Book Review

When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon

When Dimple met Rishi is adorable and funny and utterly delightful. It was just what I needed during a stressful day.

Here’s the plot setup: Dimple is eighteen and about to go to Stanford. She resents her Indian-born mother’s attempts to mold her into a traditional woman. Dimple’s plans revolve around school and career, with no interest in marrying and having children. Above all else, she resents any suggestion that she would go to college to get a husband. Since Dimple’s parents are very protective, Dimple is surprised but thrilled when her parents readily agree to let her spend part of the summer at Insomnia Con, a summer program on web development held in San Francisco.

Meanwhile, Rishi, who is also eighteen, tells himself and everyone else that he is happy to be a model oldest son to his parents, who are also from India. Rishi used to love drawing comics, but he has set that aside, applied to MIT, and plans to have a career in computer sciences. Rishi trusts his parents to arrange a marriage for him.

As a matter of fact, Rishi’s mom and dad are acquainted with Dimple’s mom and dad. They think Rishi and Dimple might be a great match, so they send Rishi to Insomnia Con to meet Dimple. However, Rishi’s parents don’t mention to him that Dimple’s parents haven’t told her anything about Rishi or the possibility of an arrangement. Dimple’s parents don’t tell her anything about Rishi either. When a total stranger walks up to Dimple at a coffee shop at Insomnia Con and says, “Hello, future wife!” it doesn’t go well.

Happily, the big misunderstanding is cleared up almost immediately so Dimple and Rishi can get on with becoming friends who absolutely do not date because Dimple is not looking for a relationship. Of course, it immediately becomes obvious to one and all that Dimple and Rishi are fabulous as a couple. They respect each other (eventually), they balance each other’s hang-ups as the best couples do, they are both very smart and very funny, and they have fantastic chemistry.

All of this makes for extremely fun and swoony reading. This book is set up as an opposites attract book, with Dimple determined to chase her dreams and Rishi resigned to fulfilling the dreams of others. However, they have more similarities than differences. Their only real conflict lies in Dimple’s fear of romance distracting her from her career and her independence.

The degree of swoony can be seen in the “not date” when Rishi takes Dimple to Two Sisters Bar and Books (a real place that recently closed, alas). Rishi and Dimple first met at a wedding when they were kids, and at that time Dimple was reading A Wrinkle in Time. So, at their table Rishi has a present waiting for Dimple – a special edition copy of A Wrinkle in Time from the year they met.

In turn, Dimple takes Rishi to a place where they have an amazing view of the San Francisco Bay Area. She tells Rishi that she’d like to make their “not date” a date, but wonders if he feels like there’s a point to dating since she’s not sure she’ll ever want to get married. Rishi says that tradition is important to him, but:

The point of dating you, Dimple Shah, is to get to know you. To spend time with you. To see the way you push your glasses up on your nose when you’re especially moved by whatever you’re saying. To smell your amazing shampoo. To feel your heart beating against mine. To see you smile. To kiss you. So maybe all that other stuff that’s important to me can take a backseat for now. And maybe I’m totally fine with that…if you are?

Pardon me while I pass out for a while.

There are only a couple of nitpicks standing between this book and an A. One is that Rishi and Dimple seem to have a lot of free time for two people in an incredibly complex and difficult competition with high stakes. Another is that the conflicts are so nicely resolved about two-thirds of the way through the book that the ensuing complications feel contrived. Granted, they are the kinds of contrivances that two eighteen-year-olds would generate. The better things go with Rishi, the more nervous Dimple gets, until she’s second-guessed herself into a state of complete panic. It does make sense for her character, but it also means a smart and admirable heroine suddenly seems obtuse and inconsistent, purely so that the story can keep going for another hundred pages.

Generally, however, this is a lovely book. It is sweet and funny and heartwarming. The parents and Rishi’s brother get some chances to shine and Dimple’s roommate is a good, if confused, friend. Both Dimple and Rishi have solid character development. Dimple has to learn to trust in a relationship and Rishi has to learn that his dreams have value. The ending is, appropriately, HFN instead of HEA, but it’s very satisfying. I happily recommend this book.

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When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon

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  1. LG says:

    Your review reassures me. This book has been on my radar for a while, because the cover made it look so cute and fun. I was surprised when I spotted it at Walmart (which is, sadly, my town’s last thing that even vaguely resembles a new bookstore) and snatched it up. Looks like it was probably a good decision. 🙂

  2. Mandy says:

    I really enjoyed this and agree 100% with your review. I had some of the same quibbles but still highly recommend!

  3. bev says:

    Yes, such a fun sweet read. I had pre-ordered based on buzz and was so happy this one lived up to the anticipation.
    I’m 30% into A Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by MacKenzi Lee and it is another one that, so far, is not disappointing. It’s fun.

  4. Amelia says:

    I just started this book the other day! Glad to know it was worth picking up.

  5. I want to read this book SO badly. I keep seeing it everywhere, and it sounds like a totally swoon worthy romance. I haven’t read YA in a while, but this seems like the perfect way to dip my toe back in the pond. Have it waiting for me at my local indie bookstore!

  6. Crystal says:

    There have been some contemporary YAs that have killed it lately. I understand this one is excellent (and actually stopped into the library to check on whether they had bought it yet, I submitted the suggestion a couple weeks back), as was The Sun Is Also a Star and Alex, Approximately. So there are a few options for the YA wary.

  7. Melanie says:

    I’ve already requested this at the public library, and now your review makes me even more eager to read it.

  8. shel says:

    This cover is adorable. Also, I’ve actually met a Dimple, so there’s that. Off to see if the library has this, thanks.

  9. Chris Alexander says:

    This sounds like something that would be good for my 11 year old to read. I’ll have to put it on her radar.

  10. C.M. says:

    Hey Chris, just a heads up: these characters are older teens, so there is (off the page) sex in the book, and some pretty heinous sexist treatment of a character as well. It all ends well, but this might be a sticking point for a younger YA reader.

  11. TresGrumpy says:

    YES THEY HAD SO MUCH FREE TIME!!!!!!!!!!!! This was definitely my big gripe about this book, why weren’t they ever working on their AMAAAAAAAZING project?
    I really liked it other than that though lol, and yeah the drama felt really accurate for teens (which was frustrating but felt real) but they project!!!!!!

  12. Bu says:

    Just read this based on this review and the book DID NOT DISAPPOINT! Definitely YA, but solid, strong character and story development (it didn’t fluff out story or character weakness with Angst™ which is my YA pet peeve…) and I fell in love with the world Menon created and the characters in it — the main characters, the supporting characters, that one guy in the competition who was really in it to win it and dressed as a mime for the talent show — everyone. 🙂

    I do agree with Carrie’s “nitpicks”, but they didn’t get in the way of my enjoyment of the book. A really sweet, fun, romantic read.

  13. Isabel says:

    I loved this book so much! It was so light-hearted and charming definitely one of my favorite reads. They both had such personalities and did not feel two dimensional and flat

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