‘Dating Dr. Dil’: not the review I expected to write!

July 13, 2022

TITLE: Dating Dr. Dil (If Shakespeare Was An Auntie, #1)
AUTHOR: Nisha Sharma
GENRE: Romance
AGE RANGE: Adult
PAGES: 364pg
PUBLISHER: Avon

Kareena Mann dreams of having a love story like her parents, but she prefers restoring her classic car to swiping right on dating apps. When her father announces he’s selling her mother’s home, Kareena makes a deal with him: he’ll gift her the house if she can get engaged in four months. Her search for her soulmate becomes impossible when her argument with Dr. Prem Verma, host of The Dr. Dil Show, goes viral. Now the only man in her life is the one she doesn’t want.

Dr. Prem Verma is dedicated to building a local community health center, but he needs to get donors with deep pockets. The Dr. Dil Show was doing just that, until his argument with Kareena went viral, and he’s left short changed. That’s when Kareena’s meddling aunties presented him with a solution: convince Kareena he’s her soulmate and they’ll fund his clinic. 

Even though they have conflicting views on love-matches and arranged-matches, the more time Prem spends with Kareena, the more he begins to believe she’s the woman he wants to spend the rest of his life with. But for Prem and Kareena to find their happily ever after, they must admit that hate has turned into fate.

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Dating Dr. Dil is one of those books that I really should have reviewed the moment I finished it instead of waiting *checks notes* uhhh, two months?, because I’m sad to say that very little of this book was memorable, and most of the memorable moments were negative. 😬

While I liked Kareena for the most part as a main character, I struggled with her wishy-washy nature and her full-throttle commitment to being one of the most oblivious heroines I’ve ever seen in my life. This was totally one of those stories where the characters were all but writing on billboards “HERE ARE MY FEELINGS” and the opposite character would just look around like, “???” and it got old fast.

Prem, on the other hand? I have very little positive to say about Prem. I mean, I guess he was okay-ish in the end, but he spent most of the book being an insufferable fuck-boy (and I know all the reviews have talked about it, but seriously, what grown-ass adult names their penis?).

I feel a little bit bad about the direction this review is going in because I actually gave this book a very generous 4 stars when I first read it, but all of my memories of it have turned it into a 3-star read. Sigh.

It wasn’t all bad, though! I mean, most of the side characters were The Actual Worst™️, but the aunties were hilarious and adorable and I LOVED THEM, and I did actually really like both of Prem’s friends and both of Kareena’s friends. In typical rom-com series fashion, I’m assuming the next two installments will pair up the side characters, and since I liked those characters more, I definitely want to read those. That said, Dating Dr. Dil wasn’t it for me.

Thank you to the publisher for the review copy! All thoughts are honest and my own.

content warnings →
WARNINGS:

emotional/verbal abuse and neglect from family members, mentions to previous loss of partner and grief, misogyny

representation →

all major characters are Indian-American

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More about Destiny @ Howling Libraries

Just a horror aficionado/geek girl trying to juggle motherhood, reading, blogging, gaming, and everyday life.

9 Comments
    1. Goodness. I don’t think I could’ve gotten through this one. 😬 I’m surprised you even gave it three stars as it sounds like you were pretty unimpressed to a “just ok 2-star” level! Love the review 🙂

    1. Haha, the penis thing 😂 That’s the one thing that every review never fails to mention and it just sounds so cringe 🙈 Even after reading about that and other reviews I thought I’d maybe still wanna give this a try but now I’m re-thinking that cos Kareena doesn’t sound like fun and neither does Prem. Despite reading this a while ago, you still wrote a great review!

      1. LMAO, I kept planning the review in my head thinking, “don’t talk about the penis nickname, don’t talk about the penis nickname…” and then I HAD TO 😭😂 It was eating away at me, Dini! But yeah, I would LOVE to hear your thoughts if you read it, but I can’t say I recommend it highly 😭 and thank you!!

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