Description
At Arm’s Length is a slow‑burn, campus rivals‑to‑lovers romance about holding the line—until the line is all that holds them together. Arjun Varma is undefeated at debate and deflection; Ishani Mehra believes standards are love’s truest language—and neither plans to be the first to blink. A public wager forces proximity, and late‑night sparring turns into the kind of honesty that ruins good armor: ambition without kindness, brilliance without belonging, and a promise that demands proof. With faculty politics, found‑family warmth, and an apology that costs as much as the kiss, this delivers hook‑conflict‑stakes with crisp white‑space prose for readers who crave character‑driven heat and boundaries honored on the page.
Balaji Muthukumar writes high-velocity, high-heart fiction that lives where tenderness meets danger—intimate love stories set inside big, propulsive worlds. His novels range from slow-burn campus rivalries and social intrigue to near-future sci‑fi epics and multi-verse romances, but they all share the same DNA: fierce women, flawed men learning to be worthy, found family under pressure, and vows that cost something to keep.
A lifelong architect of character and consequence, Balaji builds narratives like engineered bridges—elegant, load‑bearing, and built to make readers feel the drop in their stomach and still take the step. His work blends lyrical prose with thriller pacing, weaving themes of redemption, moral courage, and love that chooses responsibility over performance. Expect sharp dialogue, cinematic set‑pieces, and endings that feel inevitable in the best way—earned, not granted.
Off the page, he is an obsessive craft nerd, equal parts structure and soul, who believes stories should leave readers braver than they arrived. When not drafting at unreasonable hours, he’s collecting first lines, walking off last chapters, and perfecting the long, quiet look between two people who finally tell the truth.
If you love emotionally intelligent romance threaded through big stakes—professors with secrets, kings without crowns, rebels with kinder weapons, and universes held together by a promise—Balaji’s books will keep the lamp on and the pages turning.