Book Review: Counting Down with You by Tashie Bhuiyan

**Disclaimer: I received a free electronic ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**
Genre:  YA, Contemporary, Romance, Asian Literature
Release Date: May 4, 2021  
Description:

"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 great read that brought together two teens who are trying to navigate through their family problems, on the premise of fake dating. The story provided solid characters and great representation. 

Karina is a high schooler who comes from a Bangladesh and Muslim family. She is expected to become a doctor but deep down all she wants to do is to pursue English. From the very beginning, you are shown that Karina suffers from anxiety, but since she comes from a culture that doesn't take mental health seriously, she has to resort to online suggestions/tips in coping with it. Throughout the story, Karina strictly abides by the rules her parents have established, despite being out of the country for a month. She has so many conflicting thoughts because just her very happiness can never be achieved if she doesn't stand up to her parents. It's a slow progression in her development, but I'm glad she was able to get there in the end.

While the book carries a lot of positive attributes, it does have flaws. First off, the pacing. At first, that book progressed at a decent pace, as it took time for the fake dating to even occur. However, the fake dating also didn't last very long before the relationship became official. This caused the progression of it to feel a bit rushed. When you're reading you might think it's happening at a relatively good pace, but in reality, everything is happening in a span of a month, which isn't long at all. Personally, I'm not a fan of quick romances. Another part that I didn't like was the cliche and cheesiness of it all. I'm sure it adds a certain charm to it to other people, but at times it gets a bit much for me. Despite this, I did actually enjoy the romance.

Overall, while this book may not be perfect, it offers great representation that is much appreciated. If you like fluffy romance, mental health representation, and complicated families, then this might be just for you. 

Overall rating:  3.75/5