Just One More Time: A Love Story

Roderick's review at Goodreads, Apr 30, 2014

First time I've read a novel from India. It was very interesting insight into the culture. The story line hit close to home and I enjoyed the read.

At sixty-two, chairman and CEO and the founder of a successful software firm, Vijay Verma is a handsome, elegant, and physically fit gentleman. Seemingly having no time for poetry or sappy romance, he chose to dedicate his daily life to the perfection of his work, and to the success of his business. But the tragic loss of his beloved wife, Radha, devastated his world to its core. He's faced a brutal period in his life, as a grieving widower and single father of two children.

Now, ten years later, Vijay has rejoined the dance of love, and has found joy, as well as fear, in the form of the beautiful and professional Madhuri Banerjee. This woman, vibrant, intelligent, and modern, (and thirty years Vijay's junior,) puts her suitor on edge:

Will he be able to handle raising the new children that Madhuri desires?

How can he justly measure the value of this new lover compared to his old one?

Is he even ready to love again?

As he looks up at the wondrous stars in the sky, and sips his wine, Vijay does his best to ward off the conflicting thoughts and worries that intrude from a dark corner of his mind. He nearly lost Madhuri recently, to her own ex-lover, and to death. But tonight is Vijay's night, their night, and he has big plans for this special couple's evening.

Return to Monsoons: Leaving America (The Monsoons Series-Book 1)

Sam lived every man's dream–a multi-million-dollar architectural design company overlooking the San Francisco Bay, with good employees and great friends, and a lovely home near Stanford University. Never been married and at age fifty, he looked not a day over forty. And when not working, he played golf at the country club and dated superficial, beautiful women who hung around seeking the company of multi-millionaires. And not looking for anything serious or long-term, they served him just fine.

Orderly and almost perfect, his life ran with engineering precision, and that was how he wanted it. While all was going well, one day, a drastic change in US government took away his comfort zone. And though just by looking at him no one knew who or what he was, Sam was a Muslim. Despite the fact that he wasn’t a religious man, he belonged to a religion that was being looked down upon in America and the new government included all Muslims in the same category of “terrorists.” Sam’s birthplace was a free country where family and friends awaited with love. Within months, he decided to leave his beloved and adopted home of thirty years behind and return to his home in South Asia. No one had asked him to leave. Not directly anyway, but he couldn’t help how he felt.

He moved forward with first opening a subsidiary company in Singapore, only four hours flight from his homeland, and with a plan to eventually shift his San Francisco headquarters to Asia. For him, opening a new company was easy, and so was leaving United States having no personal ties. But little did he know that the minute he got on the plane to Asia, floodgates of feelings for his closest American friend would open wide and farther he moved in distance, stronger those feelings became. Sam didn’t know he had feelings for Nora Anderson, his private secretary and friend of eight years. And even if there were attractions between them, his rule of not mixing business with pleasure kept the two apart.

Spanning over three countries in two continents with rich cultures and friendships, this story takes you on a journey of love, humor, self-discovery, and the importance of connecting with one’s roots and family and makes you wonder what is more important: love or a place called home, or both?

Will Sam and Nora find each other? And if they do, what place will they call their home?