Kiran, an Indian girl from a village in India moved to New York to study.
Nash, a psychologist, just moved to Kiran’s building.
Kiran’s family is extremely conservative and especially after her sister married a white guy, Kiran feels the need to be approved by her parents a lot more – and for that she has to marry an Indian Guy.
Nash has parental issues, which developed into commitment issues.
Can they even have a future together?

This was so freaking cute. I loved it from the very start. Kiran is intelligent, fun and I loved learning more about her and her situation. As an Indian, this talks a lot about approval – the need to be better than others or looked side ways, the problems of making a mistake that would be okay for anyone else but not for a foreigner. I really felt for her and being a foreigner myself really identified with many things she says.

Nash had a hard life and although he turned out all right, it left some commitment issues. He is afraid to fall in love and be left or be disappointed. But he is such a cute and lovable character! He learns from his past and tries to do better.

They just worked so well together! I loved the chemistry and their friendship which developed along the book. It was beautiful and powerful and I really think they just clicked. Their interactions were so freaking cute and I was totally in love with them!

The writing is really enjoyable, it really made me feel the characters’ emotions and it dealt with some important issues like I mentioned before. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and can’t wait to see what the author comes up with next!

Love, Chai & Other Four Letter Words, is the first book in the Chai Masala Club series. A cute, feel good, slow-burn, closed door romance, set in New York. Nash and Kiran were perfect together, while their chemistry was slightly lacking at first I did enjoy the way their relationship developed and grew over time. The story is made richer by the cultural backgrounds and diverse representation of the characters. I was left wanting a little more so I’m definitely looking froward to the next book in the series.
Overall a very sweet read, if you loved The Sun Is Also a Star, you will definitely adore Love, Chai and Other Four Letter Words.

This book has the cutest title, Love, Chai and other Four Letter Words. The cover is super cute as well. I love a South Asian MC and I love an interracial relationship.

I think the author tried to tackle a few too many issues in this book. I think focusing one one or two of the issues that connected well together would have been better.

So I have realized throughout my romance reading journey that parents who care more about having a daughter married rather than actual accomplishments in life (like education and careers) stresses me out, a lot. Like this one was super intense as well and while I understand that in some communities throughout the world, this is how life is and how women are treated, I felt that in a romcom it could have been dialed back just a bit. There was a little too much emotional abuse and deeply rooted patriarchal values for me.

I did like that the author brought up the white-saviour and western mentality that our culture and so called ‘freedoms’ are better because they were implemented by ‘civilized’ white people issue. I felt that it really connected with the different values that Kiran grew up with in India well. I think that focusing on just these two things would have been better for the story, I think it would have allowed for a little less intensity on the conservative parents front.

I am really excited to read more from this author. I think she did a great job setting up the other members of the Chai Masala Club for future books.

So cute! Loved this story. Nash and Kiran are great together, and I loved how the book explored Kiran's culture and the complications associated with traditional Indian families and marriages. I also really liked how the book dove into subconscious biases and prejudices against cultures you're not familiar with.

Kiran and her friends are #goals and I loved the entire book.

Thank you so much, NetGalley for the early look at it!

Love, Chai, and Other Four-Letter Words by Annika Sharma tells a people story of two people from different cultures falling in love. I enjoyed how real this story is showing issues that I can imagine real life couples encountering.

I wanted to like this book far more than I did sadly I didn’t. It felt a bit tedious. I really liked Kiran’s group of friends but her relationship with Nash lacked something and there were some moments were it just was weird. They might have just made better friends honestly but of course it doesn’t work like that. Admittedly I am not from Kiran’s culture so I can’t really know and understand it but the disapproving/disowning parents thing comes up in books often enough and I always hate it.

It wasn’t a bad book it was perfectly fine it just wasn’t that interesting. It was a lot of hey let’s go here let’s go there let’s eat this or that blah blah list blah blah emotionally scarring backstory blah blah we can’t be together because parents and stuff. Also this is the first book I’ve read that was set “post pandemic”. I’ve seen this on TV in this magical wonderland that doesn’t actually exist in reality.... seems like in my opinion most of the time it’s better to just pretend like it didn’t happen instead of setting up this after world that we have never actually reached. I don’t know I suppose it’s a weird thing to have to figure out. I would be interested in knowing what happens with Kiran’s friends if they got their own books maybe because they seem more interesting than her. This book just felt like it dragged on until forever.

A meet cute story about friendships, love, family, culture, traditions, and race.

When Nash moves to New York and locks himself out of his apartment, he meets his neighbour, Kiran, and is introduced to the culture and traditions of India.

When Kiran inspires Nash to write a bucket list, she decides to help him achieve his list, and her own. Soon sparks fly as their friendship grows, but both have to fight hard to pretend they are only friends.

Kiran has her family to think of, Nash, his family history. How do they overcome their families histories and allow themselves to love?

I love meet cute stories, and this one really hit with characters that are my own age and similar in culture. The story brought up the topic of race and how hard it is to fit in, which also leads into the culture and traditions of a person, and how different Asian culture is to Caucasian cultures.

I would have liked to have read a bit more about the CMC, and how they interacted one on one with Nash. Could there also be a sequel, where Kiran's family visits New York, and maybe even Aunt Kate and Kirk...?

I really enjoyed this book! As a South Asian myself I could really relate to some aspects of the story. I highly recommend this one to anyone looking for a light-hearted and a quick read!

I adored the concept of the Chai Masala Club--and I’ll never buy a chai from a place that calls it a chai latte or (gasp ;)) a chai tea latte again! I really enjoyed how Kiran welcomed Nash with pretty open arms from the very beginning. Nash has an interesting backstory, and having him open up to Kiran bit by bit was really great to see play out. I love a bucket list story, so this was also a highlight of the story for me!

I prefer a rom-com or even a romance pretty low in the drama category, and while I understand the relationship between our heroine and her parents played a pivotal role in the plot, it was a lot. I feel like the toxicity took me out of the overall story a bit too much at times. I think Sharma has a lot of potential, and I do look forward to seeing how the friends get their HEAs! Thanks so much to Sourcebooks Casa and NetGalley for a digital review copy!

Kiran and Nash are nice but I just wasn't invested in their relationship. The friend group is likeable, setting the series up nicely for each of them to get their own book.

Like many immigrants, Kiran came to America to pursue a college degree. After graduating from Duke, she moves to New York City to start her career, and makes a tight-knit circle of friends who dub themselves the Chai Masala Club (CMC).

Kiran has always been a good daughter, following her parents’ traditions and rules—including not dating, since her parents want her to have an arranged marriage. But when Nash, a handsome psychologist, moves into her building, she feels a connection to him. Nash is new to the city and is just beginning to enjoy all the amazing experiences New York City has to offer, while Kiran is looking to cross things off her own NYC to-do list. The pair decide to explore the city together, but the more time they spend in each other’s company, the harder it is to resist the chemistry between them. I love the way that Annika Sharma makes the city a character in her novel. It’s a charming love story not just between the couple but also between the characters and New York City.

The operative word here is Chai which is the South Asian word for tea. This is the love story of an south asian immigrant and a white boi. Nash and Kiran's (pronounced key-run with a deep n.) Story is a sweet sugary tale with some heavy topics vying for attention at the end.
Kiran and Nash run into each other when Nash locks himself out of the apartment building. Kiran lets him in and offers him Chai while he waits. Nash hasn't experienced New York city and he comes across as also being unfamiliar with other races and their cultures.
They both start out as friends and start completing items off of Kiran's bucket list.
Kiran confesses her confusion with Nash with her group of best friends (CMC). They all give her varying advice while bickering and ribbing each other. They are the most adorable part of the book.

The implications of Nash and Kiran getting together are largely on the immigrant side. Issues of childhood abandonment, cultural boundaries of marriage are addressed.

Loved: The rich tapestry of issues addressed around immigrants.
The easy love and affection among the CMC( Kiran, Sonam, Akash and Payal). Nash and Kiran's commitment to each other in the later half.
Could be better: the initial romance and build up could have been better. They opened up too fast. As an immigrant who only moved during college, Kiran used way too much slang. Her identity as an immigrant was either language or her parents. There are so many nuances of being an immigrant. It could be clothes, friends on other side of the planet, the progression of a village girl who learnt to flirt, her time at Duke.
I would have loved more emphasis on Nash and Kirk's relation.

Looking forward: I hope the CMC will each have their own story. I could not figure if Akash is going to be paired with Payal or Sonam.

Thank you to NetGalley, SOURCEBOOKS Casablanca, and the author for an e-ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoyed Kiran's story and her friendship with the Chai Masala Club (or CMC for short), which were definitely the highlights of this book. I loved their dynamic and the way they were so supportive of each other and were there no matter what for one another. I also liked the way Nash was trying to learn and understand Kiran's culture (since she is Indian and he is white) in a loving and appreciating way. However, all of that did not make up for what happened at and after the 69% mark, which left me seriously thinking about DNFing. I, along with other reviewers, had a problem with the way Indian culture was represented here, specifically the traditional and conservative ways of Kiran's family that would rather disown their daughter (again) than for her to be happy and in love. The thing is that these kinds of things are happening all around the world and not just in India, so to make that a central point for the third act break up that kind of came out of nowhere, felt wrong. And when Kiran's mother told her that "Love comes from making others happy!" it just made my blood boil. This book had the potential to break the stereotype Western people have of Indian families, but it incorporated it into the story and made it the central plot point.

I thought that this book was okay. I felt as if the love moved a little too quickly to be believable and would have preferred more romantic buildup. The love interest's ignorance of the protagonist's culture took me out of it. This book was sweet and definitely has a lot of potential.

I really enjoyed this book. Kiran, our main character, is an engineer living in NYC. A chance encounter with her new neighbor turns her world upside and soon she’s questioning just what she’s willing to give up for a chance to fall in love.

Kiran and Nash’s relationship is very sweet and I loved the progression from friends to lovers. Their falling in love montage was believable and I enjoyed seeing them get to cross things off of their bucket lists together. Even though this was a romance, one of my favorite things about this book was the Chai Masala Crew. I loved seeing Kiran’s interactions with her besties and their unwavering support of her passions. Even though Nash is an outsider and not at all familiar with Indian culture, they welcome him to their group without question.

This book also tackled a lot of heavier issues - addiction and child abandonment in Nash’s case, as well as the Indian societal pressures for a good marriage/family pride in Kiran’s case. Seeing what Kiran’s sister went through with her family and village after her love marriage made me very sad. I’m not Indian, so I can’t really speak on that, but I did learn from this book. Nash’s love and dedication to making things work with Kiran at the end was the perfect grand gesture.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for the advanced copy. I’d love to check out more books from this author in the future.

What a cute story. It was so nice to read a friends to lovers type story.

I also found myself learning a lot from their interactions. Differences in culture and the way families are.

This was a truly great romance. I feel like the author must have been in an multicultural relationship before because she really nailed it in this book.

And then Nash the male character is from Nashville and what so you know—so am I!

But the romance has some heavy themes of addiction, a sick parent, and parent abandonment.

If you enjoy your romance with a little heaviness than this is a great one!

Thank you to Netgalley and Sourcebook Casablanca for this eARC.

This had a lot of potential. The premise sounded great and the writing was quite good, but the plot itself ended up being rather pedestrian. I wouldn't say no to reading another one of Sharma's stories, but this one definitely didn't dazzle me in the way that I was expecting.

Kiran grew up in India, but through hard work and determination, she ended up going to college in New York City and building a new life for herself there. Nash grew up in a difficult home situation and he still has a lot of parental issues as a result of that. He also just moved into an apartment in Kiran's building. They have there little meet-cute and that's that. Or it would be, if Kiran could take a nice American boy home to meet the parents. But they are expecting her to marry an Indian man, leaving Kiran with a choice between her parents and the man she has fallen for against all odds.

The most enjoyable part of the story was definitely Kiran's friend group. I felt an instant dislike towards Kiran's parents, and Nash as a love interest was only so-so. It was interesting to read about another culture that is so different from my own, but I felt that the story seemed a bit out of balance, focusing too much on the friction between Kiran's modern life and her conservative parents, not leaving enough space to see different perspectives.

I adored this book. The juxtaposition between the two MCs was so good. While there was definitely room to grow, Sharma proves that there is the making for a phenomenal rom-com writer. I deeply appreciated the incorporation of her very close friend group as a stand in family as she sorted through he complicated family troubles.