In Evelyn Skye's New Novel, Paper Roses Carry Uplifting Messages: Read an Excerpt! (Exclusive)

'The Incredible Kindness of Paper' follows long-lost pen pals whose lives are changed forever. PEOPLE has an exclusive sneak peek

Bestselling author Evelyn Skye has a new novel on deck, and it marks a major departure from her YA and adult magical realism bestsellers.

The Incredible Kindness of Paper comes out Aug. 12, 2025 from Atria Books and PEOPLE has an exclusive first look at the cover — plus an excerpt to get readers' interest piqued for the summer release.

When they were in elementary school, Chloe Hanako Quinn was assigned Oliver Jones as her pen pal. Thus began a beautiful friendship that blossomed into something greater — until disaster strikes and Oliver disappears.

More than 20 years later, Chloe is a high school guidance counselor in New York City but big-city life is far from a fairytale. Rent is high, her job is unstable and she's lonely, despite her situationship. So she writes herself pep talks on yellow origami roses that she soon starts leaving around town for others who might need uplifting, too.

Little does she know that Oliver is now a successful financial analyst, living in the same city. His past still haunts him so when he comes across a little yellow origami rose, things change for him forever.

Read on for an exclusive excerpt from The Incredible Kindness of Paper.

Reading always soothed her, especially if it was a previously read favorite that Chloe could sink herself into, the familiarity of the world and the characters like a warm hug from an old friend who had no expectations other than time well spent together.

While Zac ran interval sprints around the park and did ... whatever it was that he did at the circuit training stations, Chloe settled down on a shady bench under a sprawling, leafy oak tree and opened her well-worn copy of Little Women. The book had been one of her very first purchases when she moved to New York — from the wonderfully cozy Astoria Bookshop in her neighborhood — and she’d read Little Women four times since.

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When Chloe reached one of her most favorite lines in the book, she smiled.

I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.

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It felt, in this moment, as if the universe were speaking to her, or maybe it was Louisa May Alcott across a century and a half. Those were exactly the words Chloe needed. She reached for the pen in her purse, wrote the quote onto the back of the receipt she used as a bookmark, then she absentmindedly folded it into a tiny rose while she read.

Chloe was so deep into her book, though, she didn’t notice when the breeze kicked up, rustling through the leaves and blowing her paper flower away. She only figured it out later, when Zac had finished his workout and appeared in front of her, and she reached for her bookmark on the bench beside her but found nothing there.

Later that day…

The young Italian guy always showed up in the early afternoon on Saturdays to feed the pigeons.

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He normally sat there alone, body slumped as if he was already worn out, even though the day was only half over. He’d tear off chunks of bread from a bakery bag labeled Giovanni’s Croissants & Baguettes and toss them to the birds, but his throws were usually lackadaisical, landing mere inches from his feet.

Today, though, he was tossing with gusto, making high, spiraling arcs in the air. And he was talking to someone on his earbuds.

Chloe didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but he was so excited, he was practically broadcasting his conversation to the entire park. She hid behind a nearby tree.

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“I’m so pumped!” he said. “You know how I’ve been complaining that the bakery has been bleeding money ever since I opened four months ago, and I should probably abandon ship? Like, I literally told you it felt like a sinking ship. Well, I just got this weird mysterious message. It was, like, waiting for me on the path I always use to walk into the park — ‘I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.’ I mean, f--- yeah, right?”

Chloe gasped. 

She had done this. Sure, her words had accidentally made their way out into the world, but what if she could make a difference? What if she could fold inspirational paper roses for more people and make even a small corner of New York a little more hopeful, a little less lonely?

Adapted excerpt from The Incredible Kindness of Paper, Copyright © 2025 by Evelyn Skye published by Emily Bestler Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

The Incredible Kindness of Paper comes out Aug. 12, 2025 and is now available for preorder, wherever books are sold.

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