With Love Beyond Reasonable Doubt, Swati Hegde (Match Me if You Can; Can't Help Faking in Love) has created a funny workplace romance set in Bangalore, India, that's sure to appeal to fans of Sally Thorne's The Hating Game or Elena Armas's The Spanish Love Deception.
Eighteen months ago, just after her fiancé ended their engagement, Naina Shetty went alone on what would have been her honeymoon to Goa. There she met Tejas Rajput, and the two had a fantastic vacation fling, but Naina insisted they couldn't continue seeing each other in their regular lives. Since then, Naina has thrown herself into work at her law firm, where she is determined to make partner. Her best friend, Anil, bemoans how she refuses to date and teases her about missing her "Prince Charming" from Goa. Anil and Naina are shocked when the firm's new hire turns out to be none other than "Prince Charming" himself, Tejas. What's more, their bosses assign Tejas and Naina to a team investigating the murder of a famous Bollywood director. Amid clever sleuthing and escalating stakes, workaholic Naina begins to wonder if she really can squeeze in a relationship with Tejas, too.
Smart and sweet, Love Beyond a Reasonable Doubt is a lovely second-chance romance combined with a Bollywood murder case. Hegde describes the Bangalore setting with energetic prose, and the mystery that Naina and Tejas must solve is as thrilling as the flashbacks to their steamy days in Goa. --Jessica Howard, former bookseller, freelance book reviewer