Rishi Patel is a hopeless romantic. So when his parents tell him that his future wife will be attending the same summer program as him—wherein he’ll have to woo her—he’s totally on board. Because as silly as it sounds to most people in his life, Rishi wants to be arranged, believes in the power of tradition, stability, and being a part of something much bigger than himself.
The Shahs and Patels didn’t mean to start turning the wheels on this “suggested arrangement” so early in their children’s lives, but when they noticed them both gravitate toward the same summer program, they figured, Why not?
Dimple and Rishi may think they have each other figured out. But when opposites clash, love works hard to prove itself in the most unexpected ways.
Review: I'll be honest, it took quite a long time for me to actually decide to read When Dimple Met Rishi. I heard about how abusive Dimple was to Rishi and that turned me off to it. I still wanted to read it, but it wasn't a very strong desire like it once was. Now, having finally read this book, I wish I read it sooner. I had a lot of fun reading When Dimple Met Rishi and experiencing their romance. Dimple was a very goal-oriented main character and I enjoyed that about her. There were little things that got on my nerves, like her clear aversion to make up and things, but those were all minor. Rishi was a sweet love interest, and I liked the way he balanced out other characters. Some of the other characters in this program were rich, white kids. Rishi's mere existence shows that not every rich person is white and some of them can be kind as well. I felt his character did a great job of showcasing these attributes and it didn't feel forced. There are a few side characters that I thought were interesting, Celia and Ashish specifically, but I feel like we will get to spend more time with them later. I know the next book focuses on Ashish, but I hope it explores some things with Celia as well. Only time will tell.
One of the major criticisms I heard from reviews was how little the story focused on programming considering Dimple and Rishi went to a summer program all about programming and making apps. I agree with this, but the book is called When Dimple Met Rishi, not When Dimple Went to Coding Camp. There are definitely ways to bring programming into a cute romance, but this book focused more on the characters and the relationships more than anything else. This might bother some people, but I quite enjoyed it. When Dimple Met Rishi did a great job of giving us an insight to the culture of Indian-Americans, but we also got to see very different ideals within this community. You'll see people say, "Women are not a monolith, African-Americans are not a monolith, Muslims are not a monolith, etc" This shows a real example of how that's true. Dimple is much more independent than her family wants, and Rishi is very much focused on his culture. I also appreciated how Dimple's mom wanted Dimple to wear make up for cultural reasons, and not just to make Dimple look pretty. I thought that was an interesting aspect I had never considered before. There were little cultural moments sprinkled throughout When Dimple Met Rishi which I really appreciated.
Cute romance that it seeped with beautiful, Indian culture.
4 howls
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