Why it’s essential
A perfect marriage of YA and romance, this charming debut from Sandhya Menon is a full-on immersive listen about two Indian American teens who, despite their differences, just might be as right for each other as their parents think.
Featured in The Top 100 Romance Listens of All Time.
What is When Dimple Met Rishi about?
When Dimple Met Rishi tells the story of Dimple Shah, an ambitious young Indian American woman whose pre-college summer at an app development camp gets complicated by a young man she meets there, Rishi Patel, who happens to check off all the boxes for her mother's definition of the Ideal Indian Husband.
Editor's review
Mysia ("Misha") is a book person who loves escaping into twisty mysteries and contemporary fiction driven by complicated characters.
It's hard to imagine anything less romantic than having your spouse picked out by your mother. Still, having chosen my husband—a stranger I met in Jamaica—based purely on love, I might have avoided a lot of conflicts over the years if I had found a partner with a similar frame of reference right in my hometown. So, when I first read an interview with Sandhya Menon, an Indian American author who had written a contemporary romance with a fresh, positive take on arranged marriage, I was intrigued. As I listened to When Dimple Met Rishi, I was captivated.
At 18, Dimple Shah is obsessed with coding and her future career. She can’t wait to start Stanford in the fall, partly to get a break from her mother, who’s obsessed with finding her the Ideal Indian Husband. So, she’s thrilled when Mamma gives her the high school graduation gift of her dreams—a summer getaway at Insomnia Con, a six-week program at San Francisco State dedicated to app development. But Mamma has an ulterior motive. Insomnia Con is also where Rishi Patel will be spending his summer, and, though he plans to start MIT in the fall, his reasons aren’t strictly technical. A true believer in tradition and destiny, Rishi arrives at Insomnia Con with his great-grandmother’s ring in his pocket, looking for Dimple.
When he finds her, Rishi introduces himself with the sappy line, “Hello, future wife!” Dimple thinks he’s a creep and throws her iced coffee in his face. When he approaches her again, cautiously, Rishi explains that their parents had a hand in their meeting up. But later, when they're assigned to work together on a project, Dimple and Rishi genuinely connect. As the children of Indian immigrants, they both feel torn between honoring their heritage and being a "normal" American teenager. Their relationship is mutually supportive—Dimple encourages Rishi to follow his passion for comic book art, and Rishi cheers on Dimple’s ambitions—and passionate. But just when you think these two will have their happily-ever-after on their own terms, Dimple pulls back. I won’t spoil what happens next, but it’s touching, heartbreaking, and, in the end, hopeful.
The story is told in alternating voices, and narrators Sneha Mathan and Vikas Adam capture each character perfectly. Dimple is my kind of romance heroine—strong-willed and strong-spirited—but I also came to appreciate Rishi for his quiet strength. I left When Dimple Met Rishi rooting for them both and imagining the joy of their maybe someday marriage.
Did you know?
Sandhya Menon has been a passionate writer since childhood. As a little girl, she wrote on her clothes and the furniture in her house—until her parents wised up and bought her a set of notebooks. Later, her parents persuaded her to study medicine because they didn’t think writing was a respectable career choice. In college, she showed no aptitude for biology and once burst into tears when faced with dissecting a fetal pig. Still, she didn’t seriously consider being a professional writer until she was in her late 20s.
As Sandhya shared in an interview with Bustle, her main motivation for writing When Dimple Met Rishi was to provide a positive representation of young Indian Americans for all young people and especially young people of color. “Brown teens need to see themselves falling in love, making mistakes, dabbling in art, and being happy,” she stated.
As a girl in India, Sandhya became a fervent fan of Bollywood films, which sparked her enduring obsession with HEAs (happily-ever-afters) and OTPs (one true pairings). Among her top OTPs are Bella and Jacob. (That’s right, she’s “Team Jacob” forever!)
What listeners said
"Dimple and Rishi get my vote as the cutest couple of the year … I loved this couple. I loved how they met. I loved how they made each other better. I got the feels." -Dee, Audible listener
"This was a delightful story—romantic and kind … Dimple is a modern young woman, who knows what she wants to do with her life. Her struggle to follow her dream is nuanced and realistic. Rishi is equally nuanced and realistic, but he (like Dimple) discovers the path you always saw before you may just lead somewhere different... or, perhaps, may be wider than you first perceived it to be." -Tina, Audible listener
"I didn’t know how much I needed this book! In a sea full of whiteness in YA, When Dimple Met Rishi is really a breath of fresh air that makes me understand why reading about POC main characters are so important … Dimple was such an amazing heroine who was smart and her own person, and Rishi was Book Bae for real. Very recommended!" -Audible listener
Quotes from When Dimple Met Rishi
"It was his damn fool heart. Ever optimistic, always looking for a sliver of sunshine in a sky clotted with thunderclouds."
"But that was Rishi... he was like a pop song you thought you couldn't stand, but found yourself humming in the shower anyway."
"There was something about people who were that secure; they made you feel better about yourself, like they accepted you for everything you were, imperfections and all."
"Seriously? That's what you think I should be relegating my brain space to? Looking nice? Like, if I don't make the effort to look beautiful, my entire existence is nullified? Nothing else matters—not my intellect, not my personality or my accomplishments; my hopes and dreams mean nothing if I'm not wearing eyeliner?"
"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?"
Adaptations
When Dimple Met Rishi was adapted for TV by Netflix India. The series, titled Mismatched, premiered in November 2020 and was renewed for a second season, released in October 2022.
About the author
Sandhya Menon is the New York Times bestselling author of YA Romances, including the "Dimpleverse" series, the Rosetta Academy series, and the standalone novel, From Twinkle with Love. She also writes adult romances under the name Lily Menon. Born in Mumbai, India, and raised on a steady diet of Bollywood movies and street food, she moved to the US with her family when she was 15 and spent her young adulthood navigating two different cultures. She lives in Colorado with her husband, two children, and extremely spoiled dogs.
About the performers
Sneha Mathan is a professional voice actor and audiobook narrator. She has received several AudioFile Earphones Awards and is a three-time Audie Award finalist. Her notable audiobook performances include The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, Honor and The Secrets Between Us by Thrity Umrigar, and The Jaipur Trilogy by Alka Joshi. She lives in Seattle, Washington.
Vikas Adam is a classically trained actor with numerous credits in stage, film, commercials, and television, in addition to his 200-plus audiobook performances. As a narrator, his notable work includes Yann Martel's Life of Pi and Salman Rushdie's The Golden House, for which he won an Audie Award. A member of Audible's Narrator Hall of Fame, he is also the recipient of a Voice Arts Award and multiple Earphones Awards. Born in British Columbia, he lived in various parts of the US and Canada, as well as India, before his family settled in Texas. He now makes his home in Los Angeles.
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