A Change of Heart

Starred review from August 1, 2016
Just as one heart leads to another—literally and metaphorically—in Dev’s seductive and complex story of love lost and then found, one layer of mystery leads to the next. Two years after Dr. Nikhil “Nic” Joshi was held a helpless witness to his wife Jen’s rape and murder in a Mumbai slum, he is literally and metaphorically at sea: he’s awash in Jack Daniels and afloat on a luxury ocean liner as the ship’s physician. Both the whiskey and the travel help him escape from the horrific nightmares that mock his loving memories of his wife. As if to further defile his tortured heart, he starts to see fleeting glimpses of Jen. It’s not a ghost but a woman, Jess, the recipient of Jen’s transplanted heart. Jess is on a mission—driven by her new heart—to bring those responsible for Jen’s death to justice, and she needs Nic’s help. Dev follows them through Chicago, Mumbai, and the Caribbean as they work to bust a black market organ-transplant gang, and soon their hearts entwine. Dev moves so expertly through the subtle layers of the tender love story that Nic and Jess—and even Jen—will hold a permanent place in readers’ hearts. Agent: Claudia Cross, Folio Literary Management.

Starred review from July 15, 2016
Mystery, adventure, and romance are spiced with Bollywood glamour in this heart-stopping novel.Nikhil Joshi, an Indian-American cruise-ship doctor, is drowning his sorrows in Jack Daniel's. Two years earlier, his pregnant wife, Jen, a physician working in a Mumbai slum for Doctors Without Borders, was murdered before his eyes; unbeknownst to her husband, Jen was working to expose an illegal organ-transplant enterprise committing gruesome "murders to carve out organs." Suddenly, Jess Koirala, a beautiful Bollywood dancer, appears in Nikhil's life with an uncanny knowledge of Jen and the circumstances of their marriage. Jess tells Nikhil that she can channel Jen because she received Jen's heart in a transplant; she even shows him the scar on her chest from the operation. Nikhil becomes obsessed with her and her intimate knowledge of his life. But Jess is being blackmailed by Jen's killers into pursuing Nikhil to find the incriminating evidence that Jen was murdered for; her blackmailers are even terrorizing her 7-year-old son in order to force her to cooperate. Soon, Jess is being hunted down by both the Mumbai mob and the police, who are racing to find the damning evidence. Will Nikhil fall into the extortionist's web and become involved with gorgeous Jess or wake up and smell the chai? Will Jess be able to extract the location of Jen's evidence from Nikhil and save her son's life, or will she weaken in the face of Nikhil's overpowering charisma? Dev (The Bollywood Bride, 2015, etc.) masterfully probes Jess' and Nikhil's rawest emotions through her multilayered Rubik's cube of a plot. Every time the reader thinks he or she has figured out the end of the novel, the story's quick-paced narrative, which races back and forth from the U.S. to India, takes another hairpin turn, leaving the reader breathless. This is riveting, heart-pounding drama. Dev takes the characters and the reader on a death-defying ride. A novelist at the height of her powers.

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Starred review from August 1, 2016
Mourning his wife two years after she was murdered for uncovering a black-market organ transplant ring, Dr. Nikhil Joshi drinks himself to oblivion. When he meets Jess Koirala, a Bollywood dancer who claims to have received Jen's heart and with it, messages from Jen, Nic, desperate for any connection to his dead wife, forgoes rationality and agrees to help Jess find the evidence Jen collected on the organ ring. But closed-off Jess might be hiding more than just her past. She, too, has suffered, and she will do anything to protect her son from the stranger threatening to kill him. Afraid to live yet desperate to heal, Nic and Jess hurt each other to keep their own pain at bay, yet that affinity ultimately solidifies their bond. Dev (The Bollywood Bride, 2015) deftly navigates the complex themes of bereavement, motherhood, and how the culture of India exists in America. All the while, she swathes tough, fully realized characters in delicate prose and tackles tragedy with both grittiness and sensitivity. Most impressively, Dev manages to keep the vibrant spirit of the late Jen alive, be it through her diary entries or the way other characters talk about her. With richly rendered characters, heavy topics, and soulful writing, this is stunning all around.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

August 1, 2016

Dr. Nikhil Joshi is still an emotional wreck two years after witnessing the brutal murder of his wife, Jen, a doctor who was investigating a black-market organ transplant ring in Mumbai. He's been barely functioning in an alcoholic haze as a physician on a cruise ship. Now, a beautiful young woman called Jess tells him that she received Jen's heart in a transplant--and claims to have a message from Jen. How can Nikhil believe her? What does she want from him? Yet their mutual attraction grows as the two get caught up in a complicated mission to find the truth about Jen's killers. Their quest takes them from America to India as suspense slowly builds toward a satisfying if not surprising ending. The author of A Bollywood Affair and The Bollywood Bride, Dev takes on a tough subject here: the appalling abuse of the poor, especially unprotected young women, by merciless thugs. VERDICT This combination of steamy romance and crime thriller with an issue-driven plot sometimes reads like two separate novels. Still, the triumph of love and hope over tragedy and despair provides an uplifting counterpoint to the dark heart of this work. [See Prepub Alert, 3/28/16.]--Leslie Patterson, Rehoboth, MA

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2016

After the multi-best-booked A Bollywood Affair and The Bollywood Bride, Dev moves on to Dr. Nikhil "Nic" Joshi, who's working for Doctors Without Borders in Mumbai when his wife, Jen, is killed after discovering a black market organ transplant ring. Then he encounters a woman who knows about the group--and says she received Jen's heart in a transplant. A Day of Dialog panelist.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from November 1, 2016

Two years after Dr. Nikhil Joshi's wife, Jen, was murdered in Mumbai after uncovering a black market organ transplant ring, Nic meets a woman who reveals that she received Jen's transplanted heart, and she has a message for him. Romance author Dev's (The Bollywood Bride) unusual Indian American romantic crime thriller has strong crossover appeal. (LJ 8/16)

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.