Sonali Dev finishes up her The Rajes Austen-inspired series with The Emma Project. The tale of Vansh Raje, the youngest son of the clan, this book is all about falling in love and figuring out how that works when you’ve never believed in it before.

This is not a stand-alone volume. Readers will need to read Incense and Sensibility to grasp the back story that drives this narrative. Please be aware that there are some spoilers for that novel towards the end of this review.

Vansh Raje tries to use his privilege to help others. He’s travelled around the world doing various charitable projects and is proud of how much he’s contributed to making life better for a lot of people in many different countries. When he gets talking to Hari, someone who worked for his brother Yash’s campaign, at the victory party for Yash winning his gubernatorial race, Vansh realizes something: he doesn’t need to leave San Francisco to help people desperately in need. There are a lot of folks in his home community who need help, too. He begins at once, getting Hari, who is homeless, settled into a hotel and starting to unravel all the threads that led that young man to such a difficult place. Given that his brother is the recently elected governor of California and Vansh’s tons of experience working with worthy causes, Vansh is confident he can do something to fix the homeless situation in the city. Especially since billionaire Jignesh Mehta has just offered him a portion of the endowment from his foundation.

Knightlina (Naina) Kohli has spent years working to empower women around the world and she’s more than earned the large grant she has received from Jignesh Mehta’s foundation. So she is furious when Vansh Raje, with his gorgeous face, muscled body and winning smile swoops in and not only takes a share of the money but gets all the recognition at the party announcing the award winners. This has been the story of Naina’s life – men waltzing in and stealing the joy right from under her. Only Naina is done putting up with it – she plans to go to war with Vansh over the funding and the recognition. Only how will she ever beat a guy whose ‘make love not war’ attitude is slowly convincing her to give romance – something she’s always spurned – a chance?

If I had to describe this book in one sentence it would be ‘progressive limousine liberals find love while lecturing readers on mental health, homelessness, female equality and the importance of giving back’. If that sounds like your cuppa, then definitely read this. If not, it may not be the story for you.

For those who enjoy that premise, The Emma Project is an easy read. Dev has a smooth, clean writing style and Naina and Vansh are likable characters, even if they are a tad overly privileged and unaware that shopping at Target doesn’t make them less advantaged. Their love story centers around the heat between them and their main common interest – both are devoted to charitable work and their ability to share that labor/vision and play together is what enables them to be a couple. Naina has some severe daddy issues (her father is a classic wife abuser) and it takes her a while to figure out that not all men are her dad, but the story does work through that. The fact that Vansh, with his sunny personality, respect for women and total lack of desire to control everything around him is the polar opposite of her father slowly helps her to realize that she can unfreeze her heart and love those who love her.

My main quibbles with the story are the meet-weird romance between the secondary couple (Esha and Sid), and the fact that the twelve year age difference between our leads, with Naina being the older of the two,  is mainly explored through exclamations from others about how she knew Vansh when he was in diapers. Given that much is made in the story of how they don’t want the traditional marriage and kids, the fact that Naina would be past childbearing age in a decade isn’t examined is somewhat understandable. However, there should have been more of a look at the differences in their lived experiences this age gap would make. They would have watched different TV shows as kids, listened to different music, have differing pop culture references. I thought it deserved more of a look than it received.

Romancelandia is full of big, happy family books but honestly I have grown to like the Rajes less the longer I’ve been around them. In the previous novel, Incense and Sensibility, we learned that the long engagement/understanding between Yash (Vansh’s brother) and Naina had been faked by them both in order to advance their careers/education. I won’t go into the convoluted thinking involved in that ticking-time-bomb of a plan but in the end, Naina is the one who bore the brunt of the fall out when that scheme imploded. That was mostly fair due to the fact that she had benefited from it more than Yash, but what wasn’t fair was how his family ostracized her as a result.  I found myself irritated by them/angry with them because of that behavior. Especially since the fake engagement didn’t hurt anyone and was strictly a matter between two people.

If you read contemporary romance, The Emma Project will be a well-written version of a common tale within that genre. It won’t offer up anything new but it will be a pleasant way to while away a few hours. I would recommend it to fans of the author and both this and Incense and Sensibility to anyone who enjoys romances about liberal politicos.

Buy it at: Amazon, Audible or your local independent retailer

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