Hello everyone!
I am back with another book review, today it's From Twinkle, With Love by Sandhya Menon.
This book follows Twinkle, an aspiring filmmaker who, after pretty much losing her best friend to the popular kids, decides to throw herself into making a film for the upcoming school festival. And it doesn't hurt that Sahil, the twin brother of her long-time crush, Neil, is more than willing to help her out as a producer. Twinkle sees this as a win-win: she will be working on a project she is passionate about and she'll get a chance to get closer to Neil - hopefully. When a secret admirer starts emailing her, signing off only as "N," Twinkle is sure it's Neil. At first, she's excited about N, but as things progress with the film, she begins to develop less than professional feelings towards Sahil.
Firstly, this book is told in a journal/letter format. I'm just mentioning it because some people don't love that format and despite the title literally being a sign-off, for whatever reason, it didn't click with me that it was going to be in this format until I started reading. Instead of writing to herself, Twinkle is writing to some of the female filmmakers that she looks up to. While I'm not a bit movie buff, I did recognize a couple of the names, which was cool!
At first glance, the plot-line itself seems pretty basic, but somehow Menon is able to turn it into this really unique and interesting storyline. There is a bit of high school drama (which, if you've been following me for the last couple of years, you'll know I'm not a huge fan of these days) but it wasn't too crazy and over the top. I really enjoyed seeing some of the friendship dynamics in the school, especially between Sahil and his friends. I don't think we see a lot of male friendships (at least, I haven't) and I thought it was really refreshing to be given that perspective sprinkled throughout - especially when it came to things like dating advice and how to have a respectful, honest relationship.
As per usual, Menon did not let me down on the romance either. Even though I was able to figure out who N was pretty early on in the story, I still really enjoyed the ups and downs of the relationship, as well as that with Sahil. Things didn't always work out perfectly, but that's life. I thought Menon portrayed it perfectly.
As with Menon's previous book, there was a lot of great representation in this one. We see a lot about Twinkle's Indian heritage and her family dynamic, as well as with Sahil and Neil who are half-Indian. There is also some LGBTQ+ representation as well which wasn't central to the story but was still an adorable addition nonetheless.
Overall, I really enjoyed this one and I am even more excited about Menon's next book!