The author of A Bollywood Affair is back. Set mostly in Chicago, with side trips to Mumbai, this new novel may appeal equally to non-Indian readers and Indian Americans. The beautiful Ria Parkar is famous for playing brides in Bollywood extravaganzas. Off camera, she is cool and aloof and won't let anyone get too close. The romantic lead in this novel is Ria's childhood friend Vikram, who is tall, handsome, successful, and devoted to Ria. She keeps rebuffing him, even though she is clearly very much in love. Her puzzling behavior is the fault of inner anxiety, stemming from dark family secrets she has tried to hide for years. These are gradually revealed as Ria gains the courage to face the demons in her past. VERDICT For those who like substance with their steamy romance, this novel is both a sexy love story and an exploration of how a tormented young woman learns to overcome family turmoil and look forward to a future with the man she loves.—Leslie Patterson, Rehoboth, MA

Dev (A Bollywood Affair) replaces true connection with overdone drama in this middling contemporary romance. Bollywood star Ria, who lives and works in Mumbai, returns to Chicago for the first time in 10 years for her cousin's wedding. There she meets Vikram, with whom she was in a serious relationship as an adolescent, and the two of them have to deal with the brutal way Ria broke up with him at the start of her film career. Ria had reasons beyond the attractions of stardom to consider herself ineligible for a relationship, and those reasons intrude between the two as they rekindle their romance. The cultural details of Mumbai and of Chicago's Indian immigrant community are well-handled, and the book's attitude toward mental illness is an interesting cross between Indian and American social norms. But a lack of real communication between the lovers renders the plot unbelievable, and it never acquires any emotional weight. (Sept.)