Standalone contemporary romance featuring best friends of Indian descent who find love in NYC. Check out Love, Chai, and Other Four-Letter Words by Annika Sharma wherever you buy books!

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TAGS: fiction, romance, contemporary romance, women's fiction, chick-lit, romantic comedy, rom-com

*Thanks to NetGalley, Dreamscape Media & Annika Sharma, for providing a free eARC in exchange for my honest review #LoveChaiAndOtherFourLetterWords #NetGalley @NetGalley #DreamscapeMedia @dreamscape_media #AnnikaSharma @annikasharma

This was a typical romance story: they meet, they fall in love, there’s some sort of conflict and they break up, they find their way back together. In that aspect, it was a 3-star read. It's cute and I loved their story. However, this one resonated with me so much more for something Kiran says to Nash to explain why she feels the way she does. As the daughter of immigrant parents, it’s something I’m always trying to explain to my husband but I just can’t seem to find the right words.

“Nash, it’s much more than that. For me, a mistake is never a simple misstep. A mistake is one more tick mark against my very existence here…I see it on my colleagues’ faces. The sympathetic glance when I ask someone to repeat their directions because they weren’t clear. They not only go slower but enunciate, as though I didn’t understand English the first time… Every day, we have to prove we earned the right to live here. Each mistake counts against that.”

I have it a lot easier than many others having grown up here but it doesn’t change the way that I feel that I am perceived on occasion. This really struck me and put into words what I feel sometimes. I guess it is validation that I’m not alone and for that I am thankful.

The audiobook of Love, Chai, and Other Four-Letter Words is a perfect example of how a narrator makes or breaks the book experience. This had all the markings of an amazing romance book, however I simply could not get past the narrator's voice affected accent. It was far too much and grated on my nerves. I think I'll pick this one up in book form so that I can actually enjoy the story.

Loved it!
This was everything I was hoping it would be. The audiobook made my reading experience ten times better. The narrator was fantastic and helped me immerse myself in the story and characters.
Can’t wait for the next book!

Really neat concept but sort of a bland delivery for me. I had a really tough time following along with the audio. But to be fair to ask someone to do an Indian female and then a southern male voice is a stretch. It was distracting. I think I would have preferred it if I read it, instead of listened to it because I did enjoy how excited they both were about New York.

Thank you to NetGalley, Sourcebooks Casablanca and Dreamscape Audio for the ARC of this audiobook, in exchange for my honest review.

Love, Chai, and Other Four-Letter Words is the first book in what seems to be a series following characters from the Chai Masala Club. Our heroine, Kiran Mathur, is an Indian immigrant who is from a small, traditional village in India and comes to the US for university and works in New York City as an engineer. Her close group of desi friends from college all moved to NYC post-graduation and make up the Chai Masala Club. Early in the novel Kiran meets her neighbor, Nash, a child psychologist who just moved to the city after living his entire like in Nashville, TN. The two becomes friends, romance ensues, followed by family drama from Kiran’s family and Nash’s own set of family trauma.

First, I’ll start with the positives. A dual POV romance is almost always a win for me. Some romances only want one POV to play into the miscommunication troupe, but I always prefer both our main character’s point of view. I also really loved the Chai Masala Club/found family aspect of this novel. I like all the side characters and really wish there would have been more scenes with them – but I’m sure each of them will get their own novel. I also liked the aspect that while all of them are Indian, none of them have the same background or have the same relationship to their own families. One is British Indian, another is American Indian, and Kiran is an Indian immigrant. It lends itself to having interesting dialogues between characters and I would suspect many different people could relate closely to one of the characters. I also found the group’s relationship to each other to be funny, playful, and loving. 100% found family vibes there.

The scenes with Kiran and her sister were heartfelt and well done. This was one of my favorite parts of the story.

I also enjoyed the narrator when she was narrating Kiran’s chapters. I thought she did a great job. Nash’s chapters were fine, but I wasn’t necessarily a fan of the chosen accent, but it didn’t hinder the story much.

I am not an own voices reviewer, so I will leave specific critiques concerning the caste system and general portrayal of Indian culture up to them.

Now with some of my misses. Unfortunately, I had more misses than I would have liked. The first and main one is this didn’t necessarily feel like a romance. It had some romantic elements, but it felt more like a family drama with a forbidden romance being the catalyst rather than a full-fledged romance. This is probably because I didn’t feel the chemistry between the characters. The dialogue between them felt clumsy and at times a little juvenile. The love between the characters was more told to us rather than shown. An FYI, this isn’t a spicy book, it’s a closed-door romance, so do with that as you will.

I saw some criticism about how it’s unrealistic how clueless Nash was to Kiran’s culture, and while I do not fully agree, I sure agree to some of that sentiment. If one does not encounter a specific culture before, some questions are expected, but Nash didn’t seem to do his own research about Kiran’s culture once they started dating. If you care about someone you will be doing your own research to bring aspects from both cultures together for a relationship. Also, he is supposed to be a psychologist, one in NYC at that, so you would expect to have training about other cultures at some point.

The biggest miss for me was the pacing. This book is just under 400 pages, but it felt as though it was a 600+ page book and at times I struggled to finish it. This is rare for me as someone who has read upwards of 70 romances this year and only DNF’d one, I’m generally up for a wide range in the contemporary sphere. If this was not for review I unfortunately think I may have DNF’d this book. What slowed it down as I stated about was the dialogue between Kiran and Nash, and the lack of chemistry between the characters. Unless you live in NYC you also didn’t care for all the specifics like street names, etc. in the book. Burroughs, sure – but take all the other stuff out, it just slows the reader down rather than bringing more life to the backdrop. This may be a blind spot if the author and editor both live in NYC.

This is a bit long winded, and while I really wanted to love this book, overall, it didn’t work for me. I will see which character Sharma writes about next from the Chai Masala Club and depending on that and the summary I may try the next one. This novel lands somewhere between and 2 and 2.5 star for me.

This ARC was one of the books that I was really looking forward to listening to. I have come to love audiobooks and was so happy to see that this was available! Kiran is an immigrant for India. She was sent to the United States for college. It has now been 10 years and she is successful and working in NYC. I do not know much about Indian culture, and was intrigued by Kiran, her life and family. This was a great start to a series and I am looking forward to future books!

From its cover, Love, Chai, and Other Four-Letter Words looks like your typical romantic comedy, boy meets girl and they dance under the cartoon stars. And yes, this is a story about romantic love, but one that grapples with the complicated reality that love isn’t just about the one you’re with in a romantic sense.

I’ll admit, there were times when I wasn’t quite sure what to make of this book. For a romance, it doesn’t quite fit the usual mold, focusing a great deal on other aspects of each character’s lives outside of their love story.

There’s also the fact that I don’t love a dual perspective romance, and that I didn’t personally like the accent the narrator used for Nash’s chapters. This left me struggling to get into the book at first.

But as I settled into the understanding that this book wasn’t just about a meet cute and romantic love, but love in all its forms, I began to appreciate what Sharma has crafted in this book.

Kiran has so much love in her life before she meets Nash, between her parents back in India and the self-titled Chai Masala Club, her group of friends. Nash is an addition to her life, one that she is tempted and terrified by because of her family’s history. She struggles to know whether her life will allow her to keep all these forms of love together at once, given that Nash so clearly doesn’t fit her parents’ expectations for her future partner.

Even though he lacks a traditional family structure, Nash too is content with his life when he meets Kiran. He has a loving aunt, a fulfilling career, and a found family in his friend Brandon and his family.

I enjoyed seeing these two real, full human beings who happen to be the same age that I am now (one year short of the big 3–0), find love and ask themselves what they’re willing to do to keep it.

The people in their lives weren’t just side characters there to serve the plot, but were real, fleshed out presences in their own right. We see them struggle, give conflicting advice, and change their minds right along with our main characters.

This makes it all the more interesting to note that this book is subtitled on Goodreads as “Chai Masala Club #1,” suggesting we’ll be revisiting this cast of characters again soon.

The ending did feel a little fast for me, particularly since the middle section of the book seemed a bit long and dragged out. In all, however, this was a cute love story with some serious, real-life stakes thrown in the mix. Highly recommend to readers who enjoy a less predictable love story, where characters have more at stake than simply whether they will or they won’t by the end.

As a romance, this was mostly standard, though still cute and sweet. Where this book really shines is the exploration of friendships and family dynamics. Kiran's relationship with her parents and sister and Nash's relationship with his dad were all handled in a very touching way.

The representation was great to see, and I was excited when I realized there would be future books focused on Kiran's friends. I'm interested to see which directions those books go!

I listened to the audiobook, which was nicely narrated. This was an easy book to read and a fun way to spend a few hours.

Content: Fade-to-black with some innuendos and language

3.5

Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for providing me with an ARC of "Love, Chai, and Other Four-Letter Words" by Annika Sharma in exchange for an honest review!

I found this book to be intriguing in every aspect. The author included an interracial relationship between American white man, Nash Hawthorne, and south Asian woman, Kiran Mathur. Kiran's best friends call themselves the CMC (Chai Masala Club), and they were utterly hilarious and had me laughing almost every time they were in a scene. The four of them come from different Indian backgrounds and personalities; their love for chai tea and their roots united them.

Now as much as I appreciated the representation of cultures that are different from my own, I found it difficult to grasp the concept of Kiran's relationship with her parents. As well as how oblivious Nash was regarding Indian Culture, and the comments/remarks that were made about Kiran's name. Yes, Kiran educates Nash about the racial comments that were made to her, however, I believe Nash should have already known on some level that those remarks were wrong instead of dismissing them in the first place. Regarding Kiran's relationship with her parents, I was in shock of what they had said to her when she told them about Nash. I understand that her parents feel that they have to be "in control" of Kiran's life, especially after they felt "betrayed" by her older sister for marrying someone out of love, but that surely was not the way to go about it.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed the relationship between Kiran and Nash. It was a cute and fluffy romance, but compared to other romance novels I read, it was a closed-door romance. Short and sweet.

A "forbidden", closed-door romance set in NYC.

Kiran, an immigrant from India, falls in love with an American. But her family was already broken apart once when her sister married someone their parents didn't approve of. Kiran was torn- make her parents happy or be happy.

As an American with English and Italian heritage, I am going to stay away from the cultural aspect of the book. Obviously I am not qualified.

That said, I overall liked the story. It triggered a few pet peeves for me (Nash from Nashville? Really?) and I had a really hard time with the whole disapproving parents. I understand it is cultural, but it is hard for me to truly understand to that extreme. My sister married someone no one approved of- not a single family member nor any of her friends. But we dealt with it because the alternative was losing her. So it is really hard for me to grasp disowning someone for following their heart.

I listened to the audiobook. I have no complaints, but feel it could have been improved by using a male narrator for Nash.

Overall, I did enjoy it. I'll pick up the next book in the series when it comes out.

I received a copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book was soooo cute!! I can't wait to read more from this author and series. I thought Nash and Kiran were perfect together. I loved the slow burn romance that happened, and the wonderful friendship that bloomed along the way. Speaking of friendships, Kiran had the best friends and I loved all their chai dates together (maybe they get their own stories in fire books? 💜). I didn't like the family drama with Kiran's parents, but I understood why it was part of the story and I enjoyed learning more about a different culture. Overall, this was a really cute story!

Thank you so much @netgalley and @dreamacapemedia for this audiobook ARC in exchange for an honest review! I loved it and definitely recommend it.

This book came out September 21st and the audiobook will be released October 19th. I really liked the narrator and thought she did a wonderful job.

Was very excited to listen to this one. I didn't feel connected to the male character and the romance seemed to have little chemistry.

I loved this book! I wanted to be a part of their friend group, total friendship goals! I will definitely read future books in the series. This is a romance but the book is also very focused on identity and family and I appreciated that depth to it. Kiran is an excellent main character. Thank you NetGalley & Dreamscape Media for the advance copy of the audiobook.

This book is sweet. I thought the beginning meet-cute was a fun dialogue, and I wanted to read more because of that. The rest of the book is pretty slow and predictable, though. It's more a realistic romance than what I expected from the cute conversation.

Here are some of the fun quotations that I bookmarked.

“I am a world-class macaroni and cheese connoisseur. “
“Wait, really, macaroni and cheese? “
“Food of the gods! “
“You live in the largest food capital in the world and you’re choosing toddler food? “

AND

“You’ve got a half hour to kill and I’ve found that chai can fix almost anything.”
“Like a chai tea latte?” Nash asked with a relieved laugh. “It seems like this city runs on coffee.”
“Well, yes, on both counts, but you’re also never allowed to say chai tea latte in my presence again.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because chai is tea. Why do people call it a tea tea latte? Just say chai, and why add in the latte. Chai is meant to be made with milk. It’s such a redundancy. In a city that claims that time is money, you’d think they’d stop repeating their words, no?”

I loved the relationships and representation in Love, Chai, and Other Four-Letter Words when I first read it. I'd originally received an ARC from Sourcebooks Casablanca - slow burn, cultural diversity, AND chai? What wasn't to love? I loved Kiran and Nash on the page, and definitely recommend the book - the first in Annika Sharma's Chai Masala Club series.

However, it took me a really long time to get into parts of the narration by Zehra Naqvi. The voice she used for Nash really grated on me at the beginning. I eventually got used to it, and a large part of my issue probably stemmed from knowing people from Nashville and knowing the twang wasn't exactly right, but I didn't love the voice she used for him and it distracted me every time he spoke. Every other accent (American, Indian, any of the others) were fine; it was just Nash's, and I was over 50% into the audiobook before his voice didn't annoy me. And Naqvi had a lot of accents to do; I respect that and the work she did and that's why I kept listening to the end. She certainly handled more accents that I could do, but I found myself wishing for dual narrators for Kiran and Nash since that was how the book was structured anyway.

I did read the text before embarking on the audiobook, but even if I had no experience with the story, I doubt I would have had any issues following along as the audiobook plot progressed. Each character was easy to pick out, and conversations were easy to follow. Even if Nash's voice irritated me a bit, I still think Naqvi did a wonderful job handling each character, injecting emotion into each question and discovery. While I gave the book a solid 4 stars, the audiobook is more of a 3.5 out of 5 for me.

A huge thank you to Dreamscape Media, Sourcebooks Casablanca, and Netgalley for providing an ALC of Love, Chai, and Other Four-Letter Words.

Cute book. I really appreciated a new perspective, that of an Indian American woman and the expectations her family have of her. Kind of a good companion to Gold Diggers (much lighter than that one). This is a true romance novel with the couple who grows a friendship, is broken apart because of family issues and comes back together. I liked both main characters: the southern gentleman and the whip smart Indian woman. I also loved the schooling on Chai (dont say chai tea! chai MEANS tea!) and other elements of Indian culture. If you are into romance books and want a new twist with other cultures represented this is a great choice,

3.5 stars

Thank you NetGalley for letting me enjoy this audio book. The narration was excellent. Small disclaimer, this was actually my first romance, so thank you Annika for bringing me into this genre!

First, the friends dynamic was fantastic, as was the strong family sub plot /themes. If you want to catch the feels, there are some powerful moments in act 3.

I will say the romance arc itself wasn't my cup of chai, but that's my preference.

Overall the read felt familiar and cozy, something you look forward to sinking in after a day of work. I kept coming back to the story and found myself missing the characters if I was too long between readings.

Would strongly recommend if like me you are just dipping your toes in romance. I look forward to the authors next books!

Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the ARC of Love, Chai, and Other Four-Letter Words by Annika Sharma in exchange for my honest review.

Love, Chai, and Other Four-Letter Words is the first book in the Chai Masala Club series. Kiran Mathur is an Indian immigrant from a traditional Indian family who grew up in a small village in India and who came to the US for her her undergrad and grad school and works in NYC. She has a close knit circle of desi friends who form the Chai Masala Club. She meets her neighbor Nash a Psychologist who has just moved from Nashville. Both of them spend time together fall in love and have to deal with a lot of drama from Kiran's family. Nash has his own set of issues with his family.

It was nice to see a romance novel about an Indian immigrant girl. Most of my recent reads with Indian ethnicity had characters with immigrant parents. The book has great friendship among the Chai Masala Club members which was pretty interesting. I also loved that there was a lot of Indian culture brought to the book, may be a bit too much? Now for the things I didn't love. The relationship between Kiran and Nash was pretty damp and didn't have much meat in it. I'm not sure why they were in love! There was absolutely no chemistry between the two. The book had way too much typical drama like strict traditional parents, disowning older daughter because she fell in love with someone from a different caste. It truly felt like watching a cliche Bollywood movie from the early 2000s. I really wish the story of an Indian immigrant girl had more soul to it.

A heartwarming interracial, dual perspective, closed door romance between Nash, a white American man and Kiran, a South Asian woman born in India but living in New York City.

Kiran and her three college friends in the Chai Masala Club, are reminiscing about the list of things they wanted to do before they turn 30. At the top of Kiran's list is falling in love but what she never wanted to do was fall for someone her very traditional parents wouldn't approve of.

What ensues is a lovely romance between Kiran and Nash that gets derailed when Kiran's parents refuse to accept Nash as a viable partner for Kiran. I loved the authentic look South Asian culture and the cultural and familial pressure put on children to follow traditions. Kiran's sister was ostracized for choosing a man her parent's didn't approve of, which made Kiran's choice that much more difficult.

Highly recommended for fans of Sajni Patel's First love, take two and great on audio. Much thanks to NetGalley for my advance review copies!