Menon, S. (2017). When Dimple Met Rishi. New York, NY: Simon Pulse.
When Dimple Met Rishi had been on my radar even before its publication in May. I follow many YA authors and others with some book/publishing connection. This one kept popping up in my feed, received positive early buzz, and even got a Twitter shout-out from one of my all-time favorites, Rainbow Rowell. I enjoy realistic fiction and I am not ashamed to admit sometimes I enjoy my YA reading with a little romance thrown into the mix. Therefore, I was excited to see that I would get the opportunity to check this title off my To Be Read List.
When Dimple Met Rishi would make a worthy addition to YA collections, particularly where contemporary romances are in high demand and/or there is a high percentage of Indian-American teens. This is not to say that teens who are not Indian-American wouldn’t enjoy it–I think they would–but there are so few contemporary novels with Indian-American teen protagonists that this story would likely be especially meaningful to them. Setting aside cultural implications, romance stories are a popular subgenre of realistic fiction. Though the story drags out a bit, I believe the romance between Dimple and Rishi will satisfy teen patrons.
I would pair When Dimple Met Rishi with the following books:
Daswani, K. (2012). Lovetorn. New York: HarperTeen.
Hidier, T.D. (2002). Born Confused. New York: Scholastic.
Han, J. (2014). To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before. New York: Simon & Schuster.
I used novelist to find the first two read-alikes (Lovetorn and Born Confused). I am my own source for the third selection, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before. Jenny Han’s series is one of my favorites. It is a contemporary teen romance that has elements of romantic comedies, very much in the same vein as When Dimple Met Rishi. Furthermore, both Dimple and Lara Jean (Han’s protagonist) are strong female characters with concrete identities apart from their male love interests.
Quality: 4Q
Popularity: 4P
Grade Level Interest: S/Grades 9-12
Appeal factors: culturally diverse, strong female, romantic, relatable
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