Love, Chai, and Other Four-Letter Words by Annika Sharma is a cute multicultural slow-burn/strangers-to-friends-to-lovers

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Chai Masala Club series by Annika Sharma, which begins with Love, Chai, and Other Four-Letter Words, has a lovely premise. Four South Asian friends with various backgrounds are living in New York City. They’re all in their thirties, and decide to edit and start to fulfil the bucket lists that they originally wrote down when they were in college.

In further installments, we’ll follow the other folks in the group, but in this book we follow Kiran. Kiran is an engineer who was born in a smallish village in India but went to college (and still lives) in the States. She generally avoids dating because she’s expected to marry an Indian man.

Nash just moved to New York City from Nashville, TN to live near his college best friend. He is a psychologist who wants to help kids who are in similar situations to his own childhood. His dad left when he was young and his mother dealt with an addition to drugs. He avoids connecting with others because he worries about being left alone. But oops, he moved into Kiran’s building and they strike up a friendship that evolves into something more.

I received an audiobook copy of this book for review via NetGalley, but all opinions contained herein are my own. The book came out last month. The narrator was very pleasant to listen to. I appreciated the diversity in this book, and the fact that it is #OwnVoices. The romance is a very cute slow-burn neighbors/friends-to-lovers with a tinge of forbidden love. Both of our leads, neither of whom are NYC-natives, enjoy a romance with the city itself as well.

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