CarenzaOnBooks

(Taken from Sandhya's website)

A New York Times bestseller.

The rom-com that everyone’s talking about! Eleanor & Park meets Bollywood in this hilarious and heartfelt novel about two Indian-American teens whose parents conspire to arrange their marriage.

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 his future wife will be attending the same summer program as him—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 gravitate 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 proves itself in the most unexpected ways. 

(Taken from Goodreads, my Goodreads review)

Once again, thank you to Hodder&Stoughton for sending me an eBook ARC of this book. I have to state that I am not being paid to promote this book. I also want to state that even though I was sent this book for review, this review is 100% my honest opinion. No matter if I am sent something, my reviews will always be my 100% honest opinion. Final thing I want to state is that I am experimenting with my review style, so this review will be in a slightly different format to my usual reviews. I will start with positives and then move to negatives rather than bouncing between the two.

I had been hearing great things about When Dimple Met Rishi since ARCs were being sent out, so I was very excited when I saw it was on NetGalley. I have been in a bit of a reading slump following reading Lord of Shadows and this book got me out of my slump. It was the cute, summer contemporary that I had been looking for and I am now in the mood for more contemporary books.

Dimple was a really strong character and I loved the fact that she was a feminist. It was established early on in the book in a conversation between Dimple and her mother. What I liked was that it was refreshing to see a character standing up for their beliefs for the entire book. I also saw it in the relationship between Celia and Dimple. Dimple tried to make Celia see that what Harri and Evan were asking her to do at the talent show was degrading. 

Usually in contemporary books, it's the girl that has to change everything for the boy, but it was Rishi that learned to change through his relationship with Dimple. Rishi began to understand that, while tradition is important, it isn't everything in life. He also decided that he wanted to become an artist through Dimple pushing him in the right direction. It was nice seeing a relationship where the people involved where looking out for the other and trying to help them grow as a person.

As someone who knows nothing about Indian culture, it was very interesting learning about the Indian culture through this book. It was especially interesting seeing different generations perspective on tradition and culture. Rishi and Dimple's parents both believed in tradition, but they were willing to let their children do what made them happy rather than force them into a traditional arranged marriage.      

Now that I've finished gushing about the things I like, I have to talk about the things I didn't like. My main issue with this book is that it felt very much like it was "insta-love". From the title and the dual perspective, you could tell that Dimple and Rishi were going to end up together. So, when they did start dating, it wasn't a shock. It also followed the very traditional style of a cute, summer love story of boy and girl meet, they hate each other, they fall in love with each other, they do something behind the other's back which ends in a break up, they realize how much they love each other and they decided to remain together. The second Dimple sent Rishi's drawings to Leo, I could see that that would cause an argument between them. It was understandable for Rishi to get annoyed at Dimple for going behind his back. 

At the very beginning of the book, I didn't like Dimple that much. She was very violent towards Rishi, and it wasn't in a play fighting way, it was verging on being abusive. She tried to force him to leave when they became partners (which didn't come as a surprise) and she was just rude to him. I understand that their first meeting went horrifically wrong, but that is no reason to be outwardly rude to him. It wasn't until Dimple softened to Rishi, that I began to like her.

From the beginning, before the competition even started, I knew that Dimple and Rishi weren't going to win. It's just not how these stories go. It was surprising that Evan, Harri and Isabelle won. It felt to me as though Dimple and Rishi needed to lose the competition in order to enter the "argument" stage of the book. I've seen it in other books like When Dimple Met Rishi, were the main character was really determined to win but they don't and they fall into a depression.

Overall, I did enjoy this book and I'm glad I've read it. I'll definitely pick up Sandhya's next book, From Twinkle, With Love (coming out summer 2018). When Dimple Met Rishi got me out of a slump and has got me into the mood for contemporaries. 

Carenza x