When Dimple Met Rishi

When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Description from the Publisher

The rom-com 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 prove itself in the most unexpected ways.

My Review
Page Count: 384 pages
Genre: YA Literature, YA Contemporary
CW: mild cursing, mild sensual scenes

The Good: 

• This book is so precious! I really appreciated the fact that the book is told from both Dimple's and Rishi's points of view. 
• Dimple is a girl who codes! She is very smart and independent, and does not like wearing makeup or conforming to what society tells her she should look like. 
• Rishi is a romantic and an artist. He is so innocent and endearing, that you cannot help but love him. 
• The protagonists are Indian-American, and, while I cannot speak for the accuracy of the representation, I didn't come across anything that seemed negative toward their culture. From the reviews I've seen, this book is pretty accurate, but please correct me if I am mistaken. 
• I enjoyed the aspects of Indian culture in this book. Many of the characters use Hindi phrases and terms of endearment and respect. I love that Dimple and Rishi embraced their culture during various Insomnia Con events. I did do a few Google searches for various phrases and terms that came up, and I feel like I have come away knowing a bit more about Indian culture. 
• The humor is constant. Dimple and Rishi's banter is cute and witty.
• Even though this is a romance, this book does not fall into the "insta-love" category. Dimple attends Insomnia Con with no intentions of meeting someone and falling in love. Her top priority is meeting a famous web designer so she can jump start her career and get her app into production. The romance was slow to build, but so worth it!

The Not-So-Good: 

• My one complaint is that I would really have liked to see more of the actual web design. During the last three weeks of Insomnia Con, it is crunch time for participants to complete their app designs, but that is where the book seems to steer away from the web design and more into the romance. Even though I enjoyed the romance, I wanted to see more of Dimple's ideas and how they actually produced the app. 

Overall, I LOVED this book! It is a sweet, fluffy, funny, contemporary, and I cannot wait to read more of Sandhya Menon's work! Go get this book now!