From Twinkle, With Love by Sandhya Menon

From Twinkle, With Love by Sandhya Menon

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?

Told through the letters Twinkle writes to her favorite female filmmakers, From Twinkle, with Love navigates big truths about friendship, family, and the unexpected places love can find you.

So I got on a huge diversity kick this summer for two reasons. One - #WeNeedDiverseBooks and also in that vein, I realized that I hardly read ANY books by POC last year (2017). Like…none. Now…I was in graduate school last year which did not leave a lot of room for pleasure reading…but I didn’t read any…which is very unlike me. Not even one romance book which is really my jam. SO…I made a huge effort to do so this summer after I finished school.  And not just diverse, but YA diverse.  One of these books was From Twinkle, With Love. Well…I loved it! 

Twinkle…an aspiring movie director is likeable, smart and sassy. What I found really inspiring about this book is that it was told through letters Twinkle writes to her favorite female filmmakers. The overall story is about Twinkle entering a filmmaking art festival. She enlists very cute Sahil (he really volunteers himself) to help her by producing the movie for her. Twinkle decides this is a good idea because she has a crush on Sahil’s twin (more popular) brother Neil thinking the more time she spends with Sahil – the more time she’ll be able to spend with Neil. Yay! What Twinkle doesn’t expect is that Sahil’s pretty cool too. Adorably cool and cute. How can she have feelings for Sahil when she really wants Neil, especially when she begins receiving anonymous emails from someone who is crushing on her with the initial “N.” You can all but guess that she assumes this is Neil. 

In this novel you get plenty of teenage angst, teenage parties, mean girls and BFFs. You become entrenched in the lives of Twinkle and her family, especially her Dadi (grandmother), Sahil and his family and their teenage friendships.  You also get to learn about her Indian culture which was an added bonus for me. So, if you’re looking for a little diversity in your reading and you like realistic YA fiction, this is a good one to add to your TBR.