The usual Indian romance list has the same names every time. Anuja Chauhan, Ravinder Singh, Chetan Bhagat. All worth reading, all already well known. This list is different. These are the books that do not show up in those roundups, the ones that circulate quietly among readers who have found them and will not stop talking about them.
Red Flags and Rishtas by Radhika Agarwal
The pressure of rishta meetings, the aunties with opinions, the spreadsheet of eligible men your family has somehow compiled, the creeping fear that what you want and what everyone else wants for you might never align. And somehow, against all of it, the possibility of something real.
Why it is underrated: This is one of the sharpest comic takes on modern Indian matchmaking in recent fiction. It is funny in the way that only works when the observation is completely accurate, and it earns its romantic resolution without pretending the social pressure was not real.
How to Find Love When You're Weird by Camilla Evergreen
A fake dating setup with two characters who are both convinced they are too strange to be loved by someone who actually knows them. Charming, emotionally warm, and much smarter about anxiety and self-perception than most rom-coms manage to be.
Why it is underrated: Evergreen writes the fake-dating trope with genuine interiority. The comedy works, but it is the emotional honesty underneath that makes this stick. Ideal for readers who love the lighthearted format but want real feeling underneath it.
A Kite of Farewells by Anjali Ojango
A short story collection rooted in North-East India, focused on love in its most charged and painful forms. Intense emotion, realism, and a part of India that almost never appears in mainstream Indian romance fiction.
Why it is underrated: Indian romance almost always means Delhi, Mumbai, or a generic urban backdrop. Ojango writes from a specific geography that most readers have never encountered in fiction, and the love stories here carry the weight of a place that has its own complicated relationship with the rest of the country.
Jezebel by K.R. Meera
A story of passion, betrayal, and the specific way society punishes women who want too much. K.R. Meera is one of the most important voices in contemporary Indian literary fiction, and Jezebel is her most direct examination of love as a site of power.
Why it is underrated: This is not a comfortable romance. It is a devastating one. Meera uses the love story to take apart the structures that control women's desire, and she does it without offering easy consolation. For readers who want their romance to carry real weight.
The Red Coloured Bliss by Samridhi Aneja
A romance built on complex emotional terrain, navigating the kind of relationship where feelings run deeper than the situation allows for. Aneja writes inner life with unusual precision.
Why it is underrated: Most Indian popular romance resolves cleanly. Aneja is more interested in the texture of longing and the difficulty of knowing what you actually want. For readers who like their love stories to sit with discomfort rather than rush past it.
From the Love Laws of Lucknow by Mehru Jaffer
A historical and romantic portrait of relationships in Lucknow, the city of tehzeeb, where love has always been performed and felt with equal intensity. Jaffer writes with the measured grace of someone who understands the city from the inside.
Why it is underrated: Historical Indian romance is almost entirely absent from the popular market. This is one of the rare books that fills that gap with real literary care.
A Bird on My Windowsill by Manav Kaul
Sensitive, quiet, emotionally attentive. Kaul is better known as a playwright and the prose here reflects that sensibility: every scene is about what is happening underneath the surface, and the romantic feeling comes through accumulation rather than declaration.
Why it is underrated: Kaul's work is beloved among literary readers in Hindi and English, but has not crossed into the mainstream romance readership. If you find most popular Indian romance too loud, this is the antidote.
Once Upon the Tracks of Mumbai by Rishi Vohra
A love story set against the local train network that moves 7 million people across Mumbai every day. The chaos, the proximity, the strange intimacy of sharing a city this overwhelming, all of it feeds into a romance that feels genuinely earned.
Why it is underrated: Mumbai as a romantic backdrop usually means the skyline or the sea. Vohra uses the local trains, which is where the actual city lives, and it makes the love story feel completely different from anything else set there.
Looking for more Indian romance? Read our full list of romance books by Indian authors and our top 10 romantic novels by Indian authors. Or search by trope → to find your next read.