Rachel Roy and Ava Dash are on the promo trail bolstering their new book, 96 Words For Love. The mother-daughter duo stopped by Build Studio in New York City on Tuesday (January 15).
Rachel and Ava delved into the basic plot of the book while on tour. 96 Words For Love is a modern way of retelling the beautiful story of Shakuntala and Dushyanta. Raya Liston is a 17-year-old with a future that’s pretty calculated. She is set to attend UCLA in the fall but not before spending her last free summer at the ashram in India. Raya gets loads of wisdom from her grandmother and falls in love with the scenery. She also falls hard for a boy who teaches her about the 96 ways to say “love” in Sanskrit.
“We decided to write this book because we realized that there had been so many retellings of Greek myths, yet there haven’t been any retellings of Indian stories,” Ava revealed during a recent interview with her mom. “We decided that we wanted to be the first,” the young author added. “We went through and found a story that really spoke to us.”
Rachel Roy also chimed in on the significance of 96 Words For Love. “It’s super important to me,” the celebrity mom said. “Ava was a Junior [in high school] at the time and working on a Greek mythology, and I asked her if she knew any Indian myths. And she said, ‘No. You haven’t taught me any.’ So that kind of got the ball rolling.”
You can read Shakuntala’s story as told through the character of Raya Liston when you pick up a copy of 96 Words For Love at your local bookstore. You can also order a copy of the book here.
Photo: Bennett Raglin/Getty Images
