I’m sort of disappointed, as I didn’t end up enjoying From Twinkle, with Love as much as When Dimple Met Rishi, which is a shame, as I had high hopes for this book. I think one of the main reasons for this is because a lot of the characters didn’t work out for me, like to begin with I really liked Twinkle’s character, yeah, I felt that she didn’t speak her mind a lot and was a little reserved. But then as the story progressed, I didn’t like the direction in her character went in, yes you could say it wasn’t all her fault, as other characters led you to believe, but I really wasn’t a fan. I wasn’t also a fan of other characters too, and I really need that connection with characters in order to make a book work for me. But luckily there were others who made this book for me such as Sahil and Dadi, they were refreshingly fun to be around! Twinkle’s dadi reminded of my own gran a lot, with her quirkiness and out there ideas. And sweet Sahil, so many people had overlooked his character and I felt so sorry for him for being in the shadow of his brother, when was it going to be his time to shine? He was super talented, thoroughly loyal and just a genuinely nice guy! I also liked how there was other characters who I didn’t expect to like who came through too. The main story I also approved of too, I wanted to know how Twinkle’s debut show as a director would go, how well would it be received? and with everything going on, would she ever be able to make things right again? I also enjoyed the humour along the way, From Twinkle, with Love was a really funny book, I liked Twinkle’s dry sense of humour and how she was always to the point. Overall From Twinkle, with Love, was a fun read, I was able to guess a few things along the way, but this didn’t take the enjoyment of the story away from me.

It's time to accept that Sandhya Menon is not for me.
I wanted to love When Dimple Met Rishi and was disappointed. However, I was determined, for whatever reason, that I would love the next book she published. Sadly, I really did not like From Twinkle, With Love. Therefore, I think I have to accept that she is not an author whose books I fall in love with.

Everything about this book annoyed me.
I want to say nice things about this book but I was just constantly annoyed the whole time I was reading. Whether that was down to the characters and their actions or whatever was happening in the plot, something always got to me.

The characters were frustrating.
To me, the characters all seemed much younger than they were. They were all very immature and often their actions did not seem like those of young people their age. Twinkle, especially, seemed like a young 14-year-old in the way she was behaving and I found her incredibly annoying. There was also a lot of unnecessary drama and girl-hate, which added to the younger feel. I found the majority of the characters annoying, and those that didn't annoy me were not particularly well developed.

Film-making was supposed to be a more integral part of the story.
As with the coding aspect of When Dimple Met Rishi, Twinkle's passion for film-making was much less prominent in the story than I would have liked. It was used as a way of introducing characters and to facilitate some of the drama but it seemed to blend into the background as all of the boy and friend drama became the main focus of the story. It was such an important part of Twinkle's life and, for the majority of the book, it became simply a way to get the boy and reconnect with her friend.

I still don't understand what a 'groundling' is.
Twinkle was obsessed with the idea that no one liked her because she was a 'groundling' and everyone else was rich and had big houses. For me, this was probably the most annoying part of the whole book. She lost her best friend because she wasn't rich and had a small house, yet to me it just seemed like she was jealous that her 'best friend' had dared to make other friends so pushed her away. Also, all of the spoilt rich kids were terrible and she wasn't one of those terrible people, but neither was Sahil who was rich and lived in a huge house. It just doesn't make sense to me and didn't seem essential to the story.

Did we really need a love square?
Speaking of things that weren't essential to the story; a love triangle just wasn't enough. I was already not loving the love triangle with Twinkle and the two brothers and then this random email admirer, N, was introduced and I wanted to scream. I found this strange as it didn't even last long enough to be properly developed. It didn't become a major part of the story as they were arranging a meeting only a few pages after the first email was mentioned. For me, it needed to either be a love triangle involving a more developed email admirer and Sahil, or no email admirer at all.

It didn't need to be written in letter/diary format.
A book written in the form of letters, if only that had been done before! The idea of Twinkle writing letters in her diary to inspirational female film-makers is nice. It's a nice idea, but it didn't work. It added nothing to have the book written this way and it read no differently to a book written normally.

Overall, I was extremely disappointed as I had really hoped to enjoy this book. Sandhya Menon seems to be a much loved new author but her books are not for me. I found most of this book annoying and much of the content felt unnecessary. I would definitely recommend When Dimple Met Rishi over this book but I doubt I will be reading more from this author in the future.

Sandhya Menon has given us yet another heartwarming romantic comedy, full of charm and delightful characters. With so much of YA being hard hitting and harrowing, it is wonderful to just have a nice and uplifting read!

This book was honestly the cutest thing I think I’ve read this year! I loved how it was told in letters and texts, and we got to know the characters better because of it. Sahil is an absolute babe and I loved getting to know him and Twinkle. Basically a super adorable YA rom com, that is more than worth a read.

I loved Sandhya Menon’s previous book When Dimple met Rishi so I was really exited when I was accepted for this one and I’m glad to say it didn’t disappoint. this was such a fun and cute read.
This book follows Twinkle Mehra an Indian-American high school student who’s dream is to become a filmmaker so when fellow classmate Sahil asks her to join him in producing a film for the Summer Festival she jumps at the change not only to help get her name out there but she also sees this as the perfect opportunity to get close to his twin brother Neil who she has a massive crush on. She also sees this as a way of losing her wallflower status and rekindling with her best friend Maddie. However, throughout working on the movie she starts to fall for Sahil but is also receiving emails from the mysterious N. who she believes to be Neil and doesn’t know whether she should follow hr heart or hold on to the dream she’s had for years.
I really liked the character of Twinkle she is a really complex character who is fed up sitting on the side-lines and being overlooked by everyone in her life which leads to her making bad decisions and it’s interesting to read about how she deals with these. I my younger teen self really related to her as i was the wallflower at school and would avoid confrontation at all costs.
I also loved Sahil, he is so sweet and geeky and it was interesting to see how he struggles with being in the shadow of his twin Neil who is a star athlete, popular and smart.
The romance within this is very swoon worthy and I loved watching it grow throughout the book and I loved that her family is involved throughout and found it really interesting to read about the dynamics between Twinkle, her mum, dad and Dadi.
I loved the diversity throughout this book as we have several Indian-American characters, Twinkles best friend Maddie is Japanese-American and Sahil’s friend Aaron is African-American and gay. We also have a bisexual character.
The book is written in the format of a diary as Twinkle is writing to her favourite female directors about her life. It is also told through texts which allow you to get an insight into Sahil thoughts. I really enjoyed this style and feel like I was able to fly through the book.
Overall, this was a really cute story with a swoon worthy romance that I really enjoyed and feel is the perfect summer read.

2.5 stars.

I was really hoping to like this book, especially as I think the author, Sandyha Menon, seems like a really lovely woman. However, I just didn't like it.

The first problem for me was the format of the book. Twinkle writes the book as a journal. Letters to filmmakers. She writes in the present tense; in the car on the way to somewhere, etc. Nobody else in her life seems to ever acknowledge that she has this journal she's constantly writing in. Then the filmmaker's she's writing to; it seemed totally pointless. Added in just to try and flesh out the 'Twinkle loves films/filmmakers' part of the book. I also found the chapter breaks throughout the book to be in really random places.

Twinkle herself. Didn't like her one bit. She was so up herself from the start. There was such an 'us vs. them' vibe with the 'groundlings' and 'silk feather hats'. In trying to get away from groundling status she just ends up even worse. She's mean. She arrogant. There was little about her that was redeemable. I will say one thing I did like was that Twinkle was her honesty with Sahil about how she needed time to figure things out before getting into anything. Which brings me to my next point. The love interests.

Twinkle has had a crush on Neil Roy, the swimmer, since forever. She see's him as her ticket out of groundling-dom. Do we know anything else about Neil? No. Do we see anything of Neil? Right at the end of the book, and we still don't know anything more about him. I struggled so hard to understand the crush Twinkle had on him because the guy had 0 substance in this book. He was flat. He was a name on a page.

Neil's twin brother Sahil; love interest #2. Sahil has a massive crush on Twinkle. He's kind, gentle, reasonable and tries to bring out the better qualities in Twinkle. He's always been in his brother's shadow. Sahil's journey through this book I did actually enjoy. He finds himself. He starts to see his own potential. I just felt annoyed with how 'soft' he was with Twinkle when she was being a brat.

We also have a secret admirer, N. N e-mails Twinkle to say how much he likes her. I'm not going to spoil, but for me, it was 100% obvious who it was from the start. Twinkle tries to meet up with N at one point in the book. At a carnival. This brings me to my next point. Friendship.

Victoria. Victoria showed up, like a fairy godmother, to help Twinkle in her hour of need. To get ready for what she hoped would be the meeting of N. Victoria was kind. She offered fresh insights to Twinkle when she needed them because she was having trouble with her best friend Maddie. Victoria, it seemed, just wanted to bring people together. She was a good soul in this book.

The best friend. That wasn't a good friend. Maddie. Utterly spineless character. She finds new friends and ditches Twinkle because a girl from the new group, Hannah, doesn't like to share. Screw the long-standing friendship. She keeps letting Hannah talk trash about Twinkle. Not cool, Maddie. Not cool.

There were also some side character's that became a couple. One was gay, the other bisexual. A comment was made (which I can't remember now) but it led to the acknowledgment of how hard it is to be gay and black. An apology was made. I really liked that this was added in. Both the rep and the apology.

The family elements I really liked. Twinkle's Dadi, her Grandmother, was eccentric and incredibly loving and supportive of Twinkle. Which she needed, as her parents weren't there for her much. Sahil's parents were very welcoming and kind, too.

The filmmaking itself was a bit of a let down for me in this book too. In Menon's debut novel, When Dimple Met Rishi, there was a total lack of the hobby/interest there. This book did improve on that, but it just didn't feel very fleshed out. I felt there could have been more. Everything was so easy and convenient when it happened too.

The wrap up felt too neat for me too. Everything was quickly resolved. Felt too fake. Not realistic at all, in my opinion.

Anyway, those are my thoughts. At this point, I'm thinking that as much as I like Menon as a person, her writing just may not be for me. I do wish her every success in her writing career though.

As a final note, I just want to add that I was sent an e-arc from Net-Galley and there were a few formatting issues with the book. There were new 'breaks' in the middle of sentences that carried on a line or two lower. There were parts where the font was meant to be a few shades lighter for blog entries but the text changed back to regular halfway through the blog posts. I've genuinely got no idea about the process of producing an e-book and making sure everything is formatted correctly, if it's based on what e-arks get sent out, or what, but it felt important to mention it needs fixing up. As a disclaimer, I'll say the formatting of the e-ark did not play any part in my rating.

This book was a breath of fresh air, it was funny and kept me reading the whole way through. It was brilliantly written, full of diversity, just what YA books should be today! :)

I am so grateful to NetGalley and the Publishers, Hodder & Stoughton, for giving me a copy of From Twinkle, with Love by Sandhya Menon.

I sped through this book, I was admittedly slightly worried about reading From Twinkle, with Love because I read another Sandhya Menon book last year, When Dimple Met Rishi and I adored it! It was my quite possibly my favourite book of 2017. So you can see why I was slightly worried about reading this book

Well I fear no more! Because for me, From Twinkle, with Love stood firm to my expectations and I love this book a lot! The characters are amazingly diverse and not in a way that feels forced but in a way that feels natural and that they are real people that exist.

The Love Story, it was obvious that this wasn't going to be an easy road for Twinkle considering the blurb alone, but I was excited to travel it with her. Plus along with dealing with love, she had old friendships, new friendships, enemies, plus filming and directing her first ever film!

This book never slows down and feels so real in the way the characters speak, down to the minor characters that pop up throughout the book. I love "Skid" and Aaron because their friendship with Sahil is so fun and they are so supportive of each other.

Twinkle writes her passages in a series of diary entries to other female film directors who inspire her, but once I read the first line of where she is, etc, I soon forgot about the "diary" aspect because I found myself propelled into the story.

Whereas Sahil's entries are shown via Text Messages between "Skid, Aaron, and himself. Which I love because no only does it help to differentiate between the two characters but it also helps to develop the characters further in who they are.

In the end, you can probably guess what happens for Twinkle, but I will not spoil for you. All I can say is: Read. This. Book.

Thank you to Netgalley for giving me an e-book ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Okay, I was asked to give an honest review, so I figured I would do just that, even though I’m gritting my teeth a little bit at the prospect of it. Menon’s debut novel, When Dimple Met Rishi was one of my favourite contemporary novels of last year. I thought it was very funny and clever, and just a huge fluff-ball of awk-cute.

From Twinkle, With Love… not so much.

It started out pretty promising. I laughed at lots of moments, and I thought Sahil was very swoon-worthy. It seemed to be going in a good direction, one where I’d cheer for the two main characters and cross my fingers that they’d wind up together [even though it’s very obvious they will] and I’ll do my little tea-kettle squeal whenever they had an awkward interaction or first kiss.

And then Twinkle happened, and I just couldn’t like the book anymore. She starts out as an okay character, something of an every-man/underdog with a talent that makes her a huge nerd in school and a genius in college. I loved that the novel was told through letters to her female-director icons, and I liked how issues of class and culture weren’t ignored through Twinkle’s POV. It made me cheer for her for a while. And then somewhere down the line she turned into a kind of monster. She became really annoying and shallow, determined to get into the ‘popular’ group that she complained about because they’d stolen her friend away. And she wanted to do this by getting the perfect popular jock boyfriend, even though she knew nothing about him and clearly didn’t have anything other than a passing-glance kinda crush for him. It seemed a bit shallow and a poorly-conceived plan at the start, but then when Sahil shows up and he’s being incredibly sweet and she obviously has feelings for him, she still refuses to accept it because she wants to be part of the in-crowd. It was around here that I stopped liking her character. Actually, I wanted the ending to resolve with Sahil moving on from his feelings for Twinkle because he recognized she wasn’t a nice person. I mean, I don’t really know how you can move on from someone fancying your brother and spending time with you to get to them.

But Twinkle got worse. I don’t want to get too spoiler-y but she really morphs into the kind of character I can’t stand. And while there’s a resolution at the end which explains and fixes this, I just can’t get away with a book where I actively dislike the main character.

As a result, I’m giving From Twinkle, With Love a 4/10. Which is a shame, because I really liked When Dimple Met Rishi and I was hoping for some more meet-cute adorableness, but I was left feeling a little frustrated instead.

I am so grateful to @hodderbooks and @netgalley for approving my ARC copy of this book. After reading When Dimple Met Rishi in April I was so excited to get my hands on more of Menon’s writing. While I wasn’t as invested in the characters in this one I still enjoyed the story. I loved the characters of Sahil and Twinkle’s grandma. I loved the plot line about Twinkle and Maddie’s relationship. I also loved the relationship development between Twinkle and her Mum, it made me cry and I wish more time had been spent on it. I loved all the interactions between the characters, sometimes teen characters are written so overly wise and mature but these felt realistic. I liked that Twinkle was a flawed character but that she learnt from her mistakes in the end. I did enjoy the letter format but I wish you got to hear more of the story from Sahil’s point of view. For me, that was one of the biggest strengths for WDMR, and in this I really missed it. You get to see some of his perspective through text messages but these are few and far between and honestly, they were some of my favourite parts. That said, I understand if Menon doesn’t want to be pigeonholed into a certain style so I’ll just have to adjust my expectations for her next book!! All in all, I think if you like YA romances with feisty female leads and abundant pop culture references, do yourself a favour and check this out when it’s published in the U.K. on the 22nd May!

I wasn't able to finish From Twinkle With Love. I reached about 10%, but I couldn't connect to the characters. This is probably because of the format of the story - it's written in a chat and message style, which meant I wasn't able to get to know the characters like I wanted.

I read When Dimple Met Rishi last year after hearing the editor talk about it at a work event and thought it sounded right up my street. I wasn’t disappointed - it was one of my favourite books of the year! So when I saw this on Netgalley, I didn’t hesitate to request it! It took me a bit longer to get into, and I think this is largely because it’s set back in high school rather than having slightly older protagonists. That was something I really enjoyed about Dimple. I also found the format of the letters (though not the texts) and Twinkle’s teenage angst about 2/3 of the way through really jarring. Nevertheless, the book is full of Menon’s signature swoonworthy love interests and heated moments which kept me interested until the end! I also was kept guessing about the mysterious elements until Twinkle was - something that NEVER happens so I was pretty happy! Just would have preferred older protagonists who I could identify with more! Thank you so much for the opportunity to read, I had a great time!

Absolutely loved this story. It had real believable, relatable heart. From the imperfection of the characters to the occasionally awkward dialogue it was perfect as a true reflection of a budding romance you could really root for.

Sunny, delightful, uplifting - everything I expect from Sandhya Menon and more. I loved When Dimple Met Rishi and so was very happy to be approved for this title, and not disappointed

If you loved When Dimple Met Rishi, then you will adore From Twinkle, With Love! I fell completely in love with Sandhya Menon's first book and I didn't know how her second could touch me in quite the same way, but it really did live up to expectations.

From Twinkle, With Love is full of new, vibrant characters for you to fall in love with, especially Sahil (Twinkle's producer) who is amazingly adorable! Twinkle is an engaging central character, however, I did find myself getting very frustrated with her in parts.

From twinkle with love, follows our main character Twinkle who wants to tell stories and so when a guy called Sahil Roy partners up with her to direct and create a film for the summer festival she is ecstatic. But the only thing is, she has a massive crush on sahil’s brother, and sahil has a massive crush on her. Talk about unrequited love. So when an email comes through from an admirer called ‘n’ she automatically thinks it’s Neil. But in the meantime she falls for Sahil and it’s just this big love triangle. Kind of a cliché I know but Neill doesn’t even know about it. The story is also told in the form of letters to amazing female filmmakers and one day I hope to be among those names because it’s exactly what I want to do so this book really resonated with me on a personal level.

4 out of 5 stars.

The book is about Twinkle, a junior student/aspiring director who navigates the world of relationships (family, friends, love) as she directs a film to be entered at her school's Midsummer Night Festival. There's Maddie, her best friend who seems to be spending less time with her. There's also Neil, her crush. Lastly, there's Sahil, Neil's twin brother whom Twinkle might be actually falling for.

I was already hooked with the filmmaking arc, but this was a wonderful story. There was a lot to unpack as Twinkle discovers more about herself and her demons. She had a lot of insecurities, most which were addressed and resolved one way or another. I love her chemistry with Sahil and her relationship with Dadi. Her friendship with Maddie was very important to her, and I liked how it was handled. This also has a variety of characters involved; my favorite supporting character is Victoria. I also liked how she was writing to female directors. I felt that this was one way to inform people of their work (after a bit of research) and make a more conscious effort to watch more films directed by women.

I did find some parts to be tied up too neatly, but it doesn't deter from the reading experience. This was an enjoyable contemporary novel to read, and had more than what I expected it to have.

This story is so awe inspiring that talks about chasing your dreams and goals, no matter if you think you won't be able to do it unless you try your hardest and your best. It's also empowering for women and especially for a POC since the character is going over the horizon to make a difference in society—to be able to be seen by the people around her.

Twinkle is such a lovable character that only wants the best for herself and though she don't mention it, wants the best for the people around her too. Yes, conflicts between friends may appear but it would be for the best most of the time to be the better person.

It's so nice to see for a change that the boy, Sahil Roy has a crush on the girl, Twinkle for as long as he can remember. Gradually, Twinkle starts to love him for who he is instead of just making a reality for her idea where she dates Neil and manage to be seen by everyone. I'm so glad that she snapped back into reality and make a deserved change for herself instead of hoping for something that could never happen.

I'm so glad I gave the author, Sandhya Menon a second chance because this book is now on my favourites list and a story that I would love to recommend to everyone!

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

As someone who hasn't yet read When Dimple Met Rishi but has heard all the good things about it I could resist requesting this ARC and I was not disappointed.

I absolutely loved it, the characters were fun to follow and so easy to get to grips with. Twinkle was an amazing character and getting to see how she developed through out was fun to see.

This novel was made even better by the fact that it was told in letters to her favourite female authors. The whole story was told in a unique format that made it all the more amazing. I loved the fact that the letters were to some of the brightest women directors in the world. Having it told like this was a fantastic and is so amazing for the world we now live in where Female directors are gaining more and more recognition. Having such an inspiring story was amazing and inspiring.

Plus the small snippets through emails and texts adds to the modern side of the novel.

Anyone who loved When Dimple Met Rishi will definitely love this novel. I would highly recommend to anyone!

I didn't think When Dimple met Rishi could be outdone on the meetcute scale...boy was I wrong! From Twinkle, With Love is perfect for fans of Holly Bourne or anyone who enjoys feminist contemporary YA books. The romance is enormously endearing, but my favourite thing about this book was Twinkle's ambition and brains! The diverse cast was a breath of fresh air and I laughed my way through every moment of this book. Will 100% re-read!