When Dimple Met Rishi

2.5/5 stars

People: this books is the worst lol don't read it Me: hahahah it can't be that badMe: is wrong

not

“Dimple punched him in the ribs, lighter than she wanted to, but he still winced.”

WHen Dimple was so upset when she didn't win, I WAS LITERALLY YELLING AT THE BOOK THAT MAYBE IF YOU ACTUALLY SPEND TIME ON FREAKIGN MAKIGN YOUR APP YOU WOULDN'T BE IN THIS POSITION ARHGAUSJD. Also, she was mad that the "aberzombies" won because of their zombie beer app and it wasn't as great as hers. Like seriously girl? You haven't seen their app. It could be effing amazing, and it applies to a bigger target audience then your app does. Just because you think someone is entitled and big-headed and won just bc they have money doesn't mean they didn't create an well-developed app.

Dimple, that entire scene:

very busy

4.5 Stars

This book was an incredibly adorably dorky book that thrilled me in so many ways. I always love reading a contemporary book after I've immersed myself in so many fantasy and science fiction worlds. This book was even better because I got to immerse myself in Dimple and Rishi's adorkable romance. There were so many moments in this book that were so cheesy, I could not help but love them. Take for example our love birds first meeting involves one of them telling the other that they are their future husband/bride. It was so unbelievable but also so perfect for these characters.

I have two minor complaints with this book. First, these characters were supposed to be at a tech summer conference designing an app. But we got little to no insight into their 6-week project. To me it left that part of the story flat. I was expecting to have more technical references and more insight into the planning and designing phases of their app development. Second and this one is super minor but I think a glossary would have been helpful to differentiate some of the more common Hindi phrases throughout the book. Especially the names for various family members. There were times I had to read a sentence a few times to get what was said or who something was referring and I think a glossary would have been helpful.

Overall this was a fantastic read and I cannot wait to see what else Sandhya Menon writes in the future!

I've seen this book get raved about online, but it just didn't sound that exceptional - yet another young adult romance. Contemporary, at that. But I finally read it for the Year of the Asian Challenge, and I am SO. GLAD. I DID.

Rishi Patel stole my heart. Which, as a demisexual, is completely unexpected. But he's just the exact right combination of sweet, romantic, totally geeky, and confident. He is absolutely my favorite character in this book. I like Dimple. But I adore Rishi.

I loved that both Dimple and Rishi tried to help each other achieve their dreams. I wish they'd both been a little more communicative about how they did so, but it was still cute to see them so invested in each other's life goals, as a couple should be!

This is a super cute romance, and it deserves all the rave reviews it got. I definitely need to read the sequel (about Rishi's younger brother) now.

You can find all my reviews at Goddess in the Stacks.

Adorable. Love that the romance (& mention of sex) was super respectful and consensual. My main quibble is that for a character who's obsessed with coding and a plot that takes place entirely at a coding conference competition, we barely see or learn anything about the coding project. More details wanted there!

This was so cute and such a fun read! I loved the chemistry between Dimple and Rishi, and it really shines through the page. They just seem like fun people to be around, and I really enjoyed reading this book for that reason. Other things I liked: the parental relationships (not the focus of the book at all, but realistic and well-done), Rishi and his brother, a bisexual side character (where that wasn't the focus at all), and how much this book made me want to visit San Francisco. Stuff I didn't like: incredibly one-dimensional villains, and Dimple only losing because they're eeeeeeevil (I think it would've been a more interesting character/plot choice if she'd lost to someone else, and how a lot of the conflict seems crammed into the end of the book - like, I was 80% through before that all took off. Those are pretty minor nitpicks for a book that I really had a great time reading, though, and I definitely recommend this one if you want a summer YA romance!

So, this book starts out hilariously. Atleast, the first meeting. Rishi being the dork he is, sees her outside Starbucks and calls her his “future wife”. Dimple, who has no clue of their parents' arrangement, assumes he is a creepy serial killer and throws her iced coffee at him. What follows is their journey from bickering to being teammates to friends and then lovers.

Dimple is passionate and feisty and so independent. She is annoying at times but otherwise, I really liked that she clearly knows what she wants to do, even though it's not the “expected” thing. But it's Rishi who I could totally relate to – practical, stable, the ideal older son – I've seen way too many such guys in real life that I was actually surprised to find one in a book. But what endeared me to him was his goofiness, his optimism and the way he totally fell for her. The way they get to know each other and fall in love and communicate (except towards the end) was very very cute and I totally gushed and swooned a lot. Their conversations are also quite funny and romantic and gave me all kinds of feels. I also loved that the setting of the book was at a coding competition (or camp sorta). Also, the girl here is the passionate coder and he is the nerdy artist and I loved that about them. They are not the usual type of characters from the books I read, so it was interesting. The gang of bullies and roommate/brother side characters are cliché but I am a huge fan of sappy Bollywood romances most of the time, so I didn't really mind any of them.

However, what I really loved about this book is how relatable it is to me. Based on Indian families in America whose kids feel conflicted about being both Indian and American, every single character here was someone I knew or they felt similar to me. The parents struggle to keep their traditions alive, trying to keep their kids from becoming totally westernized, the kids trying to reconcile their feelings of both making their parents happy as well as forge their own independent lives – every aspect of this book was something I could really feel and understand. Of course, the little mentions of Bollywood, Raj and Simran, and using Hindi words in intimate conversations felt so real and wonderful and made me very happy. It's so rare to get to read an Indian YA contemporary that it made the experience better. And the fact that it's cheesy, romantic and gave me all kinds of feels is an added bonus.

I found When Dimple Met Rishi, by Sandhya Menon, to be a very engaging read. Dimple is an Indian-American recent high school graduate passionate about coding and Web development living in Fresno. She is not interested in domestic life and is very career-driven. So when she attends a coding conference in San Francisco, only to find that her parents have set her up to possibly marry an Indian-American guy, Rishi, she is less than thrilled. Rishi is a hopeless romantic who is totally on-board with the idea of this arrangement. I felt like the author developed the characters relatively well, although I would have liked to have learned more details about the more minor characters in the book, such as Rishi's younger brother and Dimple's roommate at the conference. Another thing some might appreciate about the book is that it isn't laden with sexual content. Just thought that might be worth mentioning, as some romances tend to use erotic scenes frequently.

I felt like the book was definitely suitable for audio narration, especially because it was dual narrated to show the points of view switching between Dimple and Rishi. I thought that Rishi's narrator, Vikas Adam, did an excellent job at portraying the characters' voices and made them all pretty distinct, especially those of Rishi and his younger brother; I never got confused as to which one was speaking. Dimple's narrator, Sneha Mathan, was also great, but her accent was pretty thick and sometimes I missed certain words or phrases because of that. She was also excellent at using distinct voices for each character. Many Indian phrases and words were used in the book, and both narrators spoke them well and with excellent accents.

I personally thought the narration was a bit slow for my taste, but the pace was at least consistent between narrators. I didn't hear any edits or technical issues in the recording, and the volume was consistent between narrators and character voices.

All in all, listening to this book was a very positive experience for me. I felt like some of the sappiness could have been shortened a bit (I mean, I get that this is a romance, but come on.), but the narrators did an excellent job with the romantic aspects, making the read enjoyable. Both narrators compliment the text well, especially because they both seemed to have an understanding of the Indian language when those parts came up. I can't stress enough how much I appreciated it being dual narrated, as the male and female voices portrayed Rishi's and Dimple's points of view so well that I feel it would have been significantly less enjoyable having only one or the other throughout the entire book. But yes, this book was great. Would highly recommend for any fans of YA or a good romance without tons of sex.

Title: When Dimple Met Rishi
Author: Sandhya Menon
Narrators: Vikas Adam and Sneha Mathan
Puslisher: Dreamscape Media, LLC., 2017 (Unabridged)
Length: 10 hours, 45 minutes

When Dimple Met Rishi was one of the breakout Young Adult contemporary books of this summer. Everyone who is anyone has been reading and raving about this novel over the past few months. I felt it only proper to read it before the summer drew to a close.

This is a novel about family values and culture versus the need to break out and find yourself and your own voice. Dimple is about to go off to college to study her love of coding but her family are keen for her to make an arranged marriage and become a good wife who will be there to support her husband and family. Dimple is independent and strong-willed and while she loves her family she loves coding more and she is not ready to give up her dreams just yet. She is surprised when her parents agree to her attending a summer coding programme at San Francisco University and she heads off determined to give it her all and win the coveted prize at the end of the programme, hence showing everyone that she is as good as she thinks she is and has a bright future.

On her first day Dimple is thrown when a young man comes up to her and tells her he is her future husband. You see Rishi has already been told all about Dimple, he's going to the summer programme at SFU for the sole purpose of meeting the girl his parents have told him he is going to marry at the agreement of all their parents. The only problem is that no one told Dimple!!

This story was really funny, from the time when Dimple meets Rishi we fall in love with Rishi immediately. He is in a really difficult position as he likes Dimple, a lot, and he has been told that she is aware of their marriage and so when he finds she has no idea he has to backtrack and pretend that it doesn't matter to him and he enters that dreaded ‘friend zone'. He's such an endearing character, he's instantly likeable and you feel for him as he is trying to be the devoted Indian son, making a marriage and going off to study a subject he doesn't necessarily love in order to provide for his family in the future.

The way in which Dimple and Rishi impact each other's lives is lovely, from a misunderstanding they grow into friends and from friends into a relationship which will change their lives for the better. They are each other's biggest cheer squad, they learn about what it means to see life through the other's eyes. Dimple to learn that complying with her cultural values needn't mean giving up her dreams and Rishi in living his own dreams doesn't mean he cannot be a good son and make his family proud.

This was such a quick book to read, the chapters are all quite short and snappy and we flick from Dimple to Rishi's perspective every page or so to ensure we are aware of both points of view throughout. It's nice to see how they each view their blossoming relationship and how they help each other to grow throughout the narrative.

It's a great contemporary summer read, funny and emotional and with great characters leading the story.

2.5 stars. Too much drama, too much convenience (and then phases of inconvenience) and not enough coding.

I am a girl in IT myself, I hoped there would be more than two buzzwords about web development in this. I felt connected to Dimple in the beginning but that got lost in the middle of the book. Rishi is clearly not made for engineering and you see it. But I did not see that Dimple is logical or fitting for actually develop. She has ideas and is creative in terms of e.g. usability but no coding action.

Rishi was loveblind and too pushed around. He is too sweet and chewy to be a good cinnamon roll.

The romance was good in the beginning and I tought it would be a good hate-to-love. But it got into instant attraction very fast.

I would've liked this book much less if it hadn't been for how relatable Dimple Shah's relationship with her Mamma is, tbh. It's like Sandhya Menon held up a mirror and showed me how my mother made me feel. It all got to me...how Mamma hovers, how misogynistic she is, how she makes Rishi feel like her “entire existence is nullified if she doesn't make the effort to look beautiful...nothing else matters—not her intellect, not her personality or her accomplishments; her hopes and dreams mean nothing if she's not wearing eyeliner” and how Rishi Shah is sure the only reason Mamma had agreed to let her go to Stanford was because “she was secretly hoping she'd meet the ‘Ideal Indian Husband' of her dreams at the prestigious school”.
Rishi's fear of domesticity was so familiar. She felt the need to run away from a serious relationship because she didn't want to go down the same path as her parents. She didn't want to get married so young, a marriage her parents had arranged for her, even if she had fallen in love.
There are some obvious red flags - one other readers have pointed out is how Dimple Shah kept hitting Rishi Patel. I've come to take my YA with a pinch of salt, y'all. A lot of the tropes in it are toxic. “Insta-love (I LOVED YOU FROM THE FIRST DAY I MET YOU NO I LOVED YOU BEFORE I EVEN MET YOU)”, “love triangles (TWO HOT BOYS LIKE ME? WHY DOES MY LIFE SUCK SO MUCH?!)”, “I'm not like other girls (I'M A SPECIAL SNOWFLAKE AND MY ONLY FLAW IS NOT EVEN A FLAW)”, “over-protective male love interest (I AM HERE TO FIGHT FOR YOU, MY DAMSEL IN DISTRESS, RESCUING YOU FROM NOT ONLY OTHERS BUT YOUR EMOTIONALLY UNAVAILABLE SELF)”, manic pixie dream girl (AKA THE JOHN GREEN FORMULA)...most of them are problematic. I'm not really going to get into that here.
Sandhya Menon said her inspiration was the lack of South Asian heroes and heroines in contemporary YA and I'm grateful for that. It is like every other contemporary YA - with all the worn-out cliches - and I am, for once, glad it is because it sounds like that is what she wanted it to be. Just a story about a boy and girl falling in love, teenagers who aren't from the other side of the world. One for us.

~This review first appeared here on The Bent Bookworm!~Ok, prepare yourself. This review is not the most rational thing I've ever written, because I was left in an ooey-gooey pile of feels after finishing this book! I was not. prepared. Modern fiction isn't generally my thing, but the blurb for WDMR was just too awesome and made me really excited so I had to pick it up. I'm SO GLAD I did!First off: Dimple. I love her so much! She's quirky, she's nerdy, she's spunky, she's smart and not embarrassed by it (something I really struggle with). She's not perfect, and she's not cookie-cutter. I adored her reaction to Rishi's first words to her – THAT was perfect. Appropriate? “Nice?” No. But no one is perfect, and we all have different ways of dealing with situations. I've seen a little of the mumbo-jumbo i.e., people getting their underpants in a wad over some of the things she does, and my opinion is still that NO, she is NOT perfect, and most readers will love her more for it.So then, obviously: Rishi! He's cute. He's also SUPER traditional. Somehow he manages to be cute at the same time, and I'm still a little confused by that. Hehe. I think Rishi grows as a character the most in the course of the book. He becomes more of his own person, rather than the “good boy” who wants to please his parents so badly he will give up parts of himself to do it.The story introduced me to Indian culture more and better than anything else I've ever read. I don't have any friends or even acquaintances from that background, so I was a little lost in the beginning by some of the terms and traditions that were more alluded to than explained. Eventually I figured everything out, but I did end up Googling a couple of things.I also bawled. At one particular point. I was just so crushed and I couldn't BELIEVE I felt so strongly about “it” because at first I was all for Dimple just saying EFF THIS to everything...but as I read I realized that completely bucking her family's traditions is not, actually, what will make her happiest. However she IS a modern American woman and as such...she totally does things her way.Dimple and Rishi's relationship and them growing into themselves is obviously the main focus of the story, but there are a couple of side plots as well. The first involves some of the other students at the camp they are attending and how disrespectful (to say the least) the rich, white students are to anyone who is “other,” as Dimple puts it. The second involves Rishi's brother and Dimple's roommate and I was intrigued enough to hope for a sequel with them as the major characters.WDMR was one of the most satisfying books I've read this year. While of COURSE I would love to read more of Dimple and Rishi's story, it is beautiful and amazing just as it is and I closed the book entirely happy. 5 stars!Blog Twitter Bloglovin Instagram Google+————————-I. Need. This. Book!!

This was a fun teenage romance, a story about two people coming together with very different plans and learning to rethink their future. Dimple and Rishi introduce complications into each other's lives about things that are fundamentally important to them, but ultimately they are both better people for being together. (Also: the polarizing reviews of this book here on Goodreads are fascinating.)