From Twinkle, with love by Sandhya Menon

Summary from Goodreads:

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?

Told through the letters Twinkle writes to her favorite female filmmakers, From Twinkle, with Love navigates big truths about friendship, family, and the unexpected places love can find you.

Review:

I loved When Dimple Met Rishi, and I was beyond excited to read more from this author. And normally, when I’m this excited for a new book, I’m a little disappointed in the results. This time, though, I was not disappointed at all. I loved it. I so loved the setup of the book and how each chapter is a letter to a different female director…I found myself looking these ladies up, and wanting to watch their movies.

I think what I love most about this author is that her main characters are not perfect. They don’t always do the right thing. And they sometimes don’t even know what the right thing is until the end of the book. This makes them seem so much more real to me. I loved Twinkle. I loved her dreams and her drive. Even with no experience, she knew she was mean to direct movies. And I loved her for this.

I also loved that she was flawed. Sometimes she was so focused on her own problems, family dramas, and lack of money that she didn’t notice the problems that her peers were facing. And this felt so true to the teenage mindset. This just felt so authentic. And despite Twinkle’s ignorance of other things happening around her, I loved her. I wanted her to make the right choices, to fall for the right guy, to make inspiring female-empowered movies.

There’s this one part where Twinkle owns up to not watching a very famous movie, and I’m so glad she had the courage to own up to this. I loved that she then goes and watches the movie. She wants to watch, to learn, to grow. And I loved this about her.

I loved all the parts where she was working on the gender swapped movie too. Everything from costume decisions, to filming, to getting interviews for a special part at the end, were all so fascinating to read about. You don’t get a lot of YA books about movie-making.

The one part that felt too far-stretched to me though was the end. I get that good things were finally coming her way, but I felt like it was a little overkill for so many letters of good things to come. That was the one not-so authentic part for me. However, I loved this whole book. I read it super quickly. It’s witty, smart, dramatic in all the right places, filled with crushes and first dates, and just plain fluffy fun. I give it a 9/10.