I have nothing but good things to say about this one! Tashie Bhuiyan is such a great writer. The found family trope in this one is so beautiful and so well done, I absolutely adored every second of it. All while this book is so much fun to read and full of love, it also deals with other topics like grief, anger, depression, etc. and I think Tashie did a really great job exploring that. I love being able to really connect with what I’m reading and the characters in this one just felt so real and raw. I can’t recommend it enough!

Thank you to the publisher for the eARC in exchange for my honest thoughts!

Tashie Bhuiyan has outdone herself once again with this absolute gem of a novel.

Stay With My Heart follows Liana Sarkar and her mission to lead a local band, Third Eye, to success after accidentally sabotaging them.

Where to begin with this book? Above all else, this is Liana's story. It's a coming-of-age story, a story about grief and mental health, especially as a woman of color. Bhuiyan's books always seems like she took a peek inside my head and wrote a book to come at a perfect time in my life and Stay With My Heart was no exception.

This book was just so much fun. It was funny, emotional, swoony, and honestly just a breath of fresh air. As a self-proclaimed music enthusiast, this was everything. I loved the band's found family aspect and how they just sort of felt like home. If they were real, they would probably my #1 artist on Spotify lol.

LIANA AND SKY SUPREMACY!!! They're so perfect and THAT scene at the end was everything to me, I'm still thinking about it weeks later. And Vinny and Ethan, they have my heart.

Thank you so much Netgalley and Tashie Bhuiyan for the e-ARC!

First, I love a book about music. With songs listed. A playlist. Especially so many songs I already love referenced. And getting to discover songs I didn’t know. I loved that.

Second, Skyler and Liana will have you absolutely in love with them. Skyler, I immediately loved this character. Liana took a little longer because I got frustrated with her. She was a little more pity party and self absorbed.

The band!!! Ethan and Vinny are some of my all time favorite side characters. I adored them. Would love a novella for them. Mohammed grows on you for sure.

Thomas. The worst.

Third, friends to lovers! My weakness. READ THIS BOOK 😂😍

Last, already preordered for my HS library, can’t wait to get this on the shelf!

Tashie Bhuiyan is a go to author for me. I will read anything she writes.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for a chance to read and review.

A South Asian American teen girl grapples with anxiety and depression following her high school graduation and mother's recent death. Struggling in the face of her father's absenteeism and neglect, Liana tries to please him by focusing on her new internship at his Music Recording company only to find herself getting tangled up with a an aspiring band and its great group of boys. Heartfelt, with excellent mental health rep and TONS of popular song recs, this was great on audio narrated by one of my favs, Soneela Nankani. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy and Librofm for a complimentary ALC in exchange for my honest review! This is by far my new fav from Tashie Bhuiyan!!

As Tashie Bhuiyan is an auto-buy author, I've been excited for Stay with My Heart ever since I heard about it. Part of what I love is the way music is at its core. How it connects people and feelings together. Not only that, but also the ways in which music can transport us to a place, a moment, a person. Firstly, I loved the friendship Liana and Evie have. Secondly, I love a good band dynamic and Stay with My Heart delivers.

This book absolutely has my heart and I would read a thousand more pages about these characters. Liana and Evie's long distance friendship reminds me of my own best friend, and seeing the boys of Third Eye alternate between joking around and uplifting each other was so sweet. The author also does a beautiful job of balancing lighthearted romance and whimsy with more serious, grounded moments throughout the story. Due to her parents, Liana has a complicated relationship with her mental health. She accepts that anxiety and depression are always going to be in her life, but can't take any big steps until she's under the college's health insurance. It's a reminder that there isn't one perfect way to address mental health, and that you have to do what's best for you, and I loved seeing her finally be able to take that step in the end.

This book contains the past death of a parent, underage drinking, in depth discussions of anxiety and depression and mentions of parental emotional abuse so take care of yourself when reading.

I normally love Tashie Bhuiyan’s books but this one just didn’t hit for me. She tends to write with such honesty and authenticity and the parts of the book devoted to Liana’s grief over her mom’s death and her toxic relationship with her father all hit very close to home for me. I, an almost 44 yo woman identified deeply with this 17 yo girl and her pain and depression and anxiety. It felt real and visceral and so very painful and heartbreaking.

That said, the part that gave me so much anxiety was the big secret that Liana was keeping for much of the book. I knew it had to come out at some point and I also knew it would come out in a way that was beyond Liana’s control and of course it did. And it was such a big secret and it felt like such a big betrayal that ensuing forgiveness, especially from a bunch of teenage boys, felt a little too quick to be believed. I get why Liana did what she did and all of the lies that piled up as a result but for the band to forgive her at the speed at which they did felt a little implausible to me.

I always appreciate the mental health issues that Tashie Bhuiyan addresses in this book. I do wish that there had been a little more time devoted to Sky - it always felt like he was also holding back and hiding bits of himself and while the book is mainly about Liana, it was also about a developing romance between Liana and Sky and I wish there was more about Sky’s background. There was a a lot of time given to the different band members and frankly, I’d love books about all of them, especially a romance devoted to Ethan and Vincent who fully deserve their own book.

Content Notes: toxic parental relationship, big secrets and lies and betrayals, parental death off page

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-ARC of this book!

Stay with My Heart is a YA contemporary romance that manages to have genuine swoon-worthy moments, complicated but relatable family dynamics, heartwarming friendships and found family, and a kind but messy teen navigating it all. I really enjoyed this story and I think my high school students will as well. The music and band-driven plot was fun and I think a lot of readers will be able to relate to the way Liana accidentally messes up and potentially hurts others, but has the best of intentions in trying to rectify the situation while not fessing up to the truth.

Not sure why this didn’t work for me, as there are a lot of things I love in this book, like the Taylor Swift and other music references, but I just didn’t gel with this book. I like the author’s other work, but something about the writing or the way the characters are presented felt off

I received an egalley of Stay with My Heart by Tashie Bhuiyan from Inkyard Press via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Stay with My Heart is my favourite Tashie Bhuiyan read now. It's been awhile since I read a contemporary YA novel in one sitting, late into the night. I just couldn't put it down as I was drawn to Liana and Skyler's story.

Liana accidentally sabotages a local band, The Third Eye, and so she decides to do everything she can to make amends - without telling them how she's further and secretly involved in the situation. But as the summer goes by, she bonds with the boys, especially that of the leader, Skyler, and it becomes harder to keep the secrets that could ruin the friendships she's build with them all.

I really enjoyed the general chemistry of the characters - a found family of sorts. I definitely felt compelled to keep reading to see how it would all play out as Liana was keeping a pretty big secret away from her new friends. While I can understand the reasons behind her keeping things a secret, I also felt very frustrated by them as it also didn't logically make sense to me - in terms of keeping the secret away from her dad, as the secret could also potentially ruin her dad's professional career. But I understood the wanting-to-make-dad-proud and wanting-parental-approval aspect.

Overall, this was a really enjoyable contemporary YA read for me - which is not something that I've been able to say recently. Stay with My Heart was a wonderful reminder of what I do love about Young Adult fiction.

My Thoughts:

I had the privilege of reading Tashie Bhuiyan's two other YA romance novels prior to this third one: Counting Down with You and A Show for Two. What the three romance novels have in common are a head strong East Indian American female protagonist and a swoon-worthy non East Indian pretty boy. In addition, the protagonists all have very complicated relationships with their. parents. Although Liana Sarkar (Ahmed) has a strong relationship with her cousin and her queer best friend, the relationship with her widowed father is strained to the point of being dysfunctional through American eyes. These are also common threads in the three books.

What is different in Stay is the artistic medium, in this case, music. Liana gets her love of music from her parents, especially her A&R (artists and repertoire) rep father. This book uses Liana's playlists as part of the relationship build up trajectory of the two character. In addition, the chapters list a song and artist. I found myself delaying the reading to go to my Amazon music app and find the song before re reading the chapter to figure out how the song is supposed to represent a title for the chapter. I was not always successful in figuring it out, but it was an interesting journey because of the variety of music (with lots of Taylor Swift).

I would pair this with Ander and Santi Were Here by Jonny Garza Villa or The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon.

From the Publishers:
Liana Sarkar lives and breathes music, hoping to follow in the footsteps of her A&R coordinator father. Maybe if she succeeds, he’ll finally give her the time of day instead of drowning himself in work to distract from the grief of her mother’s passing.

When Liana accidentally sabotages an up-and-coming local band, Third Eye, she makes it her mission to steer them towards success—without them discovering her role in their setback. But as she gets closer to Third Eye, especially their enigmatic leader Skyler Moon, it becomes harder to hide the truth.

With both her heart and their futures on the line, will Liana be able to undo the damage she’s caused?

Publication Information:

Author: Tashie Bhuiyan
Publisher: Inkyard Press (January 2, 2024)

I loved this book! I devoured it in only a few sittings and wish there was more to read. The story line was paced very well and the characters were easy to love!

I did it. I judged a book by the cover. It's a cute one, but it somehow made me thing this wouldn't be really good. Just another simple story about teenagers for teenagers. The cover screamed at me not to take it seriously. To expect at best a fanfic turned book. Well, if this was a fanfic or a Wattpad story, it deserved being turned into a book (as of course many of them do). My tired eyes went and prejudged it. Bad me.

3.5, rounded up.

Liana's father is a one of those big guys working for an important record company, and it's while he's listening to demos instead of paying attention to his only daughter that Liana meets the group called Third Eye for the first time. Soon, she actually meets the members and falls for the wrong one. He uses her position to get to her father, lies and ultimately ghosts her. Now Liana has not only wronged the father she wants so much the attention but also the members of Third Eye. She decides, thus, to help them improve themselves and prove to be better than the member they've lost.

I love how you really don't know who is the bad guy or the good guy at first. It's so rare for YA's to get me this excited about who the main character will end with.

Liana also faces other issues, especially her fight against depression. I don't know if her attitudes refusing to sick help sooner than later was the best choice to include in a book for younger readers if you really wanted to send them a message, but at least the importance of therapy was very obvious.

The troubles Liana gets into are very believable too. I'd probably have fallen for the same traps, even if I wouldn't have had her resilience to keep the charade and hide it all while trying to compensate Third Eye. I'd have broken down much, much sooner. And her issues with her father, they were simply heartbreaking. There was no big drama, it was just what it was, which made it even more more bitter.

The plot wasn't such a novelty, so it's not so memorable. Yet, I loved the time I spent with these characters and I wish I could have been at one of Third Eye's performances. This book won't cross the genre, but I highly recommend it to readers of romantic contemporary YA's.



Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.

* arc review *

Counting Down with You is one of my favorite YA romances so I was excited to receive this netgalley arc. This book had everything I needed: humor, found family and romance. Call me messy bessie lol but I couldn't wait to see how the conflict played out because the whole reason Liana is thrown into the mix is because someone manipulates her and she decides to fix it her own way while keeping a secret from the band. All I will say is my heart was racing towards the end...

Tashie Bhuiyan has become my go-to for expertly done, swoony YA. I loved this story and it’s instantly relatable and empathetic main character. Young readers will absolutely love this book.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

This is honestly one of my favorite romances now. I have nothing but good things to say. It’s adorable, it’s funny, it brought tears to my eyes, and it was fun to read.

While I didn’t like all of Liana’s motives, I understand why she did the things she did she did. She had such a strained relationship with her father that she was afraid of his reaction.

I loved the boys so much. They stole the show here (literally). My faves were Ethan and Vinny but of course Sky was so cute. Mohammed was fun as well. I wish we could have gotten something with him and Kate since everyone else had a relationship. Ethan was the perfect sweet and happy go lucky youngest member of the band who was willing to try to help everyone and make sure everyone was happy. He was so cute and I hope he gets that alcohol for his birthday. Vinny was protective of Ethan and I loved how nontoxic and not hyper masculine the boys were. The hugged each other and held hands and even Liana wasn’t sure if everyone was gay or just really close. They could all be around each other and not have to feel like they couldn’t do things because of their sexuality. I love to see it.

The friendship between Evie and Liana was also cute. Face timing or calling someone every day sounds exhausting to me but I was so glad that they were able to stay so close even though they were far apart. I also liked how this book dealt with depression and therapy. Liana obviously had a lot of issues she needed to work out with her mom’s death and her dad being absent, and I was so glad she was so willing to go to therapy. Liana being Indian and Sky being Korean we also see a lot of different cultures, at least for me. How Liana dealt with things and how Mohammed dealt with things because of their families was interesting and I loved learning about them.

This was just a super fun book and I laughed and cried through the whole thing. I think I said “awww” everyone other chapter. I’ll have to read more from this author!

I really enjoyed everything about this book, it had a great romance novel. Tashie Bhuiyan has a great writing style for the genre. I enjoyed getting to know the cast of characters and thought they worked well in the story. I enjoyed everything that was happening and how the romance worked overall.

Thank you to NetGalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was such a pleasant surprise! I think this is Tashie Bhuiyan's best work by far, and if anyone didn't enjoy COUNTING DOWN WITH YOU or A SHOW FOR TWO, I suggest trying Bhuiyan's third novel. This story follows a Bangladeshi American girl who unintentionally sabotages a local band and then begins helping them to make up for her mistake. Even though a teenage girl who has regular interactions with a boy band seems like an unbelievable premise, the author somehow made the story feel realistic. The main character, Liana, made decisions that felt believable, even if they were totally wrong, which is exactly how you want to feel as a reader. Each of the boys in the boy band (and there were four of them) had distinct personalities, which was impressive because I had found the side characters in Bhuiyan's previous novels to be so flat that they blurred together. The romance between Liana and Skyler was very sweet, as were the relationships Liana had with the other band members. All in all, I enjoyed reading this book!

“We were all strangers at one point. Now we’re a family, aren’t we?”

AD PR PURCHASE - i read this on Netgalley, thank you for the copy!

𝗖𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿
the cover is what drew me to request this book actually. it looks diverse, it looks cute! beautiful artwork as well.

𝗧𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲𝘀
music
grief
generational trauma
competition
romance

𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀
I did not like Liana, the FMC. i did like the boys in the band, and i also loved quite a lot of the side characters, but they felt like fillers rather than having actual storylines! Liana was mean, selfish and stuck up. Sorry, she just irritated me.

𝗪𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴
i think the writing WAS good. i really liked the longing between main characters. not quite angst but i still enjoyed it. i think the plot was good as well. i was a little confused at their cultures.. i think they were bangladeshi!

𝗔𝗻𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗜 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲𝗱?
ok it is bothering me but there are 2 major things that I did not like.
1. a character calldd Mohammed, who drinks alcohol. im sorry, but the name is so clearly Muslim and even though its not mentioned what religion anyone is, alcohol is forbidden. so why write a character with that obvious name, who handles, purchases and drinks alcohol!!! thats just lazy and offensive.
2. ive already mentioned it but Lianas attitude with her dad annoyed me. shes a spoilt brat who doesnt even consider what type of grief her father might be going through and WHY do we not delve further into that? hes portayed as a villian but hes not so i wasnt happy abput that. But props to the author for making me feel so strongly about these things, I suppose?

𝗙𝗮𝘃𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝗤𝘂𝗼𝘁𝗲
“I could write a million songs about you and it still wouldn’t be enough.”

ms bhuiyan, this is the third book of yours to make me hysterically cry. with the extra bonus of me being on public transportation this time. it was so cozy and so loving to read, the theme of grief throughout the book and how people react hurt my soul. also im counting this as fulfilling my rockstar bf trope. thank you.

thank you to netgalley for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.