This is an immersive story that left me craving chocolates and chai. Classifying this book into a genre is a bit more complex, as it's certainly romantically inclined but most of it is left up to our imaginations. I'd classify it as women's fiction personally, as we watch Kiran grow into her career and identity. That's not to say that Nash wasn't compelling (and incredibly attractive), but the focus was definitely on Kiran's journey. I'm interested to see how the Chai Masala Club continues, perhaps with Payal!?

Meh. I wanted to like this, but I could not get into it. I started and stopped this so many times. I don’t know if it was the audiobook narrators? Anyways, the rest of the book felt so cheesy. (Like the main character was Nash from Nashville. Dumb.) I loved that this was a diverse romance, and we got to meet Kiran’s friends, but it just didn’t work for me.

Thanks to @NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca + Dreamscape Media for my ARC!

I really enjoyed this book. It was a somewhat predictable storyline but it was still a sweet story. Kiran, an Indian, came to the US to go to college. She meets some other Indian people in college and they become best friends. They meet in a coffee shop and always order chai. Kiran has very traditional parents in India. Her parents disowned their older daughter for marrying someone who was not part of their caste. The parents place a lot of pressure on their daughter to succeed in the US and marry an Indian man. Kiran ends up falling in love with her American neighbor, Nash. At first she fights her feelings but then decides to go for it. This upsets her parents so she breaks up with him. However, Kiran has second thoughts when Nash makes a grand gesture to prove his love for her.

4.5 Stars

Kiran Mathur was raised to be a respectable Indian daughter; even after spending the last decade in the US for school and then her career, Kiran knows her duty is to settle down with an Indian man who will make her parents proud. Nash Hawthorne doesn’t worry too much about making his family proud; with both his parents gone, Nash knows his sole focus needs to be on helping kids so even the least fortunate won’t have to grow up the way he did. Both Kiran and Nash know their duties, but they never anticipated meeting each other. They were prepared to follow their plans, but now they have to consider following their hearts.

My absolute favorite part of Love, Chai, and Other Four-Letter Words by Annika Sharma is the diversity. In a genre that has been overrun by casts of all-white characters in the past, Love, Chai, and Other Four-Letter Words managed to magnificently showcase a perfect blend of Indian and American culture while also staying true to some elements avid romance readers will find familiar. I loved that in Kiran’s friend group – the Chai Masala Club – there were many different aspirations, life goals, and chosen careers. In her fight to be an obedient daughter and to make her parents proud, Kiran was – and surrounded herself with – strong, smart women. On the surface, Nash and Kiran were seemingly so different from each other, yet couldn’t be more compatible. While Kiran was raised in rural India, Nash came from Nashville. Their skin tones are different, their backgrounds couldn’t be any more dissimilar. But deep down, Nash and Kiran were on a very similar path, one they chose solely because of their family; Kiran chose her path to appease her family, and Nash chose his path to atone for his.

I loved the internal and external conflicts both Kiran and Nash had to face. The obvious, surface conflict for Kiran is her attraction to a man that she knows her parents won’t approve of; Nash is far from the respectable Indian man her parents want her to marry. And Nash, attempting to avoid his parents’ mistakes, isn’t looking to settle. But both main characters had quite a journey to go on before they could discover what they really wanted for themselves. These journeys ran the gamut from physical, emotional, familiar, and cultural. Nash and Kiran went through a lot, and had to learn to put their own happiness first for once, but the end result was very sweet and satisfying.

If you’re looking for a sweet, will they/won’t they romance with a ton of diversity, Love, Chai, and Other Four-Letter Words, the first book in Annika Sharma’s Chai Masala Club series, is sure to be a must-read for you.

Love, Chai & Other Four Letter Words by Annika Sharma, is the first book in the Chai Masala Club series. A desi, multicultural romance novel set in a city which never sleeps, New York. We see our main characters, Kiran & Nash. Both come with their own set of baggage to carry, but what if they follow their heart?

Kiran, an Indian girl from a village in India goes to New York to study and Nash, who is a psychologist has parental issues, which makes him have commitment issues in the present. Kiran's family being very conservative makes Kiran not fall for any guy which doesn't come in her family's approved list of men (Indian).

So to begin with, Annika Sharma has a lot of potential in writing a good rom-com. I loved the execution of this book as well as author's writing style. What I did not enjoy however, was the way Indian Culture was portrayed. To some levels I feel and do agree to the fact that families and parents being a little conservative as well as a little bit orthodox does happen everywhere and not just in Indian Culture.

I would not want people from other cultures who have read about Indian culture for the first time having such a negative image. The family bonding and Kiran's sisters issues were all somewhere expectable. I liked Akash (Kiran's friend) more than Nash (Main Character), I would love to see a book about him. I definitely have a love-hate relationship with this book.

Nash, to some extend had very limited character development. Nothing about his family and past background was clear since so much focus was given on Kiran's issues and problems with Indian Culture. The friendship of the Chai Masala Club as the only good thing which I genuinely liked and had no baggage to hold.

I really enjoyed this book. fresh, funny, sweet, and what an enjoyable couple and romance. Thank you for the ARC!

The book is pleasant read. Annika has captured the Indian scenario well. And thus this novel would be comprehended more by Indians than other nationality.

Except for the last few chapters which is somewhat eventful, the story is more on the courtship between Kiran and Nash. The story does not progress on Nash's front.

The book show cases Indian culture.

As a South Asian young adult, I really connected with this book. The challenges of having to follow traditional norms and values while living in a westernized society can be quite harsh at times, but when you have the right people by your side, you can get through it all. The CMC Squad is honestly goals, and strongly reminds me of my tiny friend group. NASH HAWTHORNE, HOWEVER, IS A TOTALLY DIFFERENT DREAM. As someone who struggles with challenges of his own, especially when it comes to trust and commitment due to his late mother and abandoned father, when he meets Kiran and learns to open up, it really makes your heart swoon. Hats off to Brandon, Kate, Payal, Sonam and Akash. These are all side characters and I hope some of them get romance books of their own. A beautiful story indeed :)

Thank you @netgalley & @sourcebookscasa for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I loved this book!!
As a South Indian woman, growing up in North America, all I heard when I was younger was to behave like a good Indian girl, do nothing that would cause disrespect to my parents and my extended family back in India (most of whom I never met). I understand now, that my parents did their best raising me in a completely different culture than the one they grew up in and they were passing down what they thought were good values and ideals. But as society changes, we all learn to grow along with it. Things that weren't accepted back then are okay now.
I understood Kiran's character, her devotion to her parents and how she felt responsible for their happiness. I also understood her desire for something more, something different.
Life has a way of throwing us curveballs and leading us down paths we didn’t know were possible.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone that is interested in reading about a different side of South Asian culture and family expectations.

DNF at 7%. This could very much be a case of wrong timing - I’m starting a lot of books and finishing very few at the moment. But I’m struggling to read a book that keeps talking about how the pandemic ended when it hasn’t. So - not for me right now. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance reading copy.

Overall I enjoyed this book! I thought that it was well written and I loved to see the diversity in the characters. The only drawback I had with the boom was the pairing of the main female character with a somewhat mediocre white male. I struggle with the trope of BIPOC women having to explain their culture to their white counterparts as it is not their job. I thought the story was great, but I personally found some areas that did not match what I like to see in a interracial romance.

I guess you know by now that I pick books because of their covers, but in this case, I also picked it because I saw it a lot on bookstagram.

This is my first multicultural interest ( I think ) and I had no idea what to expect but it was certainly not this amazingness. This book totally took me off-guard, I couldn't put it down once I started it.

I loved every single thing about it,  especially that it made me laugh out loud and in public, that's a huge bonus point. Also, as someone who loves learning about new cultures, I totally enjoyed learning more about India, the customs and traditions, the food and the few Indian words in there, I had so much fun reading them and trying to understand them through context.

I think I can safely say that this book has made it to my three-books-long list of comfort reads. I strongly recommend this to everyone.

This was my first book by the author and it certainly won't be the last.

Thank you @netgalley & @sourcebookscasa for this ARC in exchange for an honest review💕

If you want to feel all the emotions then please read this book. I listened to the audio version and I went from happy to sad to angry to happy again multiple times in this book. I enjoyed it so much that even though I have the audio and ebook copy thanks to netgalley I am still going to buy the physical copy of it because it was just that great. I also can’t wait to read more by this author and I also can’t wait to listen to this narrator again. Run don’t walk to get this book :)

I loved the cultural differences that were discussed in this novel. I also enjoyed the fact that they discussed the pandemic, but not to the point of it being the main focus of the story.

Love, Chai, and Other Four-Letter Words was so charming! I loved every one of the bullet points listed in the description.

Nash and Kiran made such a perfectly balanced couple. I loved how they both challenged each other to grow, through their bucket list and the subsequent adventures they took.

This book takes a very deep dive into Kiran’s family dynamics. While I can’t speak to how accurate these scenes were, I loved learning about this aspect of Kiran’s culture and her feelings toward her familial obligations. One hallmark of a really great rom-com for me is when the characters experience significant personal growth, and that was definitely the case here. Not to spoil anything, but Kiran and Nash’s story is well worth the read.

I especially love books about strong friendships, perhaps even more so than the romance aspect. Kiran’s friend group was so sweet, and I can’t wait to see what happens in the rest of the series.

As a person who has a deep love for food, I loved the many references to it. I may have been craving many of the dishes described and all of the chai!
Kiran and Nash are new neighbors and what's a girl to do with a charming man needing friendship? The two set off on a quest to check off items from their individual bucket lists and along the way find more. With a fun backdrop of the friendships with the Chai Masala Club, they face different challenges with each of their families.
Annika had a great gift for captivating my interest. I think the way she wove personal history and cultural differences within a bi-racial love story had a feeling of cozy authenticity. It can be hard to break familial bonds and norms while staying true to self.
I read and listened to the audiobook throughout a couple of days. The narrator, Zehra Jane Naqvi, has a beautiful voice and I thoroughly enjoyed both her narrative and voices for every character sans Nash. Maybe it's because I live in the south, but the southern accent was off-putting. I wish she hadn't been directed to use it.
Thank you to Sourcebooks Casablanca and NetGalley for the advanced copy and Dreamscape Media for the alc. All thoughts in this review are my own.

I love how this book treats platonic relationships. I need more friendships in romance books. Overall this was a wholesome read.

Love, Chai, and Other Four-Letter Words takes place in NYC and has a friends-to-lovers trope. This novel dives into themes of strong friendships, cultural expectations, taking risks, and self discovery. This book is definitely a close door romance and slow burn. I had mixed feelings about this book. I loved the plot of this book. One main aspect I really adored was Kiran’s friends. I liked how all her friends come from different backgrounds and can’t wait to read their stories. A couple of elements that didn’t work for me were the main characters, Kiran and Nash, and the writing style. The chemistry between Kiran and Nash seemed to be more of an unbelievable insta love. Also both characters seemed to be pretty shallow. The one main aspect that bothered me was the writing style and some of the language seemed to be odd. Overall, it was a decent story, however, keep in mind this is more of women’s fiction than romance.

I got to say that this freaking book definitely blew my mind away. It was unexpected yet so fitting for the fall season.Love, Chai, and Other Four-Letter Words will bring Kiran an unexpected romance than she anticipated. She always lives by her parents' expectations that she never expected to fall in love with an American male, Nash. It totally threw her out of the loop yet it's so fitting for her. Kiran never connected with anyone in the city, except for her close four friends (Chai tea lover). So when she found herself instantly connected with Nash, it made her question everything she lives by her parents' standards. I understand how hard it can be when you are living by your parents' standards, but it can also exhaust you to the point where you don't recognize yourself anymore. That's why I understand why Kiran is willing to chase what makes her happy. It's going to be difficult because it's not what her parents expect from her, but she is able to pull it off. Full warning, this book does contain sensitive topics such as death, estranged family members, family expectations, and racial issues.

I really enjoyed this sweet book, once I got into it. The culture was fascinating to read about as well, and my heart really went out to Kiran as she made her decision about love. I hope there are more books in this series about the other friends in the CMC!