IN SUMMARY: Proving Menon’s ability to write fun, diverse, laugh-out-loud rom-coms with drama to taste, FROM TWINKLE, WITH LOVE features unique narration, an authentic voice, and a heart-warming read about friendship and love worth every word.

MY THOUGHTS:

I was always a little wary about reading this because, funnily enough, I know someone eeriely similar to a character in this book. I'm glad I forgot that though, because I loved the narration style, the voice, the humour and, most importantly, I thought Sahil was a great worthy love interest, and should be the standard for teenage romances. Some parts I did find implausible enough to get leery, but on the whole, this book delivered a satisfying and endearing conclusion.

Definitely recommended for anyone who enjoyed WHEN DIMPLE MET RISHI!

WILL I READ MORE FROM THIS AUTHOR? Yes!

Sometimes in life you just need to let yourself read a fluffy, happy, sunshiney contemporary book and last year my favourite contemporary read was "When Dimple met Rishi". I loved it so much as soon as "From Twinkle, with Love" was announced I pre-ordered it straight away. I still couldn't resist requesting it on Netgalley as well and I definitely did a happy dance when I got the notification that I was approved.

"From Twinkle, with Love" follows Twinkle Mehra, an aspiring filmmaker with a huge amount of ambition and talent and a massive crush on swim-superstar Neil Roy, but when she is approached by Neil's twin brother Sahil to direct a film for the upcoming Summer festival, Twinkle starts to fall for the other Roy brother.

I loved how cute this book was. The characters all seemed genuinely high school age, they weren't trying to be older than they are and the things they were concerned with were all refreshingly normal.

Twinkle's family dynamic was also a strong factor to the book, helping to explain the attitude problem she has at times. Whilst her relationship with her parents was complicated, the constant unwavering love from Dadi was beautiful and she stole the scene whenever she appeared.

The romance between Twinkle and Sahil was heart meltingly adorable and I read most of the book desperate for Twinkle to come to her senses and drop her fixation with boring athlete Neil and fall head over heels for nerdy, film obssessed, devoted Sahil instead.

The cultural identity of this book is so strong, as it was for "Dimple", and whilst it's not Sandhya Menon's job to teach us about Indian culture, I enjoy being able to read a book in which the culture is so integral to the story because you do end up learning a lot. More importantly, it's so vital and wonderful that many young people will see themselves represented in this book where previously they haven't been.

"From Twinkle, with Love" is a must read book for the summer if you love fun, flirty contemporary reads.

Very very cliche in parts, but aren't all good romance novels?! I have to admit, not as good as Dimple, and I felt like the story could have been wrapped up a whole lot sooner. I was even shocked when I checked the percentage of my reading and found there was a whole lot left! I feel like Twinkle was a good character, and I completely understood her hatred for Hannah who was a complete bitch. (Side note though, wouldn't it have been a lot better if it was revealed that Hannah had a crush on Maddie??)

This book was a massive amount of fun. We follow Twinkle, who is a budding movie director with big dreams, huge ambition and massive talent. She has goals that she’s reaching for, but she feels massively alone in the world and outcast because she’s “weird” compared to the popular cliques.

We follow Twinkle as she navigates high school life - particularly friends who seem to have fallen into a different crowd and thus causing their friendship to suffer, and the consequences that can bring both long term and short term. She navigates her first love (adorably, I must say!), and the issues that can come with that. She finds out firsthand that people aren’t always what they seem like and I think this is an immensely important message to put into a young adult book of this nature. There are so many important, vital messages nestled into this wonderfully sweet book and they’re all handled extremely well, with writing that is seamless, characters that are charming and small plot twists which continuously pull the reader in.

The issue of family is dealt with fantastically - it is one of the primary plot points and it is so utterly refreshing to see something like that take a front seat in a ya novel. Her family is dysfunctional and isn’t conventionally what she’d expect a family to be like, but the way issues are resolved is absolutely top notch. Nothing is left unspoken and everything is put back to where it should be - and the journey the characters take along the way is outstanding.

- I adored Twinkle. She was a lot of fun, with some deep rooted insecurities which I could strongly relate to (again fantastic to read about in a ya contemporary), she was true to boot and she was never slow to say “I’m sorry”. She knew when she was in the wrong and I loved that about her.
- Maddie/Twinkle were a great asset to the story. True friendship does run deep!
- The romance was utterly adorable, swoon worthy and cup-of-sugar sweet! I absolutely adored these two and the way their romance blossomed.
- cultural references. I loved the culture entwined throughout this story! It is such a fantastic element to be added to the novel and really adds so, so much magic to the story. Experiencing another culture whilst reading was a burst of fun and excitement - I would recommend you read it for that alone! THE DIVERSITY. OH man the diversity was probably my favourite thing about this. The cultural emphasis just spoke to me on so many levels. LOVE!

The writing was fantastic, the plot was brilliant, the story was thoroughly adorable and it was fantastically sweet! I devoured this in two sittings (I read 25% the first sitting and then devoured the rest in the second), and I think that speaks volumes for how much I enjoyed it.

The whole novel seemed to fit the age group that it was written about and I applaud this wonderful author for achieving that! It didn’t feel as if the characters were too old for high school; their behaviours and mannerisms were extremely close to what I experienced in high school! A definite must have for teens and adults alike. Brilliant for a summers day, or a cold spring morning. Loved it!

This is the second book from the author of When Dimple Meet Rishi, and as soon as I saw it I knew I had to read it. This book was so good Twinkle is a lovely and flawed character who makes mistakes throughout the book, but learned from them and made me love her character more and had me rooting for her. That being said I do prefer Dimple as Twinkle did feel a little younger.
Overall I would highly recommend this book and you have not read When Dimple Meet Rishi I would recommend reading that as well.