivating mix of forced proximity, second-chance romance, a love triangle, and a grumpy-sunshine dynamic, unfolding entirely from 8 PM to 5 AM inside the closed galleries of the Met.

Miki is an intern at the MET—the exact place where her grandparents met and fell in love. Hoping to mirror their iconic romance, she devises a plan to "accidentally" profess her love to her crush, Auden. However, things go completely off-script when she ends up paired with her ex-boyfriend, Lou, instead.

I am always a huge fan of single-day timelines and self-contained settings, and this one delivers perfectly.

[carthi ♡ · Rating 4.5 out of 5]

oh this was such a beautiful and exquisite roller-coaster!! people make this a movie stat!! especially if the people who made finding emily could do it, this would be a blockbuster 🙂‍↕️✨️

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Art is one of my favorite things. I felt like this book had me jumping in head first into the Met. I’ll have to visit myself someday. I think the love story was sweet and a little predictable, but for the audience this book is set for… it’s perfect.

[Cole · Rating 4.5 out of 5]

Thank you Fierce Reads & Colored Pages Book Tours for the #gifted copy in exchange for an honest review! #coloredpagesbooktours

Miki has a plan to fall in love at the Met, just like her grandparents did in 1965. Tonight’s the night she’ll tell her best friend, Auden, that she loves him while on a tour through the museum. But it’s not Auden that ends up with her - it’s Lou, her disgruntled ex. How can she possibly confess her feelings for Auden when she’s stuck with Lou? Or worse, what if Auden’s not the main exhibit in this hall of love?

This book was so cute, Mariko Turk absolutely crushed it!! I loved the “night at the museum” meets YA romance novel vibe mixed in with some Japanese-American history and decentering of Euro-centric art (and love!). It’s an exes-to-lovers/second-chance romance set in the beautiful Metropolitan Museum of Art, with just as much love of art history as love story between the characters. I love the banter that can only happen between exes, and the backdrop of the Met just really makes this feel cinematic. I also loved being able to listen to the audiobook version with Morgan Dalla Betta narrating and loved how lively it felt to listen! I highly recommend this enchanting YA romance!

Reviewed as part of an #ARC from Colored Pages Book Tours & LibroFM.

Read this book if you:
🎨 love getting lost at the Met
🌚 have ever wanted a real-life ight at the museum
🖼️ seek to decenter the Euro-centric nature of art history

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[Ivana - Diary of Difference · Rating 4 out of 5]

💬 "I just... I wish people would treat love the way they treat art. Like it's valuable enough to hold on to, no matter what." ❤️

I adored "The Museum of Modern Love" by Mariko Turk so much! Miki Kawamura is in love with the idea of love. Her grandparents fell in love whilst they spent a night locked in the Met museum overnight, and all her life, she's been day-dreaming about that kind of love.

So, she sets up her perfect plan. Her and her crush of many years, Auden, will get locked in the Met museum. Then they'll go through the same tour route Miki's grandparents took. And at the very end, in front of the famous "Cypresses" painting by van Gogh, Miki will confess her feelings to Auden and they will live happily ever after.

Except... destiny has other ideas. Because it won't be Auden joining her on the midnight tour.. it's Lou McSweeney. The arrogant cynic. And Miki's ex.

From the moment I read the synopsis, I knew I was going to love this book. It was so sweet and cute, but also deep and moving at times. I learnt so much about art, famous paintings and the stories behind it, because Miki was so enthusiastic and eager to share everything she knew about them.

I adored Lou, and loved getting to know him better. It was obvious he had feelings for her and was pushing her away on purpose, and I loved that angst. As for Miki, bless her, sometimes she lived in her fantasy world and didn't see what was right in front of her. But I loved how much she changed in that one night and I really enjoyed the ending.

[Shannon · Rating 4.75 out of 5]

A sweet YA love story set in NYC that has an art curator intern, Miki, trying to recreate her grandparents famous night in the MOMA love story with her wannabe boyfriend. Only to have her ex, Lou, hijacking the night. What follows is a night traversing the museum looking at all the same paintings her grandparents had, learning more about the boy she thought she hated and slowing falling in love with the 'wrong'? guy. I enjoyed this immensely. More than just a YA romcom, it's a second chance romance and a love letter to art. There's also a great side story involving Miki's Japanese American grandmother who overcomes her own dark past to make a successful career as a photographer. Great on audio and perfect for fans of authors like Jenny Han and Lynn Painter. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early audio copy in exchange for my honest review.

[Gwenyth Reitz · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Museum of Modern Love is a love letter to artists young and old, wrapped up in a chaotically fun second-chance romance. It also explores a beautiful generational reckoning around the intense losses endured by Japanese Americans forced into internment camps during WWII. Turk takes us on a journey of sweet personal growth for Miki, as she comes to terms with her grandmother's story and her own, but sets it against the fun backdrop of overnighting in the Met in the midst of a swoony love triangle. I mean, who wouldn’t want to do that?!

[Andrea Beatriz Arango]

The Museum of Modern Love is a book centered around a love plan. A love confession. It's about life imitating art and art imitating life and how hard it is to put aside the fantasy to lean into the *real*.

And as a millennial who is a huge fan of exactly that, here are the 90s vibes this book brings to the YA romcom table. IF YOU HATE ANY OF THESE MOVIES, DON'T TELL ME 🔪. (Note: Head over to my IG to see these!)

Get The Museum of Modern Love for the teen in your life who is a hopeless romantic, believes in the power of feelings, and knows how to appreciate the magic of art 😭. You won't regret it!

[Trinity Marie · Rating 4.25 out of 5]

Arc review:

This book was actually so cute!! The romance was so cute and the perfect mix between slow burn and insta love. I loved learning about all the art that was so important to Miki and it made me want to go see an art museum. I also really loved that it talked about some of the less talked about tragedies of WWII and how it impacted generations. I think this book was so well balanced and beautifully written and I would absolutely recommend !

[vivistatia ✨ {oh well look at my life} · Rating 3.75 out of 5]

The beginning of this book didn’t have me sold but it got better! Like any good YA romcom it got a bit cringey at times but it wasn’t only surface level which I appreciated. The characters and plot had emotional depth and I enjoyed the glimpses into her grandmas childhood and art history as a whole.

[Aurora De Wulf · Rating 4.5 out of 5]

Een leuk boek voor tussendoor met een licht maar entertaining plot. De manier waarop de auteur over kunst schrijft zorgt ervoor dat je elk kunstwerk wilt opzoeken om te kunnen zien wat zij ziet! Ik ben ook aan het overwegen een tripje naar het MET te boeken 🙃

[Stacey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a neat YA rom-com. More on the rom side than the comedy, but a neat relevance to art and history intermingled with finding oneself.

[The Bookish Elf · Rating 4 out of 5]

On the last evening of a three-week internship, seventeen-year-old Miki Kawamura stands on the granite steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art while her best friend Auden dances badly down toward her and hands over a small gift box. Inside is a scrunchie printed with The Starry Night, chosen because the museum shop had nothing with her favourite Van Gogh cypresses on it. She ties up her hair with it and cannot get out a single word of what she came to say. She has a plan for that. Miki and Auden have permission to stay inside the building overnight to film social media videos for a new exhibit, and she intends to walk him through the galleries until the art does the confessing for her. Within the hour, her supervisor has pulled Auden onto a lighting job and handed Miki a substitute: a curator's nephew in a wrinkled band T-shirt. He is Lou McSweeney, the boy she spent last summer arguing with and kissing. The Museum of Modern Love by Mariko Turk begins as a confession plot and quickly becomes something better: a test of whether the person you planned for is the person you actually talk to.

A Rehearsal With the Wrong Boy

The route Miki has mapped is not her own. It retraces the night in 1965 when her grandparents, two strangers accidentally locked inside the museum, fell in love among the paintings, a story later made famous in a magazine photo-essay that Lou's late grandfather wrote. Lou guesses the scheme in about four minutes, tells her it has no chance, and offers to play Auden for a practice run. That premise does a lot of work. Every stop on the tour becomes a scene played twice, once as rehearsal and once, in Miki's head, for the boy who is not there, and the gap between the two performances is where the novel finds its comedy and its ache.

The first rehearsal is the best scene in The Museum of Modern Love by Mariko Turk. In the Paris Salon gallery, in front of Pierre-Auguste Cot's Springtime, Miki takes Lou's hand and delivers her speech to Auden. Lou listens, then points out that the lovers' swing is not tied to any branch; the ropes simply vanish out of frame. That is his whole philosophy of romance in one observation, and Miki's furious defence of the painting is hers. Turk lets them both be partly right, which is rarer in YA romance than it should be.

Lou is the real achievement of The Museum of Modern Love by Mariko Turk. On the surface he is a type, the sardonic boy with the resting bored face and a tin of sour sweets in his pocket. Turk gives the type a reason. He has watched what all-consuming passion did to his older brother, Gray, a gifted musician whose conservatory years left him unable to play, and he has decided that caring hard is how people get hurt. The novel reveals this slowly and through behaviour rather than confession: a boy who sits hypnotised for eighteen seconds in front of a Noguchi fountain, who knows details about Auden that Miki only mentioned once, who keeps renaming their night after whatever is going wrong. By the halfway point, every rehearsal has started to feel like the real thing, and both of them know it.

Madison, Miki's best friend back in Florida, arrives by FaceTime with a romance-personality index of her own invention, under which Miki is a Type A Romantic Retriever: elaborate plans, endless fetch, no forward motion. It is a running joke that also happens to be the most accurate diagnosis anyone offers.

What The Museum of Modern Love Believes About Repair

The second thread is quieter and it is what lifts the book. Miki wants to be a conservator, and the reason is a sculpture. In 2002 the pedestal under Tullio Lombardo's Adam collapsed and the marble shattered into hundreds of pieces; it took twelve years of work to put him back together. To a twelve-year-old girl reading about it, that rebuild proved something could be un-broken. That anecdote is her heroine's whole emotional logic.

Miki's parents divorced the summer before high school, when her mother took a job in Florida and her father one in California, and they told her calmly that love sometimes fades. She said she was fine. She has been saying it ever since, and her faith in grand gestures is partly a refusal to accept their version of how love ends. The Museum of Modern Love by Mariko Turk is at its most perceptive when it pits Miki's belief in conservation, the idea that anything precious can be preserved by enough care, against Lou's suspicion that some things should be allowed to change shape. Neither of them wins outright. The novel's resolution of that argument is generous, specific and unexpectedly moving, and it widens the definition of a love story well beyond the two teenagers at its centre.

The building itself is drawn with an insider's precision. The Museum of Modern Love by Mariko Turk knows which wing sits where, what the air temperature is, and how a conservator removes fly droppings from an antique valentine.

Where The Museum of Modern Love Gives Ground
The interruptions run on a schedule. Almost every near-kiss is broken by a phone alert, a supervisor or a guard. The device works the first few times and starts to show its gears by the sixth.
The final act talks its themes through. Two blow-ups arrive back to back, and in their wake three different characters sit Miki down and explain what the night has meant. The ideas are good; hearing them stated is less satisfying than watching them emerge.
Security is improbably relaxed. Two teenagers wander off the approved route, break minor rules for hours and suffer almost nothing for it. Forgivable in a romantic comedy, but it lowers the stakes.
Distance is waved away. A book this alert to how relationships fray treats the miles between its couple as a detail for later.
Read It If / Skip It If

The Museum of Modern Love by Mariko Turk will suit some romance readers far better than others.

Read it if:

You love a rivals-to-lovers romance built on fast, funny dialogue.
You want a setting that functions as a character, room by room.
You like YA that takes family history seriously without losing its lightness.

Skip it if:

Love triangles where the outcome is clear early frustrate you.
Frequent swearing in a teen narrator bothers you.
You want strict realism about how museums and their guards actually work.
Content Notes for The Museum of Modern Love
Strong language throughout, including frequent f-words
Parental divorce and its emotional aftermath
A sibling's anxiety, burnout and depression after being expelled from music school
Discussion of the WWII incarceration of Japanese Americans and its effect on a family
A panic attack on the page
Trespassing in closed galleries, played for comedy
Heat level: kissing only, some of it passionate; a remembered make-out session stops well short of sex

The Last Word

What sets this book apart from other one-night romances is that it understands its own premise. A plan copied from somebody else's love story is a costume, and Turk spends the whole night peeling it off her heroine, gallery by gallery, until only the conversation is left. The interruptions are mechanical and the ending over-tidies, but the banter is sharp and the family history underneath gives it weight.

The Museum of Modern Love by Mariko Turk is a valentine to a building, and a warning about loving anything only as it was. Bring someone who argues back.

[blissful.brii · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley and MacMillan Publishing for this book.

Rating: 3.5 stars (rounded up)

The Museum of Modern Love by Mariko Turk is a cute YA novel that that really encapsulates the beauty and human feelings revolving artistic expression. I really like how the author integrates her local background of growing up in PA to moving to FL as a major influence of the setting in the novel. Especially the for main setting of Miki Kawamura’s internship at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

“The Met” is this central place in these three weeks during Miki’s internship where the Falling In Love Tour plan is supposed to unfold inspired by her Grandmother Hana and Grandfather Kenshin. Miki’s friend/ex Lou takes this interesting ride with her along the way as she tries to win someone’s heart. But who will it be….?

This is a bit of a slow burn at first and this is a YA novel for content, but the convergence and descriptions of art and love and the young infatuation will take hold of your mind and make you think deep!

[Maura (thenovelmaura) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to Colored Pages Book Tours and FierceReads for sending me a finished copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

"And I tell myself that it doesn't matter that Lou McSweeney is a wrecking ball. That The Plan has spectacularly fallen apart. I'll piece it back together again, no matter what. And in the end, it will be more beautiful than I could have ever imagined."

Getting lost in an empty museum with your crush would be a dream come true, but of course fate had other plans for Miki as she ended up wandering the Met with her insufferable ex boyfriend from last summer, Lou, instead of her long-distance best friend, Auden. Despite their rocky history, Miki and Lou had undeniable chemistry and Lou encouraged Miki to deviate from her carefully crafted "Falling in Love Tour," creating new memories in the Egyptian wing and a surrealism exhibit. What I enjoyed most about their second chance romance (besides their banter) was that it forced Miki to reconsider things from Lou's perspective last summer: he might have been as closed off as a pangolin, but how had she contributed to making him feel like "the replacement guy?" Maybe he cared a lot more about their relationship and how it ended than he let on.

Setting aside the romance, Miki's true love was the art world, as introduced to her by her grandmother. Turk described the halls of the Met so vividly that it was like I was also wandering them, and I loved looking up each piece of artwork after reading about Miki or Grandma Hana finding a specific emotion in its color or texture or composition. Although I wasn't expecting it from the description, Grandma Hana's experience in the Japanese internment camps played a critical role in the narrative, as she lost and rediscovered her love of photography. I hope this inclusion prompts younger readers to do further research into the stories of survivors. Turk did a lovely job balancing the sweet and the serious moments throughout this story, which all took place over the course of one long, eventful night.

I also wanted to mention that I absolutely loved Turk's debut novel, The Other Side of Perfect, when I read it in 2021. Seeing a Wasian female main character who grew up in a predominantly white area was rare enough at the time that it really stuck with me. It was so lovely to read another book from her featuring a perfectly imperfect teen girl who recognized her flaws and grew from them.

[Ridhima · Rating 3.25 out of 5]

Thank you to Colored Pages Book Tours, Fierce Reads, and Mariko Turk for the gifted copy of this book!

A sweet, quick YA read, that served as a nice palate cleanser between heavier books, and came with all the lovely feelings that come with your first love.

Told from the pov of Miki, a Japanese-American teenager who loves all things art, the entire plot occurs over the span of one night. As an nyc resident, the setting of the Met Museum made me pick up the book in the first place, and I liked how easy it was to read this one. I did find Miki's wishes to trace the same path her grandparents took decades ago to be endearing, and all the art history nerds will definitely enjoy the little nuggets of information that show up periodically throughout the book. The author does briefly shine a light on the WW2 Japanese Internment camps, and how that continues to affect people generations later. From a romance perspective, this was a second chance, slight dislike-to-lovers, and I quite adored the little banter and patented teen snark that happened between both protagonists.

Keep in mind, this is still heavily YA, which shows in some of the dialogues, miscommunication, and overall behavior of the characters in the book. A tiny requirement to set aside your beliefs of the "probable vs improbable" is recommended, and there is a small chance that the swift change in feelings involved might make it seem frivolous. I also wish that Auden as a character was given some more insight into, since he hardly shows up at all, so the contrast between him and the male lead, Lou would have been more obvious. The ending was a bit rushed, but I still liked how the surprise at the end was handled and Grandma Hana's wisdom.

Overall, at about 300 pages, this is an easy read that really summarizes how lost one feels in high school, and it will definitely leave a smile on your face with all the cuteness.

[Romantacy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Do you remember that carefree feeling you got when you were young and had your first crush? The butterflies in your stomach. The way nothing was put into perspective and yet everything was just right? That is what it felt like to dive into this book. I have not had that experience reading a book in a very long time.

This is for the art lovers, the classic romantic, and young love.

Miki sets the perfect night in the museum with Auden, her long time crush and best friend.  Only to end up exploring with Lou, last summers fling. They both have very different ideas on what love looks like. Who can convince the other as she is romantic and naive and he is a cynical jerk.

"These immaculately painted scenes tend to draw out the romantic soul in even the most unsuspecting of visitors"

We get to experience some of the best works of art through miki eyes as well as her grandparents love story and the incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWll. There is so much history thrown into this book and it just comes together beautifully. A must read.

YA
Museum art
Romcom
Swoony
Romantic

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

✨𝒜𝑅𝒞 𝑅𝑒𝓋𝒾𝑒𝓌✨
📖The Museum of Modern Love

Miki has grand plans to make her childhood best friend Auden fall in love with her by recreating the night her grandparents fell in love at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. But she never expected her cynical summer fling to upend her night instead.

Tropes:
⚠️Enemies to lovers
🫂Forced proximity
🗣️Banter
🖼️Overnight in the Met Museum
💕Second chance YA romance

Miki’s optimism is a stark contrast to Lou’s cynical nature. She’s a hopeless romantic and he’s trying to avoid romance. Their dynamic was so much fun and I loved seeing them connect over art.

The author infuses as much passion into the art and history as the romance. I was cheering on Miki to find a timeless love full of grand gestures and acceptance.

The Museum of Modern Love is a heartfelt tale of self-discovery and first love, and a sweet love letter to art lovers!

Huge thanks to the author, Henry Holt, Fierce Reads, and Netgalley for the review copy. This is my honest and voluntary review.

[Karen Barber · Rating 4.5 out of 5]

An unexpected delight. A love story that does not quite follow the expected format, but is probably more lovely for it.
Ever since she was little, Miki has loved the story of how her grandparents fell in love one night they were locked in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. She has memorised the essay that tells their story, and has always seen the museum as somewhere magical. So, when she gets the opportunity to intern at the museum with her childhood crush Auden she is determined that their last night will be special as she recreates what happened that night to her grandparents.
Only things don’t quite go to plan.
Auden is required to help with an installation problem. Miki is asked to carry out her planned filming of exhibits with Lou McSweeney, the boy who she felt broke her heart the summer before. You know exactly where this is likely to go, but following the journey there was far more emotional than I expected.
Watching these two realise their true feelings was equal parts funny and romantic. I went down more than one or two rabbit holes googling the art referenced in the story, and loved how everything resolved itself into a wider focus as the book progressed.

[bailey elizabeth smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

2⭐️

Thanks to Fierce Reads for the copy in exchange for an honest review!

As someone who has spent countless hours inside museums, I was excited to pick up a book that was an ode to the art-obsessed romantics.

This story follows Miki. Her grandparents fell in love after accidentally being locked in the Met overnight in 1965. Now, after too many almost-confessions, she will finally tell her best friend, Auden, that she loves him by retracing the path her grandparents took through the museum that fateful night. However, things go a little off script when Lou McSweeney (Miki's ex) joins her on her midnight tour instead of Auden. From here, I am sure you can imagine how this plays out!

I was really hoping to like this story, but it was just much too immature for me. So much so to the point that I was surprised whenever anyone swore because they behaved like tweens. In the end, this was much too corny and juvenile for me. I also really have a gripe when it comes to too many topical/pop-culture references in a book. It really takes me out of the story and always dates the book in the long run.

I had hoped to like this, but it did not work for me, sadly.

[QuirkyTofurkey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, how I ADORED this. I came away with a whole new appreciation for art and an overwhelming desire to visit a museum, find an exhibit that speaks to me, and stare at it until I’ve forgotten what time it is and security has to politely ask me to vacate the premises.

This is a story about art, but more than that, it’s about what art asks of us. The way it makes us look inward. The way it can hold up a mirror we didn’t know we needed. Two people can stand in front of the same painting and walk away having two completely different, equally valid experiences. Art inspires. Art transforms. You can walk into a museum as one version of yourself and walk back out as someone ever so slightly different.

And somehow, despite this story taking place over a single night, I was completely captivated by the amount of character development the author managed to weave into those few hours. Miki, Lou, Auden, Madison, Miki’s grandmother—hell, even Lou’s uncle—all felt so wonderfully human and fully realized. I genuinely don’t know what to say about this book. I just want to babble incoherently and press it into everyone’s hands and say, “Please read this. I loved it so much.”

The banter between Miki and Lou had me staying up well past my bedtime, which, as an adult, is quite the sacrifice. I did not care. I could not love them more.

Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group, Macmillan Audio, and Mariko Turk for the advanced reader and listener copies. This review is voluntary, and all opinions are my own.

[tiff rasberry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nothing screams how to make a teen boy fall in love with you than a Night at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Or at least, our sweet Miki Kawamura is very convinced that reliving her grandparents’ original love story will create the same effect.

That is until Lou McSweeney, the world’s most uninspired jaded cynic joins the little midnight tour Miki had planned… Oh, and McSweeney… that’s Miki’s ex from the summer before.

This story goes deeper than a very entertaining love triangle. It brings necessary facts of the Japanese-American concentration camps to the forefront of the narrative. It highlights how even in art, sometimes we see what we want to see rather than what it means. That sometimes life is beautiful and precious even when it’s ugly and jagged.

Pub Date October 13 2026

Thanks so much to Macmillan Audio, Macmillan Young Listeners, Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group, Henry and Holt Co. and Netgalley for my ALC and eARC!

review posted to NetGalley & Goodreads

[Ann · Rating 4.75 out of 5]

This is my favorite brand of YA contemporary romance, if you love Lynn Painter, Jenny Han, Jennifer E. Smith, Stephanie Perkins, etc. you will love this (or love recommending it to a younger reader!)

Miki is a teenager romantic and art lover who is reunited with her best friend and secret crush, Auden at the Met, and makes a plan to get locked in the met with him and confess her love to him, just like how her own grandparents fell in love in 1965.

Only the plan backfires and instead of the romantic tour with Auden she ends up stuck giving the tour to former fling and now enemy, Lou. Enter BANTER! Swoonworthy scenes! So much yearning!

Bonus points because Miki grew up in humid Gainesville, FL (like me)!

The juxtaposition of the modern day to Miki’s grandparents is also fascinating. I love a book where maybe the right guy was right there under her nose all along!

Thanks so much to Colored Pages Book Tours for the Gifted copy.

[Miranda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book from NetGalley

🎨classic art
🤍young adult
🎨second chance

This was such a fun and unique read focusing around art and I was so intrigued by it. I loved the whole aspect of relating it back to her grandparents love story and wanting something like that. I did love the whole Met environment as well I felt like I was right there and the DETAIL, it just was so unique. And I mean the sorry started classic art, how cool is that

Mika was such a fun character as well I just loved her. I also adored all the art aspect. I love art so seeing related into a book love story was so cool. It was just such a wholesome story and quite the adventure. It was such an easy follow along read too! It felt like one of those 2000 rom com movies and I was so here for it