Friday, November 6, 2026 – Big Time Rush’s Carlos PenaVega and actress Alexa PenaVega mark the release of their latest book, JOY ISN’T CANCELED: What Grief Taught Us About Pain, Peace, and Purpose, with Nelson Books. Drawing from their own experience with unimaginable loss, the couple shares a powerful message of hope for anyone navigating grief. Whether it’s the loss of a loved one, the end of a relationship, an unexpected diagnosis, or the collapse of a dream, suffering eventually touches every life. Yet while people spend years preparing for careers, marriages, and parenthood, few prepare for the inevitable reality of loss.
In JOY ISN’T CANCELED the PenaVegas share the deeply personal story of losing their daughter, Indy, and the surprising lessons they learned about faith, resilience, marriage, and joy along the way. Written in their distinct alternating voices, the book offers an intimate look into one family’s darkest season while providing readers with practical wisdom for navigating their own seasons of grief.
Rather than asking readers to avoid pain or simply move on from loss, Carlos and Alexa reveal how joy and sorrow can exist together. Through honest conversations about unanswered prayers, fear, community, parenting through grief, and the realities of walking through tragedy as husband and wife, they demonstrate that suffering does not have to define a person’s future or destroy the relationships they hold most dear.
At the heart of the book is a powerful and unexpected message: joy is not something we recover after grief ends. It is something we cultivate long before hardship arrives through spiritual formation, authentic community, emotional honesty, and an unwavering trust in God. Drawing from Scripture, personal stories, and practical encouragement, JOY ISN’T CANCELED equips readers to prepare their hearts before life’s greatest trials and discover that even in the midst of unimaginable pain, hope, peace, and purpose remain possible.
Warm, vulnerable, and profoundly hopeful, JOY ISN’T CANCELED is not simply a memoir about loss. It is an invitation to live with resilient faith, stronger relationships, and the confidence that grief may change your life, but it does not have to cancel your joy.
About Carlos & Alexa PenaVega
He’s one-fourth of Big Time Rush— the boy band that never really left; the world tours still sell out. She grew up on screen as the star of Spy Kids. They married in 2014, combined their last names, and have been co-starring ever since: facing off on the same season of Dancing with the Stars, headlining Hallmark movies together, andsharing everyday life with their three kids — Ocean, Kingston, and Rio— on their family vlog, La Vida PenaVega. Home base is split between Maui and Florida, with a tour bus somewhere in between. Their audience knows them for one thing above all: being real — which is exactly what they bring to this book.
About Nelson Books
Nelson Books, an imprint of Thomas Nelson, is an industry leader in Christian nonfiction publishing. Nelson Books publishes a diverse array of leaders, experts, and creatives, crafting biblically informed and spiritually fresh books from a Christian perspective that enliven, educate, and encourage readers. The Nelson Books roster of bestselling authors includes Lysa TerKeurst, Tim Tebow, John Mark Comer, John & Stasi Eldredge, Jennie Allen, Jefferson Bethke, Bob Goff, Ruth Chou Simons, Tyler Staton, Jason Wilson, Christine Caine and Zach Windahl.
Contact:
Devin Duke
Senior Publicity Manager, Nelson Books
Devin.Duke@HarperCollins.com
