Waiting On Wednesday: When Dimple Met Rishi – Sandhya Menon

Waiting On Wednesday in a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine in which we discuss an upcoming release that you’re…well…waiting on! And this seems like the perfect excuse to have mini fangirl freakouts over the books I NEED ASAP.

This week, I’m flailing over When Dimple Met Rishi.

What You Need to Know

When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon

Published by Simon Pulse on May 30th, 2017

Synopsis: A laugh-out-loud, heartfelt YA romantic comedy, told in alternating perspectives, about two Indian-American teens whose parents have arranged for them to be married.

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.

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Why I’m Flailing

First off, whoever designed the cover and made the decision to put the title on the coffee cup is a genius and deserves a raise.

But this sounds so freaking cute. I’m not always drawn to contemporary books, but the synopsis got me with the funny part, and my determination to read more diversely  – as well as support an own voices and debut author – has me super interested in this book. Let’s face it: Deep down, I’m a sap and a hopeless romantic and I love getting gushy and mushy about love. But When Dimple Met Rishi is also a chance to get a glimpse into a culture I honestly can say I know very little about. There are not many Indians or Indian-Americans where I’m from – where I went to college, sure, but I didn’t really take advantage of it –  and I can’t say that I know much about Indian culture more than what I’ve seen on TV, which, let’s face it, probably isn’t all that accurate. The arranged marriage plot is also interesting because, it’s something that you don’t really think about in this day and age – at least for Basic White Girl me it isn’t. My Italian grandfather supposedly threw over an arranged marriage to marry my Irish/German/Polish/Hungarian(?) grandmother but that’s as close as it’s come to me. The potential conflict in this novel about one half of the couple knowing about and liking the arrangement comes as a bit of a shock to me and I really want to see how this plays out. Not well, I imagine, but I’m already rooting for a happy ending for these two and I haven’t even read the book yet.

That’s it for me. What books are you waiting on?