Lovetorn

December 15, 2011
When her father lands a job in the United States, Shalini's family relocates from Bangalore, India, to Los Angeles. Her father loves his work, and her little sister, Sangita, dives happily into middle school, making friends and discovering a gift for swimming. But like her mother, Asha, shy Shalini is miserable in high school, where her foreign manners and dress target her for ridicule. She shares her unhappiness with Vikram, her fiancé back home (they've been engaged since Shalini was 3 years old); he offers her support and encouragement by phone. Culture shock takes a toll on everyone, especially Asha, who succumbs to clinical depression. Shalini's upbringing has given her few coping skills beyond passivity until she meets Renuka--South Indian by heritage, but born and raised in the U.S.--who urges her to be proactive and stand up for herself. Taking Renuka's words to heart, Shalini begins to turn things around. But the joys of being an L.A. teen bring complications. How will her attraction to Toby, a gifted musician in the school orchestra, affect her relationship with Vikram? Daswani, whose fiction includes the teen novel Indie Girl (2007), portrays a contemporary immigrant family and community with empathic insight and humor. Straddling two very different worlds, Shalini remains authentic and appealing throughout her metamorphosis. (Fiction. 12 & up)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

May 1, 2012

Gr 7-10-Sixteen-year-old Shalini has been engaged since she was three. She is separated from her best friend and fiance, Vikram, for the first time when her father moves the family from India to Los Angeles for a year for his job. Being apart from their large, close-knit family and living in a foreign city is difficult for everyone except Shalini's younger sister, who adapts almost instantly. The teen has a hard time adjusting to school, and her mother becomes clinically depressed. When she finds herself drawn to another boy, Shalini is torn between her new, independent feelings and loyalty to her family. Though the clash of cultures is interesting and the theme of fitting in is true to life, the characters are never fully realized, and the anticlimactic resolution is reached a little too easily. Still, teens may enjoy this as a modern real-life story.-Madeline J. Bryant, Los Angeles Public Library

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2012
Grades 8-11 What would it be like to move from Bangalore, Indiawhere you live with 37 of your relativesto Los Angeles, with just your immediate family? That's what happens to 16-year-old Shalini when her father accepts a new job in the U.S. While her little sister takes to American culture immediately, Shalini struggles to fit in, and her mother becomes increasingly depressed and isolated. Without Vikram, who became Shalini's fianc' on her third birthday, she's not sure she'll be able to cope. Shalini does start to adjust to her new life, and there's plenty of drama when a hot flute-playing boy enters the picture, distracting her from her ties back in India. Unfortunately, Shalini never feels like a fully realized character, and the novel skims the surface in its treatment of issues, from Shalini's relationship with all-too-perfect Vikram to her mother's staggering depression. Still, fans of chick lit may be enticed by the love triangle and the East-meets-West culture clash.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)