Incense and Sensibility
Ratings6
Average rating3.7
15
Ratings6
Average rating3.7
"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.
Series
3 primary booksThe Rajes is a 3-book series with 3 primary works first released in 2019 with contributions by Sonali Dev.
Reviews with the most likes.
Solid Romance. Tainted By Politics and Racism. First off, let me be absolutely crystal clear on one point: This was a truly solid romance featuring a man and woman who both know who they are - and the man finally realizing what he actually wants. Were that the be-all, end-all of this book, this is an absolute 5, much like its predecessor. And because its predecessor *was 5, I requested this book the instant I saw it. I couldn't *wait to dive back into this world.
Unfortunately, that wasn't the be-all, end-all of this book. Instead, the author's own personal politics pore through the page here and indeed are quite preachy virtually every time she has most any character speak to political things. And considering the male lead here is running for Governor... this is quite often. But if it was just the preachy politics, this would have been a 4* review. It was heavy and pervasive and detracting from the actual story, and that merits the star deduction. (California politics. If Gavin Newsome and Nancy Pelosi are some of your favorite politicians, you're gonna love this book. If not... you're not. ;) )
But even the pervasive preachy politics wasn't enough to deduct two stars and get us down to a three star review from my default of 5 - which again, without the pervasive preachy politics and this next issue, this book would have absolutely gotten.
Unfortunately, that issue is blatant racism. Now, do I think that the author is an active racist? No, I don't. I've interacted with her from time to time online, and I know she is as kind and generous as most any other author I've met in similar circles. But I do think that, in an extreme bit of irony, her own unconscious biases were so blatant that had nearly this exact same text been written with an all white, rather than an all-POC cast, and with the very things said of POCs that are said of white people in this text, the “woke” crowd would absolutely eviscerate this book as blatantly racist and would have called for the author to be fully “cancelled”. Every single time a white person or anyone that isn't 110% in lockstep with the leftist agenda is mentioned, they are mentioned with some form of derision, casting them as some form of stupid or evil. Again, I do not think that this is an active thing with the author at all. As best I can tell, she is simply putting her own real world politics and thoughts into the text of this book without considering that perhaps others aren't as evil or unintelligent as she seems to think they are because they disagree with those politics or have lighter shades of melanin in their skin.
And again, this is truly, truly a shame. Because if you write this same book in largely the same way, but edit out the racism and the pervasive preachy politics, this is easily a 5* romance tale. And, perhaps, if you agree with the racism in question and/ or the politics at hand, you may still feel it is 5*.
My reviews speak for themselves. I have a strong record of striving very hard to be as balanced and objective as possible within them, and therefore I hope the author and others take what I have written here as being from someone who genuinely wanted the book to be as strong as possible. Everyone in publishing knows that others are not always so balanced, and at minimum I hope I can at least prevent a few ... shall we say, “more vitriolic”... reviews due to pointing out these issues in this review. And maybe even add a few sales, for those that happen to like the author's perspectives here. :)
I can't go with a 3 word or less “recommended or not” status like I normally do, so I'll end with this: Read this book. It truly deserves to be read, and outside of the issues noted here it is genuinely a strong book. But for me, and potentially many others, the issues noted here are major problems with what would otherwise be a truly great romance tale.
3.5 and rounding up. Sense & Sensibility is my favorite of the Jane Austen books and this is a lovely re-imagining.
