LOVE BEYOND REASONABLE DOUBT

Two lawyers try to put their steamy past behind them when they’re assigned to the same high-profile case.

Naina Shetty has no time for romance. If she did, she wouldn’t have become the best junior legal associate at Akhtar, Kumble & Co. in Bangalore, India, or be the top pick for a major promotion as the only woman on her team. Naina is a self-proclaimed workaholic with little time for relationships, which she swore off for good after last year’s sexy summer fling. Reeling from a broken engagement, Naina found herself in Goa 17 months ago in search of two weeks of no-strings-attached fun. She found it with her handsome hostel roommate, Tejas, who was nursing his own broken heart following his ex-boyfriend’s wedding. Together, they ran through the items on Naina’s Anti-Honeymoon Checklist, including skinny-dipping, attending a rave, and kissing a stranger. When the summer ended, so did their fling, and neither expected to see each other again. But then Tejas unknowingly takes a position at Naina’s firm, where they’re placed on the same assignment—a high-profile Bollywood murder scandal. As Naina and Tejas work together to uncover the details of the Preethi Acharya case, they discover that a relationship they’d thought was just casual might be something much deeper. Are they willing to let the sparks between them catch fire, or are they too afraid of getting burned again? Hegde’s latest romance follows two unlucky-in-love people afraid that committing means getting hurt again. Naina and Tejas embody the phrase "opposites attract," with her studious perseverance and his sunny demeanor, and it’s refreshing, if slightly out of character, to see them let loose in the flashback scenes as they navigate heartbreak and hookup culture. As a second-chance romance, their journey will be rewarding to readers who want to see them face their relationship anxieties head on and come out stronger.

A textbook summer read that combines romance, legal drama, and vibrant Indian culture.