You’re invited to the most romantic, chaotic wedding of the season.
For the first time, Simran Gopal is living out her own swoon-worthy romance to rival the beloved Bollywood films of her childhood...until she receives her cousin’s wedding invitation. Now, Simran finds herself returning to the family home she’s been avoiding for the last seven years to take part in a two-week long Indian wedding.
Family drama is already at a high when Leo Bridgers, Simran’s new boyfriend, accidentally crashes the engagement party. To avoid full crisis mode and provoking the ire of Veena perima, Simran’s aunt and judgmental family matriarch, the cousins need to rally. Operation DDLJ.
Following the lead of their favorite Bollywood movie, they need to trick Veena into adoring Leo. In a mess of misdirection and chaotic hijinks, Leo must prove himself to be the most charming, helpful wedding guest imaginable, and he certainly can’t give away that he’s ever met—let alone is currently in love with—Simran.
For Simran, being back with her family also brings memories of the difficult years after her parents died. As old grievances and new secrets arise—along with nosy aunties—will Simran be able to finally have her own love story, and find the closure she’s been looking for on her past?
Leave and Come Back is a heartfelt debut that balances the quest for a "happily ever after" with a moving exploration of family, culture, and grief.
Lakshmi expertly weaves the chaos of wedding festivities and Simran and Leo's budding romance with deeper themes of cultural expectations, estrangement, and grief. Through the use of Bollywood and romance tropes—and “Operation DDLJ” to outsmart a meddling aunty—she keeps the story nostalgic and fun without sacrificing its emotional depth. Although there is plenty of humour and romance, the real heart of the story is Simran’s healing journey from her past trauma, and of being true to herself and her heritage.
Part rom-com and part family drama, this charming story is as effervescent as a glass of champagne.
LAVANYA LAKSHMI has a Master’s degree from NYU and lived in New York City for nine years before moving to Toronto, where she currently resides, despite being a very vocal hater of cold weather. She has worked in and around book publishing her whole career. Leave and Come Back is her first novel.
Q & A with Lavanya Lakshmi*
GWR: Is there a particular author/work that inspired you to become a writer or the way you write?
LL: No, I don’t think there is a single author that has inspired me. I read really widely and across genres deliberately. I like to learn a little from every book I read—a little crash course on craft, in addition to reading for pleasure! That said, I think I wouldn’t be a writer if I wasn’t a reader and my love of reading started when I was young—Judy Blume’s books were always my favourite! Her humour was a huge influence on me. And when I was eighteen, I was in an AP English class that changed the way I looked at literature (teachers are so important!). There were so many books I read that year but I’ll note that Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things is my favourite book of all time, even though my books are nothing like hers.
GWR: What sparked the idea for Leave and Come Back?
LL: I’ve loved DDLJ, the Bollywood movie that inspired Leave and Come Back and is heavily referenced in it, since I first saw it as a teenager. I always found it to be such a charming romance, but it also had so many layers. That said, its viewpoints didn’t always line up with mine (and it’s also over three decades old!) so I loved the idea of being able to pay homage to this formative influence on me while retelling in a way that reflected my background and my outlook on the world. The movie is definitive for so many, but I think the version of the story I wrote in this book will also speak to many people!
GWR: Give us your best Bollywood pitch for the book.
LL: Simran is returning to her estranged family home for the first time in seven years for her cousin’s big wedding, so drama is already at a high—and that’s before the love of her life, Leo, crashes the engagement party and gets on the wrong side of the disapproving family matriarch, Veena! So she and her cousins come up with a scheme, lifted straight from their favourite Bollywood movie, DDLJ—Simran and Leo will pretend to be strangers, while he is the most helpful, charming wedding guest ever and wins everyone over. Only then will they reveal they’re together. Shockingly, things to do not go according to this one-hundred-percent flaw-free plan! There’s hijinks and hilarity as Leo stumbles his way through well, everything—but also a lot of heartache as Simran’s absence and the wounds around it come to the surface, all in the middle of this two week long, multi-event, four hundred attendee wedding!
GWR: What role did setting have when constructing the romance? (Shout out to Toronto.)
LL: Simran lives in Toronto at the start of the novel and journeys back to her aunt and uncle’s home in New Jersey. It was really important that she have a life she loves here—with friends and her boyfriend, Leo—so that going back to New Jersey was extra difficult. I wanted to make sure I shouted out Toronto because I live here and it’s a great city!
Going back to her family home would induce a lot of emotion on a normal day—going back during this big wedding adds a level of chaos, a bunch of rubberneckers, and the elaborate outfits that take it to eleven! To me, setting this book at a wedding was writing what I know as I’ve been to a lot of Indian weddings. But even as everyone enjoys the wedding celebrations, the wedding also makes things a little harder for the characters to get what they think they want, which is what the best settings do.
GWR: Familial love is just as important as romantic love in this book. What were the most important characteristics and dynamic that you wanted Simran and Kavitha’s relationship to have? What about Simran and Leo?
LL: With Simran and Leo, I wanted them to be a couple the reader would root for –it was key that people wanted them to be together, that you could see why they like each other so much, and why they’re good for each other. Having them be friends for a long time who danced around their feelings helped that because they know each other so well, which was so important as they get thrown into a brand new situation.
With Kavitha and Simran, I wanted it to feel like sisterhood interrupted. Kavitha is Simran’s favourite person and when she left, she broke their bond. I wanted to explore how it felt to navigate a relationship where there is so much love and fondness but also a fundamental fissure and betrayal. It was also important that the reader sees—and feels—just how much history and fun they have together.
GWR: What is your favourite trope to write and what is your favourite to read?
LL: I love when love interests are very different from each other—so maybe that’s the opposites-attract trope! I like writing the friction of how they’re different and the spark when they have something in common or realize something about the other that changes their feelings. And to read—it’s a less common one but I love a marriage of convenience, when characters are spouses for a reason other than love (but of course, eventually fall in love!)
GWR: You used depth through the inclusion of grief, family dynamics, and culture as a counterbalance to the romance, why was it important to include these elements?
LL: I always knew I wanted the romantic relationship between Simran and Leo to be quite steady and strong because that mirrored my favourite parts of DDLJ. So the conflict needed to come from elsewhere—and that’s where Leo’s fish-out-of-water element came in. It also became a stronger story if it wasn’t just Leo who was out of place in the family dynamic—if Simran was too, that would make her return all the more difficult and create lots of friction and drama. The grief element was something that felt powerful and deep enough that it couldn’t be brushed away; these were the kind of wounds that families split over and so it set the stage perfectly for Simran’s return.
GWR: Leave and Come Back is told from a dual, third-person point of view—did you always intent to write it this way or did this happen organically?
LL: Actually, my first draft of the book was a dual POV-first person! It was fine but I could tell something wasn’t quite clicking, even though I didn’t know what it was yet. Then I took that crucial break between finishing your first draft and starting your second and I read a bunch of books. I happened to read two or three in a row that were third person and it hit me. I realized I should be writing in third person—the voice of the novel immediately flowed and it worked better with the story I was trying to tell, especially with an ensemble cast.
I always knew I wanted Leo’s point of view in there because Simran has a lot of baggage she’s carrying into the story. Seeing things through Leo’s eyes, as an outsider and a newcomer, put a lot more in context and I think it helped illuminate what Simran couldn’t see, which is so true with family—we’re often the least able to see past things with the people we’re closest to.
GWR: If your book was a beverage, what would it be?
LL: Oh, definitely a perfectly poured cup of chai—the tea would be brewed strongly but softened by the milk (aka the romance) and it would have distinct notes: cardamom, ginger, clove and more. All are assertive and separate flavours, but they come together harmoniously!
GWR: Can you share what are you working on now?
LL: I’m a little superstitious about sharing my work when it’s in progress! But I will say that I am working on my next novel and its major theme is female friendship, alongside a rivals-to-lovers romance.
*A version of this post was published on STYLE Canada.