Author. Speaker. Storyteller.
Come for the stories.
Stay for the heart.
Annika Sharma is a born storyteller—an author, speaker, and creative force whose work lives at the intersection of love, identity, mental health, and the South Asian experience. She’s the author of the Chai Masala Club romantic comedy series from Sourcebooks, including Love, Chai, and Other Four-Letter Words (an Amazon Editors’ Pick and Library Journal Best Book of 2021) and Sugar, Spice, and Can’t Play Nice (which earned five major trade reviews). Her middle-grade novel, Finding My Feet (Harper Collins), is a heartfelt, intergenerational story about grief, healing, and Indian classical dance.
Whether writing sweeping love stories or heart-forward coming-of-age tales, Annika’s voice is joyful, honest, and deeply rooted in community—bringing underrepresented experiences to life with charm, wit, and soul.
She’s also the founder of That Desi Spark, one of the most recognized South Asian podcasts in the U.S., which she grew into a multimedia platform before selling it in 2024. The show sparked nationwide conversations around social justice, entertainment, community issues, and health, landing her features on the BBC, in Forbes, and on a Spotify billboard in Times Square.
Annika currently serves as the Director of Communications at a mental health nonprofit and sits on the boards of two others. She’s spoken at institutions like Yale, Columbia, and ViacomCBS, using her platform to champion authentic storytelling and inclusive creative careers.
Based in the NYC area, she spends her days toggling between toddler life and plot twists, driven by the belief that powerful stories—especially those told through a cultural lens—can heal, connect, and transform. Follow her journey on Instagram @annikasharma or subscribe to her Substack for reflections on motherhood, mental health, creativity, and everything in between.
Thbooks
Love, Chai, & Other Four-Letter Words
September 21, 2021
In 2017, Annika signed a book deal with Sourcebooks for a romcom series entitled, The Chai Masala Club, about a group of friends with South Asian backgrounds and their culturally-conflicted love stories.
The first book, Love, Chai, and Other Four-Letter Words, was released on September 21, 2021. It follows Kiran, an Indian-American with family drama, who falls in love with Nash (who has reasons of his own for avoiding romance). Their sparkling, romantic, and funny story is set against the backdrop of bucket lists and the New York City skyline. Love, Chai received two starred reviews from Booklist and Library Journal, and was named an Amazon Best Book of September 2021, Apple Books' Writer to Watch, and Library Journal Best Book of 2021. Order below.
Sugar, Spice, & Can't Play Nice
May 2, 2023
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 choice: 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 themselves: 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. Order below.
