The Shaadi Set-Up by Lillie Vale

Acknowledgments

By the time this book releases, (I’m sure) you’ll all be sick and tired of hearing its droll origin story, so I’ll leave it at this: The Shaadi Set-Up is the book I’ve always wanted to read about the Indian-American diaspora experience, but since it didn’t exist, I knew I had to write it.

In the past, I’ve struggled to relate to South Asian characters and narratives that I’m told are supposed to share my experiences, instead yearning for more stories where a Desi character gets to just be, where their ethnicity isn’t the most interesting thing about them and they aren’t culturally torn in two. Where they are of their heritage and traditions, but it is not wholly theirs. Where being enough isn’t even a thought that crosses their mind because they are everything they are meant to be and everything they strive for is within reach.

So the first thank-you is for you: anyone who sees a part of themselves—maybe, like me, for the first time—in the characters who inhabit the world of The Shaadi Set-Up.

It is still surreal and mind-boggling that I somehow managed to sell and write (in that order!) this book during a global pandemic, after a confluence of incredibly serendipitous events during the most unimaginable circumstances. The heart of this book has always been a love letter to the places we call home and the people we find our way back to, and it felt especially affirming to draft this book during a time when so many of us were looking for comfort and connection. Writing is solitary at the best of times, but publishing is very much not, so it’s hard to write a book about love and friendship and family without thinking about all the people who made it possible in the first place:

Thank you to my extraordinary agent, Jessica Watterson, for all-caps BELIEVING in this book from the start and finding it the perfect home. I count myself lucky to have your unwavering guidance, enthusiasm, and fierce heart. Thanks also goes to Andrea Cavallaro and the rest of Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency for their knowledge and savvy.

Thank you to the entire team at G. P. Putnam’s Sons, starting with my editor Gabriella Mongelli, who is so tremendously wonderful to work with and without whose support this book wouldn’t be what it is today. Our shared love of HGTV (thank you Island Life and Flea Market Flip for being such an inspiration!) made this book extra fun to work on!

Margo Lipschultz, while we didn’t get to work on this book together, your first enthusiastic Yes! meant the world. I will always be thankful.

My gratitude also goes to the publicity team, including Sydney Cohen and Kristen Bianco; to the marketing team, including Nishtha Patel; to copyeditor Lara M. Robbins; to production editor Joel Breuklander; to the art director and jacket designer, Vi-An Nguyen; and to the publisher, Sally Kim. To anyone who helped bring this book to life, I appreciate you.

Big thanks to Alex Cabal, who illustrated such a gorgeous cover and perfectly captured the impish and dead chuffed expressions (respectively) on Harrie and Freddie’s faces. AND THE KEY CHAIN. Still swooning.

I’m immensely grateful to Rachel Lynn Solomon, Sarah Hogle, Farah Heron, Elizabeth Everett, and everyone else who gave their time so generously. Thank you for gracing me with your words.

Nicole Aronis and Kate Holliday, thank you for reading the very first draft!

Thank you to my parents, both of whom were the first in their families to marry for love, and who have never made me question that love as Rita does her parents’. Thank you again to my mom, first and best beta reader. Thank you to Granny, who is just as charming and wily as Rita’s aji, and is in no small part her inspiration.

Thank you to my grandfather, who didn’t get to see me publish my first book, but who truly lived the most storied life of anyone I know: he taught on a naval ship; he was an inventor and entrepreneur; he was an engineer on the Canadian Pacific Railway; he traveled the world with the eyes and spirit of his favorite author, Louis L’Amour; and he even met Queen Elizabeth. At my birth, he gave me my first-ever book, and continued to make sure I was well stocked with plenty of Enid Blyton. But his ultimate gift was in passing down his love of stories to my mom, who passed it down to me, which is undoubtedly why I’m an author today.

Thank you to the booksellers, librarians, and bloggers who have championed this book—I appreciate your hard work and passion so much. Thank you to my friends in the Romancing the 20s group chat and all the ’21/’22 authors with whom I’ve found so much support and solidarity. LlamaSquad, meeting all of you gave me a community I can’t imagine myself without. You all remind me every day that it really does take a village. I’m blessed to count you as mine.

Thank you to absolutely none of my exes. I don’t want a second-chance romance with any of you! ☺

My final thanks is for you, my readers. Thank you for buying, borrowing, tweeting, hyping, and supporting me on this journey, but most of all, thank you for the privilege of letting my words make you feel things. Thank you for this most incandescent and ordinary of magics.