Review: Counting Down with You by Tashie Bhuiyan

Hey, everyone! I hope you’re all doing well. This week has been loooooong. We have this weird schedule at school for testing, so we have extra long block period sessions, where classes are two hours long. It makes the days go by so slowly. And we have it again next week! Anyways, enough complaining from me. I’m here to talk about a new favorite book of mine!

Have you ever read a book where you just felt completely and totally happy when it ended? And you couldn’t keep that smile off your face? Well, I have found that book. Counting Down with You is now one of my favorite contemporaries.

Title: Counting Down with You
Author: Tashie Bhuiyan
Genre: Romance, Contemporary, Young Adult
Series: None
Page Count: 464 (hardcover)

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?

Content Warnings

anxiety attacks – parental abuse (verbal and psychological)

There are no spoilers in this review.

First of all, I have to say it: Karina and Ace are so freaking cute together. I could not keep the silly smile off my face whenever there was a sweet scene with them. (Which was pretty much half of the book.)

We follow Karina, whose parents have just left for a month-long trip to Bangladesh to visit family. She’s always been the “good girl,”, following her parents’ rules and working to make them proud. But soon after they leave, things get a little out of hand. Tutoring the school’s seemingly resident bad boy is something her parents would never approve, but pretending to date him is even worse. As the days go on and the time until everything goes back to normal shortens, Karina can’t help but wonder if she really wants it to.

Karina’s character arc in this book was incredible. She goes from a studious, obedient daughter, who never steps out of line, to someone who can stand on her own and take ownership of what she wants. Throughout the story, she really finds herself and comes to terms with what she wants to do with her life. I can’t say whether the anxiety representation was accurate or not, but I did like seeing it in the story. I also loved the poetry snippets we got. They were beautifully written and expressed so many of Karina’s emotions in only a few words.

“I am a spark. I am a blaze. I am an inferno.”

Ace, oh my gosh. Can I have someone who buys me books? He may be seen as a bad boy, but in reality, he’s really sweet and I love him so much. He and Karina come from completely different worlds, but I love how Ace is willing to learn. He accepts and apologizes when he crosses the line and wants to fix his mistakes so they don’t happen again. I mean, how amazing is that? He’s also got some family issues, which, as Karina finds, weigh him down.

Other important characters included: Cora and Nandini, Karina’s best friends. I love how they all supported and encouraged each other, while still keeping it comfortable for all of them; Samir, Karina’s younger brother. I was so glad when he and Karina were finally on the same page and he was willing to help her; and Dadu, who is so sweet and kind. I love how she didn’t let Karina’s parents control her life and helped Karina gather the confidence she needed to confront them.

The romance was so sweet. We have the well-loved fake dating trope, as well as a bit of annoyances-to-lovers thrown in as well. I liked the pacing and how Karina and Ace slowly began to warm up to each other.

“we board a ship sailing for the stars
hoping to wish on them instead
but then the ocean demands a price
and slowly, carefully, hopelessly,
we sink alongside our anchor.”

A major part of the storyline is Karina finding a way to confront her parents and tell them that she doesn’t want to be a doctor, and instead wants to study English. I love how she and Ace both supported each other to talk with their parents, finding the strength in themselves from one another.

I am not Bangladeshi or Muslim, so I can’t speak for the accuracy of the representation. I did enjoy seeing it though, since I don’t read a lot of books with that representation.

Overall, I loved this book. There are so many amazing themes in it–finding yourself, standing up for yourself, just to name a few–and the romance made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I’d definitely recommend this if you’re looking for a good contemporary-romance.

My Rating: 4.5/5 dragons

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Have you read Counting Down with You? Is it on your TBR?
What are some contemporaries you love?