When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon
When Dimple Shah and Rishi Patel meet at a Stanford University summer program, Dimple is avoiding her parents' obsession with "marriage prospects" but Rishi hopes to woo her into accepting arranged marriage with him.
Review from Publishers Weekly:
In this bright and funny debut novel, Menon introduces two intellectually gifted teens from traditional Indian families who meet at a summer tech conference in San Francisco. The twist: Dimple and Rishi’s parents have arranged their marriage. Rishi is aware of the arrangement; Dimple is not. Rishi longs for a traditional marriage like the one his parents have, but Dimple is adamantly opposed to her parents’ efforts to push her toward the same, favoring a career and education over family. After a disastrous initial meeting (Dimple throws iced coffee at Rishi), the two creep toward friendship and love, a slow process recounted through their alternating points of view (often switching multiple times within a single chapter). This frequent back and forth provides a detailed play-by-play of the teenagers’ shifting emotions as Menon vividly conjures the joy, self-doubt, and humor of first love. Romance-loving readers will celebrate the ways that Rishi and Dimple learn to respect and appreciate their Indian heritage and traditions but also manage to go their own way.