My father's last words to me are saved in a folder labeled "Mom's recipes."Sixteen seconds of his voice, hidden between dal makhani and paneer bhurji, where my mother will never look.The night the monsoon turned Marine Drive into a river, Leela's father stopped to pull a child from a flooding car."Don't worry. I'll be home soon."The child lived. He didn't.Three years later Leela is seventeen, still dancing on the warped floorboards of an old Colaba studio, because it is the only place that still remembers how to hold her.She knows that losing something does not make you brave.It just makes you tired.Then the rain comes back — same time, same sky, same smell of wet concrete and dying flowers — and so does a boy with a camera.A photograph she should never have let happen.A rooftop they both claim.A voicemail she has never been able to delete.He sees the parts of her she has spent three years hiding, and for the first time since the flood, Leela feels the pull of something that is not grief.But first love is its own kind of monsoon, and Leela has already learned exactly what the water can take.There is a competition that could change everything.A mother who hides her trembling hands at three in the morning.A betrayal she should have seen coming, and a gallery that will force her to choose between the safe life and the one that actually feels like living.She tells herself she is fine.She tells herself sixteen seconds of a voicemail is enough.But the monsoon is rising, the boy is still on the rooftop, and the studio floorboards keep asking her to stay.She can keep guarding the past.Or she can risk her heart on a future that might flood all over again.Between Two Monsoons is a bittersweet, lyrical YA novel about a brave first confession, a heart on the line, grief and healing, a second chance, and the first love that leaves a mark.Perfect for readers who love voice-driven YA, swoony rain-soaked romance, vivid Mumbai settings, stories of dance and grief, and aching, hopeful coming-of-age. A heartfelt standalone.