I’ve been a fan of Nisha Sharma ever since her YA novel My So-Called Bollywood Life and I love her adult romances (don’t miss Dating Dr. Dil). Her latest book is The Karma Map (available everywhere March 1st) and it’s pitched as a “mean girl redemption arc” which had me intrigued, so I had to ask her about that, writing for both romance audiences (her distinction is brilliant), and the special and especially powerful way that romance novels bring her joy.
How did you first discover the romance genre? Was there a book that was “The One” for you?
I’m the child of South Asian immigrant parents, so my earliest memories were of watching Bollywood movies with my family. In the early 90’s, Bollywood was known for having these mega blockbusters with strong romance throughlines, and that’s what imprinted on me. Essentially, I grew up with the assumption that story is more vibrant with love. I began looking for protagonists that had chemistry and followed their journey through a narrative hoping for that HEA.
It wasn’t until I started reading the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boy Super mysteries when things started to click for me as a writer. There is one particular book, Secrets of the Nile, where Nancy Drew and Frank Hardy share a kiss under a midnight sky full of stars, but they part ways shortly after. I hated that they couldn’t be together, so I began writing my own endings to my favorite series with the HEA I craved.
Then the summer after seventh grade happened. Every Friday, my mother would take the three of us to the library, and I would always bring home a stack of books. I grew up in a really small town in Northeast Pennsylvania, so our library collection was relatively limited, but this particular summer, I discovered genre romance. It was a hot and muggy day (I think?) when after feeling disheartened with the number of times I was stuck reading some of the YA romances over and over again, I wandered into the adult section. It was this huge room with tall ceilings and rows and rows of paperbacks and hardcovers. Right up front, there was a new release section and dead center was the new mass market release of Inner Harbor by Nora Roberts. The cover was pink and beachy, and there was a romance from what I could tell by the back copy blurb.
I finished that book in six hours in a fever dream. That was the moment I knew that my life was forever changed. I wanted to write this, I wanted to read this, and I craved it every waking moment. Nora Roberts was “The One” and when I met her for the first time twenty years later, I cried. It probably freaked her out, to be honest, but can you really blame me?
You write both YA and adult romance. Can you talk about the distinction between the two? Is it just the age of the characters or is there a difference in themes, voice or HEA/HFN? Do you find there is a readership overlap between YA and adult romance? (Besides me, I love both!)
First, I definitely think there is a readership overlap. Quite a number of my YA readers are just at the cusp of adulthood where a year or two later, they are able to pick up my adult romances to enjoy. I think they follow me from one genre to the next because of the commonality of South Asian diaspora characters finding joy, which is something we still don’t have enough of in the genre even though publishing has definitely gotten better over the years.
As for the distinction between the two, the way that I look at it is my YA characters are scared of all the choices they have in front of them for their future, and making the wrong one, while my adult characters are scared that they made the wrong choice, and they can’t change. With this understanding, I’m able to hear the younger voices distinguished from the older voices in my head as I write.
For themes and conflict, I don’t have a huge distinction between the two for YA and Adult. I will say kids are resilient, but their circumstances and freedom are limited. It’s how these individuals approach their circumstances that sets them apart from category to category.
Your newest book is YA, The Karma Map and it’s a road trip romance set in North India with a mean girl redemption arc and grumpy/sunshine couple. Can you tell us more about the book?
Sure! The Karma Map is a conversation about karma, forgiveness, and religious deconstruction in Hinduism. I know that sounds heavy but stick with me. Tara Bajaj, who has always been an ice princess, a top dancer in her school and blessed with a ton of opportunities, decides to light a match, and burn her life to the ground. She reports her dance team for cheating, then shares text messages that her best friend’s boyfriend had sent her. For the remainder of her senior year, she’s considered an outcast because her actions backfire on her. She doesn’t feel safe at home, either because her mother is a religious fanatic, and her parents had kicked out Tara’s older sister for an opioid addiction that couldn’t be “prayed” away.
Tara decides to go to India, the one place she never wanted to return to, in an effort to make some money on a religious pilgrimage youth group tour that her mother had forced her to go on when she was a freshman in high school. There, working as a junior tour guide, she meets Silas, the foil to her mean girl. He’s a sugary cinnamon roll who is trying to find answers about his ancestry, while Tara is trying to escape hers. Together, along with a group of rambunctious students who are all on this trip for a variety of reasons, they discover what spirituality means to them, and that love can be the light at the end of a very dark tunnel.
Let’s talk about mean girls for a sec. I’m so troubled by the concept of mean girls—we’ve all met them IRL but on the whole, I think most women aren’t like that. But you’d never know that from the frequent, one-note portrayals of mean girls in film and TV. I worry that when that’s what girls see as being celebrated, they aspire to it and it becomes a way of sewing division among women. So, I love that you are taking this character, really exploring her, understanding her. Can you tell us more about what inspired you to write a “mean girl redemption arc” and about Tara’s journey?
The Karma Map is my third YA romance, and it’s about a heroine that was introduced in my very first book, My So-Called Bollywood Life, as a “mean girl.” When we meet her, she’s rude, dismissive and judgmental. She’s also described as having classic high school mean girl traits: money, power and pretty privilege. In my second YA romance, Radha and Jai’s Recipe for Romance, she makes another appearance, but this time she has more of a role as the ex-girlfriend of the hero. This is where you see that she’s not all that people think. Yes, she can be rude, dismissive and judgmental, but she’s also fiercely loyal, and she wears her title like an armor more than a badge. In both of these books, she’s described through the POV of other characters.
In The Karma Map, I start the book with Tara doing something that on its face, is actually pretty mean, but for all the right reasons. More importantly, I write it in her POV, so that you can understand how she’s rationalized her actions. And I think, three books in, that’s what a mean girl redemption arc about: a protagonist who does good in a way that opens her up to a lot of criticism and judgment. And because the actions on their face aren’t that great, she has to experience a lot of pain and heartbreak before she can be forgiven, because karma is a bitch.
I think one of the other reasons why I really wanted to write a mean girl redemption arc, other than the fact that it challenged me as a writer and this character deserved redemption, is that anyone who has ever been bullied by a mean girl wants to know the ‘why’. They want to understand why they were targeted and hated so much. More importantly, they want to know if that reason was good enough. In The Karma Map, I try to address this form Tara’s perspective. The answer, at least for Tara, is that there is no reason good enough to be mean, but there is always an opportunity for forgiveness if it does happen. You just have to work for it.
What about romance novels brings you joy?
Oh my goodness, what about romance novels doesn’t bring me joy? I think two people who have impossible odds against them finding a way to be together is a magical thing. But, as someone who is part of a larger narrative of BIPOC writers pushing for representation, I think it’s even more powerful when you see marginalized communities being their authentic true, messy selves on the page and given the opportunity to embrace joy.
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And psst: don’t miss out on her Substack.
Lovely interview! I'm always interested in "mean girl" redemption stories, and this one sounds great!
Ain’t THIS the human condition in a nutshell? “My YA characters are scared of all the choices they have in front of them for their future, and making the wrong one, while my adult characters are scared that they made the wrong choice, and they can’t change.” OOOF. So true it hurts.