The Trouble with Hating You Books in Order

If you like adult romance that mixes sharp banter with very real family pressure, this is the Sajni Patel series to start with. The two books are connected by friendships, family ties, and a shared Houston setting, but each one focuses on a different couple and can be read on its own.

In The Trouble with Hating You, the central push is between Liya Thakkar and Jay Shah. Liya is a biochemical engineer who wants her independence and is tired of being judged for it. Jay is the lawyer her parents try to set her up with, and after a disastrous first meeting he turns up again at her job. What begins as irritation and workplace friction slowly turns into something much more vulnerable.

The second book, First Love, Take Two, shifts the focus to Preeti Patel. Preeti is a doctor under enormous pressure, trying to finish residency, find stable work, manage anxiety, and survive her family's opinions. Then a housing problem drops her into the same apartment as Daniel Thompson, the ex she never really got over. That book leans more into second chances and forced proximity, but it still lives in the same emotional world.

What really links these novels is the community around the romances. Friends show up with advice, cousins stir things up, parents push too far, and aunties are never far from the action. Patel uses the details of Indian American social life, family dinners, expectations around marriage, gossip, religion, and reputation to give the love stories more texture. The setting matters. These people are not floating in a generic rom-com city. They belong to a very specific circle, and that circle can feel comforting one minute and suffocating the next.

These are love stories, but they are also boundary stories.

Patel is especially interested in women who look capable from the outside and are still carrying old hurt, fear, or exhaustion. The books talk about sexism, community judgment, mental health, and the strain of trying to be a good daughter while also wanting a life that actually feels like your own. None of that swallows the romance, though. The tone stays warm, funny, and quick, with a lot of chemistry and a strong sense that the couples have to earn their way toward trust.

Read them in order if you want the fullest sense of the friend group, but you do not have to. Either way, expect humor, friction, and emotionally messy people learning how to ask for more.