Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

A reserved Bangladeshi 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?

**Counting Down with You comes out May 4, 2021**

Thank you Edelweiss and HarperCollins for this copy in exchange for an honest review

I will first say that I do not know too much about Bangladeshi people and culture except the stories I hear from a good friend of mine in grad school. What I do know is that with every culture, there are hardships and this resonated with me in so many ways. Counting Down with You was the emotional rollercoaster romance story centred around a protagonist I could root for and empathize with at the same time in her struggles to fight for herself. This own-voices story was everything I didn’t know I needed in 2021, and I am ecstatic to have found it.

Karina, nicknamed by her family as Myra, has just waved her parents off for a 1-month stay with relatives in their home country of Bangladesh. While they are gone, she finds the sudden freedom from the harsh restrictions her parents have placed on her with regards to school and social life. Normally, she had a curfew to be back from school – yes, not a night-out curfew but to come home directly from school unless she was in the Pre-Med Society meeting. Even tutoring was frowned upon unless it was for something related to STEM. So English, you can kiss that goodbye. As is already obvious, Karina struggled with the sciences and maths while English was her true passion. The premise of this story draws Karina into the path of bad-boy Ace whom she has to tutor in English at the request of her favourite teacher.

Continue reading →

top ten tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday: Books that Could be Crayola Colours

April 13, 2021April 11, 2021 Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

Was it just me or did last week feel super long? It was one heck of a rough one for me so maybe that’s why the days felt like they dragged. I hope this one starts off well for you all.

Today’s TTT is all about colours, particularly crayola colours. Did that bring any flashbacks to childhood for you? I remember colouring with them as a child for every art project I had (and apparently my teachers thought I didn’t colour very well but that’s just their opinion). I still have a box full of these colouring crayons on my desk so this was a bit of a fun task to do.

I have picked some titles I feel have succinct and colourful-sounding names that seems to impress a certain colour in mind when I read them. Let me know what you think about these titles, or if you’d give a different colour to them!

1. Golden by Jessi Kirby

I suppose this one is a bit of a cheat but I couldn’t help but think of this book since it screams brilliant warm yellow hues on skin in the summer and the rays of sunlight filtering through curtains. I also really loved this book when I read oh, a decade ago, and just wanted to highlight it.

2. Magnolia by Kristi Cook

I know, I suppose this is also a colour of some sort. I think of beautiful fuchsia/warm pink on buds of flowers as spring grows, particularly in the South of America. Which is fitting since this book is featured in the South and is a beautiful enemies-to-lovers story of two teens whose mothers wanted them to get together forever but they absolutely detested the other.

3. Just Dreaming by Kerstin Gier

The conclusion to a trilogy about a girl who can enter dreams of others, I imagine a nice sky blue colour for this title. If I were lying on the grass and looking up into the sky on a sunny day, I’d dream under a canvas of blue with the odd white cloud floating by.

4. Frostfire by Amanda Hocking

While the words seem to of opposing effects (fire and frost), this brings to mind the white/blue centre of flames which is the hottest part. I think it’s particularly beautiful and fitting for book 1 of the Kanin Chronicles set in wintry Canada (yay!).

5. Sword and Verse by Kathy MacMillan

I absolutely adored this book that featured the importance and beauty of language. Its title draws a deep golden colour to me that can be found on scrolls (for which verses are written) and the hilts of swords.

6. Snow like Ashes by Sara Raasch

There are other titles in this series that could fit into this pattern but this one stuck out to me. I think of an ice gray colour or even a more muted gray akin to a rainy, overcast sky. You know, just things that fall out of the sky.

7. Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Hopefully not a title unfamiliar to most, I think of a fiery orange from its name, the spark that lives on and fights to become ablaze. It also reminds me of the titular girl in this book characterized by her survival instincts in New Beijing, a populated city that do not look kindly on people like her.

8. The Glittering Court by Richelle Mead

I think many colours may come to mind depending on the person for this title, just anything that glitters right? While diamonds may be the first thing to pop up for some, I think of a nice rosy hue like that of a rose quartz. I’m not sure why, maybe ‘cause it somewhat rhymes?

9. Thorn by

This is a book I have yet to read but its title makes me think of dark obsidian. Like something shiny enough to entice you and draw you close but dangerous when you actually get in its vicinity.

10. Starflight by Melissa Landers

It sounds and obviously reminds me of space so I think of the darkest, deepest black of the void but maybe with a sprinkling of yellow in it so it’s not complete blackness. After all, sci-fi space books are fun and all, but not if you can’t see anything around you, right?

That’s my list for this week. What’d you think of my colours and titles? Let me know! Would love to hear if any differ for you.

Happy Tuesday everyone! Hopefully it’ll be filled with more peace and rest for all of us.

2 star, adult

Review: Ten Rules for Faking It by Sophie Sullivan

April 11, 2021April 10, 2021 Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

What happens when your love life becomes the talk of the town?

As birthdays go, this year’s for radio producer Everly Dean hit rock-bottom.

Worse than the “tonsillectomy birthday.” Worse than the birthday her parents decided to split (the first time). But catching your boyfriend cheating on you with his assistant?

Even clichés sting.

But this is Everly’s year! She won’t let her anxiety hold her back. She’ll pitch her podcast idea to her boss.

There’s just one problem.

Her boss, Chris, is very cute. (Of course). Also, he’s extremely distant (which means he hates her, right? Or is that the anxiety talking)?

And, Stacey the DJ didn’t mute the mic during Everly’s rant about Simon the Snake (syn: Cheating Ex).

That’s three problems.

Suddenly, people are lining up to date her, Bachelorette-style, fans are voting (Reminder: never leave house again), and her interest in Chris might be a two-way street. It’s a lot for a woman who could gold medal in people-avoidance. She’s going to have to fake it ‘till she makes it to get through all of this.

Perhaps she’ll make a list: The Ten Rules for Faking It.

Because sometimes making the rules can find you happiness when you least expect it.

“If you happen to find a man who looks like Chris Pine, acts like Chris Hemsworth, smiles like Chris’s Pratt, and has a body like Chris Evans’s, I’ll rethink things. But until then? I am officially off the market.”

From this quote alone, it is rather telling of everything that comes in Ten Rules for Faking It. Rather than focusing on romance – as is its genre – this story is more about conquering fears related to social anxiety while finding love somewhere along the way in between those moments. If I had known this book coming in that the focus is less on meet-cute rom-com kind of plot, maybe then I’d feel differently, but this one just slid past what I was looking for.

Continue reading →