Not You Please : An Indian teen romance by Anuradha Dev
My take on the book:
My take on the book:
Mishti Ahuja is in class XII and aspires to pursue her further studies at NYU; being an introvert who faced body-shaming in her younger years, Mishti prefers to keep to herself rather than mingle with her classmates, and silently wishes her parents opted to home school instead. Because of a prank that Vikram Sethi played on her when she was twelve, Mishti hates him and is not willing to talk to him for even a second.
On the first day of senior year, Saahil Mahajan joined their class as his father got transferred from Mumbai to Indore. Mishti rejoices that she finally has a classmate who seems normal, and quickly develops a crush on Saahil. When the English teacher assigns project for groups of three, Mishti immediately invites Saahil to be her partner on the project. The real trouble begins when her teacher assigns Vikram as the third member.
With her college dreams on the line, Mishti has to decide if she can bury years-old grudge on Vikram for the sake of her college prospects. Will Mishti, Vikram and Saahil be able to work together and if Vikram indeed evolved as he assures Mishti, forms the rest of the story.
This is a sweet story of teenagers in their senior year of school, with eyes firmly on their college dreams while also exploring attraction to the opposite gender. The main characters are contrasting and cliched in some ways — Mishti the nerdy introvert, Vikram the bad-boy basketball captain and Saahil the balancing factor of the three. The author’s narration style which is simple but flows effortlessly is what keeps the reader interested in the story.
The transition of Vikram and Mishti from enemies to friends to lovers is impressive. The dialogues are smart and the characters are relatable and represent the present day teenagers. Though I enjoyed this story when compared to many contemporary teenage romances, I found the usage of few expletives by the main characters problematic, especially when there isn’t a real need for such language in that particular scene.
If you are looking for a cute romance in Indian fiction, then this will make for a good read.
My rating:
4/5.