From Twinkle, With Love || I thank the existence of Sandhya Menon

Title: From Tinkle, With Love

Author: Sandhya Menon

Genre: Contemporary

Category: Young Adult

Status: Standalone

Goodreads

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Synopsis:

Aspiring filmmaker and wallflower Twinkle Mehra has stories she wants to tell and universes she wants to explore, if only the world would listen. So when fellow film geek Sahil Roy approaches her to direct a movie for the upcoming Summer Festival, Twinkle is all over it. The chance to publicly showcase her voice as a director? Dream come true. The fact that it gets her closer to her longtime crush, Neil Roy—a.k.a. Sahil’s twin brother? Dream come true x 2.

When mystery man “N” begins emailing her, Twinkle is sure it’s Neil, finally ready to begin their happily-ever-after. The only slightly inconvenient problem is that, in the course of movie-making, she’s fallen madly in love with the irresistibly adorkable Sahil.

Twinkle soon realizes that resistance is futile: The romance she’s got is not the one she’s scripted. But will it be enough?

Told through the letters Twinkle writes to her favorite female filmmakers, From Twinkle, with Love navigates big truths about friendship, family, and the unexpected places love can find you.

Note: I received an eARC from the author and all opinions are my own.

I read When Dimple Met Rishi mostly because it had Indian MCs. And I really liked it. For the first time I could relate almost completely to the characters and THAT MADE ME HAPPY, OKAY? I’ve been awaiting this book since I finished WDMR. I feel incredibly lucky to have got the chance to review the ARC.

The Plot

Twinkle Mehra is a high school student and aspiring director of films. Hence when opportunity presents, with Sahil Roy offering to produce her movie, she jumps on it. The book spans over the time period from the conception of the idea to the first viewing, and a little after. This book is about trying to make your dreams come true. It’s about working for it.

But underlying that main plot, we have the usual high school stories which is evolving friendships, social status worries and teenage crushes. Twinkle is dealing with being one of the less popular students while her best friend has suddenly made high-profile friends, hence leaving Twinkle feeling lonely. Twinkle also has a crush on Neil Roy, who is Sahil’s popular twin brother. But guess what? Sahil is crushing on Twinkle!

What a dramatic situation eh? But then, this is mild enough enough for high school. High school can be very dramatic.

Compared to WDMR, this book had much more Indian elements in it and MY HEART WAS SINGING. I admit, I relate more to Dimple but Twinkle is ME in high school. I pretty much devoured this book.

The Characters

Twinkle is awkward, a little clumsy, aspiring and all she wants is her best friend back. That’s one of the things I really liked about the book. Twinkle might seem like a “social climber” because she frequently imagines her increase in popularity if she dates Neil but it’s only so Maddie will hang out with her again. This book is about friendship.

Also, side note. TWINKLE IS A REAL INDIAN NAME. There’s an Indian celebrity with the name. Coincidentally, her mom’s name is Dimple. So yeah. If I see another person saying they aren’t “authentic Indian names” I might explode.

Sahil was really relatable as well because he’s overshadowed by his sibling’s popularity, to the point that he’s pretty much overlooked by everyone, and has unrequited feelings for Twinkle. But what I loved most about him was that he took the chance to become closer to Twinkle by supporting her dreams. He’s awkward and clumsy but all he wanted was to help Twinkle, and hopefully make her realise that he exists. This book is about angsty and awkward teenage romance.

I loved Twinkle’s grandmother. Quoting Twinkle, her grandmother is “kooky”. She readily adopted the New Age beliefs and if you couple that with our Indian beliefs? You’ve got A LOT of traditions and opinions about things. I loved Twinkle’s relationship with her grandmother. No matter their differences, they loved each other and it showed very clearly.

The Romance

IT WAS SO ADORABLE. Sahil is adorable as heck and he’s now one of my fictional crushes. Their slow-burn romance throughout the book made my heart warm. By the end, this was me:

But I loved it. I loved that Sahil was just there for Twinkle and that she slowly developed feelings for him. There was no insta-love. You know what, I’m at this point where I like pretty much every romance which isn’t insta-love. The only difference is how much I like it.

Overall

I think you should read it simply because it’s a really good book. Forget the rep and all (even though that’s pretty important). Don’t simply read it to cross off a “diversity checklist” (because I feel like that might happen..).

This book releases on 22 May 2018.