I thought that this book was a very strong debut for this author! However, I unfortunately could not connect to the characters all that much, and the plot seemed to lean on the cliche side. But, I did enjoy it! Like I said, I believe this author has a lot of room to grow and had a great start with this book.

Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy. As a Muslim who grew up in the U.S., there is a lot I can identify with in this book. The issues of culture and overbearing parents definitely make this book appeal to Desi/South Asian teenagers. The episodes of panic attacks, countdown strategy for anxiety, and struggle that Karina go through makes me recommend this book to our school counselor. However, I really wish that the main character had at least sought help from the school counselor to reinforce the book's theme of support and seeking help, instead of giving the impression that a teenager can deal with anxiety on his/her own by trying out different strategies looked up online. I won't be able to recommend this book to our school library, due to the profanity used. However, I couldn't put it down, enjoyed reading it personally, and will still put it on my list of "mental health" books that I can recommend to others. Thank you for a happy ending!

While I really loved the representation this book had (I mean, how many Bangladeshi protagonists are out there in YA lit?), I found the whole Asian stereotype of parental pressure on studies, choosing the right career (doctor, lawyer) a little tiresome. I'm honestly torn about it because while I think it's important to have that aspect out there, especially for those not familiar with how it is with Asian families, I also wanted to read more than what's expected. The romance was sweet, and her friendships added layers to the story, but otherwise it was just an ok read for me.

this book was a delight to indulge in, a spoonful of honey clouds and that tight feeling in your chest when you soak in how lucky you are to be near a person you just really love. thank you again to the publisher for taking a chance on me and sending me my first ever arc!

i rushed through this book within 24 hours, popping it in my mouth and savoring it like it was a sweet, lush candy that i just had to indulge in. and i have a hell of a sweet tooth. the amount of times my friends looked over at me with a look of deep-seated concern when i would giggle hysterically out of nowhere is too much to count (get it? count? because the book is titled counting down with you? my humor is so fucking BAD i'm sorry). after letting the poppy war series and the green bone saga into my heart, this book was a light refresher that reminded me of how easy and enjoyable reading could be.

"Sweetie. This boy wants to die by my hand."

as an immigrant, i heavily related to the pressure karina felt from her parents. that storm of warring emotions between wanting to honor and make your parents proud, to show them they didn't sacrifice and work hard for nothing and wanting to honor yourself, to choose your own happiness. it's a tight, vicious line to balance oneself on, especially with that first-born pressure. seeing karina balance herself on that line while struggling with her anxiety was a shot to the heart — not that dull ache of pity but the sharp sting of understanding that made me wince when i recognized the parallels between her life and mine.

but you know what stings even more? the fucking poems. i did not expect those poems to be that good. i love poetry, but i didn't expect it to have a strong footing in this book because it was centered as a YA romance, but goddamn miss tashie — spare some talent for the rest of us, why don't you?

"I am not Atlas, born to carry the weight of the world
I am Icarus, wanting and wanting and wanting
at the risk of exploding when I fly too close to the sun"

overall, this book made me yearn. sometimes, i hate this tight pulling in the center of my chest because it reminds me of what i don't have (and that's a special kind of pain on its own), but in cases like these, where it's been so long since i've giggled over a book, letting myself indulge in yearning and daydreaming about cute couple shit lightened some undistinguishable burden from my shoulders that's been steadily growing ever since quarantine started. so, big thanks to this book for helping me forget the tragedies of the world for a moment by sending me on bookshop dates, ice skating dates, and for giving me "10 things i hate about you" vibes. if you're looking for your cute romantic manifestations to come to life, i highly recommend this book!

"when Prometheus promised us fire
did he know it would live inside your eyes?"

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an advanced copy!

I've seen a few reviews from own-voices reviewers around the Muslim/Bangladeshi rep, and I obviously can't speak to those. I'm also not sure if I read an updated copy or not. So this review is only based on my own experience of the book!

I cried at the end of this, and it takes a lot for a YA contemporary to do that to me as a 25 year old. This felt so authentic and heartbreaking, and the anxiety rep was done so well that it made me feel anxious, which is a double edged sword!!

The writing was so engaging, I absolutely flew through this book. I am not a Gen Z but this felt like it incorporated so much gen Z slang and humour (wow I sound so old)

In conclusion I would die for Dadu.

- ARC received from NetGalley -
4.5/5
CW: anxiety, anxiety attacks, parental verbal and emotional abuse

Okay I was not expecting to CRY. Not going to lie, I requested this because of the cover and the fake dating trope but this BLEW ME AWAY. First of all, Bengali representation in YA? AMAZING. Second of all, it discusses anxiety authentically and ways to manage it. We love mental health in YA novels - especially BIPOC representation.

It was beautiful. Karina and Dadu’s relationship along with expectations of being a daughter of immigrant parents. The gender norms and discussions were well written and done with cultural insight. Also just...ACE. He stole my heart. Wow. Literally like...YA trope softie but, he needs all the love.

I cried at the end. And the middle. And wow. Just WOW.

I was born and brought up in America and being desi myself, this book was relatable even though I'm 21 now and was reading about a 16 year old, it felt like I was looking at my younger self. I felt a lot of the things Karina felt, the expectations and fears that a lot of us have as second generation americans who have parents who worked tirelessly to provide for us and have certain wishes for our future, were done well for the most part as no experience is the same.

In Counting down with you we follow Karima Ahmed who is a Muslim Bangladeshi teenager who adores english and only wishes to pursue that instead of becoming a doctor like her parents wish for her and constantly push onto her. We see her deal with her anxiety and finding her way through that, cultural differences and how to make them work, dealing with the different way her brother is treated compared to her, struggling to make people understand her situation even though they can't, etc. Seeing her strength, resilience and bravery throughout the book was such a treat. Rooting for her to have the future she wants and getting it and just seeing her over-all journey and growth.

Karina's relationship with Ace was cute but I also didn't care for much of the romance to be honest, it was just present but not important for me and I truthfully found it a bit cringy at parts. I did love however that he wasn't pushy and if he ever did do something wrong he truly listened and understood and learnt. He really paid attention to their cultural differences and their different worlds and never backed down or gave up but worked to be with her. Seeing how he didn't save her but just helped show her the strength she had to save herself was perfect.

Karina's friends- Cora and Nandini were another nice part of this book. They were fun and supportive, I liked reading about their dynamic and loved that even though they may not understand her situation all the time, they were always there to support her whether things worked out or not and continued to champion anything that would lead to her happiness, like Karina's relationship with Ace.

A gem in this book was Karina's Dadu. It made me so so happy to see someone stand up amd support and encourage her in her family. Their relationship the best part of this book and always brought a smile to my face. Seeing someone so important to Karina being in her corner was wholesome.
I also loved the fact that Samir listened and tried to understand his privilege and tried to help her as much as possible after.

Overall this book was good but the writing didn't make me very intrigued and the book also felt dragged. I also felt nothing for Karina and Ace and felt like it was very undeveloped and it just happened without any real foundation. I honestly didn't care about the romance and was glad when the book focused on Karina and her journey through the pressure her parents put on her and fighting for her future and what she wants anyway was the best part. Watching her dealing with her anxiety and accepting it as a part of herself was also very relatable. I enjoyed this book but just felt like it could have been executed better.

excellent, excellent book. the romance was adorable, the characters were fantastically depicted, and the struggle with the family was heartbreaking and timely.

A fun read with so much to love! I appreciated the BIPOC and anxiety representation, and being a teenager, I loved all the colloquialisms that the author included in the story. “We love to see it,” as the kids say. Plus, I always appreciate a good fake dating story.

A full version of this review will appear on my blog and Goodreads soon!

**Thank you the publishers for providing me with an e-arc through Netgalley. All opinions are my own**

Look, I don't think I have fallen in love with two character this deeply in so long. I loved this book and will be raving about it for a long time. It's embarrassing how long it took me to read this, but you know what reading slump and life hit me so yeah. But I love Karina and her story and bravery. I love Ace and how understanding he is. Give me an Ace a few years older and I would be so happy. I loved the way this handled anxiety and I really felt represented that way. I also loved that this reminded me just how much I love writing and reading and English. Seriously, go buy this book for all the smiles and butterflies!

The sweetest YA romcom 🍬💞⁣
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COUNTING DOWN WITH YOU follows Karina Ahmed, a Bangladeshi teenager, as she finds love and independence while her parents are abroad for a month. ⁣
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Pros: diverse & hilarious secondary characters, realistic depiction of anxiety, good jokes ⁣
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Cons: could easily be 150pgs shorter & there was some cringey poetry 😬⁣
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I wouldn’t be surprised if this becomes a bestseller; while it was a fun weekend read, I could still tell it’s a debut 🤷‍♀️ thank you NetGalley and Inkyard for an eARC in exchange for this review. ⁣
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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

one of my favorite books!! the romance was ADORABLE, the friendship group is amazing (I will forever stan), the conflicts, dynamics, writing, and the poems were all SO fantastic!!! 5/5 stars!!

ahhh. I really really enjoyed this. I loved Karina, and Ace, and Cora, and Nandini, and Mia, and Samir, and Karina's Dadu! I wouldn't say fake dating was one of my top tropes before this book, but I loved the way it was done in here. I cannot wait to read what Tashie Bhuiyan writes next.

Before I get into the bulk of my review, I want to thank NetGalley and the publishers at Inkyard Press for giving me an ARC of this one in exchange for an honest review. Counting Down with You is a hard hitting contemporary novel about a girl from a conservative Bangladeshi Muslim family who struggles to fit into the box her parents want her in, but when they go back home to visit family, Karina Ahmed finds freedom in tutoring resident bad boy Ace Clyde. In a strange turn of events, she also finds herself being his fake girlfriend. But when Ace is actually a good fake boyfriend, Karina has to wonder if there’s not something more there. Counting Down with You comes out on May 4th and is available for preorder now.

There were so many things for me to enjoy about this novel. Fake dating? Check. Sarcastic, realistic, humorous main characters? Check. A kind love interest and a likable main character? Check. But there are two things that I think really make this book shine: 1) the modern story telling is amazing, all of these teenagers feel true to the Gen Z people I know in my life, and 2) the way the author poses the questions of family, expectations, and unconditional love. The teenagers in this novel feel true to actual teenagers. It’s not one of those novels where you have to question if the author remembers what it was like to be a teenager. And there were a ton of references to jokes and memes that I’ve seen across the Internet which is fun. It’s supposed to be modern, present day and it definitely feels that way. But the thing that made the biggest impact on me, especially in the back half of this novel, is the questions Karina had to face in her relationship with her parents. Being a white girl from the middle of nowhere Oklahoma, I have no experience with the kind of pressure and conditional love that Karina gets from her family and from her culture, but the way the author handles it is so beautifully done. I swear I cried for the last 75 pages of this novel (not always sad tears!). There are also some really wonderful moments between Karina and Ace discussing privilege and entitlement.

I think that there was a lot to enjoy with this romance. Ace is supposed to be the bad boy of their school because he cuts classes, wears a leather jacket and rings, and has a tattoo. But there’s a lot about him that the school doesn’t know so it was great to see Karina learn more about him and to watch her fall in love with him. I enjoy their banter and their love for sweet foods (me too, guys, me too). But I think the thing that I thought was most refreshing about their relationship was their ability to show how they feel about each other while still respecting each other’s boundaries. These aren’t even things that have anything to do with the physical aspects of their relationship. But they have healthy boundaries in their every day lives and it was great to see her put them up and him respect them. The example I’m thinking of is when he drops by her house unannounced and she tells him he can’t do that, especially when her parents get back from their trip.

There were some moments of this one where the writing felt--not immature but underdeveloped. I think this being the author’s debut novel makes it more expected. The author is pretty young if I remember correctly so I know that her work is just going to keep getting better from here. I can’t wait to see what she comes out with next.

In Counting Down with You, Tashie Bhuiyan takes a well-known trope (fake dating) and presents it in a refreshing and exciting way. This book proves the necessity of not writing off what might be considered cliche until diverse readers are allowed to see themselves represented. Engaging and fun, this book will appeal to a wide variety of YA readers. Highly recommended.

This is a very fun and, to me, well-written book (I'm not entirely sure I see where all the 'this is just like Wattpad' criticisms are coming from). I appreciated the way that main character Karina deals with her Bangladeshi-American identity as well as her anxiety, on top of being a teen who doesn't want to follow her parents goals for her future. The romance plot was super fun, and while her love interest might not be as fully developed as she is, he's a very sweet character.

This book was extremely fun to read and I flew through it within the span of 48 hours. It's everything that you would expect in a YA contemporary/romantic comedy novel: friendship chaos, fluffy romance, a bad boy because we were all obsessed with toxic traits in high school, and of course, the fake dating trope. But amongst the adorable romance, we also get to journey with Karina through her struggles with anxiety, parental expectations, and understanding her own place in the world. Although my parents were never really strict on me growing up, Karina's emotions felt very much raw throughout the pages as she gripes with her own personal wants vs. her parents'.

This book is truly a coming-of-age novel and I deeply appreciate how <em>nostalgic</em> it made me feel. More, it made me feel old! As someone in their early twenties reading about sixteen year olds, it really made me reminisced about how absolutely chaotic I was at sixteen; Sixteen year old me, too, would have fallen for a bad boy like Ace. And that's exactly why I think that this book hits the bull's eye when it comes to their target audience—Gen Z, this is the book for you!

<p>Some have pointed out that the writing in this book resembles 'a wattpad' story, and frankly, I do agree. The poems didn't stick with me, but that's totally okay because I'm not the target audience! I do think that Tashie Bhuiyan wrote a fun young adult novel that's <em>absolutely meant for young adult</em> but with classic tropes that made me feel the same way that John Green novels did. Instead of the maniac pixie dream girl, we get broody and sometimes adorable Ace Clyde. But rather than just being the archetype bad boy, Bhuiyan offered him nuances and complexities behind his character through his and Karina's interactions. I found their interactions and how they approach her relationship with her parents portrayed really powerful to young girls, in a way that emphasizes her own boundaries and strength instead of the 'damsel in distress' trope.

I know that some have expressed disappointment at the ending, but I'd like to offer this: sometimes real-life problems have no easy answers, and we can only make progress one step at a time. Not everything will be resolved, and that's okay. Overall, this book offers a fantastic high school romance along with a glimpse into filial obligations and finding your own strength.

Thanks to NetGalley for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I tend to shy away from realistic fiction books these days because they all seem to focus too heavily on the "love story" and their sub plots take a huge backseat.

I did not feel that way about this book.

What I loved:
-- Karina is a teenage girl torn between what she wants and what she believes is right. She wants to go to prom and study English in college and date a white boy that she is crazy about. Her parents want her to become a doctor and focus on school and not date at all. The anxiety she experienced and how she tried to cope with it was real. Karina's struggle to please her parents and do what she wants made her a complex character and is what made me appreciate and love her relationship with Ace.
-- The concept of "crossing lines". Both Karina and Ace (Karina more so because of her culture) have lines that they do not want crossed, especially in the beginning. Ace is learning that Karina comes from a different world than he does and that some of the things that seem normal to him, aren't the case for Karina. He always apologizes when he accidentally crosses a line and learns not to do it again. He also tries hard to understand where Karina is coming from when she talks about her parents. I LOVED seeing the respect and admiration that Ace had for Karina and the support he gave her.
-- Even though their relationship was romantic, it felt like these two were best friends as well. It wasn't a hate to love relationship or an insta-love. Karina and Ace got to know each other despite the initial awkward circumstance Karina found herself in. I loved watching them both grow as characters and it is evident that they couldn't have done it without each other. Karina makes Ace want to do something with his life after he has spent most of it rebelling against his family, and Ace makes Karina want to fight for her happiness after she has spent so much of her life adhering to them. They complement each other really well.
-- Nandini and Cora. What I loved most about the friendship Karina had with them is that it wasn't perfect. Cora and Nandini love Karina and want her to be happy, but they don't always understand where she is coming from or what she is trying to say. When they tell her they just want her to be happy, Karina feels frustrated because to her, that isn't just something easy she can do. Regardless of whether they fully understand Karina, they love and support her and are always there for her. They are also hilarious.

There wasn't anything I really disliked about this book. I felt like the author had a great balance of family differences and family culture, what true friendship means, and what unconditional love looks like. Overall, I absolutely adored this story.

This was a sweet, heartfelt story with well-crafted characters. It took me a while to get into this book, but I was swept away in the ease of the story once I did. It was a cute book with a delightful romance that also held a lot of sadness. I think a lot of people will enjoy it!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for letting me read this one early!

This book was warm in all the right places. From Karina's calls to her cultures, to her dynamics with Ace, Bhuiyan paints a brilliant new spin on the well loved fake dating trope. The characters feel fresh, the interactions are memorable, and it set against a backdrop that gives an interesting picture of who these character are and what they're striving for. It's a YA rom-com I hope everyone picks up.