SLKY World Signs Rights to Young Adult Novel Ivanna: Love in Different Shapes by Ukranian author Mariya Levterova

Mariya is a Ukranian author with global experiences that have helped shaped her narrative style.

Inspired by her own living experience and memory, Mariya's book is very relatable.

A story of first love, cultural belonging, and self-worth, told through a Ukrainian teenager and her Mexican host family, scheduled for release in late 2027

ORLANDO , FL, UNITED STATES, October 15, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- SLKY World, the independent publishing house, today announced that it has signed the rights to Ivanna. Love in Different Shapes, a young adult novel by Mariya Levterova. The novel is scheduled for release in late 2027 and is written for readers aged fifteen and over.

The novel follows Ivanna, a fifteen year old Ukrainian girl who travels to Iowa on an exchange program. She is eager to escape parental control and to live the American teenage life she has watched on television, including her first boyfriend. Reality arrives quickly, and cultural integration proves far harder than the movies suggested. As the world around her begins to fall apart and a person she trusted lets her down, Ivanna must decide whether to lose herself in order to belong or to learn to value herself and defend her principles.

Readers can expect familiar young adult territory, including first love, friendship, jealousy, betrayal, and the difficulty of finding a place in the world, seen through an unfamiliar lens. Ivanna is a Ukrainian student in an American high school, living with a Mexican host family, and the novel follows what happens when a teenager is placed between cultures, expectations, and people far from home. The story asks questions that reach beyond its setting. Who am I when I am far from home? Do I need to fit into someone else's life, or do I need to protect my principles? Does being needed mean being loved? The book also offers a distinctive answer to injustice, arguing that justice comes through wisdom and growth rather than emotional revenge.

Romantic love is only one of the shapes the title refers to. The novel also explores friendship, family, the bond with a host family, and self-love, and it treats each of them as equally important to Ivanna's story.

"Being needed is different from being loved. Always value yourself first," said Levterova, describing the idea she hopes readers will carry away from the book.

The storytelling is cinematic, and readers will feel as though they are watching the story unfold. Action carries most of the description, and the pacing alternates moments of tension with room to breathe. Each character has depth, reasons, internal conflicts, and developmental arcs. The novel received developmental editing from bestselling author Kelly McKain during a six-month author mentorship. Early readers reported wanting to shout when Ivanna was too naive and blind to see the truth, wanting to cry when her world began to crack, and being unable to wait to find out what came next.

"Ivanna's story belongs to every young reader who has stood between the home they left and the place they are still learning to call theirs," said Mariana De' Carli, founder of SLKY World. "What convinced us to sign the rights was the honesty of its central question, which is how a person can build new connections without surrendering who she is."

The novel is written for readers who enjoy the layered friendships of Jenny Han, the romantic tension of Lynn Painter, and the emotional realism of Sara Barnard. It is equally suited to new adults and adults who like to revisit the bumpy growth of their own teenage years, as well as to readers who have never relocated but wonder what it would be like. The story has clear potential as a trilogy that follows the same cast through a summer camp, a final school year, and the changing nature of friendship and dreams. Levterova is available for school visits, particularly at schools with large expatriate communities, to speak with students about identity, doubt, and the challenges of growing up between countries.

About Mariya Levterova
Mariya Levterova lives in Saudi Arabia with her family. She wrote a children's book published in Ukrainian in 2025 and won a writing contest in 2026. Ivanna: Love in Different Shapes draws on her teenage years, including changing schools, a group of friends, a first love, a first kiss, and a first betrayal, as well as her experience of being an expat far from family.

About SLKY World
SLKY World is an independent publishing house with a sister imprint, SLKY World Arabia, which publishes voices based in the Middle East alongside international translations. The house represents authors writing across continents and languages and is committed to ethical publishing and fair representation, giving every author the care, transparency, and creative support that a story deserves, whatever stage of their career they have reached.

Mariana De Carli
SLKY World LLC
+1 231-388-7721
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