What I liked best about Sonali Dev's latest romance novel is the title: Incense and Sensibility (#1,034). The only other connections to Jane Austen's original Sense and Sensibility that I could find were that the heroine in Dev's book is named India Dashwood, and that her younger sister has her heart broken by a totally unsuitable lover.
India is a yoga teacher and stress life coach, which brings her into the orbit of Yash Rafe, the handsome young politician running for Governor of California on a progressive platform. An assassination attempt has resulted in minor physical injuries to Yash, but almost killed his bodyguard. He is left with crippling panic attacks and slipping poll numbers. His sisters suggest counseling sessions with their friend India so he can continue on the campaign trail. Unbeknownst to them, India and Yash have a history, and therein lies the tale.
Although I did finish this book, the characters who are mainly brown or black, spend a lot of time complaining about being "othered" by American society. Frankly, that made ME feel "othered" as I read this. I also thought one of the plot points - about Yash losing the election if he publicly ditches his strictly window-dressing girlfriend in mid-campaign - was totally unrealistic. Has the author not been paying attention to a presidential campaign where the successful candidate was caught on tape admitting to a pattern of sexual molestation, or that the current Governor of California easily survived the scandal of a lavish dinner party when the entire state was supposed to be on lockdown? I hardly think the voters would even blink at the (Gasp!) potential scandal here if India and Yash DID get together. Oh, and did I mention how tired I got of reading about Yash's tortured eyes following India worshipfully?
I expected a Jane Austen tribute novel. What I got was not worth the time it took to read it.
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