I originally picked up It’s All About Smiles expecting a standard campus romance, but the dental school background turned out to be what completely pulled me into the story. A lot of medical or specialized fiction can end up feeling generic or getting lost in overly clinical descriptions, but Dr. Ranjani Iyer Arumugam gets the details right. Since she’s an actual practicing maxillofacial surgeon, every single chapter set in the clinic feels raw, chaotic, and completely spot-on.
You follow Aditi Raman as she tries to keep her head above water in dental college. Anyone who has ever been in medical school or higher education will immediately recognize the exact strain she’s under the terror of strict professors, lab work failing at the absolute worst possible moment, and patients who simply refuse to cooperate. The humor throughout these chapters hits so well because it doesn’t feel forced or staged; it feels like the kind of absurd, dark comedy you only get when you’re going through a stressful shared experience with your classmates.
Then there’s Nick, her senior. Their relationship starts with classic academic rivalry and constant back-and-forth banter, but watching it slowly shift into something genuine and steady is easily one of the most satisfying parts of the book, It’s All About Smiles. What I appreciated most was that Nick isn’t just thrown in to be a love interest or a distraction. He actually serves as a mirror for Aditi’s life goals. For years, Aditi has held onto this rigid ideal of moving to America the classic “Great American Dream” that so many students cling to as a default path to success. As her bond with Nick deepens, she’s forced to slow down and really evaluate whether that dream is actually what she wants for her future, or if it’s just a goal she was pursuing out of habit.
The supporting characters deserve a shoutout too. Her friends and batchmates feel like real people you’d sit next to in a crowded college canteen, swapping gossip or complaining about the next day’s exams. The dialogue flows naturally, the pacing never really drags, and the book avoids throwing in cheap, overly dramatic misunderstandings just to artificially create tension.
It’s easy to see why this book got longlisted for the Economist Crossword Book Award. It’s warm, funny, surprisingly nostalgic if you’ve ever lived through university chaos, and it leaves you with a genuine sense of comfort by the time you turn the final page. If you enjoy character-driven stories with a strong sense of place, real heart, and a fresh medical twist, this is absolutely worth sitting down with.
