Sandhya Menon is the author of When Dimple Met Rishi and From Twinkle, with Love. She was born and raised in India on a steady diet of Bollywood movies and street food and blames this upcoming for her obsession with happily-ever-afters, bad dance moves, and pani puri. Now Sandhya lives in Colorado, where she's on a mission to (gently) coerce her husband and children to watch all 3,220 Bollywood movies she claims as her favorite. Visit her online at sandhyamenon.com.
Dimple Shah has it all figured out. With graduation behind her, she's more than ready for a break from her family—from Mamma's inexplicable obsession with her finding the "Ideal Indian Husband." Ugh. Dimple knows they must respect her principles on some level, though. If they truly believed she needed a husband right now, they wouldn't have paid for her to attend a summer program for aspiring web developers . . . right? Rishi Patel is a hopeless romantic. So when his parents tell him that he and his future wife will be attending the same summer program—wherein he'll have to woo her—he's totally on board. Because as silly as it sounds to most people in his life, Rishi wants to be arranged, believes in the power of tradition, stability, and being a part of something much bigger than himself. The Shahs and Patels didn't mean to start turning the wheels on this "suggested arrangement" so early in their children's lives, but when they noticed them both gravitating toward the same summer program, they figured, Why not? Dimple and Rishi may think they have each other figured out. But when opposites clash, love works hard to prove itself in the most unexpected ways.
Dimple and Rishi are complete opposites in every single way—and yet, they still find a way to come together and fall in love. Dimple is exactly my kind of girl. She has principles for herself, goals, and a timeline to get there. She does her research, and she cares about her future (and not what kind of makeup she's wearing, because she doesn't wear any at all). Throughout the course of the novel, it's great to watch Dimple grow and explore who she wants to be. There's a great discussion about why women feel like they can't have both a career and love, and Dimple discovers that if that's what she wants, she can work for it. This is a great storyline for young adults who are like Dimple, and on the very edge of the next path in their life. Whether they're like Dimple and know what they want, or the exact opposite, Dimple's arc is compelling and thought provoking.
I was intrigued by Rishi's character. He's one who believes in tradition and doing what his parents want, because he wants to but also because he feels duty-bound as the oldest child. But he, too, also grows and explores over the course of the novel due to Dimple's words to him to try new things. Once he does, he realizes that while he of course loves and believes in his family's culture and tradition, he still wants to be someone different than what he's been trying to be. Tradition is such a lucrative topic, and one not easily discussed nowadays in my opinion. A character who fervently believes in the power and beauty in tradition is one that I really related to, and Rishi's character was my favorite over the course of the novel. Like with Dimple, Rishi's story of uncovering exactly what he wants to do is also inspiring, because it reminds us that there are always multiple paths, and one isn't necessarily better or worse than the other. I really loved the development of Rishi's character and the discussions about culture and tradition and duty that his journey provoked.
I've attended a six-week college program, and I felt like Menon really captured what that felt like—the dorm experience, the way you're bonded to the people you meet on the first day, and of course the annoying and awful human beings you meet along the way. Celia was a really interesting character, because I didn't 100% like her, but I also couldn't dismiss her because her friendship meant something to Dimple. Dimple seemed to recognize that Celia wasn't perfect, and that Celia's friends weren't really her friends, but Dimple stuck by her anyways, and worked for their friendship. This storyline is a little subtler, and can maybe be frustrating to those who might not understand its purpose, but I thought it was brilliant. Menon shows that friendships are just as much work as romantic relationships, and that friends (like romantic partners) won't always agree with you; but that doesn't make you any less of friends. Celia and Dimple are different, and make good friends because of that. And it is because of Dimple's friendship that Celia is able to realize how awful her "friends" are, and it is because of Celia's friendship that Dimple realizes who she wants to be. That is the power of a good and lasting friendship, and I was so glad to see such a complicated relationship depicted on the page.
The only thing that didn't make this a five star read for me (and believe me, I wanted this to be five stars so bad) was how quick the timeline was. I've been to a six-week college program (nothing as intense as Insomnia Con), and I just couldn't find myself entirely buying into the fact that Dimple would fall in love with Rishi in three weeks, and then break up with him in another three. I know that sometimes beliefs have to be suspended in these cases, but I loved how Dimple so adamantly opposed what her parents wanted for her—I just couldn't believe she would have fallen away from her own beliefs that fast. Either way, if I had read this when I was in high school, I wouldn't have noticed the timeline, which means that honestly, this is really rather well done. Even if six weeks feels fast now, I know it feels like forever to teenagers, and that is what is captured really well in this six-week college program structure.
The story doesn't have to be over if you don't want it to be! When Dimple Met Rishi was recently adapted into a Netflix TV series called Mismatched, which has been greenlighted for season two—but, there's also two more books in this series, the second of which follows Rishi's brother's love story! To find out more, visit sandhyamenon.com.
*This review can also be found on my Goodreads page*
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