Incense and Sensibility - (The Rajes) by Sonali Dev (Paperback)

About the Book

"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.... 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"--

Book Synopsis

"Incense and Sensibility is a tender, well-crafted novel, as much about finding purpose as it is about falling in love. Dev writes with such rare empathy and humor that I often found myself holding my breath on one page only to be giggling by the next. This is the kind of book you finish with a whole-body, happy sigh and a warm ache in your chest where the characters will live on. Yash and India's story will stick with me for a long time."-- Emily Henry, New York Times bestselling author of Beach Read

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.

Review Quotes

"A truly wonderful and joyous book." - Jasmine Guillory, New York Times bestselling author, on Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors
"A profound, unique talent, Sonali Dev grabs the reader by the heart." - Kristan Higgins, New York Times bestselling author, Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors
"A delight from start to finish, both for Jane Austen fans looking for a fresh take and readers seeking deeply felt relationships and complicated family dynamics. In Dev's world, the past is alive in the present; I was wholly engrossed and had plenty to think about. At the same time, the reality TV storyline added a thread of pure fun escapism--something all of us need right now." - Joshilyn Jackson, New York Times bestselling author, on Recipe for Persuasion
"Dev continues the story of the Raje family with this nuanced and powerful second chance romance, a loose riff on Jane Austen's Persuasion. Dev balances the toe-curling romance with high-octane family drama...[her] candor and sensitivity in both story lines set this family-centric romance apart. Readers are sure to be impressed." - Publishers Weekly (starred review) on Recipe for Persuasion
"Clever allusions to Persuasion aside (even Jane Austen fans will be challenged to spot them all), this is a sumptuously multilayered story about the ways love gets tangled in family life and romantic relationships." - Library Journal (starred review) on Recipe for Persuasion
"This book holds a galaxy of depth in its pages; it is powerful and loving, sensual and layered. Sonali Dev's writing is glorious."
- Christina Lauren, New York Times Bestselling author of In A Holidaze
"Incense and Sensibility is a tender, well-crafted novel, as much about finding purpose as it is about falling in love. Dev writes with such rare empathy and humor that I often found myself holding my breath on one page only to be giggling by the next. This is the kind of book you finish with a whole-body, happy sigh and a warm ache in your chest where the characters will live on. Yash and India's story will stick with me for a long time." - Emily Henry, New York Times bestselling author of Beach Read