Annika Sharma

A charming NYC romance by co-host of the Woke Desi, for fans of: • multicultural connections • strong friendships and families • a “will they/won’t they” story with powerful stakes • the city that never sleeps • bucket list adventures • characters who fight outside expectations and pressures to build the life they want Kiran needs to fall in line. Instead, she falls in love. Kiran was the good daughter. When her sister disobeyed her family’s plan and brought them shame, she was there to pick up the pieces. She vowed she wouldn’t make the same mistakes. She’d be twice the daughter her parents needed, to make up for the one they lost. Nash never had a family. The parents who were supposed to raise him were completely absent. Now as a psychologist, he sees the same pattern happening to the kids he works with. So he turns away from love and family. After all, abandonment is in his genes, isn’t it? If she follows the rules, Kiran will marry an Indian man. If he follows his fears, Nash will wind up alone. But what if they follow their hearts?

Payal is a girl on the verge―of living a life she's always dreamt of, becoming a rising star in fashion, and...of marriage?! When her parents insist she marry fellow Londoner and serial dater Ayaan Malhotra in order to save their company, Payal has a stick it to her dysfunctional family but put her hard-earned fashion success on hold...or get engaged to save her family's fortune and rescue her own dream-come-true life. Ayaan has always been seen as the reckless spare to his brother, the golden child heir to their parents' company. A little wild, a little broken, and desperate to prove himself, Ayaan agrees to get engaged to Payal―on the condition that he gets 50 percent stake in his parents' company. Neither Payal nor Ayaan anticipate the challenges of keeping their respective agendas behind the engagement to a meddlesome grandmother, a spurned ex-girlfriend, two families with stakes of their own, a fashion brand on the line, and, unexpectedly, actually liking each other. But as the two race toward an impending engagement ceremony date, they realize that maybe they aren't just in this for business…and perhaps, love is in the cards after all.