Score: 4/5 Bookmarks

Thank you to William Morrow and BookSparks for gifting me a review copy of Incense and Sensibility by Sonali Dev. This is book three in The Rajes series.

I haven’t read the first two (yet) and while they may have given me a little more background into some of the characters I thought this book worked really well as a stand-alone story. The whole series is inspired by different Jane Austen books, and you know I’m always here for an Austen retelling. This one is obviously inspired by Sense and Sensibility, which is one of my favorites and I feel an often overlooked book.

Yash Raje is speaking at a political rally, as California’s first serious Indian gubernatorial candidate, when he’s shot on stage. Understandably, this spins Yash into an anxiety spiral and he has trouble getting himself motivated to continue his political career.

Yash’s family turns to his sister’s best friend, India, for help. She’s known the family forever, and runs a yoga studio with her mother. She helps Yash with relaxation techniques and seems to be the only one who is really able to get through to him. It’s not easy though, the two of them share a secret past that has really hurt India, so she has to put her own feelings aside in order to help Yash.

I fell so in love with the characters in this story, both the main and supporting ones. India is so unfailingly good and kind, sometimes to her own detriment, that you just want to hug her and make everything ok for her. It took me a while to come around to Yash and believe he was worthy of India though. Overall the story is filled with some heaviness—with hardships, poor timing, and missed opportunities, but it’s so, so lovely.

The author also does such a beautiful job of painting a scene that you’ll be able to taste the mango overnight oats (which prompted me to start making my own overnight oats lately), smell the incense burning in the studio, and really feel like you’re there with the characters.

I’m 100% going to go back and read the other books in this series, if they are half as wonderful as this book I know I’m going to love them.

Synopsis:

The author of Recipe for Persuasion—“not only one of the best but one of the bravest romance novelists working today” (Shelf Awareness)—adds an Indian American twist to Jane Austen's classic Sense and Sensibility in this delightful retelling that is a feast for the senses.

Yash Raje, California’s first serious Indian gubernatorial candidate, has always known exactly what he wants—and how to use his privileged background to get it. He attributes his success to a simple mantra: control your feelings and you can control the world.

But when a hate-fueled incident at a rally critically injures his friend, Yash’s easy life suddenly feels like a lie, his control an illusion. When he tries to get back on the campaign trail, he blacks out with panic.

Desperate to keep Yash’s condition from leaking to the media, his family turns to the one person they trust—his sister’s best friend, India Dashwood, California’s foremost stress management coach. Raised by a family of yoga teachers, India has helped San Francisco’s high strung overachievers for a decade without so much as altering her breath. But this man—with his boundless ambition, simmering intensity, and absolute faith in his political beliefs—is like no other. Yash has spent a lifetime repressing everything to succeed.

Including their one magical night ten years ago—a too brief, too bright passion that if rekindled threatens the life he’s crafted for himself. Exposing the secrets might be the only way to save him but it’s also guaranteed to destroy the dream he’s willingly shouldered for his family and community . . . until now.