Counting Down with You was easily one of my most highly anticipated YA contemporaries of 2021…and for good reason. Tashie Bhuiyan is an absolute delight and a must-watch, up-and-coming writer in the genre, and I can’t wait for more of her stories to be released.

First off, Counting Down with You was just so much fun and perfectly indulgent. I will say that at times the writing does come off as simple, and several lines and moments are cliche…but I still ate it all up. Much of the writing reminds me of my early reader days on Wattpad reading bad boy romance stories, and I would say I found a lot of similar vibes here.

The story itself isn’t perfect or anything drastically new or life-changing to the Young Adult market. However, I found it just as satisfying and fun. I was getting the vibes that Ace was inspired by Harry Styles…LOLOL but once you get over that fact, the story becomes a lot more enjoyable.

My biggest grievance with the story was the generic and stereotype of Karina’s parents who wanted her to pursue a career in STEM, namely medicine, when she herself strives to become a writer. Of course, I understand that this is a reflection of the author’s own experiences as well as many others in the Asian diaspora, but for me personally, I was just tired of reading this trope of tiger parents.

One of my favorite parts of this story was Karina’s relationship with her grandma. I find that most YA contemporaries rarely explore relationships with grandparents, especially in Asian households. If they’re present, the grandparent is usually portrayed as a stiff elder figure, and while that may be the case for some households, it was so refreshing to see a grandmother who wholeheartedly loved her granddaughter and came to acknowledge some of the wrongs of their upbringing.

Overall, Counting Down with You was an entertaining read, and I’m excited for Tashie’s sophomore novel coming out in 2022!

I love this adorable teen rom com. It’s captures all the cultural nuances so well. Emotional and yet also lighthearted, this book is one I will definitely be recommending.

I am disappointed with this book. I was expecting one thing and received another. It had potential but it was not well written.

Let’s talk diverse YA romance reads. Honestly so many great ones have been coming out in the last year and I wanted to take a few minutes to should this one out! We read diverse stories to open our eyes to how others see and move about in the world. I grew up with strict parents but no where near the family dynamics that Karina does.

Her goal was to make it through the rest of school with her head down. Not making any wave, not drawing anyones attention. Instead she meets Ace. He opens her eyes to so many possibilities and they end up in a little fake dating situation. (You know I love that!)

When her parents go out of town she gets to live the life she has never been able to experience. She gets to have a normal school life. But there is a definite end date on her freedom.

I loved this. A unique story told from a different perspective than mine that made me expand my view of the world. What more can you ask for in a great ya read. It was longer than it needed to be would be my only complaint.

Thank you Inkyard and @NetGalley for this year. Yes I’m super behind in reviews. So sorry!

Counting Down with You deserves all the RomCom hype! The story follows Karina Ahmed. She lives heavily under her parents rules and dreams of breaking free and pursuing the life she really wants. Karina plans on making her way through school with good grades and attending the after school Med Club that her parents want her to be apart of. Karina is roped into tutoring the school's resident bad boy, Ace Clyde. While Karina's parents are out of the country visiting family, Karina takes tutoring Ace seriously. Even though Ace would rather do anything else but study. The more time they spend together, the more Karina realizes that maybe Ace's rep was skewed and he isn't so bad. And then the rumors start of them dating and Ace plays right into them. This book has great fake dating troupe, humor, diversity and swoon worthy chemistry between the leads. Cannot wait for Tashie's next book! Thank you Netgalley and Inkyard Press for a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Received a digital arc from NetGalley. A cute story about a Bangladesh teen in the US who wants to study English instead of becoming a doctor like her parents wish. She also happens to fall for a white boy.

Not sure how relevant "bone apple teeth" still is for todays teens. I got a chuckle because it was a joke during my college years. I got the feels for 10 Things I Hate About You during the poetry presentation scene. So, points for that.

Some parts were slow, some unrealistic, but overall it was a good story where the teen gets everything she wants after dealing with all the hardships thrown at her.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a great sweet teen romance that honestly explored the divide some teens face between the strict traditionalist cultures of their immigrant parents and their desires to forge their own American dream. The story and characters are cute and fun, but there’s lots of good room for discussion and depth here as well. I really appreciated the way the author strove to give deference to the idea that even within a single culture or ethnic background, not every family’s experiences, beliefs, and practices are identical. I think this is an important point that is often neglected in the name of easier storytelling.

And plus, who doesn’t love a good “tutoring the school bad boy” storyline? ;)

Content-wise, there’s nothing crazy. My 8th grade English team is adopting this as one of our book club options for students, and we’re excited to share it with them!

Counting Down With You was exactly the romantic pick-me-up I needed, complete with the bad boy/good girl trope, bookishness galore, a supportive friend group, and #OwnVoices Bangladeshi representation.

That being said, as I am not Bangladeshi, I cannot speak for the representation, and I would highly recommend checking out some #OwnVoices reviews (especially since some of them that I have read are mixed!).

Overall, though, if you are looking for a soft, emotionally-packed YA romance, I would definitely recommend Counting Down With You!

This book was utterly delightful! I loved the sweet, romantic chemistry Karina and Ace have between each other. This book is swoony, candid, thought-provoking, funny, and will leave you grinning like a fool by the end. Here’s to Karina and Ace, who deserve the opportunity to chase their dreams.

I loved this story so much. It's a beautiful story of so many things: finding love, boundaries, what it's like to live with anxiety, learning to love yourself, and learning to take a stand on what you desperately want. I'll definitely be looking forward to Tashie Bhuiyan's next book.

This book was utterly delightful! I loved the sweet, romantic chemistry Karina and Ace have between each other. This book is swoony, candid, thought-provoking, funny, and will leave you grinning like a fool by the end. Here’s to Karina and Ace, who deserve the opportunity to chase their dreams.

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book! The title and this beautiful cover drew me in and i was excited to read this book! I will be recommending this book to others for readers advisory

This book was very good! We will be purchasing for our library's YA collection. This book will be quite popular

The story is beautifully written, witty and comforting. The dialogues are very realistic and this makes it easy to be inside the story.

I wish I had a Cora and Nandini back then. I appreciate Karina’s friends for being understanding of what she is going through. I love how supportive her friends were, especially her grandmother. The way she stood up for Karina was amazing.

Karina is a character that my teenage self would really relate to. The change of her internal monologue from the times of anxiety to the part where she realizes the importance of her happiness was spectacular.

I would highly recommend this book!

While this book was cute and fun, it was too long and did not stand out from the other romcom/bad boy books I’ve read. It would have been great as a quick read, but I wanted more depth from the length. It needs serious editing or more substance.

Dare I say FAVORITE BOOK OF THE YEAR?! 😮 I read an eARC of Counting Down With You back in January and I still think about it so often. I loved it so much I pre-ordered a copy for my personal library so I could reread it whenever I wanted. 💕 I've read 47 other books so far this year and Counting Down With You still remains my favorite. I can't believe it's taken me this long to post this review!

Counting Down With You is the book I needed as a brown teenager. I am so glad that YA is publishing more diverse and own voices novels. Ace and Karina are my OTP and I will die on a hill for them. 😍 Please link me to all of the Ace Clyde fan merchandise bc I will proudly buy and wear it all.

Counting Down With You is a really raw story about not only being a teen, but being a teen with added family and cultural pressures. I was drawn to the story from the beginning and was fighting sleep while reading late into the night every night I read it (I may have neglected some of my work to finish the book, oops).

There were really good conversation about a lot of cultural taboos in Brown/Desi families (mental illness, dating, education/career expectations) in a refreshing and modern light. MAJOR props to Counting Down With You for being the first (if not only) book with a brown character that has a love interest but no arranged marriage subplot.

This book should be required reading for all brown girls in high school, but I will generally recommend it to anyone and everyone. Even outside of the cultural context, Counting Down With You is an amazing YA novel. I was absolutely blown away by this debut novel and will forever be a @tashiebhuiyan stan. I cannot wait to read her next novel, which comes out next year and whatever else she publishes after!

Thank you to @inkyardpress and @netgalley for my eARC!

This book was really good! I enjoyed seeing the progression of Karina throughout the novel and her finding herself and her voice was a beautiful transformation. There were a few points where I was so frustrated with her parents for not understanding how letting their daughter follow her dreams would be a wonderful thing and also if they hadn’t that she’d resent them forever, but eventually they got there with the help of Dadu. Dadu was written so well, I really wanted to pluck her from the pages and have her come and live with me because it seemed like she had lived such an amazing life and she’s the one person in the whole book that’s love is unconditional, even to the members of the family that were exiled or were having difficulties with her own family. It was interesting to see the parallels of family troubles with Ace and Karina because even though they were about different things, communication is what brought them through the issues in the end and I appreciated that. Seeing Karina deal with her anxiety as a real thing throughout the story was great as well because it really normalized her needing to take a breath, pause and assess her situation. I do wish that her anxiety and the different coping mechanisms were delved into a little bit deeper though. I know that the counting really helped her, but seeing it repeated so many times was a bit exhausting as a reader. I wish that there would have been a better exploration and that we as readers could come along with her on that journey for more than what felt like just a miniscule portion of the book. I think it could be good to let teens know what other simple ways they can deal with anxiety other than writing about it and counting. Overall though I absolutely adored this book! I definitely plan on recommending it to all of my friends and coworkers, and potentially even purchasing it for myself because I love the story and the cover is beautiful as well.

This book may start off like every enemy to lovers romcom but this has so much more substance. Katrina is a relatable character that will resonate with many readers. SHe has flaws that she doesnt even realize and her boundaries are tested. throughout the book. At first glance her love interest Ace is a typical bad boy in every romance novel. But he will surprise readeers with his attention to detail and complicated past that is actually explained before the book ends.

I tried going into this book with an open mind.I felt for karina’s struggles with her parents not being supportive of her dreams and aspirations. That is so valid and a reality for so many teens, specifically those raised in brown or arab cultures. I also really liked the anxiety rep. but I was frustrated with the Muslim representation.

I think that my students will enjoy this title. The allegory of the book was not subtle at all but that may benefit younger readers. The book was an enjoyable read even if it was obvert.