I really, really wanted to enjoy this book. In fact, I was so excited for it that I promoted it before I had read it because the author and marketing promised a funny and relatable story about a brown girl (just like me). However, I was severely disappointed by this book. Reading this book was like letting down one GIANT sigh of disappointment. I honestly think the main character managed to fall into every single stereotype about South Asian girls and South Asian culture. While sometimes these stereotypes do hold true to South Asian experiences, I felt like I had already heard this story and seen these tropes a million times. As someone who was super excited for this book, I cannot describe what a let down actually reading it was for me. I think one of the worst things I realized after reading, is that many white readers might read it and think because its own voices it is great rep for all South Asians. I am not going to invalidate the author's experiences, but I do wish for a story of a girl embracing and loving her culture rather than trying to distance herself from it and "other" people who do enjoy the culture. I think there a distinction to be made between criticism of your own culture, parents, religion, etc. because you love it and want it to be better, versus criticism because you are trying to distance yourself from your culture and wish you were not part of that religion, culture, traditions, etc, because they don't conform to the white standard or are outside of societal norms. Anyways, I was so sad after reading this book I made a list of things that I saw in Karina that I am tired of seeing in South Asian characters. Maybe this list can help some future authors to not fall in the same traps that Karina repeatedly fell into throughout the book.
A list of things I saw in Karina that i am tired of seeing in brown characters
- characters who resent their parent’s rules
- characters who feel like their parents don’t try to understand them
- characters whose friends don’t try to understand their identity
- characters who only date people of a certain race or ethnicity
- characters who don’t have open conversations with their parents
- characters who feel oppressed by their religion or culture
- characters who don’t have any friends who share some of the same racial, religious, or cultural identities as them
- characters who dress provocatively behind their parent’s backs
- characters who lie to people instead of being honest with them
- characters who seek white validation

wow. it's 12:45am, i just finished this book, and i'm sobbing so hard. i never thought i would read a book that so perfectly reflected my own experiences as a south asian girl with anxiety. i absolutely loved this book. everything about it was so enthralling, from the writing to the characters and their relationships. this was one of my most anticipated releases of the year, and it was everything i could've asked for and more. it's definitely joined the list of my favourite books of all time and i'm so grateful to tashie bhuiyan for writing something that i and so many other brown kids have been longing for for so long.

*arc kindly provided by netgalley in exchange for an honest review

Thank you to NetGalley and Inkyard press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

I would recommend if you're looking for (SPOILERS)

-m/f ya frenemies to lovers
-fake dating
-close proximity
-opposites attract
-forbidden relationship elements
-a cinnamon roll of a hero hiding underneath a leather jacket
-a driven heroine trying to find her place
-a wonderful group of friends
-great banter
-slow burn
-forehead kisses

A beautiful debut I couldn't put this book down. It felt just like going back to high school. Karina, a Banghledeshi teen, finds herself suddenly without her parents for a month. Karina was so relatable, trying to please her parents and live for everyone else. Ace was just a cinnamon roll. The school's bad boy hiding a gooey center just for Karina. I adored watching their relationship develop. This was a fun twist on fake dating. I especially loved that they kept up their fun banter once they started dating.

This book truly shows the importance of having people around you who see the real you. Karina's friend group was so wonderful. And a special shout out to her grandmother, Dadu, who was just so sweet. The anxiety representation was real, and the stigma of mental health treatment. The author's note was beautiful at the beginning.

My only regret is that Ace and Karina's HEA was shown a bit later in the relationship with so much emphasis on the forbidden romance aspect, how they were dealing with hiding the relationship from her parents.

Rating: Rave
Steam: 1

CW: Anxiety, panic attacks, parental abuse (verbal and psychological)

I loved this book so hard! As an Indian-American with very strict parents this story resonated with me so much. I felt like I had lived this story growing up and sneaking around while not actually doing anything wrong. Tashie captured this story and the feelings of helplessness perfectly and I am so glad to have discovered her writing. I cannot wait to see what other wonders this author has in store in the future.

5/5 Stars. Thank you to Inkyard press and netgalley for sending me this arc. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Our protagonist, Karina Ahmed, a south Asian Muslim girl suffering from anxiety who feels stifled under her parents strict standards for her. When they leave Karina and her brother to spend the month in Bangladesh, Karina starts to live the life she wants and then later on is forced to comfort her family about what she wants for her future & happiness.

The fake dating trope immediately pulled me in. The plot was a little cliche but I definitely still enjoyed it. I loved how the author handles her characters and seeing the anxiety representation. This book was extremely easy to read and keeps you hooked. You can easily relate to the characters and her hardships

Trigger warnings: anxiety, mentions of parental abuse.

Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

This was an absolutely amazing story. I can’t believe that it is a debut novel. It was gripping. I was stuck in the book. I needed to know how everything turned. The plot was incredible. The characters were amazing. Even ones that annoyed the hell out of me. I loved everything about this book. The plot was incredible. There were so many twists and turns. In the last ten per cent, I was reading so focused. *SPOILER ALERT* That’s when the best part happens. *SPOILER ALERT* I’m a young adult and a huge fan of all romance books. This one is probably one of my new favourites. Back to the characters. Ace was an incredible guy. He had his moments where he would intimidate you but he was an onion. He had so many layers. Same with Karina. She never wanted to disappoint. She always made other people happy. The two main characters grew a lot throughout the book. They became brave, confronted any problems that hurt them. Dadu was an incredible character. She was so encouraging even though she was the older generation. Karina’s friends were the best. They had their issues in life relating to their cultural differences too. That added depth to the story. I love the inclusion of poetry and music. The poems written, created goosebumps. This is an incredible novel. I hope that the author makes it a series where Xander, Cora, Nandini, and Sameer get their own stories.

I wrote this voluntary review in exchange for an ARC copy.

If I had to describe this in one phrase, I wouldn't say its a romance. I wouldn't call it a contemporary. It truly is a letter to anyone who has ever struggled with parental expectations. It's a letter of encouragement, a letter of resilience, a letter of independence. It's the tale of a young girl struggling with what her parents want from her, and what she wants from herself. This is a letter to every single teenager who has ever felt confined.

I want to start this off by saying that I grew up in a family worlds different than Karina's. My parents were supportive of everything I did, and they were there for me through everything. Even then, I felt the pressure of disappointing them, of wasting their time. Because of this, Karina was one of the most relatable characters I've ever read. Sure, I haven't been through most of her experiences, but at her core, she was a fragment of all of us. Within her, I found hope that we all have the chance live our lives for ourselves. I would recommend reading this for that reason alone, which completely ignores the lyrical writing, and realistic characters.

Tashie Bhuiyan had a way of writing that felt both gritty and beautiful. Several times, I stopped and highlighted entire paragraphs because they resonated so deeply within me. I loved the poems Bhuiyan wrote to accompany this, which is something you'll rarely hear me say. I hate poetry, but these poems were lyrical. I can see myself rereading this dozens of times, it was that gorgeous.

Even more stunning were the characters. Ace has become one of my favorite characters, if only for his complexities. We were given a love interest with multiple facets, and he was just as interesting to me as our main character. Every single time I thought I understood him, another detail was revealed. Most of all, I loved how respectful he was. Him and Karina have one of the best relationships I've ever read, it was so healthy. I loved how hard he was willing to work to keep her, and how he pushed her to be herself, not to conform to what her parents wanted.

And as for Karina, her journey will stick in my mind for a long time. Her relationship with her parents was done incredibly well, and I love the way it was written. The entire time, I felt like I was there with her, praying that her parents would accept her, and breaking down with her when they wouldn't.

Despite not being a huge fan of romances, I loved this book. It made me feel something, so it’s an automatic favorite! I can’t wait to see what else Bhuiyan writes, considering this is one heck of a debut novel!

Thanks to Tashie Bhuiyan and Netgalley for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review!

I have to be honest that this book really held my attention and was hard to put down for about two-thirds of the 416 pages.  I was genuinely invested in the characters and wanted to see how it all resolved.  Sadly, by the end, I was disappointed with the conclusion, the predictability, the stereotypes, and the cliche' of it all.  The author mentions in the forward that she is representing her story, not a representation of all Bangladeshi- Muslim American girls, but for an OWN voice book with such a clever premise, I really wanted to be shown more than I was told, I wanted to feel the protagonists strength, and cheer her on as she found her happiness on her terms.  But alas I felt that she let other's fight her battles and she really only threw her religion and culture around as weighted plot oppressors, not as strands of her life that she had to decide to embrace or understand in the process of growing into herself.  There was a lot of potential to discuss mental health and family expectation, but the end unraveled all that the book could have been.  Undoubtedly the author is a good writer, and brown Muslims are not a monolith, but I feel like sometimes we need to square away who we are before we just clamor for what we want.  This book has relationships, it is a romance novel afterall, but whether the characters are straight or LGBTQ+, there isn't more than kissing and hand holding and would probably be fine for 9th grade and up if you are ok with a Muslim lead lying to her parents and having a boyfriend.

SYNOPSIS:

Karina Ahmed is 16 and expected to be a doctor when she grows up.  Her conservative Muslim parents are immigrants from Bangladesh and very over protective of their oldest child.  Samir her younger brother, a freshman, is a robotics nerd and the pride of their family.  Karina loves English and wants nothing more to major in English in college, but her parents are insistent and despite her struggles with math and science she is determined she has no choice in the matter and must make them proud by being a doctor.  This inability to be what her parents want has caused tremendous anxiety within Karina and when her parents leave for a vacation to Bangladesh for a month, she is hoping to be able to relax and enjoy life for 28 days with her Dadu, paternal grandma, and her friends, Cora and Nandini.  

The only extracurricular activities Karina is allowed are Pre-Med Society and tutoring, where she helps others with English.  Her teacher asks her to tutor a classmate one on one to prepare for the end of the year exams, and reluctantly she agrees.  Very reluctantly.  The classmate is brooding resident bad boy Ace Clyde, a beautiful slacker that seems to not care about much.  In Karina's efforts to get Ace to study and taking advantage of limited parental supervision, Karina goes with Ace to a sweetshop and even ends up at his house where she meets his family.  Ace is not ready to admit to his incredibly wealthy family that he is seeking help from a tutor and instead introduces Karina as his girlfriend.  Ace's older brother Xander, the Student Body Class President, isn't buying it, so Ace announces it on social media and shows up the next day with coffee for Karina as he walks her to class determined to convince everyone that they are indeed a couple. Karina is not ok with this, but he does promise her a dozen books a week and he is aware that the "relationship" can only last 28 days, so she is in.   Karina's friends predict that they will fall hopelessly in love and they are pretty correct.  Over the course of the next three and half weeks the two grow closer, he even comes over and spends time with Dadu and Samir.  She encourages him to fix his relationship with his family, and he encourages her to fix hers.  And somewhere in the midst of pretending they decide to make it real and then Karina's parents return.  She at this point has been cheered on to stand her ground on confronting them about not wanting to be a doctor by Ace, Cora, Nandini, Dadu and Samir.  The conversation does not go well and Karina goes into a two week slump pushing everyone out before she *spoiler alert* resolves to date Ace in secret as long as he respects her lines, and Dadu stands up to her parents for her.  The story concludes with her going to Jr. Prom and her resolved to just stay strong for a little while longer until she is "free."

WHY I LIKE IT:

I like that I really didn't know if the book would turn cliche until it ultimately did.  I really liked the realness and rawness of Karina coping with her anxiety and her friends supporting her in Googling coping mechanisms and helping her test them out.  I feel like it was a missed opportunity for Karina's parents to not reach out to her, or for Karina to even mention that they were missing it.  I think readers that see themselves in Karina would have hoped to see that story thread play out and give them hope of getting help and support or at least getting it out in the open to normalize it.  I love the growth of Samir once Karina make him aware of the double standard, but I feel like he doesn't read with a consistent persona.  He has a job, he has friends, he likes a girl, but he reads like he is clueless and maybe 10 years old at best, not in high school.  A bit off for me.  And of course you have to love Dadu, a wise old woman who supports her grandchildren and sticks up for them.  I wish Karina would have taken her cues from her beloved grandmother and stood up to her parents with Dadu in the room rather than let Dadu fight the fight and just stand there.  I thought the big climax would be Karina standing up to her parents, so I felt let down when she let someone else fight her fight.  Yes Karina tried and failed, but I think her grandmother should have backed her up in round two, not taken over.  

Karina throughout says she is Bangladeshi-Muslim and uses it as a reason to fear her parents and feel obligated to not date or study English.  She does say she isn't against religion, and actually likes being a Muslim and praying and knows Allah loves her, but that it is the tradition that blindly is followed that gives her trouble.  Her maternal grandfather is an Imam and her mom is much stricter than her father, but he follows her lead in raising the kids.  My critique isn't so much to argue with the author's perspective about religious standards, but more a literary one, when the character says she is Muslim and uses that to reason why she has lines, but yet is never seen praying or wresting with what she wants and what she believes.  Never asking Allah for help with her anxiety or confronting her parents or anything for that matter.  As soon as her parents leave she is in a crop top, so where is the religious line and where is the cultural one?  Where is her understanding of her culture and where it fits in her life and where she wants it to fit in her future? Is she Muslim because her parents are or because she believes it? She won't eat ham, and eats halal, but later eats meat at Ace's house? Everyone, even fictional characters, get agency, but in a book where the premise is a fake relationship turned real turned rebellious because of religion and culture, a little introspection seems warranted.

The conclusion after hundreds of pages of being called lionhearted and brave and strong seemed diminished when going to prom and lying to parents and having grandma fight your battle is the happy ending.  

FLAGS:

Relationships: The main couple hold hands and kiss. There is a supporting character that is bisexual as is a cousin, one is gay, they hold hands and kiss as well. Nothing more than that or detailed. There is lying and deception.

TOOLS FOR LEADING THE DISCUSSION:

I don't think I would do this as an Islamic School book club selection because it would imply agreement with lying and going behind your parents backs.  Granted her parents are difficult and her grandma is aware and ok with the situation, but I still think it would send the wrong message to endorse such behavior from a religious school perspective.

i intended on reading this book slowly. a few chapters a day. to savor it.

and then, today, i binged 80% of it when i should’ve been going to sleep.

this book is everything. it’s about an overachiever with immigrant parents who always have expectations that she doesn’t think she’ll meet. it’s about a book nerd who treasures the written word more than anything else in the world. it’s about an awkward teen with a crush on a boy who can’t seem to stop flirting with her at any opportunity.

i cannot tell you how refreshing it is to read a romcom where the conflict doesn’t come from a disagreement between the main couple. where the protagonist doesn’t abandon their friends as soon as they get in a relationship. where the love interest truly just expresses their unconditional love in whatever way possible.

also i just want to give karina a hug and tell her that she’ll be okay!!!

shoutout to samir and dadu, i can only hope to one day write family members as interesting and loving as them. nandini and cora are wonderful. miss cannon reminds me of every english teacher i’ve had.

please read this book the day it comes out, you will not regret it.

thank you to inkyard press and netgalley for the arc, i literally screamed when i got the email notification about it!!! i feel so privileged to be able to read this book before it’s released. yes i will still be preordering it from my local indie (which doesn’t even compare to the indie in this book skfjskfjskfjsjdjs but i love them immensely)

A grader, smart, responsible, quirky, adorable South Asian girl and badass, handsome, sweet tooth, rebellious white boy unite for tutoring sessions and fake dating scheme, friends to lovers theme, problematic families who reject to communicate or empathize their own children, verbal and psychological abuse, anxiety disorder!

Did you like the formula I mentioned? If your answer is yes, you’re accepted to the full, heartfelt, sweet-swoon-soft, enjoyed ride!

I love realistic young adult books plus sweet romance with so much likable characters! This book checks all of the boxes of my true weakness and addiction of young at hearts premise!

Karina is strong character, who is victimized by her over conservative, domineering parents who also intervene and put limits to everything she likes to do with your life including her love for English literature! She likes to read, writing poems as her parents forced her to become a doctor!

She keeps saying sorry for everything she’s done because her parents incepted the wrong thought patterns into her mind and she never thinks she’s good enough, smart enough or capable enough! She becomes more anxious at each moment which I can easily relate to be helpless when you’re under so much pressure, squeezing yourself into tiny ball not to collapse under the attacks life throws at your way!

Karina’s parents also spoil her brother Samir who is clueless, immature but also caring brother. Yes, I truly have so much negative feelings about them but thankfully Dadu was so much huggable character who is on Karina’s side and who encourages her from the beginning to live her life and make her own choices!

And Ace has issues with his own brother Xander as well but he was sweeter than the lollipops he licks throughout the chapters. He was honest, solid and learning from mistakes, so much likable hero!

The couple’s chemistry was perfect! I liked their connection! Both of them were respectful with each other’s limits and boundaries.

And best friends of Karina: quirky, cheerful and so much supportive, likable!

Overall: I’m giving my five for the love of English literature, lyrical poems, delicious cheesecakes, milkshakes stars!

I love feel good YA fictions with inspirational messages and remarkable characters! Thankfully the author gave me all of them in a beautiful package and creative cover!

Special thanks to NetGalley and Inkyard Press for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.

*Spoiler free*

I heard fake dating and I was in. I knew the main character, Karina, was going to tutor the resident bad boy, while also going through with a fake dating scheme. That's pretty much where my knowledge ended, but not my excitement for it. The cover is adorable and I'd seen so much love for it online that I was ready to read it as soon as I could. Trigger warnings: anxiety, anxiety attacks, parental abuse (verbal, phycological)

Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. How do you put into a words the feelings a book gives you when it feels like your love for it is swelling in your chest to burst into a million Sour Patch Kids and lollipops? Because I'm going to try and do just that. This is going to be a full on gushing review and I'm not even going to apologize for it, because this book is that good.

I'm going to start off with Karina, specifically her anxiety. I just got her anxiety. I got the feeling of wanting everything to just stop. I got the constant apologizing. I got being afraid of so many things that it's overwhelming. I got being terrified over how many things there are to be afraid of. I got the feelings of anxiety so strong that it felt like the only thing to exist. I just got her in that sense. I also loved Karina as a whole, because she's not just her anxiety. She loves English, she's passionate, she's an amazing poet, she hilarious, and she's brave.

I guess I'm going by character here, so Ace is up next! Ace is the biggest and sweetest dork ever. He's so incredibly kind. He understands Karina's lines and he won't cross them. And when he makes a mistake he apologizes and actually tries to do better. He's solid, both as a person and with Karina. He's a bad boy who loves lollipops and space and the piano. Seriously, he was all around adorable.

On to Karina's friends. They seriously have the most chaotic relationship, but dang was it hilarious. Plus, they text and act like actual teens! They're dramatic, use humor every chance they get, and are dramatic some more. They are also always there for Karina and Karina is always there for them. They might not completely get each others experiences, because they're different people, but they always try to support and understand each other. Really, they're just really great friends.

I was going to move onto families next, but Karina's grandma and Samir get a paragraph of their own. Karina's grandma was just so cool. She was supportive and loving and the person in Karina's corner that she needed. I loved seeing her love Karina when she so desperately needed it. And Samir! He was such a typical boy, oh my gosh. He was annoying and clueless, but also really sweet and compassionate at the same time.

Alright, not it's time to talk about families. Ace and Karina both have complicated relationships with their families. There is lack of understanding, lack of trying to understand, and just a disconnect between parent and child. I didn't fully connect with Karina's struggles with her parents, simply because that is not my experience, but there was a part that really resonate. The part about experiences shaping people and being handed down. It's a painful part of the story, but one that is powerful as well. It allows Karina's bravery to shine through. It's a chance for her to grow and a chance for her to figure out what she really wants.

The amount of sweets in the books was nuts! There's a literal sweet shop and it's a big part of the book and it has cheesecake and milkshakes and more! Ace loves lollipops and Karina loves Sour Patch Kids. I have a huge sweet tooth, so all these sweets needed to be mentioned of course.

The humor in this book was also spot on. I snorted and cackled out loud pretty much throughout the entire thing. It's amazing, and it felt authentically teen like!

It's also so beautifully written. It was easy to fly through and it felt as sweet as the relationship and the actual sweets. Plus, the poetry was top notch. Seriously, it felt like it nestled right next to my heart. It was beautifully, beautifully written.

LETS TALK ABOUT THE TITLE TOO BECAUSE WOW. It was integrated into so many aspects of the book that I actually kind of want to scream. It was so, so smart and the ending basically made me want to burst into tears.

So, if you couldn't tell, I love this book a whole heck of a lot. Like, I actually started crying when writing this review. I'm even going to inset a picture as proof because this book made me feel a whole lot of things.

Absolutely completely sweet and adorable, anxiety rep that had me pretty much in tears, amazing best friends, complicated, painful familial relationships, good familial relationships, trying to learn and change, fake dating, and so much more that I could go on and on. Seriously, this book is amazing. And I love it so much.

i was approved for this arc *checks email* nine hours ago, and here we are -- finally time for me to gush about how much i loved this book!

Counting Down with You is the story of Karina Ahmed, a Bangladeshi Muslim teenager who feels stifled under her parents strict standards for her. When they leave Karina and her brother to spend the month in Bangladesh, Karina starts to live the life she'd been hoping for, and is forced to confront her family and herself about what happiness looks like for her.

I adored this book -- it was just the right balance of funny and emotional and delightful and inspirational. I loved the depth that Bhuiyan put into the side characters and the humor of bad boy Ace and the emotional intensity of Karina. I saw a lot of the realities of my own anxiety in her (I might even try her counting habit, who knows?)

I cannot recommend this book enough for lovers of YA contemporary/romance. You will love it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ink Yard Press for the ARC of Counting Down with You by Tashie Bhuiyan. Counting Down with You is a sweet YA contemporary that lightly tackles the issues of two teens as they navigate their parent’s expectations and their own dreams for the future. The story contains a good mix of romance and clever banter between the two main characters, Karina and Ace. I especially appreciated Karina’s poetry throughout, and thought it gave better insight to her and her fears and dreams.

Thank you net galley for the advance reader copy of this novel. This was a contemporary YA novel that was set to be a romance. I didn't finish this novel. The care for the writing style and characters and couldn't get into this book. The summary sounded great but this one is not for me.

This book seems to have it all. It tackles mental health issues, stereotypes, family expectations, and romance all at once. You emphasize with the main characters and are really rooting for them. Karina is a Bangladeshi teen trying navigate her parents strict ideals, their expectations for her future and typical high school life when she is asked to tutor Ace in English. Tutoring doesn't turn out to be what she is expecting and neither is Ace. There is even a supportive grandma that understands it all. Quick and enjoyable read. Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book!!!

Karina Ahmed is a wonderful daughter who wants to do nothing more then satisfy her parents and win their approval. She works extremely hard trying to keep perfect grades in all classes she struggles in, including math. Her favorite subject and secret desire to keep studying....English. Her parents want her to become a doctor. They are far more strict with her then they are with her brother, who can do no wrong in their eyes. I thought my parents had unrealistically high expectations I was trying to meet as a teenager, but Karina's parents are next level.

Karina just wants to study literature and turn it into a career she can truly be happy with. She hates math and science isn't her passion. So when her parents go on a month long trip to Bangladesh to visit their families, Karin decides to enjoy her temporary freedom as much as she can. Being asked by her favorite teacher, and agreeing no less, to tutor rumored resident bad poor Alistair (Ace) Clyde was not in the plans.

Supporting one lie Ace makes to his family can't hurt that much, can it? But pretending to be Ace's girlfriend for a few weeks in exchange for him actually trying to learn during their tutoring sessions should be that hard, right? Only it turns out Ace isn't the bad boy everyone thinks he is. He's actually a surprise nice, perceptive, sweet young man.

These two actually go well together, bringing out the courage in each other to strive for what they really want in life. Ace sees the bravery and courage in Karina while Karina sees the soft and artistic side of Ace that is hurting with the constant infighting within his family. They both push each other to be more open with their families in hopes that it will make them happier overall. While things mostly work out for Ace, Karina has to bring in the heavy hitter that is her wonderful Dadu (grandma) to help.


Speaking of Karina's dadu, that lady is AWESOME. Karina's family seems to be pretty traditional so it was nice how the home life portrayed. My knowledge pretty limited though so I really enjoyed the nice balance of it in this book. I enjoyed the key phrases in there, even though I had no clue what they meant unless it was explained (and they were explained, thank goodness)!

This books is just a nice balance and is super relatable. Karina's anxiety brought on mostly by the pressures she puts on her self to try and please her parents, is super relatable. Don't get me wrong, her parents are piling it on her, but I also think she is piling on herself on their behalf too. But she's brave enough, with the help of her friends, dadu and Ace, to tell them what she really wants in life.

Where her parents differ from mine (and hopefully a lot of other people's) is what really hits home. At least for me. And I think that's what one of the relatable pieces in this book, we all had to confront our parents for something we really wanted. The results, however, may have differed drastically and this book lets you experience one of them.

This book is a wonderful balancing act done right. It may be a bit longer than other YA books, but it keeps you engaged the whole time and it doesn't feel long when you're reading it!

Seriously, this book had me whipping out my phone to read it whenever I had a single minute to spare. Waiting for click and collect? Read the book! Computer updating and rebooting? BOOK! At one point I even found myself crouching beside an outlet, so my phone could charge, reading it because I found a few minutes and REALLY just wanted to continue reading about Karina and Ace.

Wonderful. Definitely going to get it for my library when it comes out!

Disclaimer: I got this ARC from @NetGalley

Okay, so I had high hopes for this one and I would've loved to see Karina talk more about being a Muslim teen. However, this was still a fun read and it helped me to understand my Bangladeshi relatives a bit more.

AGH I loved this book. The perfect YA romance; there is a large South Asian population in my community, and I think a lot of my teens will relate to Karina's struggles with her conservative Bangladeshi family. I love the characters, friendships, and romance in this book. The perfect pandemic read.

I love this books so much and the representation is immaculate.
Karina and Ace probably my favorite couple right now and will ever be, this slow romance is something that I been in love always and Tashie knew how to do it. I really love how much I learned from the Bangladesh culture. I have never read about it but I could relate a lot to Karina with the strict parents I will love to read more from Tashie definitely and I’ll, something I will do to its keep simping over Ace.
I love the side characters tashie managed them well and you can always relate to them and fangirl when things happened between Ace and Karina, i love their character development and how they handle the situation around Karinas parents.
I need to get this book when it comes out, definitely.

Not only do we have a REAL representation of anxiety, verbal/psychological parental abuse, and an intriguing "fake dating" turned romance.... WE HAVE DADU, ALL OF THE WONDERFUL SUPPORTIVE GRANDMOTHER FEELS.

This character. Yes. Karina feels real, her anxiety and the pressure that she feels to live up to her parents expectations are so relatable. And then you've got her WONDERFUL friends being so supportive and respectful and dealing with her anxiety? Her AMAZING grandmother Dadu? Her brother gradually coming to realize that how Karina is treated is, in fact, different from how he is treated and beginning to help Karina? Loved it all.

I cannot relate to the particular cultural, religious, and other pressures that Karina's parents placed on her, but I can say that I truly feel as though they are well-represented and expressed in this book. As someone who is not Bangladeshi or Muslim, I feel honored to have gotten to read this #ownvoices YA book before it comes out. It has given me insight and depth that I much appreciate.

10/10 would recommend reading! Give it a try. :)