A Suitable Prince
About the Book
Koel Banerjee gives relationship advice to half of Delhi for a living. Her own romantic judgement, unfortunately, has recently been exposed as a public-health hazard.
Three weeks after discovering that her boyfriend had been cheating with the enthusiasm of a man collecting loyalty points, Koel is back behind the microphone at City After Nine, telling strangers to block their exes, eat dinner and stop confusing emotional damage with destiny.
Then a rainy night in Connaught Place leaves her sharing a café table with Rajveer.
He is older, maddeningly composed, suspiciously well-mannered and reluctant to provide anything as ordinary as a surname. Koel does not need another complicated man. She certainly does not need one whose shoulders have already become a subject of discussion among her friends.
She gives him her number anyway.
The problem is that Rajveer has been economical with rather more than his surname.
Behind the quiet man with the history books is Rajveer Singh Rathore, a family with palaces, expectations and very definite ideas about duty. There is an old engagement that refuses to stay comfortably in the past, relatives who understand reputation as a form of national security, and an entire world in which private choices have a habit of becoming public business.
Koel has never been particularly talented at making herself smaller for other people's comfort.
And when her own private life is dragged into the open, turning desire, trust and an old betrayal into entertainment for strangers, the question is no longer whether she is suitable for Rajveer's world.
It is whether that world is suitable for her.
A Suitable Prince is a funny, sensual contemporary Indian romance about a Delhi radio jockey, a decidedly inconvenient prince, two families incapable of minding their own business, and a woman determined to fall in love without surrendering ownership of herself.
Because the trouble with finding a suitable prince is that sometimes a whole kingdom comes attached.
About the Author
Anjali Giri
Anjali Giri writes contemporary Indian romance about women who refuse to become smaller simply because the world finds them easier to understand that way.
Her fiction explores love, sexuality, family, ambition and the complicated territory between private desire and public expectation. She is particularly interested in women who are comfortable inhabiting their own bodies, making imperfect choices, wanting things openly and discovering that independence does not require emotional isolation.
Her stories often examine the ways women are judged for their sexuality, appearance and romantic histories, as well as the consequences of slut-shaming, violations of privacy and the increasingly blurred boundary between a person’s intimate life and the digital world. At the same time, her work resists easy divisions between good women and bad men. She prefers flawed people, complicated families and relationships in which love requires listening, accountability and the willingness to change.
A Suitable Prince introduces Koel Banerjee, a Delhi radio jockey whose outspoken public life, unruly family and growing relationship with Rajveer Singh Rathore force her to confront questions of trust, reputation, desire and what it means to remain fully herself while falling in love.
Anjali Giri writes for readers who enjoy romance with humour, sensuality, strong women, complicated men and families incapable of minding their own business.
Readers can keep in touch with Anjali Giri on Instagram at @anjaligiriwrite, by email at anjaligiriwrites@gmail.com, or through Iron Gate Publishing at irongatepublishing.com.
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