Sidekick Short: Rosewood: A Midsummer Meet Cute (2023) by Sayantani DasGupta

Oct 23
2 min read

cover image of Rosewood: A Midsummer Meet Cute by Sayantani DasGupta published by Scholastic Press, 2023. — cover image of *Rosewood: A Midsummer Meet Cute* by Sayantani DasGupta published by Scholastic Press, 2023.

The Basics

Page Length: 320

Audiobook Length: ~8hrs

Grade Level: 8+

Common Sense Media Score: 13+

Goodreads Score: 3.5 out of 5

Buy it HERE

Setting: Summer Regency Camp, Present Day

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Topics: Acting, Regency Era, Summer Camp, Identity, Sisterhood, Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Racism

Plot: Eila Das is a determined 17-year-old, Bengali-American teenager totally set on becoming a lawyer. Although she once dreamed of being an actress, she now considers those hopes impractical and is focused on her legal future. Eila and her younger sister, Malika, are close, the best of friends. Malika is obsessed with the popular TV show "Rosewood" (which is totally Bridgerton coded) and dreams of becoming an actress herself, boldly chasing her ambitions without hesitation.

Trying to push the pragmatism out of her sister, Malika submits applications for both of them to attend a summer Regency camp. At this camp, participants are expected to follow the rules, etiquette, and cultural traditions of the Regency era while learning about theater and performing in Regency-appropriate productions. At the camp’s end, casting agents from the "Rosewood" TV show watch the campers and select one lucky participant for a role in the upcoming season.

While Eila is excited to spend the summer focused on acting, she’s less enthusiastic about the Regency aspect, finding Austenian tropes a bit cliché. She much prefers the grandeur of Shakespeare. However, her own Austen-inspired story soon unfolds when she meets Rahul, a fellow Shakespeare-obsessed camper who quickly catches her eye. Their romance blossoms amidst drama involving a jealous ex-girlfriend and revelations about Rahul’s true identity.

Throughout the summer, Eila forms new friendships, confronts issues of racism and microaggressions, and learns to collaborate with people very different from herself. As the season progresses, Eila must decide: will her Austenian romance have a fairy-tale ending, or will it turn into a Shakespearean tragedy

Themes: Performance and Authenticity, Cultural Identity, Representation and Belonging, Self Love, Family Relationships

You might like this book if you like:

Quick and witty narrators/dialogue
Jane Austen and Shakespeare
Sense and Sensibility- this is kind of a modern retelling
Books like A Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue, the Pride and Premeditation series, Half a Soul, The Henna Wars, The Season, Queen Bee
Shows like Bridgerton, Never Have I Ever, Sanditon, The Summer I Turned Pretty
Movies like Austenland, To All the Boys I Loved Before, Pride and Prejudice
Any Jane Austen remake movie: Clueless, 10 Things I Hate About You, She's the Man

Other books written by this author: Debating Darcy, The Serpent's Secret (Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond series), Force of Fire (The Pinki Adventures series)