Dimple Shah wants to avoid the usual expectations for a young woman in her family – namely she will very quickly find a suitable husband and settle down with a bunch of kids. For Dimple that is so far off in the future, but her parents don’t feel the same way. Amazingly they still let her attend Insomnia Con, a summer programme for coding with a competition aspect that may lead her to her idol. Dimple is thrilled, but of course there’s a catch. That comes in the form of Rishi, a young man also attending the con who believes Dimple is his future wife – and that she knows all about him too. After a terrible introduction the two become friends, but will Dimple ever see Rishi as more?
This definitely had moments of charm, and the romance aspects were cute, but overall it didn’t make me root for the two of them that much. I liked Rishi a lot, and I felt his character was well developed and I understood where he was coming from, but Dimple felt harder to pin down. She’s quite angry and abrasive, and initially blames Rishi for ruining her time at Insomnia Con, when he had no idea she didn’t know who he was and hadn’t agreed to meet him. She seems very invested in not having a relationship any time soon and intent on winning the competition, but within days she’s fallen for Rishi and all talk of the app they’re supposed to be developing stops.
Instead we get a big chunk of the book devoted to a talent show, which seems an odd addition to me. You’re in this select, intensive programme for coding but part of how you succeed is winning a talent competition where you’ll get a grand to spend on developing said app? And everyone who doesn’t win is cool with this? Is this what happens in America? What if you have no talent or are painfully shy? It’s horrible. I’m taking a guess that it’s a nod to Bollywood but it just doesn’t seem to make sense within this book.
Their obstacles seem very easily overcome too. I did like her friendship with Celia and the addition of Rishi’s brother, Ashish, and it was a pretty quick read. But I wish I’d felt more invested in the outcome.