They’re blatantly just there to prop up Karina. They’re literally planning their wedding (and creating ship names) before Karina goes to the first tutoring session. Karina’s friends Cora and Nandini exist only to manically ship Ace and Karina. At least he’s got more personality than anyone else. I know she means that he overwhelms her, not that she actually anticipates murder… but with that line, a part of me actually did anticipate murder.Īce is hardly the only iffy character, though. That is psychotic. It doesn’t help that Karina regularly observes in an exaggerated, metaphorical sense that Ace is going to kill her. I knew this book was a romance, but despite that I paused and legitimately wondered is he going to murder her? That’s not swoony and poetic. But apparently it’s supposed to be swoony and poetic. “I want to light a match and send you up in flames,” is not something you want to hear from a guy with a dangerous reputation, and whom you barely know.
#Counting down with you book serial#
Plus, one of the first romantic things Ace says to Karina makes him sound like a serial killer. He skips classes all the time (with permission, for international music competitions)! He wears a leather jacket (but offers it to Karina when she’s cold)! He tried to sabotage his brother’s political campaign (yes, but his brother’s a jerk)! He hates being in the library (he prefers a cute little bakery)! He skips tutoring sessions and doesn’t pay attention when he’s there (he had a family thing, and Karina is just too pretty)! Also he’s always sucking on a lollypop, which I think is the good bad boy’s equivalent of smoking. She makes every attempt to make Ace a sensitive, understanding gentleman but dress him up in the trappings of a stereotypical bad boy. It doesn’t help that Bhuiyan wants to have her cake and eat it, too. I spent the whole book under the impression that that when Karina asked him why he lied, Ace free-styled some BS because for some reason he couldn’t tell her the truth at the time.
Also, when he and Karina start studying he just straight up doesn’t pay attention so I guess he was really method acting the whole I’m-a-screwup thing.ĭid I explain that badly? Maybe. Because he’s not good enough for his dad, so his decision is to actively try to look worse. So he decides to introduce Karina as his girlfriend. But obviously he can’t be caught actually studying. The only time that his father really pays attention to Ace is when Ace is screwing up (and also he just doesn’t understand Ace’s desire to be a pianist, but that’s another thing), so Ace wants to look like a screwup, I guess? But also he needs his grades to be good. His brother is supposedly perfect–good grades, class president, the works-and Ace can’t compete, which makes their father prefer Ace’s brother. But Ace doesn’t want his brother or father to know that he’s being tutored, because he is dedicated to his reputation. So she asks Karina to take Ace under her wing, and Karina reluctantly does. I guess she’s just a bad teacher? Or she’s really into matchmaking on the side. Karina’s beloved English teacher is having a hard time reaching Ace, the class bad boy, even though Ace specifically asked to be tutored. I’ve never read a fake-dating scenario that isn’t ludicrously convoluted, but this one may take the cake. I don’t know if or how much it changed between that version and the final.Īs you’ve probably guessed from the introductory paragraph, the main reason that Counting Down With You missed the mark for me is the central relationship. Her strict, controlling parents’ absence gives her the opportunity to be more herself and less the perfect daughter they always wanted, and that means more revealing clothes, more English and less Science, and even a (fake) relationship with the class bad boy.įull disclosure: I did read an ARC of this novel. When her parents go to Bangladesh to visit extended family, leaving her with her considerably more relaxed grandmother, high-school junior Karina has more freedom than ever before.
If I’d know that Counting Down With You by Tashie Bhuiyan was going to use the trope in the most straightforward way, I certainly would not have read it. Once or twice I’ve read books that play with the idea: trope-savvy characters enter a fake dating situation with the express desire of manipulating the trope and ending up with a real relationship, but ultimately that fake partner isn’t right for them and they end up with someone they met/grew close to under less stupid circumstances. If a book has two characters pretend to date each other and by so doing realize that they have real feelings for each other, I will almost inevitably hate the book. From the depths of my soul, I hate the fake-dating trope played straight.
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