Burning Incense, Burning Tires

When tradition meets rebellion, two worlds collide-and ignite. Rei Nakamura has spent her entire life serving the ancient Hikawa Shrine, following a path laid out for her by ten generations of family tradition. Elegant, composed, and dutiful, she performs sacred rituals with practiced grace while her own dreams remain carefully buried beneath layers of obligation. Until a vintage motorcycle breaks down at the shrine's entrance-and everything changes.
Takara Ishikawa is covered in grease, cursing at her temperamental bike, and fighting to save her grandfather's fifty-year-old motorcycle garage from closure. She's passionate, irreverent, and completely unlike anyone Rei has ever known. When the reserved shrine maiden and the fiery mechanic strike up an unlikely friendship, neither expects the spark of connection that threatens to upend both their carefully ordered lives.
As Rei is drawn deeper into Takara's world of restoration and rebellion, she faces an impossible choice: honor the traditions that have defined her family for centuries, or risk everything for a chance at authentic love and a life of her own making. But what if she doesn't have to choose? What if the most sacred thing she can do is forge her own path-one that honors the past while embracing the future?A sweeping contemporary romance about bridging two worlds, "Burning Incense, Burning Tires" explores the courage it takes to honor tradition while claiming your own happiness, the transformative power of unexpected love, and the discovery that sometimes the most revolutionary act is simply being true to yourself.
Perfect for readers who love opposites-attract romance, LGBTQ+ love stories, Japanese cultural settings, and heroines who refuse to choose between duty and desire.