I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Stay with My Heart by Tashie Bhuiyan
Published by Inkyard Press on 1/2/24
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 340
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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Liana Sarkar lives and breathes music, hoping to follow in the footsteps of her A&R coordinator father. Maybe if she succeeds, he’ll finally give her the time of day instead of drowning himself in work to distract from the grief of her mother’s passing.

When Liana accidentally sabotages an up-and-coming local band, Third Eye, she makes it her mission to steer them towards success—without them discovering her role in their setback. But as she gets closer to Third Eye, especially their enigmatic leader Skyler Moon, it becomes harder to hide the truth.

With both her heart and their futures on the line, will Liana be able to undo the damage she’s caused?

Short and Sweet Review

Liana’s life revolves around music, which makes sense because her dad is an A&R coordinator for a popular record label. Liana falls for a guy, Thomas, and ends up giving his demo to her dad not knowing that Thomas stole the songs from his former band, Third Eye. Now Liana is determined to make it right with the band and she tries to make her interest in helping them about getting them success without them knowing what she did.

Liana’s life at the moment is very complicated. After the death of her mother, Liana and her father only speak when its about his work which centers around music. It was hard to see this relationship or lack of one play out because you can see Liana reaching out to him but he’s not even trying, and everyone grieves in their own way but to Liana it feels like she’s invisible to him. When Liana gives him the demo and he likes it she feels like he’s finally proud of her which is why when she finds out she’s messed up she’s too scared to tell him in fear that he’ll basically shut her out again. Also because of this big demo mishap Liana tries to fix things with Third Eye without them knowing that she kind of but without wanting to actually helped Thomas get noticed. Liana goes through the trouble of getting the band a place to practice and eventually becomes their publicist. I did like the relationship Liana had with the band members, she even goes on to have a romance with Sky. I did like that Liana had a support system with her cousin Riya and her best friend Evie, it was also nice seeing that the band also became part of her support system. The plot was interesting and even though Liana could have stopped this whole thing by coming clean early I did understand her motives. This book did cover hard topics like anxiety, depression and grief but it did it in a way where it was well explained and not just thrown in the book for the sake of being in there.

Overall, I did enjoy this book. It was heartfelt and it was fun watching Liana do everything in her power to fix her mistakes. I did also like that each chapter had a song title and the little playlists that were sprinkled around in some of the chapters. I would recommend this book, its a cute romance and the getting to know Liana and Third Eye just made this book that much better.

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Counting Down with You by Tashie Bhuiyan
Published by Inkyard Press on 5/4/21
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 464
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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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?

Short and Sweet Review

Karina’s plan to get through high school is to keep her head down and follow her parent’s rules. But when her parents leave for four weeks Karina expects some peace, but instead she ends up tangled in a lie. Karina starts to tutor the schools resident bad boy, Ace, and eventually the two start to pretend date. Karina can’t wait until things go back to normal but as time starts to get closer to when her parents get back she wonders if she really wants it to go back to normal.

Karina is a 16-year-old Bangladeshi Muslim who loves to read and write poetry. She wants to study English, but her parents want her to study medicine. There isn’t a lot of room in her life for her to live it the way she wants so when her parents go to Bangladesh for a month, leaving Karina and her brother with their grandmother, Dadu, Karina finally feels free.

Karina is asked to tutor a boy in her English class, Ace, who is struggling in. Karina knows that her parents wouldn’t be to happy with her spending any time with a boy, but Karina agrees because her favorite teacher is asking and it’ll replace the grade for a project that counts for a large portion of her grade. The more Karina gets to know Ace the more her feelings for him begin to complicate. Ace starts to introduce Karina as his girlfriend even though they’re not dating, which makes everything start to fall apart.

During the time that her parents are gone Karina is shown love from the people around her, like her friends and Dadu.

The romance was beautiful and I liked that Ace and Karina were honest with each other and respected boundaries. Ace was everything someone would want in a boyfriend and I just loved their relationship.

The book pulls the reader in and I love how the characters were brought to life! Karina has a lot of love and support from those around her. Counting Down with You is beautiful and raw and it really shows you what it means to follow your own path in life. I highly recommend this book!