Nessa Luna
Written on Mar 7, 2020
CAWPILE: 7 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 8 | 7 (Avg: 6.86)
Told in alternating perspectives, this heartfelt YA romantic comedy is about two Indian-American teens whose parents have arranged for them to be married.
- ISBN10 1481478680
- ISBN13 9781481478687
- Publish Date 30 May 2017
- Publish Status Active
- Publisher Simon & Schuster
- Imprint Simon Pulse
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 384
- Language English
Reviews
CAWPILE: 7 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 8 | 7 (Avg: 6.86)
nannah
Written on Aug 6, 2019
Content warnings:
- in-book sexism and misogyny
When Dimple Met Rishi is a boy meets girl type story in which Dimple Shah, an Indian-American girl with very traditional parents, is in an arranged marriage with Rishi Patel, and meets him at a coding camp called Insomnia Con. The only problem? She doesn't know about the marriage at all.
I loved the insight into some of the Indian-American experience. I love the fact that the book is part of the #OWNvoices hashtag, lending a lot of authenticity to these characters. The first half, too, was original, fresh, and the dynamics between Dimple and her family were incredibly interesting to read.
Unfortunately, after the great moment when Dimple threw her iced coffee at Rishi (their first meeting; and if someone came up to me claiming to be my future husband I'd do the same thing!), things got a bit cliche and uninteresting.
The book takes place at a coding camp, because it's Dimple's huge dream to become a coder. Her idol will be present to help the winner with their app (which they'll be working on during the entire summer). You'd think this girl would want to spend some actual time coding. I was SO looking forward to some details about this because I have absolutely No experience with anything in this field. Plus, diverse ladies in STEM!
But what I got was literally a paragraph of them working on the app, and the rest of the book centered around the romance. I knew it was a romance coming in, but I expected at least some effort going into the actual coding part of the plot. To make things worse, for some reason that never made sense, in the middle of this CODING camp, they had a talent show that gave the winner $1000 towards their app? A talent show?? How does that relate to coding in any way? It's a cheap trick to make create more scenes for Rishi and Dimple to be closer physically, add some Bollywood dancing, and have them fall over each other, etc.
The characters also became unbearable at Insomnia Con. I know it's been said before, but Dimple ... Oh, Dimple. For a self-proclaimed feminist, or whatever, she sure loves to hate on women. She's a typical "not like other girls" girl, judging any other woman who wears too much makeup or wears booty shorts or does anything that she Doesn't Approve Of. There could be cultural things/upbringing at work here, but Dimple is the most judgey fictional character who is never actually checked for her attitude. She's also nearly abusive, hitting Rishi over and over, and when Rishi comments on it, Dimple actually says something like, "you need to change your idea about how girls behave." AKA, I'm not like other girls --> I hit/abuse people ?? What exactly is she trying to say here?
Anyway, besides all this, the ending is on par with most Hallmark Holiday specials, making me cringe and speed read through it so I wouldn't be embarrassed. This book simply isn't for me, or maybe I'm just not the audience for it. I wanted more STEM stuff!
Kat @ Novels & Waffles
Written on Jan 17, 2019
Rowena
Written on Aug 22, 2018
Terri M. LeBlanc
Written on Jul 4, 2018
Amanda
Written on Jun 30, 2018
lisacee
Written on Jun 1, 2018
alisoninbookland
Written on May 22, 2018
Romances aren’t my thing. I’ll read them on occasion. I picked this up to see if I’d be interested in next month’s Owlcrate. I didn’t love it as much as everyone else but it was cute! The will-they-won’t-they aspect was entertaining enough. I also appreciated the role reversal and allowing Rishi to be the romantic. Dimple was a bit mean and a touch abusive for my taste. I really loved the diversity in the story. It was a nice element and was still accessible even if they didn’t define the terms.
Sarah Says
Written on Oct 12, 2017
Dimple is quite stubborn and has an intense desire to be free - free of other people's expectations.
Rishi feels his purpose in life is to please his parents.
Dimple is super excited to be out on her own attending a six-week coding workshop and has no idea her parents have set her up.
Rishi is super excited that he may be potentially meeting his future wife and will be getting the chance to get to know her during the six-week coding workshop they will be attending.
Cue hilarious meet cute that involves Dimple assaulting Rishi with an iced coffee. Wait… I don’t think I can put the words meet cute and assault together in a sentence. Hmm… was it assault… Nar self-defence, she thought he was crazy at the time.
There are bits of humour sprinkled all through this love story about juggling parental expectations, standing up for yourself, following your dreams and arranged marriages. I actually loved the positive examples of arranged marriage, as on my side of the world they can tend to be portrayed in a negative light.
Dimple and Rishi click with each other early on, but Dimple tries and *spoiler* fails to fight it. Yeah so maybe your parents did know what they were doing, hey Dimple!
My inner teenager found Dimple fairly relatable and immediately fell for Rishi.
All in all it is a cute and quick read that I’d happily read again.
writehollydavis
Written on Sep 13, 2017