Leylah Attar is an Indo-Canadian writer who was born in Tanzania, raised in Kenya, and now lives in Toronto. Her self-published works of women’s fiction and contemporary romance have been featured on several American bestsellers lists. Attar lives is now published by Doubleday Canada.
Fiction
53 Letters For My Lover
Pitch73 Publishing, 2014.
Synopsis
Shayda Hijazi – the perfect wife, the perfect mother, the perfect daughter. For thirty-three years, she has played by the rules, swallowing secrets, burying dreams and doing whatever it takes to anchor her family. Shayda Hijazi is about to come face to face with the one thing that can rip it all apart, the one thing she has always been denied: love.
Troy Heathgate – untamed, exhilarating, dangerous – a man who does exactly as he pleases. Life bends to his will. Until he comes across the one thing he would give it all up for, but can never have.
Born on the same day in opposite corners of the world, their lives collide. And nothing is ever the same again.
Fiction
Caste in the Stars
Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 2025.
forthcoming Dec. 2025.
Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)
The last place Priya Solanki wants to be is back at the funeral home her parents have run for decades—a place tied to a caste legacy the world says is long gone, but that her family carried from India to Canada and never let go of. Her traditional parents call it fate—proof that her path was written in the stars, just like the generations before her. But to Priya, it’s a life she never chose, and one she’s spent years trying to outrun. Her plan is simple: regroup, reset, and finally break the cycle.
Then Ethan Knight reappears.
Once the reckless, motorcycle-riding boy next door, he’s now a full-blown Hollywood star—older, incredibly handsome, and impossible to avoid. Adored by millions and followed everywhere by flashing cameras, he’s renting out the funeral home to prepare for a role—and flipping every piece of Priya’s plan upside down.
Fiction
Mists of the Serengeti
Pitch73 Publishing, 2017.
Synopsis
When a deadly explosion tears through a mall in East Africa, two lives are changed forever.
Jack Warden—a rugged, reclusive coffee farmer in Tanzania—loses the only thing that mattered: his daughter.
Rodel Emerson, a quiet schoolteacher living in England, is left reeling after the death of her sister.
Worlds apart, their paths converge on the sweeping plains of Tanzania, beneath the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro. What begins as a fragile bond deepens as two ordinary people—bound by a single tragic afternoon—embark on an extraordinary journey to protect three children whose very existence puts a price on their heads.
As threats close in and the stakes rise, Jack and Rodel must navigate grief, trust, and the stirrings of a love neither of them expected. But when every step forward demands more, can they hold onto what they’ve found—or will it slip away like mist beneath the rising sun?
Fiction
Moti on the Water
Pitch73 Publishing, 2019.
Synopsis
Meet Moti Ferreira—spectacularly jinxed from the day she’s born.
Saddled with an eccentric mother, she stumbles upon the one man who holds the key to her freedom—the best man at her cousin’s upcoming wedding.
All Moti has to do is overcome her fear of water, board a yacht to the Greek Isles, seduce the dreamy Nikos Manolas, and survive two weeks at sea with her oddball family.
The only obstacle Moti doesn’t see coming is Alexandros Veronis, the onboard chef and star witness to her awkward mishaps. He transforms onions into chocolate and aroma into nostalgia. Day by day, his alchemy works its magic on Moti. But she’s not the only one falling under his spell. Everyone has a secret, growing round and ripe at Chef Alex’s table. When the masks fall off, they spill out one by one, and everything blows up in their faces.
Now Moti’s truth is exposed, and worse, she’s hooked on more than Alex’s midnight snacks. But this time, screwing up could be the best thing she’s ever done…
Fiction
The Night Blossoms
Pitch73 Publishing, 2022.
Synopsis
When her husband goes missing after a heated argument, Vee Roza finds herself caught in a dangerous web of deceit.
Not only must Vee clear her name and uncover the truth about Rafael, but also survive a high-risk pregnancy while guarding secrets of her own.
Is Rafael’s disappearance the ultimate betrayal or the ultimate sacrifice?
Fiction
The Paper Swan
Pitch73 Publishing, 2015.
Synopsis
Kidnapped a day short of her twenty-fourth birthday, Skye Sedgewick struggles to uncover her captor’s motives. Damian Caballero is not only impossible to read, but also dark, troubled, and unflinchingly brutal.
For twenty-one days, Skye holds on. But on Day Twenty-Two, she yearns for the sweet slumber of death. Because on Day Twenty-Two, Skye realizes that her only way out means certain death for one of the two men she loves.
Links
Leylah Attar personal website
Publisher Penguin Random House Canada, publisher of Doubleday Canada