Yash Raje, California’s first Indian-American 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 crime 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 to destroy the dream he’s willingly shouldered for his family and community . . . until now.
Release Date: Jul 6, 2021
Series: The Rajes
Book: 3
Heat Level: Hot
Publisher: HarperCollins
Imprint: William Morrow
Price: $10.99
Yash is very driven. He knows his career path and life trajectory so it is a major disruption when he no longer can do what he had loved. He is experiencing a mental block and survivor’s guilt after surviving a major tragedy. His family thinks he should get some help from his sister’s best friend, India.
India always had feelings for Yash. They had a brief moment in time years ago but nothing occurred with that. She has moved on and is serious about her yoga career. Yet, when she learns that he has been hurt, she genuinely tries to help him.
I’ve read books by Sonali Dev and enjoyed them. Incense and Sensibility left me wanting the same magic from the author but it was not forthcoming. For some reason, I never got the feeling that we (the readers) were getting deep with these characters. I didn’t get the feeling that I knew Yash or India. They are one-dimensional the entire book.
The story moves very slow with a lot of inner dialogue. This is a slow burn that didn’t catch me and hold me. The main characters don’t really interact alone until after forty percent. I always take issue with that especially since in this case they already had a romantic entanglement. I didn’t even care that they were a bonus romance.
It is always nice to catch up with characters from previous books in the series but they didn’t really add much to the overall plot. It just dragged the story out even longer. I also wanted less page time with China.
Overall, the structure was there but somewhere it fell short from being the perfect romance. This is not the best by this author but it is still a solid read and a must if you had read the previous books.
~ Samantha
Amazon | iBooks | B&N | Kobo | Google Play