Another brilliant book from Sandhya Menon! When I read When Dimple Met Rishi last year, I enjoyed it so much, and Menon became one of my favourite new authors. So, when I got the chance to have an ARC of From Twinkle, with Love, I jumped at the chance and I read it straight away (which doesn’t happen often with me.)

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?

“Sometimes I worry I don’t know who I really am. Sometimes I’m afraid nothing I do will ever be enough to set me apart.”

― Sandhya Menon, From Twinkle, with Love

I was extremely anxious reading From Twinkle, with Love, since I absolutely loved Sandhya’s previous book, and wasn’t sure what this one was going to be like. But I was left far from disappointed.

One of the things that I love about Sandhya Menon’s novels is that they are centred around Indian families. They teach me a lot about the culture and is something that I am very grateful for. Alongside this, they’re also just pretty amazing novels. Twinkle is from an Indian-American background, and the scenes where she spends time with her family just warmed my heart so much.

The whole premise of the beginning of the book was shallow and this is the reason why I’ve dropped the rating one star. So, there are two guys. The first one is Neil who is this popular high schooler, and the only reason she wants to be with him is so that can elevate her status in school, and when I was reading this, I was constantly rolling my eyes. Just no. There was also a time where I just wanted to shake Twinkle back into the real world when she became a director. It was at this point where she completely let the power get to her head and started bossing people around like there was no tomorrow. And let me just tell you: I definitely wasn’t here for it. But then again, whilst writing this, I guess that’s how high school/secondary school can be like. Some people want to be popular and be known, some people like wanting to be seen as powerful so… I don’t know. You do you, I guess?

“Geeks are smart and talented and passionate. I don’t think that’s a bad thing.”

– Sandhya Menon, From Twinkle, With Love

Moving away from the negatives, I absolutely loved all of the film references. I’m a huge film nerd myself, so being able to pick up on all of the clues and all of the allusions to other types of media was so good to read. I also loved the way that the novel was written. The entire book was written in different media formats such as diary entries/letters/blog posts and text messages. I thought that the idea of Twinkle writing to strong women was empowering.

I know that I mentioned earlier that Twinkle wanted to be popular in school, and let me just tell you this: Sandhya Menon writes YA fiction very very well. She grasps how teenagers would feel in each situation beautifully, and even though some of the actions in the novel annoy me, I can’t deny that it’s probably because I’m 24 and I’ve moved past all of the high school behaviour. However, if I read this at 16, I would definitely be able to relate more to the power struggle Twinkle found herself in (obviously).

“We humans think we exist like this.” Dadi gestured to the powders in their individual bowls. “Apart. Single. Beautiful and vivid, but alone.” 

― Sandhya Menon, From Twinkle, with Love

Overall, I really enjoyed this book, and I hope that Sandhya Menon releases another book soon. I love reading her books whenever I’m feeling a little bit down as her great, upbeat writing style and her characters always tend to lift me up a little.

Disclaimer: this book was sent to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

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