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Dating Dr. Dil was something I definitely didn’t expect it to be – goofy. Example: the hero nicknames his penis “Charlie” and never tells the heroine, so the reader is forever subjected to scenes of internal monologue featuring Charlie jumping in delight in his pants at the sight of her. As always, Nisha Sharma writes great heroines but to enjoy this book you have to get past the hero. And Charlie. That’s just a hint of what you’re in for.
Kareena Mann wants a love like the kind her parents had, but having just turned thirty – and still stuck living with her dad in spite of her successful job (she’s a lawyer for Women Who Work though her passion is restoring classic cars) helping women establish new businesses – she’s still single. That her younger sister, happy math professor and stoner Bindu, is currently planning her dream Gujarati-Italian-Desi wedding is a source of great consternation to her family. Her Grandma, Dadi, keeps telling Kareena to take up the services of a matchmaker, or date more, or accept an arranged marriage. But none of the people Kareena has dated have ever met her high standards, and she wants a love match. Then, on her birthday, Kareena learns that Dadi wants to return to India and her father wants to buy a retirement home, thus breaking up her happy connection. Kareena wants to buy the house she grew up in. While Bindu has a bargain with their father – either he will pay for her house or he will pay for her wedding – he refuses to give Kareena the money he has set aside for her wedding unless she finds her soulmate. So they strike a bargain – if she gets engaged within four months, he’ll sign over the house to her for free.
After the death of his wife three years earlier, cardiologist Dr. Prem Verma no longer believes in true love. No matter how much his mother begs, he hasn’t reentered the dating scene and stayed focused on his local talk show The Dr. Dil Show and on building a community health center, using the show’s popularity to help generate the funding. He’s almost reached his goal when he sees Kareena.
Prem and Kareena lock eyes across a crowded restaurant and are instantly attracted. They nearly go to bed together, but they’re stopped at the last minute – which turns out to be a good thing, as Kareena and Bindu are to be guests on Prem’s show, though neither of them know this at the time. The next morning, a hung-over Kareena is horrified when confronted with her “failed pick-up” from the evening before. When Prem proceeds to try to prove that true love is bad for your cardiac health (?!), that Bindu’s engagement is a sham she’s involved with out of practicality, and Kareena is single because she’s a spinster looking for mythic true love – they fight on camera and she throws a bottle of Pedialyte in his face.
Their argument goes viral thanks to Bindu accidentally streaming it on her YouTube channel, ruining Prem’s reputation and Kareena’s hopes of finding a man. Prem starts to lose investors and Kareena goes out on a series of terrible dates. Her circle of aunties then gets involved; they suggest that since Kareena and Prem are now social poison they should date and get engaged, thus solving both of their cash flow problems and fixing Prem’s negative reputation. Since they’re already physically attracted to each other, true love should follow easily. Right?
Nisha Sharma has written amazing YA romances and wonderful contemporary romances, which is why I’m shocked by how juvenile Dating Dr. Dil is. Our hero and heroine act like sixteen-year-olds, are bad at managing their lives and are even worse at balancing their love affair. Prem never stops talking about how love is a lie and Kareena is so old and should just settle for an arranged marriage and be practical, but he’s happy to have lots and lots of premarital sex with her, while she just gets mad at him and hits out. I know this is a retelling of Taming of the Shrew but there’s a way to drag the story into modern times without making the hero and heroine look half-grown.
Kareena often comes off as a teenager stuck in arrested development, but at least I didn’t dislike her. Pouting about her father’s refusal to simply sign over the house to her is just one facet of this behavior. Were she not obsessed with living in the family home that meant so much to her late mother, she could easily save up for a new house by putting her law degree to good use, but she’s chosen instead to butt heads with her father over her lack of a soulmate because she can’t move on. She desperately needed to deal with her mom’s death and her inability to really get over it. It’s hard not to see the misfortune that falls on her shoulders as being mostly her fault. Then again, she’s quite put upon by her difficult family.
I can’t put this too finely – lord, did I hate Prem. Hated how he spouted cheesebag things like saying he “fixes broken hearts” to avoid being rejected by Kareena for being a cardiologist. Hated his determination to prove to Kareena that love doesn’t exist by the bluntest means possible. Hated even the way he calls her “Rina” even though she tells him not to. And Charlie. CHARLIE. I didn’t buy that his dude’s night playlist would contain Taylor Swift songs because he’s the kind of man Taylor would hate. I’m fully aware that his ‘love isn’t real’ pose relates to his widowhood, but his manipulative, mansplainy way of establishing this grated.
As I said, this is an immature romance, which means everyone has sex and no one communicates, ever; they mostly appreciate one another as physical beings instead of people they simply like. If you’ve read Sharma before, you know that the sex will be great. At least until we’re stuck in Prem’s PoV and have to deal with Charlie getting his helmet head polished. All I could think of was Ralph from Judy Blume’s Forever.
While Kareena has a supporting cast of wonderful friends and a circle of understanding and actively helpful (in their own way) Aunties, her immediate family is largely hateful. Bindu, in particular, is a horrible, horrible person who gives her sister a vibrator for a birthday gift in front of her grandmother and comes to family meetings stoned out of her mind because high morning sex with her boyfriend is more important. She also fails to support Kareena when Prem attacks her on the show. Kareena’s father comes off as cruel for holding the house over Kareena’s head to get what he wants out of her while spoiling Bindu just because she’s getting married. Dadi represents that old-school attitude that bounces between being annoying and mildly funny. That Prem’s the one who ultimately dresses Bindu down is just plain annoying and flies in the face of the book’s Kareena-Is-Strong message, and Sharma’s attempt at making Kareena’s other dating options look bad because they’re nerdy (if mansplainy) is not appreciated.
On the other hand – I loved Prem’s relationship with his mother and his circle of friends and family. And I continue to love how Sharma writes Southeast Asian rep and reflects successfully upon the import of extended family; the way she depicts the culture is interesting, unique and spot-on. But Dating Dr. Dil needed to be tamed by an editor or two before reaching the mainstream. Or at least before Charlie escaped Prem’s pants.
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Grade: C-
Book Type: Contemporary Romance
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 08/05/22
Publication Date: 03/2022
Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.
Lisa Fernandes is a writer, reviewer and recapper who lives somewhere on the East Coast. Formerly employed by Firefox.org and Next Projection, she also currently contributes to Women Write About Comics. Read her blog at http://thatbouviergirl.blogspot.com/, follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/thatbouviergirl or contribute to her Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/MissyvsEvilDead or her Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com/missmelbouvier
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I knew this book sounded a little young for me but reading the beginning of this review confirmed it for me . Thanks for this great and detailed review!!
I was actually surprised by how juvenile it was. I’ve given Sharma’s YA books As because she knows how to write realistic and mature heroes and heroines. That was not the case here!
Charlie? That’s just a hard pass.
I know the author said why she named the penis Charlie on Tik Tok, but man, whatever her reason I couldn’t get over it.
Welp–to each their own. I once knew a woman who named her breasts Lola and Roxy. It takes all kinds of people to raise a world….
Has there ever been a good/interesting/ engaging romance featuring a hero who named his penis? I suspect not.
“Forever” is actually a really sweet YA story about how true love doesn’t necessarily last forever, but I can’t think of another.
I believe Rupert Carsington in Loretta Chase’s Mr. Impossible had a name for his, but it wasn’t an actual name, it was more a descriptor. It’s been too long since I read the book for me to remember exactly what it was, but in the context of the book and considering Rupert’s personality, it worked well.