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Anuja Varghese 🇨🇦🏳️‍🌈🍉

@anuja_v

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Writer - A KISS OF CRIMSON ASH and CHRYSALIS

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FALL EVENTS FOR A KISS OF CRIMSON ASH!! It is both #sapphicseptember AND bi visibility month… so it’s really this book’s time to shine! Here’s where I’ll be:

🍁 SMITHS FALLS LIT FEST on the fiction panel with @lavanya.lakshmi.writes & @heidi.c.reimer AND on the fantasy panel with @amandacconn @kateheartfield, get tix at @thebooks.better

🍁 ROMANCE NIGHT - EVENT CANCELLED!!! (But stay tuned for rescheduling info!)

🍁AUTHOR TALK AT @burlonlibrary. Totally free and low key! Got questions about writing, worldbuilding, querying, publishing.. or anything else? Stop by and say hi!

🍁 WORD ON THE STREET romantasy panel with @elly_blake & @oranjessie

🍁 READING with @selenamercuriwriter & @mbelyssa (as we launch Elyssa’s new book!), hosted by @ay.jay.gee

🍁 NEXGEN MULTIARTS FEST - reading with @howevermeanwhile @jamaluddinaram @veenago.stories

🍁 CAN*CON - Programming to be announced… but there might be some fun stuff, some business of writing stuff aaand some stuff about threesomes?? COME AND FIND OUT!

For everyone asking if you can buy the character art - NOPE! But I’ll have art cards to give away at most events!
#authorlife #bookevent #canlit by @anuja_v

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a month ago

🔥6 MONTHS!!🔥

Today is exactly 6 months till A KISS OF CRIMSON ASH drops in 🇨🇦 CANADA with @penguinrandomca (red hardcover) & 🇺🇸🇬🇧USA/UK with @orbitbooks_us (yellow paperback) and I can’t wait to welcome y’all to the world of AKOCA!! 📖💋🔥💋📖

But 6 months is PRETTY FAR.. what can you do NOW??

🔥 Pre-order it!! Link in bio to pre-order! It counts for first week sales, lets booksellers know they should be stocking it and makes a HUGE difference in a book’s early success. Fill out the pre-order form (link in bio) and I’ll send you some fun stuff!
🔥 Add it to your Goodreads
🔥 Ask your local library to order it
🔥 Got bookstagram accounts you love? Share it! Help make sure it’s on their radar!

Lots more stuff to come and news to share over the next few months. Thanks for being on this journey with me! ❤️
#bookstagram #romantasy #fantasy #diversebooks #queerbooks #desibookstagram #canlit #2026 by @anuja_v

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10 months ago

We’re celebrating love today… so what better day to share this STUNNING character art from A KISS OF CRIMSON ASH by the insanely talented @morganemgl ❤️❤️❤️

Please allow me to introduce Taara and Payal.

Taara is a newly crowned and newly married young queen. Her whole life has been shaped around faith and duty, but now, for the first time, she’s following the call of something that might be stronger than both… Desire.

Payal is a streetwise bard who gets tangled up with the royal harem. She knows her role - to sing, to spy, to seduce. But the closer she gets to the queen, the harder it is to fight the real feelings that weren’t part of the deal.

Every detail of this is so gorgeous… the water beading on skin, the jewels, the LONGING in this moment before a first kiss.. I CANNOT STOP LOOKING AT THEM!! 👀💖👀

A KISS OF CRIMSON ASH leads with Taara and Payal’s swoony (and spicy!) love story, set against the backdrop of a lush magical medieval India-inspired world. Coming May 26, 2026!
#romantasy #sapphic #bookstagram #fantasy #romance #diversebooks #loveislove by @anuja_v

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8 months ago

MONTREAL - I’M COMING (back) TO YOUUUUU! 💖

Swing by @centresanaaq on SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4 at 2:30pm for the Garden of Literary Delights event presented by @kabircentre featuring readings from @howevermeanwhile @jamaluddinaram @veenago.stories AND ME! 👋🏾📖🎤

Books for sale from @joie.de.livres.mtl 📚📚📚

It’s free! There will be snacks! There will be giveaways!
YOU SHOULD BE THERE! #bookevent #southasianbooks #diversifyyourbookshelf #montreal taken in Montreal, Quebec by @anuja_v

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7 days ago

It’s officially SPOOKY SEASON… and it’s giving VETALA VIBES. #workinprogress #horror ✍🏾😈✍🏾 by @anuja_v

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9 days ago

Cover launch! A CURSE OF EMERALD FLAME by @anuja_v, the second installment in the Games of the Goddess trilogy, is available June 2027.

Design by @von_brooklyn
Illustration by @magnuscreative

About A KISS OF CRIMSON ASH (Games of the Goddess # 1):
Inspired by medieval India’s most epic love stories, this debut romantasy blends rich storytelling, lush worldbuilding, and heat of every variety. Perfect for fans of Tasha Suri.

Nandapore is a city of secrets and spellcasters where seduction reigns and a power-hungry king is never satisfied, plotting to unleash a weapon that has only lived in myth… until now.

To stop him, an ancient goddess seeks out a newly crowned queen, a heartsick prince, a common thief, and a courtesan with magic in her blood. Together, they chart a course through brothels, temples, taverns, and palaces, setting a trap for the empire’s most powerful men.

Linked by desire, destiny, and a dangerous foe, they each must decide… What will they risk for a weapon worth dying for, and a love worth staying alive?

#orbitbooks #akissofcrimsonash #acurseofemeraldflame #gamesofthegoddess #anujavarghese by @anuja_v

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17 days ago

Storytime: As a kid, I took bharatanatyam (classical Indian dance) lessons and I loved it. I still do. But - growing up in a relatively small and mostly white town, I quickly learned to be a “coconut” - brown on the outside, white on the inside. I just wanted to fit in and be cool. So I stopped listening to Bollywood music, pushed all the Indian clothes to the back of my closet and quit dance.

Fast forward 10 years and I was a student at McGill, suddenly surrounded by brown kids from Toronto and Montreal and Vancouver and America and India who were somehow cool AND connected to the culture. I joined a Bollywood dance team and those friends and that music (and all the dance team drama!) became a huge part of my university experience and who I got to be and become.

Fast forward 20 years and I’m watching BEST OF THE BEST on @netflixca starring our 🇨🇦 girl @maitreyiramakrishnan & @pkwizzles about collegiate Bollywood dance and friendship and competition and figuring your shit out and embracing who you are and it’s SO GOOD!! Funny, heartfelt, culturally specific, and full of AMAZING choreo - I loved it so much! I wish there had been more representation like this when I was a kid. GIVE IT A WATCH! Let’s make sure the media gods know stories that center brown women aren’t “risky” or “unrelatable.” More eyeballs = more investment! AND WE WANT MORE!!

And 10 year-old Anuja says thanks for making this. ❤️
#bestofthebest by @anuja_v

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19 days ago

WOTS Presents - Love in Other Realms: Romantasy

Three romantasy authors explore the irresistible blend of magic, adventure, and unforgettable love stories.

Where: Love & Shadows Stage
When: Sunday, September 27th, 2026 at 2:00 pm

Official Bookseller: @bakkaphoenixbooks

#TorontoWOTS #WOTS2026 #MeetMeAtWOTS by @anuja_v

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24 days ago

If you have the chance to spend your #birthdayweekend🎈 in Montreal with your friends of 25 years that you lived with while you were a student at McGill and get #montrealbagels at @stviateurbagel 🥯 and sign French and English copies of your books 📖 and eat the carrot cake on the (still) magical patio at @cafesantropol 🍰 and have late night drinks at @ndq_bar_mtl 🍹 and eat lobster pad thai at @cupmtl 🦞 and a chocolate mousse pyramid at @modaviemtl 🥳 and wander a city you love at night with nowhere to be except right where you are… I highly recommend doing that. taken in Montreal, Canada by @anuja_v

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25 days ago

GRADE 8 & GRADE 4!!
#firstdayofschool by @anuja_v

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BABY’S FIRST WORLDCON!! It’s the biggest and longest running SFF convention in the world and it was my first time attending! A few snapshots:
✈️ MADE IT TO @laworldcon
💖 Immediately ran into friends @teresempierre @spirited_gal
✍🏾 Signed some things
🐉 This guy was also signing things, we’re basically the same.
🎤 Spoke on panels about worldbuilding/setting, fantasy & romance, happily ever afters, diversity in romantasy, South Asian spec fic, fanfic, and getting grants. Met so many cool, smart, funny, generous authors. Had the best time doing it.
💃🏾 Went to DJ @jscalzi dance party, saluted Tim Curry with the Time Warp at midnight, soaked in the good vibes.
🌮 Explored Anaheim, got the best tacos and churros
📚 Visited @heartboundbookshop, signed some books, gushed about Heated Rivalry (as we do).
🐓 Went to the Hugo Awards where @redwombatstudio demonstrated an impeccable hat game
🏆 Celebrated the brilliant @amalelmohtar who won the Hugo for best novella!
🤯 The 2am face of an author having a wild night with MUCH COOLER authors than me. I can comment no further.
📖 My reading spot was the afternoon of the last day of the Con. I fully expected to read to an empty room.. but FOLKS CAME! My heart was so full!
🍁So excited to welcome everyone to Montreal next year!
❤️ So much love for @alicia.naps & @je2fors who were my travel buddies and made this trip so fun!
☀️California, I love you! Endlessly grateful for all the amazing places A KISS OF CRIMSON ASH and this #authorlife takes me! by @anuja_v

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📖✨ BOOK CLUB PICK: A Kiss of Crimson Ash by Anuja Varghese ✨📖

Last month our book club dove into this lush, sensual romantasy — and we came out the other side wanting to talk about it for hours. If you’ve been craving South Asian representation in fantasy that doesn’t just sprinkle on the aesthetics but actually roots itself in our mythology, our histories, our complexity — this one’s for you.

Set in a world inspired by medieval India, the story follows four intertwined lives: a newly crowned queen wrestling with desire she can’t name, a prince torn between duty and love, a courtesan whose blood carries real power, and a thief who insists he belongs to no one. An ancient goddess pulls the strings, and watching her plan unfold kept us hooked page after page.

What we loved most as a group of South Asian women: the way Varghese reimagines the queen and the courtesan — roles so often flattened in stories — as full, complicated women with their own hungers, ambitions, and inner lives. Desire isn’t a side plot here. It’s central, and it’s unapologetic.

Anuja Varghese is a Canadian author (Hamilton, ON 🇨🇦) whose previous work has already been recognized with a Carol Shields Prize longlisting and a Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize shortlisting. Her prose is confident, sensory, and clearly the work of someone who knows exactly the story she wants to tell. This is her debut novel and the first in a trilogy. We’re already counting down for book two.

If you love slow-burn romance, morally layered characters, and fantasy that finally centers South Asian women as more than side characters or set dressing — add this to your TBR. 🔥🪔

Have you read it yet? Drop your thoughts below or tell us who you’d cast as Taara, Garjan, Bhediya, and Roland 👇🏼

BookClub AKissOfCrimsonAsh AnujaVarghese Romantasy SouthAsianAuthors DesiBookstagram WomenInFantasy BookstagramCanada GamesOfTheGoddess FantasyRomance BookReview by @anuja_v

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