You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.55 AVERAGE
3.55 AVERAGE
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.*Thanks so much to Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing and NetGalley for providing a galley in exchange for an honest review!*
What's not to love about From Twinkle, With Love? The title is adorable, the cover is STUNNING, and the epistolary format was really fun to read. In some ways, I loved Menon's sophomore novel even more than her first, because it was just so much fun. Twinkle's personality coupled with some of the tried and true YA tropes and laugh out loud writing had me itching to pick up the story at every spare moment I had the week I read it. However, there were a few elements that bothered me throughout the novel, a background sort of annoyance that I found hard to shake and ultimately lessened my enjoyment of the story a bit.
Unlike Menon's debut novel which is set on a college campus, From Twinkle, With Love is very firmly a high school book, with the drama and tropes to go along with it. While I find I sometimes get bored with high school narratives, I found this one to be really funny, especially Twinkle's internal dialogue which was cringe-y and hilarious- groundlings and silk feathered hats and all that. The variation in format was also really fun to read and helped the story keep up a quick and fun pace- the letters Twinkle writes combined with the text messages and emails from other characters helped really round out the story, and give the secondary characters some life and vibrancy (especially the guys- their texts were hilarious). I loved loved LOVED Sahil, and I think Menon has a talent for writing positive, respectful YA romances that are still swoony in their own way without being obvious. And I totally felt Twinkle's angst about her feelings for Sahil- as a teenager you totally want to be with the popular, athletic, well known guy but by the time you're in your mid-twenties you're #TeamSahil all the way. I can see how Twinkle's fickle heart may have irked some readers, but it's actually not the part of the story I had a problem with.
My main issue with this book is I feel like there were a LOT of mean girl stereotypes and bullying that seemed rather one dimensional, or didn't get the page time/context it deserved to make sense. At the beginning of the story, Twinkle is very blunt about having had a fall out with her lifelong BFF Maddie, and the whole premise of their now strained relationship felt really flimsy and took way too long to reveal. Honestly, in my opinion people were super mean to Twinkle and when she goes through her period toward the end of the book of self-righteousness I really didn't mind considering how awful the other characters had been to her for so long. But then everyone blames her for not taking the high road. And I get it, as the protagonist in a YA, high school set novel it's probably expected for the protagonist to be the bigger person and extend the olive branch, etc., but it just really irritated me that everyone sort of put the onus on Twinkle for that, like it was her responsibility. It was great and all that she chose to reconcile instead of being bitter, but I personally think that sometimes the expectation of the YA heroine being "nice" and doing the right thing in contemporary novels is tiring. #ilikedroguetwinkle #twinkletellsitlikeitis
Other than Maddie and Hannah and all of the other mean girl drama, this book was a lot of fun to read. The gender-bent movie theme that Twinkle and Sahil go for is clever, and I love how coming together to create the film brought down a lot of the social barriers and boundaries at the school. I also of course loved seeing Twinkle's Indian culture integrated into the story. While her culture wasn't as central to the overall plot as in When Dimple Met Rishi, it was still woven into the story and I absolutely ADORED Twinkle's Dadi and her fusion of Indian tradition and new age American mysticism (and YAY for books that feature grandparents!!)
Overall: From Twinkle, With Love is definitely fluff, but it's the fun, feel good kind fluff that will warm you while reading and make you remember your groundling high school days a little more fondly.This review was originally posted on Girl in the Pages
What's not to love about From Twinkle, With Love? The title is adorable, the cover is STUNNING, and the epistolary format was really fun to read. In some ways, I loved Menon's sophomore novel even more than her first, because it was just so much fun. Twinkle's personality coupled with some of the tried and true YA tropes and laugh out loud writing had me itching to pick up the story at every spare moment I had the week I read it. However, there were a few elements that bothered me throughout the novel, a background sort of annoyance that I found hard to shake and ultimately lessened my enjoyment of the story a bit.
Unlike Menon's debut novel which is set on a college campus, From Twinkle, With Love is very firmly a high school book, with the drama and tropes to go along with it. While I find I sometimes get bored with high school narratives, I found this one to be really funny, especially Twinkle's internal dialogue which was cringe-y and hilarious- groundlings and silk feathered hats and all that. The variation in format was also really fun to read and helped the story keep up a quick and fun pace- the letters Twinkle writes combined with the text messages and emails from other characters helped really round out the story, and give the secondary characters some life and vibrancy (especially the guys- their texts were hilarious). I loved loved LOVED Sahil, and I think Menon has a talent for writing positive, respectful YA romances that are still swoony in their own way without being obvious. And I totally felt Twinkle's angst about her feelings for Sahil- as a teenager you totally want to be with the popular, athletic, well known guy but by the time you're in your mid-twenties you're #TeamSahil all the way. I can see how Twinkle's fickle heart may have irked some readers, but it's actually not the part of the story I had a problem with.
My main issue with this book is I feel like there were a LOT of mean girl stereotypes and bullying that seemed rather one dimensional, or didn't get the page time/context it deserved to make sense. At the beginning of the story, Twinkle is very blunt about having had a fall out with her lifelong BFF Maddie, and the whole premise of their now strained relationship felt really flimsy and took way too long to reveal. Honestly, in my opinion people were super mean to Twinkle and when she goes through her period toward the end of the book of self-righteousness I really didn't mind considering how awful the other characters had been to her for so long. But then everyone blames her for not taking the high road. And I get it, as the protagonist in a YA, high school set novel it's probably expected for the protagonist to be the bigger person and extend the olive branch, etc., but it just really irritated me that everyone sort of put the onus on Twinkle for that, like it was her responsibility. It was great and all that she chose to reconcile instead of being bitter, but I personally think that sometimes the expectation of the YA heroine being "nice" and doing the right thing in contemporary novels is tiring. #ilikedroguetwinkle #twinkletellsitlikeitis
Other than Maddie and Hannah and all of the other mean girl drama, this book was a lot of fun to read. The gender-bent movie theme that Twinkle and Sahil go for is clever, and I love how coming together to create the film brought down a lot of the social barriers and boundaries at the school. I also of course loved seeing Twinkle's Indian culture integrated into the story. While her culture wasn't as central to the overall plot as in When Dimple Met Rishi, it was still woven into the story and I absolutely ADORED Twinkle's Dadi and her fusion of Indian tradition and new age American mysticism (and YAY for books that feature grandparents!!)
Overall: From Twinkle, With Love is definitely fluff, but it's the fun, feel good kind fluff that will warm you while reading and make you remember your groundling high school days a little more fondly.This review was originally posted on Girl in the Pages
This was very cute! Incredibly cheesy and predictable, but that's what made it fun. The romance was super adorable and the subplots were all equally compelling (aka they were all moderately compelling). A summery, fun read-- I think I would enjoy the rest of these! It was very fluffy and I have nothing further to say
A mixed bag. I liked the slow-burn romance and the fact that Twinkle was a flawed MC (and downright unlikable at times), but the sub-plot about the secret admirer was so predictable that I really couldn't understand how Twinkle hadn't cottoned on.
There was also a lot of girl-hate and ex-friendship drama in this book, although there was an attempt to acknowledge that it was caused by underlying insecurities and all the girls were equally at fault, so I guess that's okay? Not sure how I feel about it all really.
Other good stuff: male friends calling each other out for toxic masculinity (but not in a heavy-handed way) and some fun side characters like Aaron, Skid and Victoria who I enjoyed getting to know, and Twinkle's grandmother, Dadi, who was just pure brilliance.
Other bad stuff: the diary mechanic felt awkward when it was combined with emails - there's a bit where Twinkle mentions getting an email then says "I'll paste it in here afterwards", and I was irrationally annoyed by the idea that she would print off an email to stick it in her diary. Maybe it's just me, but I feel that, as a reader, I would have been fine with the email being included at the end of the chapter without the weird conceit that Twinkle is scrap-booking her emails (especially as Sahil's text messages were also included in the book and the author felt no need to explain this).
There was also a lot of girl-hate and ex-friendship drama in this book, although there was an attempt to acknowledge that it was caused by underlying insecurities and all the girls were equally at fault, so I guess that's okay? Not sure how I feel about it all really.
Other good stuff: male friends calling each other out for toxic masculinity (but not in a heavy-handed way) and some fun side characters like Aaron, Skid and Victoria who I enjoyed getting to know, and Twinkle's grandmother, Dadi, who was just pure brilliance.
Other bad stuff: the diary mechanic felt awkward when it was combined with emails - there's a bit where Twinkle mentions getting an email then says "I'll paste it in here afterwards", and I was irrationally annoyed by the idea that she would print off an email to stick it in her diary. Maybe it's just me, but I feel that, as a reader, I would have been fine with the email being included at the end of the chapter without the weird conceit that Twinkle is scrap-booking her emails (especially as Sahil's text messages were also included in the book and the author felt no need to explain this).
*I received a DRC from the publisher. This does not affect my review.*
So, I can handle a naive protagonist. In fact, i like them quite a bit because i was an incredibly naive teenager, but this book should be called "Twinkle makes an endless amount of dumb decisions." She goes from being a young girl with a lot of ambition to direct and empower other young women of color, to what can only be described as a Mean Girl. It was upsetting to watch her devolve that way. Plus i'm so over the girls being mean to other girls for no apparent reason trope. There was A LOT of potential here, and I'm so bummed I didn't like this one as much as Dimple.
I did absolutely ADORE dadi, Sahil, Aaron, and Skid though.
I would actually love to see if any of this gets better in the final copy.
Unrelated to my review, if you feel the need to attack the author because of the names she gives her protags which are literally Indian names, you should take a long look at yourself and ask why you're such an asshole.
So, I can handle a naive protagonist. In fact, i like them quite a bit because i was an incredibly naive teenager, but this book should be called "Twinkle makes an endless amount of dumb decisions." She goes from being a young girl with a lot of ambition to direct and empower other young women of color, to what can only be described as a Mean Girl. It was upsetting to watch her devolve that way. Plus i'm so over the girls being mean to other girls for no apparent reason trope. There was A LOT of potential here, and I'm so bummed I didn't like this one as much as Dimple.
I did absolutely ADORE dadi, Sahil, Aaron, and Skid though.
I would actually love to see if any of this gets better in the final copy.
Unrelated to my review, if you feel the need to attack the author because of the names she gives her protags which are literally Indian names, you should take a long look at yourself and ask why you're such an asshole.
I loved When Dimple Meet Rishi so when I spied From Twinkle, with Love at the library, I immediately checked it out and went home and started reading.
Like Dimple, Twinkle has a charming name, is the only child of immigrant parents, has a feminist streak, and has one really intense passion (in this case, it's directing films). Unlike Dimple, Twinkle's name is the only charming thing about her. Her narrative voice is really young and immature, and her main drive in the novel is to become popular so that her former best friend will stop being a coward and letting her new popular friend group treat Twinkle like dirt. There are several times where Maddie fails to stick up for Twinkle, ignores the way her new friends treats Twinkle, and fails to hold up her end of the friendship even on a one-on-one level. I stopped rooting for this friendship.
I empathized with Twinkle and how she felt her best friend slipping away from her. But her desire to become popular for the sake of her friendship with Maddie is not compelling in the face of the other plot.
Maddie convinces Twinkle to make a film for the end-of-the-year bash, and Twinkle is offered help by Sahil, the identical twin brother of Twinkle's crush, Neil. Twinkle barely interacts with Neil face-to-face in the whole novel (he's not even at school!) and she likes him because he's cute and popular, and dating him will land her in the same friend group as Maddie.
Sahil, who looks exactly the same as Neil, happens to share the same intense of love of film as Twinkle. And he happens to have had a crush on Twinkle for forever. And they happen to have wonderful chemistry, which Twinkle keeps ignoring because she's still starstruck for the absent Neil.
Sahil is the best part of the book, and the narrative is interrupted with text exchanges between him and his buddies. All these did for me is make me wish that Sahil was the narrator of this book, not Twinkle.
The other thing that irritated me about this book was the writing style. It's told in present-tense diary form, so Twinkle is supposedly writing at all sorts of weird times. While Sahil puts gas in the car. While a friend slips out to use the restroom. While she's in class. The entries are LONG and could not realistically be written in such a short time frame of some of the excuses she uses to describe events that just happened. The style just did not work.
As the plot progresses, Twinkle starts to learn to speak up for herself, but she sort of goes wild and berates and calls out people in ways that makes everyone uncomfortable, because she's no longer sticking up for herself, she's just being a dick. There's a point where she even contemplates doing something quite terrible, even against the advice of Sahil and Maddie, who point out that it is terrible. Twinkle is stubborn, though, and presses on against their advice until the last minute.
Twinkle's growth in this book is good at the end, but that doesn't change the fact that she's sort of unbearable for the other 95% of the book.
Like Dimple, Twinkle has a charming name, is the only child of immigrant parents, has a feminist streak, and has one really intense passion (in this case, it's directing films). Unlike Dimple, Twinkle's name is the only charming thing about her. Her narrative voice is really young and immature, and her main drive in the novel is to become popular so that her former best friend will stop being a coward and letting her new popular friend group treat Twinkle like dirt. There are several times where Maddie fails to stick up for Twinkle, ignores the way her new friends treats Twinkle, and fails to hold up her end of the friendship even on a one-on-one level. I stopped rooting for this friendship.
I empathized with Twinkle and how she felt her best friend slipping away from her. But her desire to become popular for the sake of her friendship with Maddie is not compelling in the face of the other plot.
Maddie convinces Twinkle to make a film for the end-of-the-year bash, and Twinkle is offered help by Sahil, the identical twin brother of Twinkle's crush, Neil. Twinkle barely interacts with Neil face-to-face in the whole novel (he's not even at school!) and she likes him because he's cute and popular, and dating him will land her in the same friend group as Maddie.
Sahil, who looks exactly the same as Neil, happens to share the same intense of love of film as Twinkle. And he happens to have had a crush on Twinkle for forever. And they happen to have wonderful chemistry, which Twinkle keeps ignoring because she's still starstruck for the absent Neil.
Sahil is the best part of the book, and the narrative is interrupted with text exchanges between him and his buddies. All these did for me is make me wish that Sahil was the narrator of this book, not Twinkle.
The other thing that irritated me about this book was the writing style. It's told in present-tense diary form, so Twinkle is supposedly writing at all sorts of weird times. While Sahil puts gas in the car. While a friend slips out to use the restroom. While she's in class. The entries are LONG and could not realistically be written in such a short time frame of some of the excuses she uses to describe events that just happened. The style just did not work.
As the plot progresses, Twinkle starts to learn to speak up for herself, but she sort of goes wild and berates and calls out people in ways that makes everyone uncomfortable, because she's no longer sticking up for herself, she's just being a dick. There's a point where she even contemplates doing something quite terrible, even against the advice of Sahil and Maddie, who point out that it is terrible. Twinkle is stubborn, though, and presses on against their advice until the last minute.
Twinkle's growth in this book is good at the end, but that doesn't change the fact that she's sort of unbearable for the other 95% of the book.
Very cheesy but I still really enjoyed it. I flew through it and although it had many cliches and I thought Twinkle was a smidge annoying(if she says groundling one more time...) it wasn’t too bad. One thing this book definitely has going for it is its vast diversity.
Bleh too YA-ey
Twinkle gets so cringe and doesn't treat her friends right
Twinkle gets so cringe and doesn't treat her friends right
I really liked how there were parts of Indian culture sprinkled throughout this book- it’s not something you see a lot and it made me want to learn more. I also really like the love interest and the general plot of this story.
Unfortunately, I disliked the main character for most of the book. There were plenty of times where I nearly put down the book because I was so aggravated with her, but ultimately I’m glad I soldiered through.
Unfortunately, I disliked the main character for most of the book. There were plenty of times where I nearly put down the book because I was so aggravated with her, but ultimately I’m glad I soldiered through.