10 Things I Hate About Pinky by Sandhya Menon ★★★★★

When I requested the ARC for 10 Things I Hate About Pinky I didn’t realize it was the third book of the Dimple and Rishi series (I wish Netgalley would change this so we could clearly see when a book is part of a series). This was a 5 star read even without reading the other two books. Honestly, loved this so much! The perfect summer read ♥

About The Book 📚

Title: 10 Things I Hate About Pinky

Author: Sandhya Menon

Publication Date: July 21, 2020

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Suggested Reader Age: Young Adult

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Rep: own-voices Indian-American protagonists and side characters, Chinese-American side character

My Review

› 10 Things I Hate About Pinky is a hilarious and touching story about Ashish’s friends Pinky and Kumar. Priyanka “Pinky” Kumar is the daughter of lawyers. Her mother Veena is a partner at the biggest corporate law firm on the West Coast and is known as “The Shark”. Pinky and her mom are constantly bickering about Pinky’s “bad” choices. Pinky is passionate, spontaneous, stubborn, but also smart, courageous, and optimistic. The following quote is one that hit me in my heart, I’ve never related to a character more than Pinky.

Pinky Kumar might just be an optimist who spent her time masquerading as a cynic.

Samir Jha has had a hard life. His father died, his mother had cancer, and as a result, Samir has developed a coping mechanism of using his planner to keep track of every single thing he does every single day. He thinks it’s a positive thing – being so organized, and doesn’t see that this behaviour was born from fear and anxiety. After his internship with prestigious law firm fell through at the last minute, Pinky decides to offer him a deal – come to the lake house and pretend to be her well-put-together-mature-boyfriend for the summer (proving to her mom that she CAN make good decisions) and she’ll help him get an internship with her parents.

I can’t believe how much of my life I spent not knowing I loved Contemporary Romance fake-dating stories. When they do the “ground rules” scene it always makes me smile.

Cape Cod lake house is another character of the book. Pinky’s mom owns it with her sister.

The house was enormous – five giant bedrooms, six bathrooms, a wraparound bi-level deck with a hot tub, a gazebo, and a barn in the backyard, and the lake within walking distance.

› Pinky’s cousin, Dolly and her parents stay with Pinky and her family in the lake house. Dolly starts dating Douchey Mcdouche – Cash the Rash. I didn’t like how Dolly thought she needed to date a bad boy to be exciting and instead of focusing on Cash’s bad attitude people around Dolly told her it was okay to be “steady”. It just gave me an icky feeling and I think instead of saying, “It’s okay to be boring” her friends could have said, you’re NOT boring, Cash is a jerk!

› I love Menon’s writing style. I laughed out loud, I CRIED laughing while reading this – and I also just cried from sadness. 10 Things I Hate About Pinky was just the exact right book at the exact right moment for me. Definitely going to be in my top 10 for 2020.

› As of May 2020, I use the CAWPILE method to rate books.
0-3 Really bad
4-6 Mediocre
7-9 Really good
10 Outstanding
Characters: 10
Atmosphere: 10
Writing Style: 8
Plot: 10
Intrigue: 9
Logic: 10
Enjoyment: 10

add up the scores
find the average 9.6

1.1-2.2 = ★
2.3-4.5 = ★★
4.6-6.9 = ★★★
7-8.9 = ★★★★
9-10 = ★★★★★

My Goodreads Rating ★★★★★

› Final Thoughts
• 10 Things I Hate About Pinky made me laugh and cry. It’s about family, trust, friendship, learning about yourself, accepting yourself, learning how to let others love you and how to love yourself. It’s about saving possums and butterfly habitats, and relationships. It reminded me of Fake It Till You Break It, The Flatshare, Tweet Cute, Love From A to Z, Crashing the A-List, and Red, White & Royal Blue. Highly recommend!