Counting Down with You | ARC Review

Synopsis

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?

Review

I can’t stress enough how much YOU NEED TO READ THIS BOOK! I read an early copy of this book and let me tell you, it was an emotional roller coaster. I laughed (so much), I cried (SO much), and I swooned (SO MUCH). I need an Ace Clyde in my life!!

Something that I loved so much about this book was that it covered a bunch of important issues in an elegant and non in-your-face way. It talked about boundaries and how it’s important to have them and honor other people’s when they set them. It brought up great feminist points and corrected misogynistic views. And it talked about parental relationships and how difficult they can be sometimes. I’m really only covering the base of what this book discusses (and not even doing so very well).

Okay. Moving on to my man, Alistair, or Ace. Ace is just so wonderful! If only all 16-year-olds could be like this (or even a few 24-year-olds. That would be cool). He accepts Karina for who she is, is by her side when she needs him or away when she needs space, and he handles his own problems really well. Also, did I mention he’s a musical man? I’ll let you read the book to find out how he’s involved in music, but know, it’s swoony.

There is also the romance that must be discussed. As I’ve mentioned, I’m a big fan of Ace and was already half way in love with him before I was even a 1/4 of the way through this book. On top of the fact that I just really loved Ace and Karina together, there was also the presence of stereotypical tropes that had me loving this book. But perhaps even better than the presence of these tropes was the fact that they were carried out in unique ways. Bhuiyan did a fabulous job of pulling these popular tropes and making them her own.

Here’s a list of a few other things that I didn’t want to write a whole paragraph about but deserve honorable mentions:
• Be brave
• Dadu rocks!
• Redefines bad boy
• Anxiety rep

Bhuiyan has written an incredibly moving and deeply romantic book about inner courage and standing up for what you need in life. I recommend this book to any and everyone, but especially all my fellow hopeless romantics out there. A million stars for this book!

Disclaimer: I voluntarily read and reviewed a gifted and advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Rating

To check out my other reviews, click here. Or to check out more books by Tashie Bhuiyan, go to her GoodReads profile or her website.