Smexy Books

Romance and Urban Fantasy Reviews

  • Review Request
  • Contact
    • Smexy Reviewers Profiles
    • New Reviewer Application
    • Contact
  • Advertising
  • Home
  • Reviews
    • By Genre
      • BDSM
      • Contemporary
      • Erotic
      • Fantasy
      • F/F
      • Historical Romance
      • Historical PNR
      • LGBTQ+
      • M/M Romance
      • New Adult
      • Urban Fantasy
      • Paranormal Romance
      • Sci-Fi
      • Romantic Suspense
      • Young Adult
    • By Letter Grade Rating
      • A Reviews
      • B Reviews
      • C Reviews
      • D Reviews
      • DNF Reviews
  • Features
    • New Releases
    • Smexy Deals!
    • Retro Review
    • Weekly Wrap-Up
    • Blog Tour
    • Scenic Sunday
    • To Be Read
    • Guest Post
    • Top Ten/Happy Friday
    • Smex Scene Sunday
  • The Psy/Changeling Channel
You are here: Home / A Review / Review: Dating Dr. Dil by Nisha Sharma

Review: Dating Dr. Dil by Nisha Sharma

March 15, 2022 by Kate H. 1 Comment

Dating Dr. Dil by Nisha Sharma
If Shakespeare was an Auntie #1
Romantic Comedy/Contemporary Romance
March 15, 2022, by Avon and Harper Voyager

Review by Kate H.

For me, one of the best things about Dating Dr. Dil was that as a romantic comedy, the humor was in the situation and the snark, and not in the characters. Both main characters are fully drawn and easy to identify with, even when I didn’t agree with them. Kareena Mann is a thirty-year old who provides legal counsel to women start-ups. She really knows her mind and her love for her late mother inflects a lot of her choices and passions. She was a strong character, but not rigidly so – she can stand up for what she wants, but she is not without moments of doubt. Dr. Prem Verma, the hero, is a cardiologist with a talk-show on a local South Asian Network. Several years before the novel begins, his fiancée had died of an undiagnosed illness. Since then, he had been working towards opening a clinic where the specific medical needs of the South Asian community, and other patients of color, would be attended to. He uses his talk-show in part to share health information with the Desi community in the NJ/NY area.

Here’s the situation: both Kareena and Prem have reasons for needing to get engaged. They had what I would call a hot “partial” hookup, no spoilers, but what keeps Kareena from agreeing to Prem’s proposal of a fake engagement is their fundamental, philosophical difference on the matter of relationships. Kareena is looking for a Jeevansathi, a life partner. She believes in love marriages, like the one her parents had. Prem believes that what is mistaken as love is a fleeting biochemical reaction. He believes in arranged marriages based on compatibility, communication, and resulting in what to Kareena seems like a very businesslike relationship.  As a result, Kareena only agrees to the fake engagement after she exhausts all her other online dating options before her 4 month deadline. Her Aunties, who are described as “progressive” in the novel (and definitely come across that way), help her in her journey. But like a Greek chorus, they know which way the wind is blowing.

I loved the sequence of dating app messages and first dates. Some of it was laugh out loud, some of it was infuriating, as it was meant to be. As she is trying to find love, we learn more about Prem and his aversion to emotion. Sometimes I wanted to shout at both at them to see what was in front of their eyes, sort of the opposite of telling a protagonist in a horror movie not to go down into the basement. Luckily, increasingly hot sex scenes between Kareena ad Prem signal to the reader what the protagonists don’t necessarily realize.

Dating Dr. Dil is also a critique of the misogyny in Desi culture related to dating, marriage, and sexuality. There are moving scenes when Prem’s mother and Kareena’s father open up to their children about their own marriages.  One character that never gets to “explain” themselves is Bindu, Kareena’s sister. She’s the bridezilla in the novel, the spoiled younger sister who is about to get married. I kind of saw her as another victim of the pressures highlighted in the novel, but I was never sure.  

CW: misogyny, death of mother, death of fiancée

Grade: A-

Amazon * Goodreads

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit
  • Click to share on Mastodon (Opens in new window) Mastodon
  • More
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) WhatsApp

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Filed Under: A Review, Avon, Contemporary Romance, Discussion, Kate H., Nisha Sharma, Romantic Comedy

Comments

  1. Gayatri says

    April 20, 2022 at 10:48 am

    how spicy would you say it is? like on a scale to 5?

    Loading...
    Reply

Leave a ReplyCancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Welcome to Smexy! If you are reader feel free to use our search feature to find a specific book or browse through our features to find Smexy Deals, New Releases, and book news!

As an Amazon Associate, we do earn from qualifying purchases. We also earn a small commission on affiliate links to Apple, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords,  Booksamillion, and Bookshop,org.

 

Shop our Affiliates!

Amazon

B&N

Apple

Smashwords

Booksamillion

Angela

Melanie

Jen

Kate

Iby

Kate H.

Sign Up for Daily Emails


Thank you!

You have successfully joined our subscriber list.

.

Follow Us!

Follow Us on FacebookFollow Us on TwitterFollow Us on Instagram

Top Posts & Pages

  • Smexy Deals- Deals for books by Opal Wei, Hannah Bonam-Young, Maisey Yates, and more!
    Smexy Deals- Deals for books by Opal Wei, Hannah Bonam-Young, Maisey Yates, and more!
  • Smexy Deals- Deals for books by Olivia Hayle, Hayley Dennings, Laura Greenwood, and more!
    Smexy Deals- Deals for books by Olivia Hayle, Hayley Dennings, Laura Greenwood, and more!
  • Steamy Excerpt from Everything's Better With Lisa by Lucy Eden
    Steamy Excerpt from Everything's Better With Lisa by Lucy Eden
  • Smexy’s Top Ten Favorite Sex Scenes of 2012
    Smexy’s Top Ten Favorite Sex Scenes of 2012
  • Review: The Last Letter by Rebecca Yarros
    Review: The Last Letter by Rebecca Yarros
  • New Releases- Week of May 12-16, 2025
    New Releases- Week of May 12-16, 2025
  • Review: Manacled by SenLinYu
    Review: Manacled by SenLinYu
  • Review: The Finish Line by Kate Stewart
    Review: The Finish Line by Kate Stewart
  • Review: Regretting You by Colleen Hoover
    Review: Regretting You by Colleen Hoover
  • Review: The Road Trip by Beth O'Leary
    Review: The Road Trip by Beth O'Leary

Disclosure

The majority of the books reviewed at this site have been provided for free by publishers, authors, or other third parties like NetGalley or Edelweiss. Acceptance of a free copy does not guarantee a review or a positive review.

As an Amazon Associate, we do earn from qualifying purchases. We also earn a small commission on affiliate links to Apple, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, and Booksamillion.

Shop our Affiliates!

Amazon

B&N

Apple

Smashwords

Booksamillion

 

Find Our Reviewers

Angela @fv-angela.bsky.social l Goodreads

Melanie @melonreads.bsky.social l  Goodreads

Jen .@thebooknista l Goodreads

Kate  @kateminasian l Goodreads

Iby Instagram l Goodreads

Kate H. @Naranjadia l Goodreads

Copyright © 2025 · Beautiful Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d