Dimple Shah has it all figured out. With graduation behind her, she’s more than ready for a break from her family, from Mamma’s inexplicable obsession with her finding the “Ideal Indian Husband.” Ugh. Dimple knows they must respect her principles on some level, though. If they truly believed she needed a husband right now, they wouldn’t have paid for her to attend a summer program for aspiring web developers…right?

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.

Book Overview:

Author: Sandhya Menon | Series: None | Format: Audiobook | Narrated by: Sneha Mathan & Vikas Adam | Length: 10 hours, 46 mins | May 30, 2017 | Genre: YA Contemporary | Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Young Adult Fiction (2017) | Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ | Recommend: Yes

“This is our life. We get to decide the rules. We get to say what goes and what stays, what matters and what doesn’t.”

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I’m so bummed that I didn’t read this last year when I meant to.

This was another book that I don’t normally read – meaning contemporary since I like to read about young adults saving the world – but I thought that this was very enjoyable. In this book, we meet Dimple Shah, a recent high school graduate that wants to attend a two-month long summer program that deals with computer science and app coding, more formally known as Insomnia Con. She wasn’t sure how she was going to convince her parents to let her go, especially since it would cost her parents a thousand dollars for her admission fee.

So when her mom and dad actually agree to let her go and pay a grand to send her to San Francisco for this program, she can barely believe it.

On the other hand, there’s a boy named Rishi, who believes that his future wife will be attending Insomnia Con, and actually embraces the idea of having an arranged marriage that is traditional in Indian culture. So when the time comes to meet this girl, he is so full of hope and love that he could care less that he’s attending a program that has nothing to do with his passion nor degree field.

There definitely wasn’t a “meet cute” instance in this book, and that’s what I loved about it. Dimple is so sure that she doesn’t want to marry or meet any boy during her time at Insomnia Con and in the future. Rishi is so sure that he wants to get married and start a family and have that woman be one of her parents’ choosing. So you can imagine how these two complete opposites are having such an interesting time together.

I think Rishi is one of my all-time favorite characters that I’ve read about, and I may have to enlist him as my book boyfriend. The way that he is so sure of his culture and his traditions without being ashamed of where he comes from is so rare these days. I really admire that about him, and how he will stand up for those that are being mistreated.

“I feel like I need to speak out, because if no one speaks out, if no one says, this is me, this is what I believe in, and this is why I’m different, and this is why that’s okay, then what’s the point? What’s the point of living in this beautiful, great melting pot where everyone can dare be anything they want to be?”

I highly recommend reading this book and enjoying a young friendship that may or may not blossom into something more.