I like that 10 Things I Hate About Pinky by Sandhya Menon has a title that reminds me of one of the best teen romantic comedies ever made – 10 Things I Hate About You. Menon’s story is the third set in her Dimple and Rishi universe and is simply excellent. This book is the perfect beach or summer vacation read.

10 Things I Hate About Pinky tackles the greatest romance tropes – hate to love AND fake dating. I think it’s a tall order to put both tropes in a book at the same time, but Menon makes it work. Pinky is a loud and proud social justice activist, colorful hair and all. She champions quite a few causes to the frustration of her mother. Samir is extremely type A – he puts everything in his planner and plans out all his days. Samir was planning to do an internship in DC at a prestigious law firm, but it falls through at the very last minute. Pinky is spending the summer in Cape Cod in her family’s lake house with her parents, her aunt and uncle, and cousin Dolly. Pinky ends up asking Samir to be her fake boyfriend in order to prove to her mom that not all her boyfriends are trash and that she doesn’t always make bad decisions.

So, what happens is a summer spent fake dating and those fake feelings inevitably turn into real feelings. I loved the opposites attract angle. FYI, I am so much more of a Samir, and I loved that. He’s not portrayed as bad or one dimensional for liking to make to do lists. That’s his coping skill and it is my coping skill too. There is absolute chemistry between Pinky and Samir and it does take a bit of a slow burn throughout the book -but that makes the payoff excellent.

Set against the backdrop of summer, 10 Things I Hate About Pinky by Sandhya Menon is an essential vacation read that you won’t regret. And heck, you might as well pick up the rest of Menon’s books while you’re at it. It won’t take you long to get through them though, her books are made to be gobbled up.

I absolutely love all of Menon's books, they are great YA romances that are especially good for the younger YA readers. I also love her diverse characters who are all very different from each other. Plus, this book had a drama queen possum, something I had no idea I needed!

I love the way Sandhya Menon writes YA and after meeting Pinky and Samir in ‘There’s Something About Sweetie’ I was thrilled to get their story. I love a good opposites attract romance and when I saw it was a fake dating romance… SOLD. 

Pinky is a rebel and a bit of a wild child but she’s sick of her mom always thinking the worst of her. She ends up letting it slip that she has a respectable boyfriend (she doesn’t) and that’s where Samir comes in. Sam is the type of guy that parents love. He’s homeschooled and lives with his mom, who he loves and respects. He lives his life by the book and according to his lists of the day. He and Pinky couldn’t be more opposite. But he’s the perfect guy for her plan. 

Samir and Pinky have a mutual friend in Ashish so their story is simple enough. As predicted, Pinky’s parents adore Samir. What really surprises Pinky is that she doesn’t find him nearly as annoying as she used to. I love nothing more than the hate to love troupe and these characters couldn’t stand each other at first. Watching them start to fall for one another was a real treat! 

10 Things I Hate About Pinky took me a little while to get into, but once I did, I was hooked. This was a sweet and fun story that had a great message. I loved how passionate Pinky was about her causes and how her parents ended up seeing her in a new light. I enjoyed this one and look forward to reading more from this author.

I enjoyed this new addition to the Dimple & Rishi universe. Both Pinky and Samir were very three dimensional characters and their interactions and clashes with each other and their parents drove the story forward. I kind of love how each new book that Sandhya publishes shows a very different view of Indian-American lives and shows just how diverse the Indian-American teen experience is.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC!

Serious suspension of disbelief required, but an enjoyable read nonetheless. Funny and quirky and teen angsty and principled and charming and sweet and hot-headed. So many things to love and hate about Pinky. Another fine work by Sandhya Menon.

10 Things I Hate About Pinky is a light read.  Three friends all have plans for their summer.  Ash is in Hawaii, Samir has an internship with a lawyer, and Pinky is going to her family's lake house in Cape Cod.  All seems well, except when it is not!
Samir's internship is canceled and Pinky cannot spend another minute being accused of wrongdoing by her mom when she is quite innocent...this time.  Samir does not want to spend his summer at home with his overprotective mother and Pinky wants to prove to her mother that she is not the reckless teen she thinks she has become.  A plan is concocted by Pinky to bring Samir to the lake house as her boyfriend, who will be attending Harvard in the fall.  Samir crazily accepts the plan.  Will this work?  Will they remain friends or could this end differently?

Awesome light-hearted read with themes of  social justice, friendship, and love.  This is the third book in the series, but can stand alone.  Be sure to check out When Dimple Met Rishi and There's Something about Sweetie, also.

Pinky Kumar's mom is a lawyer. She's also acquired such a fierce reputation in the courtroom that her nickname is The Shark. It turns out that often, she is just as unforgiving at home with Pinky, the daughter who is everything she is not. Pinky has colorful highlights in her hair, is impulsive, and  can't seem to shy away from a fight. During her family's summer vacation, when Pinky's mom falsely accuses her of burning down the barn in their backyard, Pinky decides she is finally going to show her mom that she is more than her wrongs. How? With a fake boyfriend of course. 

My favorite part about this book was how well the characters are developed. I felt like I knew all of them personally because they're are all flawed and real. I could see parts of myself in Pinky, who despite telling herself she won't pick a fight with her parents, can't help but try be the last man standing. I could also see myself in Samir, in his need to make lists, because they help him stay organized, and make him feel like he's in control of at least part of his life. Dolly was also super relatable, in her desire to prove to others that she was more than what people saw and expected of her. 

I liked how despite how flawed, and troubled these characters were at times, this book was also really fun. I loved how passionate Pinky was about issues, and how determined she was to help even when no one else believed in the cause. I also really liked Pinky and Samir's relationship. Once again, I am reading a book with a love-hate trope with no regrets. Despite how young these characters are, how Sandhya Menon depicted their flaws and their differences, and how Pinky and Samir learned to grow from them was mature and well done, which you don't often see in YA books.

The third book in the When Dimple Met Rishi universe does not disappoint. You can read this book without having read the other two, but they are such feel good  love stories you are going to want to read them all!

Pinky is not overly excited to spend the summer at her family's lake house near Cap Code.  The only saving grace will be getting to spend time with her "perfect" cousin Dolly -- that is until Pinky can't take her mother's disapproving any longer and she devises a plan to show her mom that she can make good decisions.  Pinky enlists her friend Ashish's (from There's Something about Sweetie) uptight friend Samir to come to the house and be her "fake" boyfriend.  Although the happy ending for these two polar opposites is predictable -- that is the beauty of a Sandhya Menon romance!  The ensemble of characters are endearing and lovable while still being realistic and heartfelt.  The dialogue is witty, the opossum is hilarious, and at the end of the book all is well with the world.

Pinky is spending the summer at her family's lake home (near Martha's Vineyard) when she gets blamed for burning down the barn that's stood on their property for a long time--at least, until her cousin confesses to it. To prove that she's not as wild and rebellious as her family thinks she is, she tells her family she's dating a respectable guy, Amir. Amir's summer law internship has unexpectedly fallen through, and now he doesn't know what he's going to do. He was looking forward to spending some time away from his mother, so when Pinky calls with a proposition to be her fake boyfriend, he quickly agrees so he doesn't have to go home and has the prospect of making a good impression on Pinky's lawyer parents (who he hopes will give him an internship after summer ends). Even though Pinky and Amir constantly butt heads, as the summer progresses they find out there's more to each other than they originally thought.

This was a super cute summer romance, reminiscent almost of a Sarah Dessen book! Highly recommended to those who enjoyed Menon's other novels.

This is an excellent addition to the "When Dimple Met Rishi" universe of characters. An unlikely romance unfolds between the eccentric, bold Pink and the straight-laced, studious Samir that gives both of them the opportunity to grow as individuals. This book is perfect for fans of romantic comedies with highly likable characters and positive messages for teens.

Sandhya Menon wrote another great ya romance book. I just love this series and each book follow characters that you just fall in love with, Pinky is desperate to prove to her mother that she's not the problem child her mom thinks she is, What better way to do this get proper, straight as an arrow Samir to pose as her boyfriend. But, things start to change when Pinky starts developing feelings for Samir. If you haven't read the other 2 books in this series I think they are a must-read especially my favorite There's Something About Sweetie.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Shuster for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review!

Pinky is known for being reckless. Every year, her family attends a summer home on the East Coast with her aunt, uncle, and perfect cousin, Dolly. As tensions rise between Pinky and her mother, Pinky can’t help but feel as if her parents would be better off if she was more like Dolly. After a mysterious accident happens at the summer home and she is immediately wrongly accused by her mother, Pinky claims that she has a perfect boyfriend back home who has changed her reckless ways. Meanwhile, Samir is everything Pinky’s parents would want in a son-in-law. After his D.C. internship unexpectedly falls through, leaving his summer schedule completely open, Pinky convinces Samir to spend the summer with her family as her fake boyfriend.

Let me start off by saying I had extremely high hopes for this book. I loved When Dimple Met Rishi with all my heart (full review here) and the premise of this book sounded so incredible. Who doesn’t love a fun fake-dating trope? Even though this book had its adorable, romantic moments, there were some things that brought its rating down to a 3 star for me.

The part of this book that bothered me the most had to have been the characters. In When Dimple Met Rishi, I fell in love with the two main love interests and were rooting for them the whole time. In this book, I didn’t really grow attached to either Samir or Pinky.

Pinky is extremely hard headed and is very opinionated. Usually, this isn’t something I would mind, but it was so excessive in my opinion. I understand why the author did this, but in my opinion it made Pinky quite annoying to read about. I felt like every time somebody said anything in Pinky’s proximity (even if the comment wasn’t directed towards her), she somehow found a way make the comment seem as if the person was attacking her personally. This isn’t just with her mom, but also with Samir, Dolly, her aunt, and Cash. However, Pinky is a girl who stands up for what she believes in, and I respected that. I just felt like she was extremely over-dramatic and twisting every conversation to make it about her (even if it wasn’t). If I’m being honest, it felt like I was reading about a middle school girl.

For most of the novel, I didn’t feel one way or another about Samir. I thought he seemed sweet and since his mother had just recovered from cancer, I sympathized with him. I did think his character was a bit boring at times, but I didn’t start disliking him until the last few chapters. I can’t really go into why because it is spolier-y, but he did something towards the end that brought this rating down as well. The author does redeem him, but I was still bitter.

I also was not really invested in the “saving the butterfly conservatory” plot line. It was just something else I felt like Pinky was blowing up and taking as a personal attack. It seemed like the author needed to give Pinky some sort of summer project, and this just happened to be something she could use. I didn’t care if the conservatory was saved or if it got shut down, I honestly just wanted to stop hearing Pinky ramble on about it.

Lastly, I felt like the ending was drawn out, but very rushed at the same time. The story could have ended about 40-50 pages sooner and I would have been fine with it, however I felt like the resolution between Pinky and her mother was so rushed. The entire book describes the constant struggle between the two, yet it is “resolved” in a few paragraphs in the last chapter. I felt like it had the potential to be a really powerful mother-daughter moment but instead was just kind of skimmed over.

That being said, the reason I can’t rate it lower than 3 stars is because this was a cute summer love story. The romance was a slow burn and for the most part I found it more believable than other YA novels. And of course, I can’t write a review without mentioning the great representation in this novel. The main characters in the novel are all Indian-American and the novel also features a f/f power couple as well. This is still definitely worth a try if you liked Sandhya Menon’s other novels.

10 Things I Hate about Pinky is everything I want a summer romance to be. It has my two favorite tropes (hate-to-love, and fake relationship to real relationship). It has character growth for almost every character, and I basically devoured this one. Though I could see where the story was headed, I liked that. I wanted to see how they were going to get there, and the predictability was just what I needed to read in this time when everything seems very uncertain and unpredictable.

This was an enjoyable book to read. Parts of it were rather unbelievable to me. I liked it better than #2 There's Something about Sweetie, but not as much as #1 When Dimple Met Rishi.

Have you preordered this book yet? If you haven't do it now, you won't regret it. In full disclosure, I adore all of Sandhya Menon’s books but especially those in the Dimple and Rishi universe. I was so excited for the opportunity to review 10 things I Hate about Pinky. This novel revisits Samir and Pinky (from There’s Something about Sweetie). It has been wonderful that these two have gotten the attention they deserved being the main characters instead of just the sidekicks for Ashish. What happens when Pinky tries to prove to her parents she can snag the guy they would want for her by pretending that Samir is her boyfriend for the summer? When opposites begin to attract, do they deny their feelings because it’s all pretend anyway, or try to pursue something more? 

I love how Sandhya’s titles have a rift on the classic white rom-com and how this one follows the plot a bit of 10 things I hate about you, but takes it’s own desi fun turn. The true struggles of being a desi kid are explored in all of Menon’s novels and this one is no different. While I do love that most of the desi parents depicted in Menon’s novels are pretty progressive, I do yearn for ones more like mine, stubborn to a fault! However these parents give me hope for kids today and maybe examples for adults like me.

The publisher Simon and Schuster Children’s publishing generously provided me with a copy of the book upon request on NetGalley. The rating, ideas and opinions shared are my own.

This universe of books is well worth diving into. 10 Things I Hate About Pinky is the third book in the When Dimple Met Rishi universe. They are all stand alone books, but you'll be depriving yourself of some of the cutest YA rom-coms if you don't get started. Pinky and Samir are enemies, but a agreement for fake dating starts feeling real as the spend a summer together in Cape Cod. 

Sandhya Menon writes such fun, adventurous characters. Her girls are complex and multi-faceted and her guys are one dimensional and boring with one main trait. I've loved getting to dive into this world and these cultures. Pinky and Samir give good Lizzie and Darcy vibes from Pride and Prejudice as well as some good Kat and Patrick vibes from 10 Things I Hate About You.

So there were a lot of elements I liked in this book: 
Fake dating trope, teenager passionate about causes, talking about mental health, weird baby animal as pet
Unfortunately, this book was pretty meh for me. 
Pinky didn’t feel like a “rebel,” just a pouty teenager. 
I felt like I didn’t get to know Samir or Pinky other than surface level annoyance. 
I was confused about Ms. Kumar (Pinky’s mom) being so apathetic about social causes. 
People don’t stop caring about things just because they grow up 
If you liked previous books in this world, you’ll probably like this one, but it was just ok for me.

Four stars

Of the three books in this series, I think this one - which, let's be honest, should really have been titled _10 Things I Love about DQ_ instead - is my favorite. 

Fans of one or both of the earlier Dimple and Rishi books will enjoy this because the characters are likable, round, and surrounded by interesting counterparts. Though Pinky and Sam appear to be opposites, they - wait for it - find that this actually attracts them to each other. In the process, they also learn how to be better, happier people, and this notion of being happier with than without comes up often. The best part, though, is absolutely every moment with DQ, and I'm going to avoid saying even one specific word about that so as not to spoil. 

Like Menon's other books (I've read the first two in this series and _Of Curses and Kisses_), I wished very much that this were at least 50 pages shorter. The characters process their thoughts - their SAME THOUGHTS - a lot. I would have liked to see them either get to these realizations sooner or at least do other actions or think about anything else. There are moments that feel redundant. What I found strange about this feeling of too much was that I also experienced wanting to know more about some characters and events (including but not limited too Cash - who is trash - and the barn, which seems like a focal point in the beginning but then just fades away). Perhaps a different balance is what I craved here more than less of the work. 

Overall, this is an enjoyable read, and, most importantly, I think fans of the other books will be happy with what they find here.

I have loved this little YA series, and Pinky and Samir's story was a perfect addition!

We get to know our main characters a little in the last book but it was so fun to really get to know their personalities and their stories even more!

Sandhya Menon writes some of my favorite YA characters! They're all unique and know their own minds. I really appreciate that when it comes to a young adult story. We get a story about coming into your own, love, and families coming together.

If you are looking for a really great YA series I really recommend this one! I still think Something About Sweetie is my favorite, but I've really enjoyed them all!

Thank you so much to the publisher for providing an ARC of 10 Things I Hate about Pinky. Sandhya Menon's Dimpleverse is a great place to escape to. Her characters and their families feel like old friends, each with their unique form of love and dysfunction. This is a great book to put in your beach bag or read by the pool. I'll definitely be adding a copy to my library, and I know my students can hardly wait.