Tashie Bhuiyan

I was deeply moved by the story of Liana Sarkar, a South Asian American teenager navigating the complexities of grief, anxiety, and familial neglect. Bhuiyan masterfully blends music's unifying power with a tale of personal growth and resilience. As Liana inadvertently hinders a local band's success and falls for their enigmatic leader, her journey of secret atonement and self-discovery unfolds. The portrayal of mental health is authentic and thoughtful, resonating with me profoundly. This show more book, a poignant exploration of love, healing, and finding one's tribe, truly captures the essence of young adulthood. It's a compelling read for those who cherish YA contemporaries rich in emotion and character depth.

Merged review:

I was deeply moved by the story of Liana Sarkar, a South Asian American teenager navigating the complexities of grief, anxiety, and familial neglect. Bhuiyan masterfully blends music's unifying power with a tale of personal growth and resilience. As Liana inadvertently hinders a local band's success and falls for their enigmatic leader, her journey of secret atonement and self-discovery unfolds. The portrayal of mental health is authentic and thoughtful, resonating with me profoundly. This book, a poignant exploration of love, healing, and finding one's tribe, truly captures the essence of young adulthood. It's a compelling read for those who cherish YA contemporaries rich in emotion and character depth. show less

“it’s worse now, because this band means something to me. Skyler Moon means something to me.
And none of it matters because I sabotaged it before I ever stepped foot into their rehearsal space.”

-5 Stars-

Tropes:
-Friends to lovers
-Love Triangle
-Band romance
-Music lover

Spice:
1/5

YES! I think my heart is literally going to burst! This book is too cute!

This cute band romance follows Liana a girl from New York that has always sort of been there. Not popular and not a nerd.
Her best show more friend, Evie, convinces her to go to a party one night and at the party she encounters a guy from a band trying to pick up girls she immediately doesn’t like the way he uses his popularity to get girls.

Along the way, you learn that Liana isn’t really as innocent as she makes everyone think. Super cute with a few twists!

Okay okay okay! THIS BOOK! You need to read this like I’m not kidding… it’s the best romance I’ve read this year.

Liana is so relatable and the jokes she makes are too funny. I like how the author didn’t make her a perfect human without any kind of flaws. In the book, Liana has multiple flaws like anxiety, depression, and daddy issues. Her flaws make the book more compelling and a whole lot more relatable.

Another plus… The book is in first person… present tense! I’m so happy that it’s first person! The writing from Liana’s perspective is perfection.

The chapters are so short and awesome! I really appreciate the short chapters because it gives me more places to stop when I don’t have time to read. At every chapter, there’s a new song name which is really a cute idea. I really enjoyed the songs for each chapter.

Liana is super musical… not like sing-y musical but is a music lover. I love that she loves music because I can relate with her. Playlists are included throughout the book and the songs are quite recent recognizable songs.

Okay enough about Liana! The book is also about Third Eye, the band that she knows. Her relationship with each of the members gets me warm inside and makes me wish I had friends like them. Ethan is so sweet, Vincent is always smiling, Mohamed treats her like a princess, and Sky… Dear sweet Sky is so good to her and just a lovely boy.

Side note… Why does this sort of remind me of One Direction?! Ugh boy bands are just the cutest thing!

Okay anyway… not spicy at all I think there’s only two kisses in the whole story, and the book is so amazingly readable. I finished it in a week!

A MILLION THOUSAND percent recommend. I’m just waiting for this to come out as a movie or tv show on Netflix. ;)

“I could write a million songs about you,” Skyler says, “and it still wouldn’t be enough.” show less

Oh, my goodness, what a delightful novel "Counting Down with You" was! It was beautifully written and although I often found myself laughing at the dialogue, it also dealt with serious issues such as anxiety, family pressure, living up to the expectations of others and cultural differences. As for the characters, they were fabulous - Karina and Ace were just gorgeous together and Cora and Nandini, Karina's best friends, were the best. They were so supportive of Karina and were always there show more for her. I loved them and they reminded me of my own high school friends. Then there was Dadu. She was the perfect grandmother and I adored her, too.

"Counting Down with You" was beautiful, heartwarming, heart-breaking and a breath of fresh air. It is definitely going to be a popular novel in our school library. show less

The banter and dialogue had me laughing out loud. I absolutely loved this

The FMC is a great character and i love the representation of anxiety and living and dealing with it. It made her so much more relatable for me.