Juliet Izon Is Releasing Debut Novel ‘The Encore’: See the Cover (Exclusive)

Juliet Izon loves live music.

In the past few weeks alone, the New York-based journalist has shared snaps from concerts for Haim and Chappell Roan. As she wrote it in her post about the latter show, she loves live music “so much that I wrote a whole novel about it.”

It’s true: Izon’s first novel, The Encore, is by, for and about music lovers. Heavy on the “by” part: A large chunk of the book’s 368 pages essentially poured out of the writer, according to her Instagram.

“I started writing something just to get it out of my system (lol) and now it’s 30,000 words. Halp.”

That’s a text Izon wrote to a friend and fellow author after penning the first portion of The Encore, according to her post announcing the novel in May 2024. The book may not hit shelves until March 2026 — via publisher Union Square & Co — but in the meantime, PEOPLE can exclusively reveal its cover.

“As a veteran entertainment journalist, it was so much fun to create a world partially based on my own experiences covering red carpets, concerts and celebrity news,” Izon tells PEOPLE of the book. “And, as a writer who is so used to only penning articles that are squarely in reality, it was invigorating and freeing to let my imagination fly into this universe of musicians and music.”

The Encore spans two decades, beginning at a prestigious Boston conservatory in 2003, where readers meet a future indie rock star who will spend the subsequent years trying to outrun her demons, per Izon.

At the conservatory, “a chance encounter sparks an inimitable friendship between driven pianist and singer Anna Buckley and composer wunderkind Will Pendleton,” per the synopsis. “As they strive toward careers as professional musicians, their bond deepens both from shared skill and the inexplicable sense that they’re kindred souls.”

“But soon after graduation, one night forever alters the trajectory of their lives, destroying their relationship in the process,” the synopsis teases.

Fast forward 20 years — and travel a couple hundred miles northeast — and readers meet Lottie Thomas, a 16-year-old piano virtuoso in New York with a lot on her mind.

The teen “is grappling with the rigors of her elite prep school and the confounding disappearance of the woman who gave her up at birth,” per the synopsis.

“When Lottie suddenly discovers the startling truth of her identity, the revelation catalyzes a chain of events that not only reunites Lottie with her birth parents, but forces them together on a rock tour bus for a careening cross-country journey. It is there, trapped in these tight confines, that the three must finally reconcile with irrevocable choices from the past.”

“I can’t wait for readers to discover Anna, Will, and Lottie,” Izon tells PEOPLE of the characters, “and I hope they love their journey as much as I enjoyed writing it.”

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The Encore hits shelves March 3, 2026, and available for pre-order now wherever books are sold.