I read this book at the perfect time: at the end of a particularly trying week, on the first day of a particularly nasty bug.
Reading something comforting in bed with a hot water bottle was the only activity I could bear, and luckily When Dimple Met Rishi delivered in spades. A lot of the books I usually read feature unexpected (or expected) character deaths, or stressful situations, or characters coping with losing a parent (this particular trope keeps popping up unexpectedly since losing a parent myself last year, and I'm not a fan! Publishers, take note). When Dimple Met Rishi is the antidote to all that -- cute and sweet, but with enough depth to not be irritating. Perfect cosy winter reading.
Dimple Shah is almost running out the door in her eagerness to get away from her overbearing, traditional-minded mother (who wants her to find the Ideal Indian Husband) and to start studying to become a web developer. To her surprise, her parents agree to pay for the summer program for aspiring web programmers she's been eyeing up for years.
Rishi Patel is a romantic who wants to find what his parents have achieved -- a fairytale but practical marriage. When his parents tell him they've arranged for him to meet their friends' daughter at Insomnia Con, he leaps at the opportunity -- maybe a bit too hard, because Dimple is anything but thrilled to meet him. In fact, she didn't even know he existed.
There are quite a few tropes playing out here, but I like them all so they get a pass. Dimple and Rishi are both engaging characters who make some stupid mistakes, and best of all they realise they do actually like each other quite quickly rather than the author coming up with flimsy misunderstandings in order to string the suspense along. Instead the conflict is through them figuring themselves out, what they want to do with their lives and careers, balancing cultural tradition/family with an American upbringing, and deciding whether being in a relationship is compatible with university study. Some of which I'm still figuring out myself, so maybe I need to a summer conference. The romance is pretty cute, and Dimple is usually quite good at pointing out when Rishi is being too smug.
I would have liked a bit more development of Dimple's room-mate, Celia, as she is poorly served by both some of her friends and by the narrative. And some more detail on the app-building and the program would have been interesting to me. But given that it's a book entitled When Dimple Met Rishi, I can't complain too much if it's all about them.
If you're a fan of funny contemporary teen romance with geekery and Bollywood dancing, then get thee to a library and pick this one up. If you've already read it, have a look at:
- Our list of recommended contemporary teen romance
- Our list of recommended contemporary teen fiction
Review copy provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
When Dimple Met Rishi
by Sandhya Menon
Published by Hachette New Zealand
ISBN: 9781473667402
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