When Dimple Met Rishi, Sandhya Menon

Here’s a little contemporary, just for you guys!

First off, When Dimple Met Rishi is about two young kids that are about to go off to college. Dimple isn’t the perfect Indian daughter because she kind of defied tradition, rejecting the idea of arranged marriage and didn’t see why it was so important that she got married. Rishi is the perfect Indian son who listens to his family and wants a stable relationship, suppressing his dreams in order to make his family proud.

I liked this book because it was a quick little read. It was something that you read while going on a trip or if you like simple, straightforward contemporary pre-college romance (wow, this is very specific).

I enjoyed the contrast between Dimple and Rishi. It was nice to see a novel where it wasn’t the heroine trying to follow tradition, and instead it was the guy. The point-of-view switches were nice as well, and I liked seeing things through their eyes.

Dimple was sure of herself and her dreams, even though she knew that she didn’t fit in with the rest of her family. She knew what career she wanted and had goals that she wasn’t afraid to reach. She was also a good friend to another character named Celia.

Rishi was confident in himself although he wasn’t doing what he wanted. Arranged marriage made sense in his mind, as it seemed predestined that he and Dimple would get together and get married. He also didn’t flaunt his financial status, instead opting to keep it to himself unless he wanted to show that he had some influence.

This book weaved between their points-of-view so it gave readers a good idea of their feelings as things happened.

There were a few negatives about this book, though.

Dimple and her mother didn’t have a close relationship. I wanted to see more of their dynamics (especially nearer to the end) and more of Dimple trying to understand her mother’s thought process rather than just dismissing it.

I wanted to see Dimple and Celia’s friendship grow. They knew that they were going to be roommates before the events of the book, but after Rishi appeared it seemed like Celia was pushed to the wayside until something happened that caused conflict between the characters. Though I enjoyed the romantic elements of the book, I wanted to see more female friendships.

Rishi needed, to me, to have more character. More personality. It seemed as he was made just to be Dimple’s opposite, so I wanted to see him grow on his own for a bit and stop worrying about Dimple and what she would think. I wanted him to change for himself, not for her.

This book was pretty good, but I really wanted more character development and interaction. Other than that, it was nice to a different culture and family dynamic, even if it wasn’t shown as much as it could’ve been.