Reading romances – Fangirl & When Dimple met Rishi

I’m back from my long vacation and decided that instead of bombarding everyone with multiple posts, written days apart, I will just combine the two recent books I finished before and during the vacation into a single post, and write a separate one this week on my travelogue 🙂

I used to be a romance addict when I was in college. But over the years, I grew older and the reality of relationships and just life in general, started making me wary of books which have typical romance settings- you know, where girl is not so good looking/geeky, guy is charming and probably rich, they both don’t get along initially but eventually realise they’re soul mates, and the book ends when they confess their love for each other– that kinds. But somehow, romance has crept back into my reading, as part of the YA genre. Because, young adults need to fight their battles and they need to fall in love, so it is inevitable that one finds romance in the bigger picture of the books. That said, there are some YA books, where the romances sound fresh and do not follow the typical storyline I referred to earlier. The soon-to-be-couples are much different in personalities and have a lot going too, which I have come to respect in this genre.

So, in that respect, I read two books- really enjoyed one, and was disappointed with the other. And you will realise which was which as I list down my thoughts on both the books 🙂

Book #1: Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

• Loved the plot and the storyline! I didn’t even know about the world of fan fiction and how big it really is!
• The story isn’t just a love story- it is about different relationships – siblings, friendships, love, and breaking out of your comfort zones, and that is what hooked me to this book
• I have a younger sister, and although the book has twins in it, I felt as if I was reading about myself as Cath and my younger sister as Wren, in the book 🙂
• My favourite characters were Levi and Reagan
• And for some reason, I was more drawn to the Simon and Baz scenes, than the Cath and Levi scenes..haha (maybe that has got to do something with my Harry Potter addiction<wink>)
• I would absolutely recommend this book –  it is fun, romantic, has a variety of characters and stories and the fan fiction parts in between, is an icing on the cake

When Dimple met Rishi by Sandhya Menon

• This could be a one time read, and to any uninitiated people on the Bollywood Shahrukh Khan romances, or Karah Johar romances, this is a pretty good guideline, which is why, it was a little boring for me since it didn’t bring anything new on the table for me. The characters were typical, the storyline was a little annoying (especially the parts for Dimple’s mom, since we really need to get past the image of the loud and colourful Indian mom, since my mom is nothing like that), and the supporting cast were not given enough space to have their own lives in the book

• Luckily, I read this book during my road trip in Scotland, so every time I would get a little annoyed or bored, I could look at the beautiful views outside to change my mood! And this happened very often, which is why I took 10 days to finish this small book- it was almost destined to be my first DNF!

• I couldn’t find a favourite character in this book
• Maybe I am too old, but I found it amusing that 18 year olds in the book are allowed to have sex, but not allowed to drink alcohol. I guess this is the story all over the world?
• I was a little surprised at the use of the lines in Hindi, and there weren’t translations available for all of them. I can understand Hindi very well, but I wonder if non native speakers had difficulty understanding or following these sentences?
• I don’t think I will recommend this book to any of my friends- even if you are looking for a good romance, maybe as a one time read..maybe 🙂

I’m sure many of you have read both these books- did you have similar thoughts on these books? I’d love to get more recommendations of books similar to Fangirl 🙂