From Twinkle,With Love by Sandhya Menon Book Review

Goodreads Summary: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?

My Rating:4/5 Stars

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in exchange for a honest review via Netgalley.

My Thoughts

I read When Dimple Met Rishi last year and  fell in love with Sandyha’s beautiful writing and amazing characters so when I heard that she was coming out with a new book, I knew that I had to read. While I didn’t love  From Twinkle, With Love  wasn’t as amazing as I had expected it to be but I still really enjoyed it  and I’m glad that I read it.

While there was lots of things I loved about the book like the romance, the really interesting family dynamic and Twinkle’s passion for filmmaking, there was too much petty drama for me to truly care about the book as much as I would have liked to.  So much of the plot centered around immature and futile problems that could have been easily avoided if Twinkle had thought for more than one second about what she was doing. While we did see a shift in her perspective towards the end, it kind of came out of nowhere so while it was appreciated, it was a little underdeveloped. I know this sounds like I really hated the book but I didn’t at all!! One of the reasons why I kept my rating at a four stars is that though I may find Twinkle’s behavior infuriating that is how teens act and I can’t hold that against the book. I think that retrospection is extremely important when reading YA, especially as I grow further away from the intended audience. Teens dont always make the best decisions but that’s okay. They’re still growing, they’re still learning and the best way to learn is to make mistakes.

I found the family dyanmic to be really really interesting and while I loved what we got, I wished itcould have been developed a little bit more. I really loved the character of the grandmother and the mom.I also really appreciated the way poverty was addressed in the book. More YA books need characters who are poor so I really loved that Twinkle was below the poverty line.

The love interest in this was amazing oh my god!!! I loved Sahil so much and I really liked the way the author explored how he felt regarding his twin brother. He was so dory and wonderful and I’m really glad that Twinkle fell for him.It’s clear that Sandyha Menon is the master of swoon worthy romances. I cannot wait for her next book so I can fall in love with her amazing characters again.