The delightful follow-up to When Dimple Met Rishi and There’s Something about Sweetie, which follows Ashish’s friends Pinky and Samir as they pretend to date in order to achieve their individual goals, to disastrous and hilarious results. Pinky Kumar wears the social justice warrior badge with pride. From raccoon hospitals to persecuted rock stars, no cause is too esoteric for her to champion. … esoteric for her to champion. But a teeny tiny part of her also really enjoys making her conservative, buttoned-up corporate lawyer parents cringe.
Samir Jha might have a few…quirks remaining from the time he had to take care of his sick mother, like the endless lists he makes in his planner and the way he schedules every minute of every day, but those are good things. They make life predictable and steady.
Pinky loves lazy summers at her parents’ Cape Cod lake house, but after listening to them harangue her about the poor decisions she’s made (a.k.a. boyfriends she’s had), she hatches a plan. Get her sorta-friend-sorta-enemy–who is a total Harvard-bound Mama’s boy–to pose as her perfect boyfriend for the summer.
When Samir’s internship falls through, leaving him with an unplanned summer, he gets a text from Pinky asking if he’ll be her fake boyfriend in exchange for a new internship. He jumps at the opportunity; Pinky’s a weirdo, but he can survive a summer with her if there’s light at the end of the tunnel.
As they bicker their way through lighthouses and butterfly habitats, sparks fly, and they both realize this will be a summer they’ll never forget.
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This is a fun book. The frenemy/fake boyfriend arc seems real. The conflict between Pinky and her Mom, the Shark, also rings true. Both Pinky and Samir are teens with big hearts and different reactions to the family dynamics they’ve been born into. Pinky is a woman with multi-colored hair who finds meaning supporting causes. Samir is a youth who isn’t casual and needs predictability and security.
Except for cousin Dolly and Drama Queen the possum, the other characters are mostly background.
Adults can enjoy this book, probably more than the target audience
Fake dating + nerdy boy + Sandhya Menon’s delightful writing style. What’s not to love?!
10 Things I Hate About Pinky was one of my most anticipated books of 2020. I liked When Dimple Met Rishi and I absolutely LOVED There’s Something About Sweetie (it was one of my favorite books of 2019). We met both of our main characters–Pinky Kumar and Samir Jha–in Sweetie and when I heard it’s a hate-to-love and a fake dating trope I already knew it was going to be a good one.
And I was right!
Now, I didn’t love it as much as I did Sweetie because that book really pulled at my heart and I related to it on a deep level that I haven’t had in a long time. BUT, out of all the three books–Dimple, Sweetie, and Pinky–Pinky was the most funny and entertaining one. I was laughing from start to finish! Pinky and Samir were hilarious! They were funny on their own and I absolutely love their banter. And that whole thing about the possum–that was gold!
Pinky was much more light-hearted than the previous novels, but like the other novels, one of the biggest conflicts was Pinky’s contentious relationship with her mom. In this case, her mom sees her as a screw-up and always assumes the worst about Pinky. This had Pinky wanting to show her mom that she’s wrong, and hence getting good boy Samir to be her fake boyfriend for the summer after his internship fell through. My fake-dating trope loving heart was much amused and very entertained, and the hate-to-love element (because Pinky and Samir were like oil and water) added some fun banter-y friction and got Pinky and Samir into some funny situations.
I’m giving 10 Things I Hate About Pinky 4 stars because while I was much entertained and I love the characters and the trope and plot, I thought the resolution and how everything tied up was kind of surface level–it didn’t have that impact that would hit me emotionally and stay with me after I turned the last page. Also, the story is focused on Pinky and her relationship with her mom, but I would’ve loved to have gotten Samir and his mom’s story because they have an interesting dynamic and a complicated relationship too, and we didn’t get anything at all about that.
10 Things I Hate About Pinky was an all-around great time! I had a wonderful time reading it and it kept me entertained all the way through. I’m looking forward to more by Ms. Menon. If you’re looking for a fun, rom-com-y YA contemporary, or if you need a funny, romance-y read in between your darker books (because we all need those sometimes), 10 Things I Hate About Pinky would be a great choice.
Menon’s best book to date.
Fake dating is a trope after my own heart, so I was expecting a lot, especially considering how much I’ve enjoyed all of Menon’s previous works.
This story delivered and then some. Pinky has been a favourite of mine since we first met her. Strong willed and fierce, she was always a scene stealer. Being the star of her own story, her’s is Menon’s best written character arc in her five released books.
I definitely have a new favourite.
(PS: Drama Queen is a STAR)