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If you’ve ever stayed up well past midnight whispering “just one more chapter” to your Kindle or paperback, Fool Me Twice by Nona Uppal is the kind of book that’ll keep you up until the sun rises. As someone who’s been in love with love for as long as I can remember, I’m always drawn to romance novels that offer more than just a meet-cute—and Uppal’s debut does exactly that. It’s tender, twisty, and quietly subversive, a story that plays with tropes only to break your heart in ways you won’t see coming. Naturally, I had to speak to the voice behind it.
She's About Me
At 26, Uppal is based in Delhi and wears many hats—writer, content creator, entrepreneur, and now, officially, romance author with Penguin. With two more books already in the works, her world is built on stories and sentences. In our chat, she opened up about writing through grief, the power of second chances, why Taylor Swift lyrics belong in literature, and how she’s writing not for literary snobs, but for the girl crying quietly in bed, finding comfort in love stories. (Yes, she’s writing about me.)
Flipping the Script
Fool Me Twice leans into classic romance tropes—then gently pulls the rug out from under you. “I was honestly a little tired of formulaic romance,” Uppal admits. “There’s so much critique around how romance is always the same, and I wanted to do something different, especially because I was writing this post-Covid, when so many young people were dealing with unexpected loss.”
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At its core, the book follows Sana, a young woman trying to find her way back to herself after tragedy, and Ashish, the person who helps her believe in love again. But Fool Me Twice doesn’t shy away from pain. “There’s a scene towards the end—Sana’s boyfriend, the one she lost, comes to her in a dream. That was the hardest to write,” Uppal confesses. “She asks him why he never came to her before, and he says, ‘I needed you to be happy before I could come back.’ I cried so much writing that. It felt like a release—for her, and for me.”
I was the kid who journalled at night, wrote long captions before they were cool, and found comfort in stringing sentences together
Meant to Be a Writer, Eventually
Did Uppal always plan to be a novelist? Not quite. “I didn’t have a grand plan, but I always had this itch—to understand my feelings through words. Everything in my life has always come back to writing,” she says. “I was the kid who journalled at night, wrote long captions before they were cool, and found comfort in stringing sentences together.” So no, she didn’t always know she’d become an author—but looking back, it feels inevitable.
On Jacqueline Wilson, Judy Blume And Taylor Swift
Like many of us who found ourselves in the pages of fiction, Uppal’s childhood shelves were filled with Jacqueline Wilson. “Her books were full of girlhood and messiness and real emotions,” she says. Later, it was Judy Blume’s Forever that helped her make sense of womanhood and sexuality. “It was so rare, reading about a young woman’s body, written by a woman. It stayed with me.”
And yes—she’s a Swiftie. “Taylor Swift is basic? Then so am I!” Uppal grins unapologetically. Like so many of us who grew up romanticising the idea of love through diary pages and pop ballads, Uppal credits Swift with shaping how she views relationships, womanhood, and the ache of being alive.
Honestly, some of the most beautiful poetry I’ve read in recent times has come from Taylor Swift's lyrics
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“Honestly, some of the most beautiful poetry I’ve read in recent times has come from her lyrics." “She references literature so seamlessly—The Great Gatsby, Wuthering Heights, even Greek mythology. Her work made me go back and actually read these classics because I wanted to understand the emotional references better. That kind of cultural ripple effect is huge.”
What resonates most, though, is Swift’s unfiltered honesty. “She writes about love the way I want to write about it—messy, cinematic, complicated, but always true to the character. There’s a particular kind of emotional literacy in her songs that helps you decode your own feelings.”
In many ways, Uppal's own writing carries that same DNA: romantic, yes, but also sharply self-aware, heartbreakingly real, and deeply attuned to the inner lives of women who dare to feel everything.
Romance Is a Bestseller. So Why Do We Still Side-Eye It?
Despite being one of the most commercially successful genres globally, romance often doesn’t get the critical respect it deserves. Uppal, however, is refreshingly unapologetic. “There’s this need in the literary world to ‘literary-ise’ everything. People want to classify genres as serious or not, and romance, for some reason, often falls under the ‘lesser’ category,” she says, her voice tinged with both frustration and clarity.
“But I think there’s so much value in romance. So much value in joy, in lightness, in making someone feel soft and seen. You can have depth without dragging the reader through pain—sometimes you just need to give them a little escapism, a little tenderness, and that’s enough to create a lasting impact.”
Uppal writes for the heart. “I write for the person who’s curled up with a book at midnight, feeling a little lost, needing a bit of comfort. That’s who I write for—the person who needs a love story to help them forget their own troubles, even if it’s just for a few hours.”
Her philosophy echoes in her work, where love lives side-by-side with grief, humour, and healing. “We live in a world that’s constantly shifting and often overwhelming, and sometimes, romance is the thread that ties everything together. It’s the way we all come back to feeling human again.”
On Gen Z Love, Situationships And The Many Names for Almosts
From ghosting to situationships, modern love comes with a glossary of new terms. But Uppal isn’t fazed. “Honestly, these things have always existed. We’ve just found words for them now,” she laughs. “What’s funny is that naming these experiences doesn’t change what they really are. It just helps people feel like they’re not alone in them. And that connection is invaluable.”
What hasn’t changed, she adds, is the core of love itself. “At the end of the day, despite the dating apps and endless options, we’re all still just searching for the same thing: comfort,” Uppal says, her voice softening. “The way we meet might change, but that desire to find someone who makes you feel at home? That’s timeless.”
Faves, Dream Casts And The Power Of A Good Rom-Com
When it comes to rom-coms, Uppal is loyal to the classics. “You’ve Got Mail is my forever comfort film. Everything Nora Ephron has ever written is gold,” she says. “And in books? It changes all the time. I love Emily Henry, Anuja Chauhan, Mhairi McFarlane…”
If Fool Me Twice were ever adapted for screen, she already knows who she’d cast as Ian—though the rest, she insists, should be fresh faces. She adds: “There’s something special about discovering someone in a role that fits like a glove.”
For Writers With A Word Document And A Dream
For aspiring authors with a blinking cursor and a quiet hope, Uppal has one thing to say: don’t wait for permission. “I spent years not taking my own dreams seriously. I thought being an author was unrealistic,” she says. “But this is the best time to be a creative person. If you want to write, write. Take your own ideas seriously. Don’t abandon your dream because it doesn’t seem practical. It’s more than worth it.”
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And just like that, she reminds me why I fell in love with romance novels in the first place—not just because they make you believe in love, but because they make you believe in possibility.
Also, read:
Taylor Swift Is Shaping Girlhood For Legions Of Girls And Women And That's Worth Celebrating