When Dimple Met Rishi // A Brilliant Read Which Makes Me Cry For More Diverse Reads

When Dimple Met Rishi – Sandhya Menon
Published: 1st June 2017
Source: Netgalley/Bought
Genre: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult
My Rating:

The arranged marriage YA romcom you didn't know you wanted or needed...

Meet Dimple.

Her main aim in life is to escape her traditional parents, get to university and begin her plan for tech world domination.

Meet Rishi.

He's rich, good-looking and a hopeless romantic. His parents think Dimple is the perfect match for him, but she's got other plans...

Dimple and Rishi may think they have each other figured out. But when opposites clash, love works even harder to prove itself in the most unexpected ways.

As joyfully refreshing as Rainbow Rowell, Jenny Han and Nicola Yoon, When Dimple Met Rishi is a frothy, funny contemporary romance told from the dual perspectives of two Indian American protagonists. While Dimple is fighting her family traditions, Rishi couldn't be happier to follow in the footsteps of his parents - could sparks fly between this odd couple, or is this matchmaking attempt doomed to fail?

The number of times I begin a review saying ‘I don’t know why I waited so long to read this book’ is starting to get a little boring, but it’s true! I put off reading books for stupid reasons and I really need to make better book choices going forward.

This book was adorable! I knew I would probably (hopefully) love it but I was definitely a little wary going in because these is always the chance you will be the black sheep on these things. I wasn’t a black sheep and like every other review, I’ve seen for this book I loved it and below I will explain why.

When Dimple Met Rishi was not completely what I expected. This was mostly because I’d never bothered to fully read the summary before I began reading. I knew that the MCs had Indian parents and were involved in an arranged marriage so, as you can imagine, I had certain ideas in my head about how this book would go down. My ideas were very different than what actually happened and the book was all the better for that fact. 

Half the reason this book was so great is that our main characters were adorable! I mean, Dimple was so easy to like because she may have been raised quite traditionally by her parents and they certainly made it obvious about their wishes for her future and finding the ‘Ideal Indian Husband’  but she made it obvious that whilst she respected them she had her own path. She didn’t want to wear makeup and dress pretty, she had her future determined and she wanted nothing to distract her from that. I didn’t fully understand her knowing exactly what she wanted to do as a teenager because I’m 26 and I still haven’t figured that out but I appreciated her focus and determination. I did find it frustrating that she was so unwilling to compromise for others and instead thought her way was the best. Even when it meant angering her friends and those close to her. It was her worst quality and was something which came between her and Rishi and it was annoying. I did like seeing her grow throughout the book, though, and I appreciate a character growing.

And then there was Rishi. I didn't think I'd like him as much as I did. I mean, he was close to his parents and willing to follow the path which they wished for him. He was willing to sacrifice a lot to do what was expected. Normally, the good guy in YA can come across as a bit dull and bland because I have had TV shows and films drill into me bad boys are more attractive when it comes to the fictional world. Rishi was the exception who may teach me to reconsider these things. He was awkward and cute and I loved him. I wasn't even overly bothered by the fact he had money and was privileged because he didn't flaunt it. He was just an adorable cinnamon roll and I think I loved him. I was just as frustrated by him as Dimple but I felt his reservations were far more logical. Wanting a secure future, whilst not totally believable for a teenager, is not a bad thing and so I got why he was so hesitant to pursue all of his dreams.

I found the whole book very adorable, though. And for both Dimple and Rishi their Indian heritage was obvious and I loved how Rishi honoured it so much and then Dimple was learning parts of her culture was ingrained because that was how she was raised. She considered how her parents would react to big decisions and even her quest to design an app was partially done to make her father proud of her. It was brilliant reading about two Indian-American teens and how this dual identity led them to struggle with their choices and influenced how they did these things.

I loved this, it was a brilliant YA and demonstrates the genre is totally growing. I want more diverse reads like this one. Fingers crossed this is the start of a trend.

Have you read this, what did you think? And do you have any recs for any more good diverse reads? I feel like I need to expand my horizons and read all the diverse reads.