96 WORDS FOR LOVE

A modern retelling of the classic Indian legend of Shakuntala and Dushyanta, 96 Words for Love is about the road to finding yourself in unexpected places.

17-year-old Raya Liston hasn’t been able to sleep since getting into UCLA. She should be ecstatic. It was her first choice, after all. But instead it feels like her brain—which could be described as overactive on your average day—has been whirring a mile a minute.

Then her beloved grandmother dies and she has one wish for Raya: to visit the ashram in India she went to when she was young. And suddenly it feels like the tilt-o-whirl of Raya’s mind has come to a screeching halt. She’s convinced that at the ashram, isolated from the pressures of friends and school, she will finally be able to find her “center”—whatever that means!—while also honoring her grandmother’s memory.

But she has underestimated how unfamiliar her surroundings will be. She’s been to India once, but only on a family trip, never alone and the country is a study in contradictions. Through the people she meets at the ashram, an actor looking to find his artistic voice, a young woman struggling to recover from a horrific experience, and a boy who only sees beauty in the world, Raya is finally able to confront the sources of her anxiety and realize her place in the world. And, maybe, even fall in love—after all, in Sanskrit, there are 96 different ways to say the word “love.”

Rachel Roy is the founder of her eponymous brand and a tireless activist for using your voice to encourage change and design the life you want to live. The Rachel Roy brand debuted in 2004 and for over a decade has been inspiring women to lead individual and limitless lives through courage, conviction and change. In addition to running her successful brand, Rachel is a sought-after speaker on topics ranging from entrepreneurship to philanthropy and has shared her story and experiences at forums ranging from the White House to the Fortune Next Generation conference along with other various women’s empowerment summits. Rachel and her work has been recognized by the Accessories Council with an ACE AWARD for best brand launch, Mattel’s 10 Women to Watch, Vanity Fair’s Best Dressed List, AdWeekMedia and the LaJolla Fashion Film Festival. She has been a contributing columnist to Huffington Post and InStyle magazine and is a member of the Council of Fashion Designers of America. Her previous book, Design Your Life, was published in 2016 by Dey Street Books.