There’s Something About Sweetie by Sandhya Menon – Book Review

I thought When Dimple Met Rishi was adorable but this was phenomenal! I absolutely ADORED this book!

Rating: 5/5

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Ashish Patel didn’t know love could be so…sucky. After he’s dumped by his ex-girlfriend, his mojo goes AWOL. Even worse, his parents are annoyingly, smugly confident they could find him a better match. So, in a moment of weakness, Ash challenges them to set him up.

The Patels insist that Ashish date an Indian-American girl—under contract. Per subclause 1(a), he’ll be taking his date on “fun” excursions like visiting the Hindu temple and his eccentric Gita Auntie. Kill him now. How is this ever going to work?

Sweetie Nair is many things: a formidable track athlete who can outrun most people in California, a loyal friend, a shower-singing champion. Oh, and she’s also fat. To Sweetie’s traditional parents, this last detail is the kiss of death.

Sweetie loves her parents, but she’s so tired of being told she’s lacking because she’s fat. She decides it’s time to kick off the Sassy Sweetie Project, where she’ll show the world (and herself) what she’s really made of.

Ashish and Sweetie both have something to prove. But with each date they realize there’s an unexpected magic growing between them. Can they find their true selves without losing each other?

Ashish and Sweetie are my newest OTP! I love love love them! They were so adorable and cute and omg I could not stop grinning as I read this book!

I loved Sweetie so much! She is such a wonderful character and I loved seeing how despite her not being the dress size her parents want her to be, she lives life to the fullest. The body positivity in this book was so wonderful to see. I loved seeing how this harmful and awful obsession with being ‘skinny’ was deconstructed. I really hope that as young girls read this they will see that their dress size does not determine what they can do in life. Sweetie is an athlete and has a wonderful group of friends who fully support her, the female empowerment in the book was so great to see.

“He though, Life can’t get any more perfect than this. But they were young, and it did.”

Ashish was such a great character, he was absolutely adorable with Sweetie and how he does the cutest things to make her feel special and loved. I also loved seeing his friends and how they all are so different yet get along. I also really enjoyed seeing how friends sometimes fight but that they can work through it.

It was so interesting and fun to see how Ashish and Sweetie were falling for each other and yet they were denying it because of their own baggage and wanting to prove a point. They each had their own issues to deal with and I loved seeing how they overcame their own problems.

Again this book is unapologetically desi, from the wonderful parts of desi culture to the not so great parts. I loved how the community supports each other and the wonderful food and clothes. And also how people can be judgemental and base your worth on your looks and dress size. But it was great to see how Sandhya totally obliterated that. I hate that part of desi culture, I have personally seen how much damage it can cause to young girls.

I absolutely adored this book and it has fast become my favourite of Sandhya’s books. It was adorable and cute and the exact type of book I needed to read right now. Bollywood really needs to make this into a film!

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.