Incense and Sensibility by Sonali Dev

Incense and Sensibility release July 6th, 2021! Grab a copy from your local bookstore!

This book is a third in a series. I read an ARC leant to me by a friend! (Thanks, Natalie!)

I finally found a great romance with ZERO sex in it. Sonali Dev has crafted beautifully complex characters who need all the time in the book just to get to each other. This book is a treasure.

Yash is running for California governor when an assassination attempt on his life shocks him out of the focused bubble he’s been living in. He can no longer feel anything and more importantly, cannot make speeches without having a panic attack. His sisters set him up with a family friend, who also specializes in stress management, India. What his sisters don’t know and what India and Yash have buried deep within themselves is that ten years ago, they shared an emotionally powerful night together and then Yash ghosted India (he had a “good” reason). Now spending time together during his treatment has rekindled some of those old feelings but there are whole states of people, families, and old toxic thoughts standing between them.

What I loved about this book is that India is not a Hot Mess Heroine. She has her S H I T together and is powerfully grounded in yogic practices, but that doesn’t make her journey any less emotionally. Her old hurt over being ghosted has always hurt and over the course of this book she pokes at that hurt while juggling everyone and everything else in her life.

Yash is also someone I would vote for. I wish he was a real candidate.

This book also has no real antagonist. The issues that each character is dealing with and the external forces that influence the characters choices are the real antagonist, very similar to real life IMO.

Also, there is a chubby, chonky, tube-shaped doggo: Chutney. Bless her whiney snarffly heart. As an owner of a tube-shaped dog myself, tube-shaped dog representation is EVERYTHING.

Lastly, even though the book focuses on India and Yash, we also get a SECOND! romance for India’s sister, China. So come for the primary romance, find yourself cheering for the secondary one! -Ford