Nandini Bajpai Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Nandini Bajpai is a popular Indian-American writer of historical fiction, young adult, and children’s fiction books. She is known to have penned several mind-blowing standalone novels in her career, including Rishi and the Karmic Cat, A Match Made in Mehendi, Starcused, Red Turban White Horse: My Sister’s Hurricane Wedding, etc. Bajpai made her debut in the field of writing with the latter, which was released in 2013 by Scholastic India. In the same year, she came up with her second book, Starcused, which is a historical young adult book published under the banner of Rupa Publications. After this novel, Bajpai shifted her focus towards writing a middle grade and subsequently wrote and published Rishi and the Karmic Cat in 2015. The Little, Brown’s agent Nikki Garcia bought the publishing rights of the author’s contemporary young adult novel, A Match Made in Mehendi, in 2017.

Author Bajpai was born in Meerut, U.P., India as a Nandini Chauhan. She belongs to a Rajput family and grew up among four sisters and several cousins in New Delhi. The youngest among her 4 sisters is the popular Indian author named Anuja Chauhan. Bajpai’s father was an officer in the Indian military, who helped inculcate discipline and good behavior in her and her sisters from a very young age. In 1991, Bajpai moved to Australia along with her family. Three years later, she got married and relocated to the United States. Until her first kid was born, she was employed at a Boston based company called Fidelity Investments. While her child was growing up, Bajpai became involved in several animal rescue and community groups as a volunteer as she had a lot of time to kill. At around the same time, she also started writing.

In 2015, Bajpai was nominated for the Woman of the Year of India-New England Award. She has resided and worked in several countries like the US, India, and Australia. Currently, she is settled in Boston along with her caring husband, children, and a small group of pets. Author Bajpai has always considered writing as her first love, even though she has served as a systems analyst, bookseller, PTO Mom, animal foster, TEDx organizer, and many more. While she was growing up, her family comprised of people with a deep interest in reading. Due to this, she also developed a liking for reading along with her sisters. And over the years, the interest in reading moved on to writing and creating stories of her own. Bajpai’s books have sold a large number of copies all over the world and have been praised by readers and critics alike. They are available in paperback, e-book, and other formats.

Bajpai’s novels have been translated into more than eleven Indian and foreign languages. She has a big fan-following that consists of readers from India as well as abroad. As Bajpai hails from India and is well-versed with the diverse culture of the country, she likes to set her stories in her home country. In fact, all her characters are also of the Indian-origin. The critics and reviewers have lauded Bajpai’s work and her writing skills very much. They have also admired her character descriptions, settings, and the overall storyline of her books. She feels grateful for all the kind words and praise that have helped her to become a successful writer. Bajpai hopes to keep getting the love of the readers from across the world for all her future novels. The immense amount of success for her earlier novels motivated Bajpai to continue writing. She is looking forward to writing more interesting novels covering multiple genres in the years to come. Until then, she expects her fans to keep reading her already published books and help them become more popular and successful.

A popular book written by author Nandini Bajpai is entitled ‘Rishi and the Karmic Cat’. It was released by Rupa Publications in 2015. The main characters mentioned in this book include Rishi, Karishma, Hiramani, Kesar, and several others. Initially, it is depicted that Karishma and Rishi own an orange tomcat named Kesar. One day, Kesar declares that he was the master of an old order named Acharya Vidyasagar and this declaration bring many exciting turns in the life of Rishi and Karishma. Previously, they were living a normal life in America and had their middle school as their only tool for exciting. But, when their cat begins to talk, the excitement gets a whole new meaning for them. Kesar informs them that an old Book of Life called Jiva Sutra has to be found before evil forces get their hands on it.

Later, it is learned that a lizard-born named Hiramani is also searching for Jiva Sutra. He is their enemy from the past life. Hiramani wants to seize Jiva Sutra before Rishi, Kesar, and Karishma and use it for his own evil deeds. Karishma, Kesar, and Rishi team up with several wild creatures and the oldest trees of the world and set off on a quest from the US to Tibet and India. They travel through the ruins of Nalanda’s ancient university to the Gir forests and the Saffron Cats’ Temple located in Tibet. During their journey, they fight against the evil Hiramani and use all their strength to help restore Earth’s balance by bringing the Jiva Sutra into the right hands.

Another wonderful book penned by Bajpai is known as ‘A Match Made in Mehendi’. It was published in 2019 by Little, Brown publication. This book features the lead characters in the roles of Simran Sangha aka Simi, Noah, and a few others. The book opens by introducing Simi as a 15-year-old girl living in America and belonging to a long line of matchmakers from India. Her forefathers have a rich history of helping parents find perfect matches for their children for marriage. When Simi ends up finding a good match for her cousin in the form of a soon-to-be lawyer, everyone in her family becomes thrilled to know that she too has the ‘special gift’. However, Simi does not wish to follow the family’s footsteps and instead focus on becoming an artist. She doesn’t want to get stuck up in relationships, family drama, and helicopter parents. Suddenly, she realizes that it might be the best way to improve the social status of herself and that of her best friend named Noah. Subsequently, she arms herself with the ancient guide of her family to find matches and lays the foundation of a matchmaking service through an app. But, Simi faces a difficult time when most of her matches turn out to be totally imperfect, thereby becoming the number one enemy in the eyes of the public.