When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon

I see this novel everywhere! On booktube on Twitter on book blogs… I have thoroughly been worn down and I had to pick it up as soon as possible. 

One of my Twitter friends was amazing and sent me a copy on kindle (I am forever in your debt), so I finally had the chance to start this novel. 

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Goodreads Rating: 3.97/5
Pages: 380 pages
Series: N/A
Published: May 30th, 2017
Publisher: Simon Pulse

Plot:
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.

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⭐ ⭐ ⭐

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I must admit that this novel had me laughing right off the bat. In the beginning of the novel we get to see a lot of Dimple’s parents and every time they lectured Dimple I had an intense home-y vibe because my mom is the same exact way.

I also related to Dimple so much during these lectures and arguments with her mother. I love my mom, and for the most part we get along, but she is so traditional sometimes it drives me crazy. Everything in her mind is black and white, things you can and can’t do.

I don’t know if you guys know this but in Indian culture boys are valued a lot more than girls are (as in you favour your son over your daughter) and this is a huge reason I have some problems with my family. My brother can get away with murder and my parents would brag to their friends about how proud they are, but if I as much as make a joke they’re on my ass. 

I know this subject isn’t brought up in WDMR – probably because Dimple doesn’t have a brother – but I thought I’d just share so you would get some insight into our culture. 

Additionally, getting a good job and getting married has a huge importance put on to it. I think the marriage importance has gone down a bit, especially for kids who’ve grown up in Canada/America/UK? but it’s not normal for Indian kids to follow their dreams. My parents, for example, want me to be a Doctor. It’s not what I want, but anytime they get the chance they will nag me about it. In my opinion, they’re lucky I’m interested in the medical field at all. 

Moving on from my rant… Dimple’s parents were incredibly fun to read. I loved the addition of Hindi into the book (don’t worry there’s nothing there that won’t be explained), it added to my reading experience because I understood what was being said and felt like I was in on a secret.

Dimple herself is a very headstrong girl and I really like that about her. There are times where she is a bit insecure, but she never really let’s that stop her from being who she is and standing up for herself. I also loved the incorporation of coding because you never really get to hear much about girl’s who code and are interested in that field. 

When Rishi first met Dimple I giggled. A lot. I know a lot of people are “complaining” about the “Dimple throwing [iced] coffee on Rishi” thing, but honestly it was harmless and funny. I personally wouldn’t waste my coffee on throwing it on someone, but for the novel it fit in perfectly and just added more humor to the storyline. 

Rishi himself is very traditional and proud of where he comes from and his heritage. For me it becomes a bit intense, but that’s mostly because my mom has pushed our culture on me so much that now I try to stay as far away as I can from any talk about it. When Rishi talks about his family and going to Mumbai and the generations and generations of his family who’ve lived there and get’s really into it, I get uncomfortable. I think that took away a bit of my enjoyment – but not enough to make me not like the novel. Although it is nice to see someone who is so okay with who they are and who is so comfortable standing up for their culture and heritage. 

The plot of this novel was funny, it was something that I personally don’t see ever happening to me or anyone I know, but the idea is great. I haven’t heard of any arranged marriages happening to my families friends that live in Canada or America, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. It certainly does, especially if you live in a traditional family. 

I did enjoy the slow progression of Dimple and Rishi’s relationship throughout this novel. I enjoyed the fact that both parties didn’t have an instant infatuation (or love, whatever you want to call it) with each other… although Rishi came quite close. It was a breath of fresh air to be able to actually see two people get to know each other before jumping into something right after meeting each other. 

The writing in this novel was also very easy to read and get into. It felt kind of loose in a way that didn’t take away from your experience, but added to it. I also enjoyed the dual POV of this novel that switched back and forth between Dimple and Rishi relatively often. It broke up the book for me a bit and make it move faster than it would have if it were just one POV. 

One of the main reasons I decided to give this novel a 3/5 was because for me it was just alright. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t something that I’d connected with enormously and had to read over and over. 

All in all I enjoyed this novel and everything that it incorporated. I thought it was a fun concept (and an important one) that had a lot of humorous moments but also an underlying theme of always taking your wishes into account, despite outside forces pushing you in another direction.

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That concludes my long and rant-y spoiler-free review of When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon. I hope you didn’t mind me complaining a bit in the review, but this book just brought it out of me yenno. 

Comment down below if any of you have experienced anything I’ve experienced, and also let me know if you’ve read this novel and what you thought about it!

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Until next time,