This book tells us the story about two young Indian adults who plan on going to college soon. Other than the fact that they are both Indians, though, there is absolutely nothing in common between them. While Dimple is a strong, independent and ambitious woman who always follows her dreams and never backs down from voicing her opinions, Rishi is a calmer, quieter and traditional man, who always tries to make his parents proud. What causes them to meet each other in the first place? Their parents who secretly want them to get married. This book will leave you snorting with laughter, will make you sob enough to go through an entire box of Kleenex, and will make sure you stay up all night reading it.
To read its synopsis on Goodreads, click here.
I particularly enjoyed this book because I, myself, am Indian. This helped me relate to this book on a whole other level all together. To be honest, I can never really connect with many books because I can’t imagine myself in the character’s place in the first place.
My favorite character in this book was Dimple. Dimple – a girl who is afraid of living a domestic life, has a yearning for adventures, is a book nerd, is never any good at dressing up and always, and I mean ALWAYS, gets into an argument with her mother (the book might as well be about ME!).
I simply adored Rishi’s character as well, and found myself laughing at each and every sweet comment he passed in his mind. He is head over heels in love with Dimple and his cute boy side is literally everything that a girl could hope for in a guy – he is charming, chivalrous and quite a treat to the eyes.
Throughout, the book always kept me guessing. In the beginning I thought, “Do they even talk to each other?” Then I thought, “Are they ever gonna be more than friends?” And then finally, “What the bloody hell just happened!?” And then the cycle kept repeating itself. I could predict some parts of the story, but I mean, can’t we all in YA Contemporary books?
A character I think I really appreciated was Dimple’s roommate Celia. I kept wondering throughout the book whether Celia would actually turn out to be a true friend to Dimple, or would kick her to the curb the first chance she got. The reason why I enjoyed her character was because of how honest hers was. She was just another girl trying desperately to fit in, and in the end, makes the correct choices.
So…I think that the book ‘When Dimple Met Rishi’ is a must read for anyone who enjoys reading YA books. It has a bit of everything – humor, hard truth, friendship, sorrow, and most of all, unexpected love. I think that many Indians, especially those born outside India, will relate to this story – they’ll actually be able to visualize their parents say some of the stuff that Dimple’s and Rishi’s parents do.
I give this book 4.5 stars outs 5…
To wrap it up, a quote from the book:
“She needed adventure and spontaneity and travel. She needed to make a few bad decisions and have a few boys break her heart. Wasn’t that what she was after? Living life on her own terms?”
– JUST ANOTHER MAGICAL SOUL
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