“Don't let the fear of disappointing them stop you from living your fullest life.” I think I might have found a new favorite author? After absolutely devouring A Show for Two, I realized I actually already had Counting Down With You on my e-reader. So when I was looking for a romance book over valentine's day, this was an obvious first choice. And it was again an amazing read. Great writing style, incredible pacing, subtle fake dating, good friendship dynamcis, focus on complex family relationships, Bangladeshi culture and very real and raw anxiety represenation. I feel like A Show for Two was a tiny bit better, especially towards the ending (the ending here was a bit abrupt for my liking), but I am stunned at how incredible this DEBUT novel was. I'm definitely looking forward to whatever Tashie is going to publish in the future!

The story is cute, but I thought the writing and the main character were pretty immature and I was often annoyed (e.g. when the mc goes on and on about how Ace is a bad boy just because he has a leather jacket when every character description makes him sound like the complete opposite of a bad boy).