Carla de Guzman
contemporary romance author from the Philippines, can be found in cafés or wherever a Travelers Notebook is sold.
Latest Releases
Click the covers to read blurbs,
shop copies and more!
Martha Aguas has it all: a job she likes, a puppy she loves, and a wardrobe that makes her feel beautiful. Yes, everyone tries to make her feel bad for being mataba, she can't buy bras in the Philippines, and she's never had a boyfriend. But so what? It's never mattered before.
But when her perfect cousin Regina announces her engagement to Enzo, the blast from the past boy whom she might have loved before, it suddenly feels like a big deal. Aguases from all over the globe are coming in for the engagement of the century, and the last thing Martha wants to hear is a well-meaning barb about how she should watch her weight.
Thank god for Max. Her funny, dependable, best friend Max, who doesn't mind playing the role of fake boyfriend for the family festivities. But the more Martha plays along, the less it feels like pretend, and more she starts to wonder if Max had maybe loved her all along.
Lia Mertola needs a break. Between losing her job and ending a friendship, she’s feeling a little lifeless. Her brother Teddy’s offer to be his saling kit on a work trip to Seoul is the perfect escape.
But what Teddy failed to mention was that he was working with CoBOLT—the band she used to love, led by the idol she used to live for.
Second generation KPop idol Cal Ahn can feel his grasp on the industry slipping away. With the loss of a bandmate and a contract renewal in danger, he’s not in the right headspace to work on a new mini album, not even with the producer he handpicked to fly in from Manila.
But there’s something about the way Teddy’s sister Lia looks at him, like she knows something he doesn’t. Like she knows the words to all the songs he can’t seem to write.
The more time Cal and Lia spend together, the more they find that there’s room to grow together—unless their lives mean they need to stay apart.
Manila Takes Manhattan
read by Gabriela Pangilinan and Jef Flores
Blooming Love
Philippine Print Edition
On AI
I only work with human editors, artists, fellow authors and narrators. I do not consent to having my work fed to AI and other large language models.
This is romance!
Where romance, by definition, are stories that contain happy endings, and happy-for-now endings, with characters that have agency, give their consent and are given justice.
Filipino characters, set anywhere
I choose to write contemporary romance (mostly) with Filipino characters. I do not provide an index in any of my books, and I never will!