Love, Chai, and Other Four-Letter Words

DEBUT Kiran Mathur is a biomedical engineer in New York City. Though she misses her parents, who live in India, she talks to them daily and helps them financially. Kiran has always followed her parents’ rules, even after moving to the U.S. Then she meets Nash, a psychologist who recently moved into her apartment building. They quickly become friends, and as they grow closer, they both begin to want more. Unfortunately, Kiran is a dutiful daughter whose parents insist on an arranged marriage, and Nash’s childhood taught him that people don’t stick around. This well-written contemporary romance features the familiar tropes of forbidden love and friends-to-lovers with characters from different backgrounds and cultures. The likable characters are sympathetically and realistically rendered in chapters told from both Kiran’s and Nash’s perspectives.