""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 Indiaâs story will stick with me for a long time.ââ Emily Henry, New York Times bestselling author of Beach Read
Yash Raje, Californiaâs first Indian-American gubernatorial candidate, has always known exactly what he wantsâand 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, Yashâs 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 Yashâs condition from leaking to the media, his family turns to the one person they trustâhis sisterâs best friend, India Dashwood, Californiaâs foremost stress management coach. Raised by a family of yoga teachers, India has helped San Franciscoâs high strung overachievers for a decade without so much as altering her breath. But this manâwith his boundless ambition, simmering intensity, and absolute faith in his political beliefsâis like no other.
Yash has spent a lifetime repressing everything to succeed, including their one magical night ten years agoâa too brief, too bright passion that if rekindled threatens to destroy the dream heâs willingly shouldered for his family and community . . . until now.