Counting Down with You

"A witty, romantic, deeply insightful debut." —Emma Lord, author of Tweet Cute

In this sparkling and romantic YA debut, a reserved Bangladeshi-American 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?

"I. Love. This. Book." —Mark Oshiro, award-winning author of Anger Is a Gift and Each of Us a Desert "A must-have addition to any YA bookshelf." —Sabina Khan, author of Zara Hossain Is Here and The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali "Hand to fans of Netflix hit Never Have I Ever." —Booklist

© 2021 HarperCollins (Audiobook): 9781488211232

Release date

Audiobook: 4 May 2021