Author Interviews

Before we get to the interview, a few housekeeping things! First of all, if you’re interested in unique candles, check out my shop, Curious & Crow. Second, you can help raise money for We Need Diverse Books and get lots of great prizes by participating in their auction. I’m personally giving away a query and 50 page critique (usually like a $250 package) so bid away if you can!

Now, without further ado, let’s meet today’s author, the lovely Swati Hegde! Swati Hegde is a freelance editor, mindset coach, and self-proclaimed coffee shop enthusiast who lives in Bangalore, India, and can often be found at the nearest café with a hot mug of tea. She looks forward to a long career bringing Indian stories and voices to light.

Meet Swati

I always knew I wanted Jia to be a matchmaker and a ‘relationship guru,’ but the kind that knows love is a choice you willingly make every day in your relationship, which is what she dishes about on her anonymous blog. For me, the best way to contrast this aspect of her life was to give her a day job at Mimosa India magazine where she writes corny, cliché articles like ‘7 Signs He’s the One’ or ‘How to Find Someone to Kiss at Midnight on NYE.’ Not only is she adamant that she’ll make Mimosa’s content more helpful for single people, she also subverts the BS she writes for the magazine into content for her anonymous blog.

Jia is very feminine and ‘girly.’ She loves pink, she loves rosy cocktails, and she’s stubborn and determined to achieve her goals at any cost—all of which are traits we share. We are different in many ways, though. She loves luxury branded clothing, whereas I always select the ‘Price Low to High’ option while online shopping because well, if you know you know. She’s never been in love (or so she believes) while I fall in love so quickly I hate myself for it. And—sadly—she has a childhood family friend who’s loved her since forever, and I’m still deleting then reinstalling dating apps every few weeks. Siiiiigh.

I love this question! Although I developed the plot and characters for Match Me If You Can before thinking of tropes, here are my favorite ones that made it into the final draft:

• Childhood friends to lovers

• He’s always loved her

• He falls first, she falls harder

• Foodie romance

• Found family

• Desi representation, set in Mumbai

• Slowburn to the maxxxxx

I lived in Mumbai for two years as a child and five years as an adult, and it’s still my favorite city in the world. I didn’t have to do research on Mumbai, per se, but a huge part of Match Me If You Can is the element of food and drink. Jaiman, our male main character, runs his own pub and is a mixologist. I can’t tell you how many hours I spent researching recipes for cocktails to make sure all the drinks referenced in the book were actually as delicious as Jaiman made them out to be! It was worth it, though—I recreated Jaiman’s signature Whipped Rose cocktail at home, and it was perfection.

PS: Readers can preorder the book and submit their receipts here to get access to the original recipe.

I was inspired by the classic novel Emma while conceptualizing Jia and Jaiman’s family histories. Match Me If You Can is absolutely a love letter to Jane Austen in that sense. Jia’s mother passes away 5 years before our story begins, and with Jaiman’s emotionally absent family moving to the United States, he becomes a support system not just for Jia but for her father and sister, as well. The found family trope comes into play here—Jaiman, who has never been seen or heard by his parents, feels at home with Jia’s family. He winds up becoming best friends with Jia’s brother-in-law as well. This was very important to me because honestly, I make Jaiman go through hell in this book, as many early readers have noted (lol). The one solid foundation he has throughout the book is Jia’s family.

One of my goals while writing Match Me If You Can was to show how universal the themes of love, belonging, and acceptance are. I’m not sure, but I think my book might be one of the first Indian romances set in India that’s being published in the US by a major publisher. I want readers to know that no matter where you live, what you look like, or how pessimistic you are about dating, you deserve the kind of love that Jia writes about on her anonymous blog. Someone who not only falls in love with you, but chooses to stay in love with you. Someone who doesn’t complete you, but complements you. Love is the best thing we do, and I hope readers find proof of that in the pages of my book…and in their own lives.

Meet Match Me If You Can

Available June 4 2024!

Confident fashionista Jia Deshpande spends her days writing cliché-ridden listicles for Mimosa, Mumbai’s top women’s magazine. When she can, Jia dishes about the messy truth of real love on her anonymous blog, attends her family’s weekly game nights, and ignores her true feelings for her childhood friend. If that wasn’t enough, Jia needs to successfully set up a coworker with her perfect match to get the green light for her new matchmaking column. Thankfully, organizing meet-cutes has never been difficult for her.Local pub owner and cocktail genius Jaiman Patil can’t help but be enamored with Jia and her meddling spirit. He’s always been an honorary part of her family, but even more so since his own moved to America. Life with the Deshpandes is chaotic and loud, but it’s also more loving than anything he experienced growing up, and he wouldn’t risk losing that for the world. It feels manageable—until his pub begins to struggle and his long-hidden feelings for Jia grow deeper.When Jia’s attempts at office matchmaking go haywire, risking new friendships and her relationship with Jaiman, she must reevaluate her own thoughts on love. For the first time, Jia Deshpande realizes that love may be a lot more complicated than she thought. Luckily, happily-ever-afters are never in short supply in Mumbai.

Goodreads | Buy links | Match Me If You Can preorder links + preorder campaign | Swati’s Instagram | Swati’s newsletter

Thanks!

Thanks Swati for sharing your secrets!

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