Love, Chai, and Other Four-Letter Words

Love, Chai, and Other Four-Letter Words follows Kiran Mathur, a brilliant Indian biomedical engineer in New York City whose life has always been guided by duty: succeed, support her parents, and never repeat the scandal that tore her sister from the family.

When Nash Hawthorne, a warmhearted child psychologist from Nashville, moves into her building and gets locked out, Kiran offers him chai. What begins as neighborly kindness becomes a series of New York adventures, shared secrets, and a love neither of them expected. But Nash’s hunger for belonging collides with Kiran’s fear of losing the only family she has left.

As illness, memory, and old wounds force both of them to face their pasts, Kiran and Nash must decide whether love is worth fighting for when it asks them to redefine home.

• Listeners who love heartfelt contemporary romance with cultural depth and family stakes.
• Readers drawn to immigrant identity stories, chosen family, and second-generation tension.
• Fans of slow-burn love stories built on friendship, vulnerability, food, and emotional healing.

Annika Sharma was born in Delhi and raised in central Pennsylvania. She studied biobehavioral health, neuropsychology, early childhood special education, and public health, and is also known as a co-founder and co-host of The Woke Desi podcast. She lives in New York City and writes stories centered on love, culture, identity, and belonging.