Book Review | Dating Dr. Dil by Nisha Sharma

364 pages

Published: March 15th, 2022 by Avon

Read: January 2023

Dating Dr. Dil features a love-phobic TV doctor who must convince a love-obsessed homebody they are destined to be together. 

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. 

Link to Goodreads

Jump to Spoilers

Trigger Warnings: death of a parent, death of a fiancée

Main Characters

• Kareena
• Dr. Prem Verma, aka Dr. Dil
• Kareena’s family:
  • Sister – kind of a brat and thinks the world revolves around her.
  • Dad
  • Grandma
  • Aunties
• Prem’s friends:
  • One owns a succussful restaurant, the restaurant where Prem and Kareena fisrt meet
  • One manages the TV company that Prem works at

My Review

Kareena and Prem meet and start hooking up one night when he leaves her stuck in a weird situation. The next day, she embarrasses him on live social media streaming during his talk show, Dr. Dil. He loses backing for his clinic he is trying to open because of the situation. He needs to make up with Kareema in order to try and save his financial situation. Karina also needs a fiancé so that she can get money to buy her family house. She doesn’t want to part with the house because there’s so many memories with her mom, who has passed away, in it. Her dad won’t let her have the house unless she’s engaged or married.

It took me… 4 months to finally finish this book? That should tell you a little bit about how engaging/predictable it was. A little bit spicy in some parts (made me blush a little!). Also.. naming his male parts Charlie? It seemed to drag on a way longer than it needed to, but I guess for the type of book that it is – I gave it 3 stars.

“The biggest mistake you can make is trying to interpret someone’s actions in a way that fits your definition for love.” 
― Nisha Sharma, Dating Dr. Dil

Likes

• Kareena’s character not falling into the norm and rushing to get married because it’s what is expected of her (plus she likes to fix cars and is handy!)
• The aunties are kind of fun
• Some of her first dates through online dating, and the dialogue involved, were entertaining

Dislikes

• Bah, while I know the whole premise of the book is pursuing each other and pretend liking each other for monetary reasons, but the whole Kareena saying no MULTIPLE TIMES and Prem not listening and forcing himself into her life (i.e. picking her up from a date she didn’t ask him to come to, when she didn’t need “saving”)
• The whole concept that they’re arguing about not being in a relationship because one believes in love and the other one believes in getting along is just sort of weird

Spoilers