Sandhya Menon: writer of things for teens.

When Dimple Met Rishi

Dimple and Rishi Series, Book 1

When Dimple Met Rishi cover
  • Instant New York Times Bestseller!
  • Instant National Indie Bestseller!
  • A Top 10 Indie Next Pick!
  • A Junior Library Guild Selection!
  • starStarred Review from Kirkus!
  • starStarred Review from VOYA!
  • A 2017 Goodreads Choice Award Finalist!
  • An Amazon Best Book of the Year!
  • A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year!
  • An NPR Books Best Book of the Year!
  • A Target Best Book of the Year!
  • An ALA BFYA (American Library Association Best Fiction for Young Adults) 2018 pick!
  • An ALA Amelia Bloomer List pick for feminist YA fiction!
  • An Indies Choice Award Finalist!
  • 2018 South Asia Award Honor Book!
  • Winner of the 2018 Colorado Book Award in Young Adult Literature!
  • One of Book Riot’s Must Read Contemporary YA Novels of the 2010s!

New York Times and national Indie bestseller!

Soon to be a Netflix India TV show, available to watch globally! Read more about that here.

Buy in the US: Indiebound (support an indie bookstore!)| Amazon | B&N

Foreign and Other Editions:

Canada: Indigo | Amazon Canada | Buy Indie | Kindle | Kobo | iBooks | Google Play

UK (Hodder & Stoughton): Buy on Amazon!

Australia (Hachette UK): Buy the ebook or the paperback (both releasing May 30, 2017).

New Zealand (Hachette UK): Buy the ebook or the paperback.

India (Hachette India): Buy on Amazon!

Turkey (Sis Yayincilik): Buy here.

France (Hachette Livre, date TBA): Links TBA!

Indonesia (Haru Publishing, date TBA): Links TBA!

Russia (EKSMO, date TBA): Links TBA!

Audiobook: Buy the audio CD here.

The YA rom-com everyone’s talking about! As seen in Teen Vogue, Bustle, and BookRiot—with a starred review from Kirkus ReviewsWhen Dimple Met Rishi follows two Indian-American teens whose parents conspire to arrange their marriage.

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. [read more=”Read more” less=”Read less”] 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.

“Full of warm characters and sweet romance, fans of contemporary young adult novels will want to pull up a chair and read all about When Dimple Met Rishi.” Entertainment Weekly

“The arranged marriage YA rom-com we’ve been waiting for.” Bustle Magazine

There’s Something About Sweetie

Dimple and Rishi Series, Book 2

There's Something about Sweetie cover

2019 Junior Library Guild Selection!

Starred Review from Booklist!

One of Buzzfeed’s YA Books You Absolutely Must Read This Spring!

One of Her Campus’s Books with Amazing Body Positivity!

One of Teen Vogue’s Books With South Asian Characters You Should Read in 2019!

One of Bustle’s New Books Guaranteed To Make You Laugh In Public!

One of Barnes and Noble’s Best YA Books of May!

An Amazon Best Romance Book of the Month!

A Summer 2019 Indie Next Pick!

A 2020 ALA Amelia Bloomer List Pick!

One of NPR’s Best Books of 2019!

Book Shimmy Awards 2019 Semifinalist for Cutest Ship!

One of Audiofile Magazine’s Best Audiobook of the Year!

One of Powell’s Best YA Books of 2019!

Featured on the Today Show!

Colorado Book Award Winner!

Reading the West Book Award Shortlist!

 

 

Out now!

 Buy in the US: Indiebound | Amazon | B&N

Foreign and Other Editions:

Canada (Simon & Schuster Canada): Amazon Canada | Indigo 

UK (Hodder & Stoughton): Amazon UK

Australia (Hodder & Stoughton): Booktopia

New Zealand (Hodder & Stoughton): Mighty Ape

India (Hodder & Stoughton): Amazon India 

Spanish Edition (Planeta Mexico): Coming soon!

Buy internationally elsewhere: Book Depository

Audiobook: Buy here.

 

Check out the full jacket wrap here.

The irresistible companion novel to the New York Times bestseller When Dimple Met Rishi, which follows Rishi’s brother, Ashish, and a confident, self-proclaimed fat athlete named Sweetie as they both discover what love means to them.

Ashish Patel didn’t know love could be so…sucky. After being dumped by his ex-girlfriend, his mojo goes AWOL. Even worse, his parents are annoyingly, smugly confident they could find him a better match. So, in a moment of weakness, Ash challenges them to set him up.

The Patels insist that Ashish date an Indian-American girl—under contract. Per subclause 1(a), he’ll be taking his date on “fun” excursions like visiting the Hindu temple and his eccentric Gita Auntie. Kill him now. How is this ever going to work?

Sweetie Nair is many things: a formidable track athlete who can outrun most people in California, a loyal friend, a shower-singing champion. Oh, and she’s also fat. To Sweetie’s traditional parents, this last detail is the kiss of death.

Sweetie loves her parents, but she’s so tired of being told she’s lacking because she’s fat. She decides it’s time to kick off the Sassy Sweetie Project, where she’ll show the world (and herself) what she’s really made of.

Ashish and Sweetie both have something to prove. But with each date they realize there’s an unexpected magic growing between them. Can they find their true selves without losing each other?

“Menon, as always, champions teens by allowing them the space and pace to make decisions, succeed or fail, learn, and blossom.” – Booklist, starred review

 “An entertaining romance.”Kirkus

“An unapologetic, wish-fulfilling dessert buffet. Swoon-prone readers will wish the Patel boys came in six-packs.” – BCCB

“Give this entertaining read to romantic comedy fans everywhere.” – School Library Journal

“Sweetie is probably the first plus-sized South Asian protagonist in YA, and I couldn’t be more excited to see her in an adorable romance.” – Book Riot, Most Anticipated 2019 Releases

“Menon’s rom-coms are absolute instabuys for me; her smart and funny characters full of charm and personality are just impossible for me to ignore, and the covers make sure I know exactly how good a time I’m in for.” – B&N Teen Blog

“‘There’s Something About Sweetie’ by Sandhya Menon is a love story that fans of ‘When Dimple Met Rishi’ will adore.” – Bustle Magazine 

“Anytime your soul needs a hug, pick up a Sandhya Menon novel.” Book Riot, Best Books We Read in December 2018

“Irrepressibly joyous… Sandhya Menon definitely hits it out of the ballpark again with There’s Something About Sweetie, crafting a rich, intricate story about two young characters you can’t help but fall in love with.” – NPR Books

As Kismet Would Have It

As Kismet Would Have It Cover

Buy: Amazon | B&N

Will Dimple and Rishi find their happily ever after? Find out in this funny, romantic, endlessly charming enovella companion to the New York Times bestseller When Dimple Met Rishi!

Dimple Shah has a lot of opinions about marriage, but they boil down to this: It’s not for her. Sure, she loves her boyfriend, Rishi, but why does she need to validate that with an institution that has historically never favored the woman? Why go through all that hassle?

Rishi Patel deeply disagrees. He believes in the power that comes with combining love and tradition, and when the time comes, wants nothing more than to honor those things in a huge celebration with his friends and family. He knows Dimple loves him, but in hearing her rant about how marriage is a “construct of hegemonic masculinity” for the millionth time, a small, niggling part of him worries that it’s not the institution of marriage Dimple has a problem with; maybe it’s him.

The two lovebirds find themselves at a philosophical impasse. Can they find a way to work it out, or does kismet have other plans?

Love At First Fight

Love at First Fight Cover

Coming June 30th, 2020!

Buy: Amazon | B&N

From New York Times bestselling author Sandhya Menon comes a delightful e-novella sequel to When Dimple Met Rishi and There’s Something about Sweetie, about a Valentine’s Day group date gone hilariously, disastrously awry.

Ashish Patel has never considered himself a hopeless romantic. But now that he’s found his other half, Sweetie Nair, there’s nothing he wants more than to celebrate love in all its forms. So when Valentine’s Day rolls around and he hears about a romance-themed escape room, he knows it’s the perfect opportunity to bring together Sweetie along with his newly engaged brother and sister-in-law-to-be, Rishi Patel and Dimple Shah.

On their way to the escape room, the group runs into Pinky Kumar and Samir Jha—both friends to Ashish but nemeses to each other. Despite Pinky’s kneejerk reaction to the cheesy theme (which gets her a high-five from Dimple), the two of them agree to join the group.

The escape room is as insufferably saccharine as Pinky feared, but even she is surprised when she and Samir actually . . . work well together. Samir embodies everything Pinky despises—following rules, having no fun, consuming single-use plastics. Getting along with someone like him—a shiny Volvo when she’s so used to junkers—sends Pinky into a tailspin.

Sparks are definitely flying, but it’s unclear if that’s a good thing. Could this be love at first fight?

 

10 Things I Hate About Pinky

Dimple and Rishi Series, Book 3

Of Curses And Kisses cover

One of Teen Vogue’s 10 YA Novels with South Asian Characters!

One of Buzzfeed’s YA Romances We’re Loving this Spring!

One of Working Mother’s 12 Books to Help Your Kids Explore the World from Home!

A 2020 Junior Library Guild Selection!

 

 

Buy now: Amazon | B&N | Indies

The delightful follow-up to When Dimple Met Rishi and There’s Something about Sweetie, which follows Ashish’s friends Pinky and Samir as they pretend to date in order to achieve their individual goals, to disastrous and hilarious results.

Pinky Kumar wears the social justice warrior badge with pride. From raccoon hospitals to persecuted rock stars, no cause is too esoteric for her to champion. But a teeny tiny part of her also really enjoys making her conservative, buttoned-up corporate lawyer parents cringe.

Samir Jha might have a few…quirks remaining from the time he had to take care of his sick mother, like the endless lists he makes in his planner and the way he schedules every minute of every day, but those are good things. They make life predictable and steady.

Pinky loves lazy summers at her parents’ Cape Cod lake house, but after listening to them harangue her about the poor decisions she’s made (a.k.a. boyfriends she’s had), she hatches a plan. Get her sorta-friend-sorta-enemy—who is a total Harvard-bound Mama’s boy—to pose as her perfect boyfriend for the summer.

When Samir’s internship falls through, leaving him with an unplanned summer, he gets a text from Pinky asking if he’ll be her fake boyfriend in exchange for a new internship. He jumps at the opportunity; Pinky’s a weirdo, but he can survive a summer with her if there’s light at the end of the tunnel.

As they bicker their way through lighthouses and butterfly habitats, sparks fly, and they both realize this will be a summer they’ll never forget.

~
“Stocked with Menon’s staple impassioned and contrary young woman lead[…] Highly relevant for today’s teen readers, this book will no doubt be a hit both with Menon’s existing fans and new ones.” –Booklist

“Told in alternating voices, transitions are seamless, and major conflicts and minor loose ends are resolved neatly and in quick succession. …[T]he novels delivers to fans of the genre with self-assuredness and heart.” –Kirkus