When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon – Book Review

I have been meaning to read this book for so long and wow why did I take so long to read it because this book is so cute!

Rating: 5/5

Synopsis from Goodreads:

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.

I am not a fan of rom coms so I kept putting off reading it but as I recently started to enjoy more contemporary books I thought I would give it a go and I absolutely loved it! This book was adorable and I read it with a huge grin on my face!

First of all this book has the best meet cute ever! Like excuse me but how does Rishi actually think that his…overly enthusiastic hello…would end in any other way. I was cackling! Every time I remember it I crack up!

One of the things that I really loved was seeing the role reversal. In rom coms we generally see the girl as the romantic and the guy focusing on his career, yet Sandhya switched it around and I really loved seeing that! Rishi was the most adorable hopeless romantic and Dimple only cared about starting her career. I loved how Dimple was a programmer and Rishi an artist. It was refreshing to see that gender stereotypes were broken down.

I loved seeing the way Indian culture was unapologetically infused into the story, it really made the story what it is, the way their culture and religious beliefs influenced their decisions and also how some parts of the culture which is actually harmful was discussed and broken down too. Seeing culture so similar to mine in the story, as if it was the norm was so wonderful to see! From their clothes to food to their language and family dynamics. It was amazing!

“This is our life. We get to decide the rules. We get to say what goes and what stays, what matters and what doesn’t.”

Dimple and Rishi were such wonderful characters, not only do we get to see them grow together but also separately. I loved how they both impacted each other, from Dimple helping Rishi see that his parents would still be proud of him even if he chose to pursue his passion over their expectations and Rishi helped Dimple see that she doesn’t have to sacrifice her career to be with him.

I also loved the side characters that we get to see from Dimple’s friend Celia and Rishi’s brother Aashish. I especially loved Aashish! I loved that the girls supported each other and were there for each other. It was also great to see sibling relationship and how they love each other but also how it can be complicated too.

I really loved their story and I hope we can see more of them in future books in the series and see what happens as they get older! This is a Bollywood romance in a book and I loved every single second of it.