Review: From Twinkle, with Love by Sandhya Menon

Title: From Twinkle, with Love

Author: Sandhya Menon
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Rating: 4/5 Stars
Hardcover, 336 Pages
Published May 2018

Summary: 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?

**My review for this book was originally posted on TeenReads.com!**

I received an advanced copy of From Twinkle, With Love in exchange for an honest review, and I’m honestly so glad that I did! I first became a fan of Sandhya Menon when I read her debut story, When Dimple Met Rishi. It was an adorable, hilarious story of true love, pursuing your dreams, and overcoming the social challenges that tend to come about in high school (and also later on in life, if we're being honest).

As the summary explains, Twinkle is an aspiring film maker stuck in a high school where she feels like nobody notices her. She feels like a dork, a loser, or, as she so aptly puts it, one of the "groundlings" that Shakespeare used to appeal to when he put together performances in theaters. So she hatches a plan to enter her school's film contest and create something that will be so amazing that it will be possible to ignore her. But in the process, she makes some new friendships, ruins some others, and even picks up a secret admirer that she's pretty sure she has figured out...but everything isn't always what it seems, and Twinkle's about to learn that trying to reinvent yourself doesn't always mean the grass on the other side is always greener.

What I loved about From Twinkle, With Love is how adorable this story was. I flew through this book because it was told with journal-style entries that were short enough that I kept wanting to flip the page and read the next one to figure out what would happen next. I also really liked how all of the diary entries were addressed to Twinkle's famous female filmmaker idols. It was really inspiring! And her journal entries were so thorough so there were times that I completely forgot it was even being told in journal-entry format. Regardless, this book had me hooked and I flipped through the pages at the speed of light because I couldn't put this one down!

My favorite character in this book was definitely Sahil. He was sweet and caring and kind, and he was always there for Twinkle with whatever she needed. He was also super adorable as their feelings for each other started to develop. I found myself blushing and squealing and rooting for them from the very beginning because they were just so adorable and perfect. I definitely shipped them so hard!

Twinkle's character was also really relatable and I found myself rooting for her throughout the story as she fought to make her dreams come true. She was quirky and funny and super smart, and she was also really creative and loyal to her friends, even when things started to get complicated with them. She reminded me a lot of Dimple from Sandhya's previous book character-wise, which was refreshing and sweet since I miss that story so much! But Twinkle also had her own spunk and personality that made her different as well, which was something else that I also really appreciated.

(Minor spoilers here!) The only thing I wasn't super crazy about in this book was Twinkle's outburst toward the end, when she started being a really terrible person to everyone in her life. I know that it was intentional and that we were supposed to learn the lesson that all that glitters isn't gold, but she became really mean and envious toward everyone around her. But I'm glad that she eventually came to her senses and realized that her behavior was uncool, because she ended up making a bunch of huge changes that were really inspiring and heart warming.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading From Twinkle, With Love. If you're looking for another adorable, hilarious story to add to your bookshelf, I absolutely recommend this one. Sandhya Menon has done it again with a story that manages to tug at your heartstrings while also making you keel over with laughter...and there's also a sense of mysterious secret admiring going on as well! Definitely the kind of adorable book for me -- and I will certainly be reading more of Sandhya's books in the future!