One of my favourite YA books I have read this year and this is one that I will add to my middle grade classroom. A story about a teen girl who is torn between doing what is "right" by her family, or doing what she wants. Her best friends are amazing characters who support her no matter what, but are also willing to share their own opinions. Her grandmother was the sweetest and one of my favourite characters. I found myself obsessed with the countdown and wanted Karina to succeed.

As an asian child growing up, it would have been wonderful to read about young girls who go through similar expectations and pressures at home, while trying to fit in with her friends.

Thank you Tashie for a beautiful story and I look forward to your future works.

Counting Down With You centers Karina Ahmed, a 16 year old high school teen who is desperately trying to pretend she cares about becoming a doctor to please her parents all while suppressing her own desire to major in English in college. So when her parents go on a one-month trip to Bangladesh in the middle of the school year, Karina and her brother, Samir, are left alone with their super chill grandmother, which brings nothing but relief to Karina.

Unfortunately, she can’t seem to catch a break as her English teacher assigns her to tutor Alistair (better known as Ace to everyone) Clyde, the loner “bad boy” after school every day until he gets his grades up. Her apprehension is only exacerbated by the fact that there’s a million rumors flying around about Ace, especially considering he cuts class regularly. Ace skips the first day of their tutoring session but Karina covers for him the next day when prompted by their English teacher, which starts their slightly awkward friendship.

Ace doesn’t want his dad to know that he’s being tutored, so when he’s at risk of being caught, he lies and says Karina is his girlfriend, which instigates their fake-dating.

friends!
Karina has two best friends, Nandini and Cora, both of whom understand her family situation and are amazingly supportive through everything she endures. Even though their home life and parents are a lot less conservative than hers, they never push her to do anything when they know she can’t, and they even threaten Ace a few times.

dadu!
Dadu is Karina’s grandmother, and she’s the one who takes care of Karina and Samir while their parents are in Bangladesh. Dadu’s more supportive than anyone else in the family, and it’s only to her that Karina feels safe confiding in. She even lets Karina skip school when she doesn’t want to go, which my grandmother would never let me do. She doesn’t prod when Ace rings their doorbell, or when Karina comes home late.

the ~romance~
First of all, Ace is the only valid white boy I’ve ever seen.

I know girls often don’t even get the bare minimum from their boyfriends, but fake-boyfriend Ace goes above and beyond, buying her a shit ton of books, remembering her coffee order when even Cora and Nandini don’t know, and remembers her favorite dessert at the bakery they begin to frequent.

Genuinely, I have nothing problematic to pick on, and I’m critical as hell.

final thoughts
I’ve read many many many South Asian-American contemporaries, but I think this was by far the most relatable and “accurate” with regards to my experiences. Tashie Bhuiyan does a wonderful job breaking the stereotypical brown-girl-meets-white-boy-and-starts-hating-her-culture story. High school was nothing short of a hellhole for me with my strict family, and the double standard when it comes to sons is unfortunately true and it sucks, but it’s relieving to see that it wasn’t just my experience.

Even at the end of the book, Karina doesn’t tell her parents about Ace, and from what I could tell, she’s waiting until college (or whenever she’s finally out of the house) to say anything about it. It’s funny that we’re in the same boat despite me not being in high school anymore because I’m waiting until I’m out of the house to tell my mom about my partner too LOL.

Overall, this book has once again proven that we need more gen z writers in YA. 5/5.

LOVE!!!! love love love love. I'm so proud of Tashie and I'm so excited to read more from her! I've been following her on Twitter for a while now and I'm always so intrigued by what she's working on.

If I had to sum up this book in one word, I would say it is perfection. I came into this book with high expectations and this book not only met them, but just crossed them. Counting Down With You made me experience a rollercoaster of emotions and it just touched my heart. So many of Karina's experiences reminded me of my own. Even her friend group felt freakishly similar to mine. And then there's Ace; he might be the most perfect bad boy character ever written. But I wouldn't call him bad; more so rebellious. He's also such a funny guy and has such a good heart. The fact that he instantly agreed to buy Karina books in exchange for fake dating him? Like hello? Where can I find a boy like this? And Karina...she's the type of girl I would love to be friends with. I see a lot of myself in her and maybe that's why I grew to love her so quickly.

Counting Down With You is amazing and Tashie Bhuiyan has written the perfect book.

Karina suddenly finds herself with a new sense of freedom she doesn't know how to navigate. When her parents leave for a month long vacation, how can Karina suddenly feel comfortable breaking the strict rules engrained in her from childhood? Although she appreciates her culture and religion, Karina feels like she has to fit into a specific mold she is not sure is the mold for her.

When Karina begins to tutor the school's resident bad boy Alistair Clyde, she finds herself in a book-trope-come-to-life fake dating situation. As she is now forced to navigate a web of feelings and secrets, she begins to mold herself into the person she wants to be through the help of her crazy group of friends and her ever patient Dadu.

I appreciated the conversation on anxiety and the Own-Voice Bangladesh/ Muslim representation. Although many different types of experiences exist and Karina's does not represent all of the community, I think bringing to light at least one experience is the first step. There is a mold that needs to be broken and I think this novel did an excellent job of demonstrating that. I do wish Karina discussed the differences between culture and religion a little more in depth. However I think there are a lot of young Bangladeshi teenagers who will very much appreciated seeing themselves represented in a book. I sure wish I read this when I was younger!

a lot of things annoyed me but the way the Muslim aspect of this book was handled-

i am rage🙂


this was my first Muslim rep book and the disappointment and frustration im feeling is unfathomable and i was so excited ughhhh

okay, but before i get into the negatives and start ranting, i'll say the good stuff:

-the anxiety rep in here and how the main character dealt with it was pretty good.
-how the MC fought for what degree she wanted to pursue was amazing. parents should never be forcing their child to do what something they dont want to do.
-the sibling relationship was sweet.
-this was a pretty quick read.

thats it.

and i was actually loving this in the beginning.😭 all my highlights literally showed my happiness at how the MC being Muslim was incorporated into this book. all the arabic words, her praying, other religious mentions-

then there was the MC dealing with anxiety and the pressure her parents put on her, and i felt bad for her. she was dealing with so much and was so scared to speak up about not wanting to be a doctor. her parents were absolutely ruthless when it came to discussing a change in career paths, they just went ahead and chose her future for her and i despised them.

but of course what happens next? the white boy comes into her life teaching her to be stronger, believe in herself (etc) and brings her happiness

....

*silence*

it's not even that it was a white boy bringing her happiness that got me annoyed, but how the parents were villainized when it came to religion (but i understand them looking like villains when it came to not allowing her to pursue an English major -- that made sense) and that of course it was the white boy who saved her from the pain and sadness she was feeling.

literally what pisses me off so much is that she'd constantly complain of the things her parents would forbid her from doing that you know, are because it's not allowed in Islam??? like i totally am with the main character when it came to her parents not allowing her to pursue the career she wants. parents 100% should not be doing that, it's really messed up, especially with the pressure put on their child. they really should just be happy with what their kid wants to grow up to be, and that's the one thing i disliked about her parents.

other than that--what the hell?? the MC constantly makes out her parents to be the bad guys for other stuff, when that's not even true ohmygod. for one thing, you aren't supposed to date guys/have boyfriends/kiss the opposite gender in Islam. It's not that her parents are evil and do this as a personal attack, its haram (forbidden). Yet the main character here literally is like "i want happiness, why cant they let me have be with him" -- girl, im with you about wanting to find happiness with the job, but you know...shouldn't you be faithful to your religion and understand that it's not allowed to date so your parents are right to tell you it's forbidden?? i am confusion. and im the same age as this girl and i know this. i dont hate on my parents???

i obviously understand that this was marketed as fake-dating trope, so im not surprised with how some of the things turned out, and she can go ahead and date the guy, but it just really makes me angry me that the main character makes her parents look evil for telling her that she isn't allowed to date? *sigh*

okay, but all of that i just said -- maybe some wont mind it, it's probably just something only i and some others would be annoyed with. i just feel like if you're gonna write about a Muslim character, don't break that rule and cast the parents in a bad light?? idk. either way, don't make out your parents to be evil because they won't let you date. and it's not even something that we need to be pitied for or looked at in horror, like what the other characters in this book did when she told them. it's part of what we've learned in our religion, so respect it.

i swear, i feel like this book was trying to push the idea that all Muslim parents are strict to this degree and are harsh. it's in no way like that. maybe some are, but the same could be said with any other race/religion -- it's just that with Muslim rep books (and *cough* Netlfix shows), the parents are for the most part portrayed as villains.

and yes, i saw that the MC would constantly say that she knows her religion isn't bad, she knows her parents aren't evil, but her actions and what she'd say/do after... she says she understands but she would still complain about them the next few pages, saying how they're unfair?? she'd be so bitter about it and then she breaks said rules😐

but again, one thing I did love was seeing the MC go against her parents when it came to doing the degree she wanted and not what they wanted. definitely a lot of people can relate with being forced to become a doctor, engineer, or lawyer. im thankful that my parents have never pushed me to become something i dont want to be.

i just hate what this book implies. i hate that people who will read this may think that all Muslim parents are controlling and cruel to their children. i hate that some may even pity us for some of this. just no. i can tell you that im proud to be a Muslim and proud of my religion. i don't think any of the rules/what we're forbidden to do is harsh at all. it makes complete sense in my eyes and i love my parents. i love everything about Islam.

now let's get to the love interest. I DESPISE Ace with every ounce of my being. he's legit the typical white bad boy who's secretly a softie inside once you get to know him. i do not care about him. He's so cheesy and im all here for the cheesiness BUT NOT THIS. so many cringey scenes and i did not see the chemistry between the two at all. sure, they had kinda similar situations when it came to their families, but like?? thats it?? i dont like either of them, but especially the main character.

i seriously think in general, if an author is going to incorporate religion into a YA contemporary, then you should actually follow through with the religion?? bc if you're not going to do that, then literally what's the point-

and if you're going to end up casting the religion in a negative light, then again...what's the point?? unless you're just trying to make others think badly on said religion?? Whether it's Christianity, Muslim, Hinduism, Judaism, etc -- follow through on those teachings. dont bother writing about a religious character in a book if you're not even going to follow through on some of the rules and villainize the parents. thankfully at least the MC would eat halal food, occasionaly pray, and understood that getting drunk was haram. but the dating and kissing, casting her parents as evil in those aspects...no🤚

and it's sad, because the author is Muslim so i thought it'd actually follow through on that. like the author probably didn't mean to show Islam in a bad way, but that's how it looked like to me. i think that maybe non-Muslims or people who aren't really familiar with Islam will probably like this book, though.

i saw in other reviews that the Bangali rep was done poorly too -- im not Bangali, so i cant say anything bc i wouldn't know, but thats so sad it wasn't done well either :(

anyways, im not going to waste any more of my time with this book. all i've gained from this is that i should never trust books with Muslim reps without having first read reviews by Muslims themselves. i shouldn't have had high expectations🤡


Many thanks to Inkyard Press for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review!! <33

This debut YA is so heart-warming, romantic, and fast-paced—I devoured it in a single day! Bhuiyan has created characters that will linger in your mind for years, and the representation in this story will give many teens a romance that makes them feel seen. I can't wait for everyone to fall in love with Karina and Ace in May!

A sweet fake-dating story about complicated relationships with family, cultural differences, anxiety, and navigating how to get what you want in the world. Ace and Karina's relationship developed naturally and compellingly. Good for fans of Sandhya Menon and Gloria Chao.

Writing this review will truly hurt every fiber in my being, but I simply cannot say I recommend this book at all. My biggest issue with this book is the Muslim representation. For simplicity's sake, until I can cohesively put my thoughts together, the representation is deeply offensive and the author didn't draw the lines between religion, culture, and the main character's personal life clearly. They blurred together and it was an offensive and jarring experience to read.

The romance was cute and I liked the anxiety rep.

Full review to come.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read an ARC of this fun YA romance!

Counting Down With You is the story of Karina, a Bangladeshi-American Muslim teenager who has been trying hard her whole life to fit into the idea that her parents have of what her life should be, even though she wants to follow a different path. When she starts tutoring Ace, a so-called "bad boy," things get a bit out of hand when he tells his family that he and Karina are dating. Karina's parents are out of the country for 28 days, and Karina has to figure out what she truly wants from Ace and from her life before they come back.

I thought this was a very fun and touching YA romance. I enjoyed learning about Karina's culture and her internal struggles as she tries to find her own place in the world. I especially enjoyed watching Karina's friendships with her two best female friends, as well as her relationship with her brother. The one thing that bothered me a bit, though, was Ace, the male romantic lead. He just seemed a bit unrealistically kind and selfless, especially when Karina was stringing him along quite a bit. He constantly looks out for her and tries to help her in every way, and I just couldn't take that level of sweetness after a while. I don't mind a sweet romance, but I felt like the romance parts were just a bit repetitive and overdone in this particular story.

Overall, a good read, and I would recommend it to fans of contemporary YA romance!

Karina just wants to please her parents—even if it means ignoring her dreams to be an English major in college. When they leave for a trip to visit family in Bangladesh for a month, Karina stays with her grandmother, allowing her at least a little more freedom than she usually has. Suddenly her world is flipped upside down when her teacher asks her to tutor the school’s “bad boy”, Ace. Karina isn’t thrilled about it, but she doesn’t want to disappoint her teacher.

One day, Ace tells his family that he and Karina are fake-dating, and after spending almost a month together, Karina has to deal with the fact that her fake-dating scenario is turning into real feelings, as she learns more about this so-called bad boy who believes in her and sees in her what she’s never seen in herself. She must decide, however, whether or not she has the courage to talk to her parents about being her own person.

I really enjoyed this book. And can we just talk about the title?! I didn’t think much of it at first, since each chapter is a countdown until her parents get home and the only time she has to be somewhat free completely vanishes. But with the anxiety rep in the book, Karina is constantly counting down from ten throughout the book, and soon, Ace becomes her rock, grounding her when she’s feeling anxious. The title seems to take on a whole new meaning.

I loved how the book shows one girl’s experience having to brave going against familial expectations in order to be happy and live her own life. Even though this was never something I dealt with, I was able to fully experience it through Karina, as her thoughts and feelings were very well depicted. I loved the sense of urgency throughout the book. It was fast-paced and fun, and I couldn’t wait to see what would happen next. All of the characters had their own story and personality. Karina and her brother’s relationship was one of my favorites to watch develop.

I do wish that I got more of the “after” with Ace. It was set up pretty clearly that there was no way Karina would ever be able to tell her parents about Ace, between him being white and a boy. It was clear they’d have to hide it until they went off to college. And usually, I am against an epilogue because I hold on to hope for a sequel that will likely never happen. BUT unless there are already plans for that, I would have liked some closure, to have known where she ended up going to college. If she and Ace even made it until then. Did they end up at college together or thirty minutes apart? Did he do his piano thing or astronomy?

Overall, fun book with some probably unrealistic, cheesy dialogue by a sixteen year old boy (which doesn’t bother me at all) and really great relationships and character development!

I received an e-arc of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

4/5 stars

Please be aware that this book does portray anxiety on page. I found at times that my own anxiety would spike with our main characters even though situations that made her anxious are not things I've had anxiety from.

Counting Down With You was a cute (and at times hard) YA book. Most of the hard topics deal with anxiety and familial relationships. There were definitely cultural differences between myself and the main character so I can't speak on how accurate that portrayal was. However in terms of my own experience with anxiety I definitely feel like it had decent representation. I liked that she (and her friends and Ace) looked up different ways to help during an anxiety attack. It's something I've struggled with as I haven't quite found a method that really helps when I have an attack and I'm not at home. This did give me some ideas for new methods to try and I really appreciate that. I also loved that it was an exploration and our main character tried different methods to see what works best for her as not every method works for every person. There were times that it was hard for me to read (pretty much any time her parents were on page) as I didn't like them but could also feel my own anxiety spike along with the main characters.

I am happy with how things ended with some things fully being resolved and others being put aside to try another day. It was very interesting to see as relationships changed and grew and as some characters got a better understanding of what was really going on. The progression of fake dating (which I was smiling and living my best life while reading) to actually dating was really sweet and Ace was so understanding and willing to apologize when he crossed a boundary and didn't keep pushing it was just adorable.

This was an interesting story about the second generation immigrant culture clash. While I found the characters to be interesting and sweet, the main character's struggle with college felt drawn out of proportion. She seems to be living in some sort of dream world where people go to college for fun rather than to study something that will get them a job. I found the story to be interesting otherwise, and the plot developed well enough that it didn't feel too rushed or too slow.

Rating: NA/5
If I HAD to Rate: 🌕/5
Counting Down with You is a bit of a disappointment for me, mostly because I had very high expectations. The book was advertised as Young Adult, so I assumed it would be more high-school level, but it ended up reading as middle-grade. It took an abnormally long time to get through, and that may influence my feelings. This is the reason that I chose not to post an official rating, I am not the intended audience.

The writing was cliche and, even though the author is part of GEN-Z, the references fell flat and did not feel natural. While I do appreciate a good late night wattpad novel, that kind of writing style is not what I was looking for in this story. I like a bit of cheese on the rare occasion, but it was way too much for me and I was not at all invested in the romance (which is arguably the main feature!). The main romantic pairing felt very rushed and unrealistic; I did not feel chemistry or warmth from them, I mostly wanted to skip through their scenes. The characters weren’t as developed as I would have liked, and the progression of the story was wonky. If there was anything I could have really related to, it would have been the anxiety that Karina struggles with, yet I did not have similar experiences. Despite this, I know that my personal background will not match everyone’s, so I do hope that Karina’s story makes someone feel a little less alone.

As someone who is not a Bangladeshi Muslim, I cannot speak for the representation in that aspect. However, I have read some reviews by people who are Bangladeshi, and they were let down. I encourage anyone that is looking into this book for the brown-girl rep to seek out these reviews. Two that are in-depth and well written are: Raeesah and Hamna’s.

I don’t want to totally poop on the writer- as she is still young and this is her debut! From what I have read from her, she honestly wanted this to reach Bangladeshi Muslim girls and make them feel heard, which is a lovely pursuit. The dynamic between Karina and her Dadu (grandmother) was the most compelling and heart-warming for me, and I would have loved it if that was explored more. Some lines of poetry were particularly beautiful, even if I do wish they were more polished. Karina’s journey of diverging from her parents' wishes to pursuing her own happiness was engaging, and I think that would have probably been a better focal point than, say, prom. I think Tashie Bhuiyan still has a lot of places to grow, but I do see the potential. Overall, this was definitely not the book for me, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be for someone else. I am optimistic for the author’s future work and I hope she continues living her dream of writing :D

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Inkyard Press at HarperCollins for the opportunity to read this book early!
⚠️ Trigger Warning: Anxiety, Parental Abuse ⚠️

Publication date: May 4, 2021
My Thoughts:

This book by Tashie Bhuiyan is a YA romance perfect for readers who liked A Phó Love Story, and Don't Date Rosa Santos. It has a LGBTQ character, very loyal friends, a cool grandmother and a brother who is clueless but willing to learn.

This story is exactly how it is described by the publisher: a "fake" relationship that turns real, rich-bad-boy, nerdy-smart-girl, clash of cultural values, multiracial couple, common secrets, complicated parental relationships, complicated sibling relationships. What will also be helpful to readers in order to understand Karina Myra Ahmed is that she is a second generation Indian American with the stereotypical first generation parents. It also helps to understand the different expectations of daughters and sons. Understanding these things helps to make this less of a minority YA story and more of a mainstream American YA story.

From the Publisher:
In this sparkling and romantic YA debut, a reserved Bangladeshi teenager has twenty-eight days to make the biggest decision of her life after agreeing to fake date her school’s resident bad boy.

How do you make one month last a lifetime?

Karina Ahmed has a plan. Keep her head down, get through high school without a fuss, and follow her parents’ rules—even if it means sacrificing her dreams. When her parents go abroad to Bangladesh for four weeks, Karina expects some peace and quiet. Instead, one simple lie unravels everything.

Karina is my girlfriend.

Tutoring the school’s resident bad boy was already crossing a line. Pretending to date him? Out of the question. But Ace Clyde does everything right—he brings her coffee in the mornings, impresses her friends without trying, and even promises to buy her a dozen books (a week) if she goes along with his fake-dating facade. Though Karina agrees, she can’t help but start counting down the days until her parents come back.

T-minus twenty-eight days until everything returns to normal—but what if Karina no longer wants it to?

This was a sweet romance with a very touching depiction of anxiety obviously very personal to the author.

5 stars, 10/10 this was amazing!!! counting down with you is hands down my favorite book I’ve read so far in 2021 because it’s raw, real, hilarious, swoon worthy, and original!!!

I am 100% always down for bad boys who turn out to be big softies and fake dating tropes, and this DELIVERED. ace has officially set the bar incredibly high for YA love interests. dude is amazing

my favorite thing about this book was the portrayal of karina’s anxiety. it felt SO REAL that I cried multiple times because I felt karina’a heart and pain, and I think that many people with anxiety will feel really seen and understood while reading this. I’m definitely going to try some of karina’s coping and grounding mechanisms when I feel out of control.

I love how balanced this book was, and how multiple perspectives were always explored. this book goes way beyond surface level. like with karina’s parents: there were times when I was SO MAD at them for being so hard on everyone, but their traditional bangladeshi background was explained and I could kind of see where they were coming from.

and can we go back to talking about ace?!? Holy cow that boy is amazing. I love how quickly he showed his real self to karina and how nothing we thought we knew about him was true. one of the first times karina really sees him, she says that he’s “moonlight woven into a human being,” and just YES. that’s the perfect description of him. ugh. I want a boy who’s funny and loves space and the piano and school and respects boundaries and encourages people to be brave.

my other favorite thing in this book were the text convos. they were so realistic omg. sometimes texts in books feel really weird and stiff and unnatural, but these were perfect. karina and cora and nandini’s group chat was for real a group chat between high school bffs. they constantly made me laugh, and those girls are such fierce friends it’s incredible.

and samir!!! I wish I had a brother like him.

yeah, counting down with you is an amazing book, and yeah you should read it asap. thank you, tashie, for creating this work of art!!! I’m definitely going to reread this bad boy

COUNTING DOWN WITH YOU is too freaking cute for words. We stan a himbo (relative himbo) falling for the Belle figure in a story and just being too freaking cute and sweet and ashklgjdjbgsihgsd. Also, can I have a Dadu? please?

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I am a sucker for a male lead who unabashedly adores the female lead, and Ace Clyde fits that bill 100%. This books mixes the fake relationship trope with a smart and strong heroine who is learning how to reconcile the way she wants to live with her Bangladeshi heritage.

I'm a school librarian for middle and high school students, so I read a TON of YA. This is probably in my top five favorites of the past year. It's funny, sweet, and truly a joy to read.

High school librarians, definitely pick this up if you're looking for diverse romance to add to your collection. Middle school librarians, this book would be fine to add to your collections maturity-wise but may not resonate with the average middle school student content-wise. Karina's inner thoughts often revolve around college and impending adulthood and may not be relatable for a middle school audience.

Counting Down with You was an absolute stunning and joyful read that I will be thinking about for a long time. Tashie is so in tune with her target audience, as I found this book to be very relatable in the terms of Gen Z/teenage culture as a general. I loved the diversity rep in this book, that brought so much heart to this story and made it so much more impactful. the romance was absolutely wonderful and I can't wait for other readers to witness firsthand the wonderful fake-dating that I could scream about for days. Such a great spring romance, Counting Down with You should be on everyone's lists!