Skip to content
Cover of happily (n)ever after by Jinesh Bhagdev

The Debut Novel

happily (n)ever after

A Love Story of One More Day

Some love stories give you forever. This one gives you one more day, and makes you feel every second of it.

An emotional slow-burn Indian love story about family, a rescue dog, and the ordinary days that become everything.

Published 28 June 2026

Reader fit

For readers who want to feel everything

happily (n)ever after is an emotional slow-burn Indian romance centred on Meera, a soft-spoken but quietly formidable woman who moves first when it matters; Viyaan, who always picks dare, never truth (what he calls the Viyaan system); and Goldie, the rescued Indie who chooses them both. Tender, funny and threaded with heartbreak, it is a family love story for readers drawn to strong female characters, dogs who become family, and deeply felt romances that can make them laugh, ache and cry. Its happily (n)ever after looks nothing like a fairy tale but means so much more. Because love is more than just the good days.

  • Reader notes
  • Emotional slow burn
  • Strangers to lovers
  • Opposites attract
  • Cross-cultural Indian romance
  • Strong female protagonist
  • Family-centred
  • Found family
  • Multiple points of view
  • A rescue dog who becomes family
  • Contemporary fiction
  • Book club fiction
  • Free on Kindle Unlimited

Free bonus scene

Meet the characters before you commit

The Dog Chose Her First — get the free bonus scene (opens in a new tab)

The dog remembered her before the man ever looked her way.

A spoiler-free bonus scene from happily (n)ever after. A night at a Rishikesh camp, a rescued street dog who keeps choosing the one woman nobody else is watching, and the quiet beginning of a love story neither of them expected.

  • A complete seven-minute scene, set as a keepsake PDF.
  • Your first taste of Meera, Viyaan and Goldie.
  • No spoilers. Just the beginning.

Free. One email to deliver it, then only the occasional note from me. Unsubscribe anytime.

The story

Viyaan counts everything. The kilometres he runs before sunrise. The minutes Goldie waits at the door. Every dare he has ever chosen over the truth.

Meera is quiet until it matters. Soft-spoken, steady, forever answering his dares with the same three words: maybe next time. She is also, it turns out, the one who moves first. Every time.

A Gujju banker from Bilimora and a Kannadiga trainer from Dharwad: two people nobody would have put together, but Goldie already had. Then life changes everything, and the future they had planned so carefully begins, quietly, to rewrite itself. What they build in its place is a love measured in the smallest, surest units there are: one more morning, one more chai, one more day.

Goldie, the novel’s rescued Indie, is the third protagonist, not a plot device. Readers who love dog-centred fiction will understand why he matters.

Tender, funny, and deeply human.

The particulars

Genre
Emotional contemporary romance
Length
408 pages · approx. 102,000 words
Setting
Bilimora, Dharwad, and beyond
Edition
Kindle · free on Kindle Unlimited
Published
28 June 2026
ASIN
B0H6VFRFHS

Readers

What readers said.

5.0from 5 ratings on Goodreads (opens in a new tab)

Book two

What I am writing now.

A second novel is in progress. News about it will appear here first.

  1. In progress

    Research

    Building the plot, the characters and the theme.

  2. To come

    Draft

    Not started. Badly and completely, when it does.

  3. To come

    Editing

    Removing everything that is only clever.

  4. To come

    Beta readers

    Finding out what it is actually about.

  5. To come

    Publication

    Date to be announced.

The title, the cover and the release date are all announced to the list first.

Hear it first