Hi friends, happy Wednesday! I hope you’re all doing well. Today I’m going to be posting my review of Sandhya Menon’s novel There’s Something About Sweetie.

You can read my review of book one: When Dimple Met Rishi

There’s Something About Sweetie by: Sandhya Menon: Ashish is heartbroken, and tired of it. In a moment of weakness, or genius, he agrees to let his parents set him up with an Indian-American girl, with pre-set dates. Sweetie is the star track athlete at school, who is enthusiastic about singing, and she’s also fat – a word that has always stopped her from doing everything she’s dreamed of, like dating a boy. So when Ashish’s parents pick her and her mother says no, she goes behind their backs to start the Sassy Sweetie Project to prove to herself she can. This novel packed a punch. It tackled the tough topics of weight and how misconstrued the word ‘fat’ has become in society. Menon did an amazing job of breaking the mold and breaking society’s hold on the word and taking it back. This novel was such a positive read and had such great body positivity messaging. This is such a great book for young girls to read; the writing was just so beautiful and topics were brought up and said in very conversational and easy ways for teens to really understand. This also tackled the topic of love and falling in love as a teen, how it’s never as simple as one thinks it is, it can be messy and unpredictable with too many feelings. It felt extremely real, thought out and relatable. The characters are the ones that truly brought this story to life. There definitely was something about Sweetie; she was gentle and beautiful; passionate and so full of wisdom, even when she didn’t think she was. The things she said to Ashish felt so wise beyond her years at times, but it didn’t come across as pretentious or a know it all, it came off as someone who’s spent a lot of time listening and observing situations to give meaningful feedback. Sweetie was such a joy to read; she had the reader in tears, for both good and bad. Ashish was an interesting secondary main character. We met him in When Dimple Met Rishi, as he’s Rishi’s wild younger brother, but as we got to know him in his own novel, we saw that he wasn’t so wild, just a heartbroken softy who’s looking for love. Getting to know Ashish was a lot of fun because unlike his brother who had deep layers to him, Ashish wore everything on his sleeve, no hiding anything and that was such a beautiful quality to have. He was courageous and willing to go to many lengths for the things he wanted, even if he didn’t know exactly what he wanted; it was an entertaining journey to take with him. This novel was a lot subtler on the arranged marriage plot; it had an amusing and slightly mysterious arc to it that left the reader always wondering what was going to happen next. There were quite a few ups and downs and a lot of finding yourself moments that the romance plot really complimented instead of overpowered; it was really well balanced; Menon is a skilled writer. Overall, this was an emotional read filled with heartbreaking honesty but also complete and utter bursts of love and joy.