About the Book
-
Author:
- Tashie Bhuiyan
- Genres:
- Boy-Girl Romance
- Contemporary
- Voices:
- Bangladeshi Diaspora
- Cis Girl
- Straight
Cover Story: Sky Blue
BFF Charm: Oda Mae Brown
Talky Talk: With Lyrics In Your Eyes
Bonus Factors: Pride and Prejudice, Found Family, Mental Health Rep
Anti-Bonus Factor: Dan Scott Award for Awful Parenting
Relationship Status: Music To My Heart
Cover Story: Sky Blue
A Bengali girl and an Asian boy sit back-to-back on a background of fluffy clouds. It’s cute, but it doesn’t tell us much about the book. I wish there had been a microphone, a guitar, a group of band members in the background maybe? Music notes? Anything to tell us about the song-filled story we’re about to get. But then again, this look is pretty ethereal so it’s got that going for it.
The Deal:
Seventeen-year-old Liana Sarkar is the daughter of a music label’s A&R executive – that is, her dad is really into music, and can control the destiny of many musicians’ dreams. Unfortunately, that is all he cares about. Ever since Liana’s mother died three years ago, she’s felt her father pulling away from her and concentrating only on work.
When Liana meets Third Eye, she befriends Thomas, a disgruntled member of the band. He has plans to go solo, and Liana shares his demo with her father. Then she finds out that Thomas is a fraud and passed the leader, Skyler’s, songs off as his own. Instead of fessing up to the mistake, Liana decides it’s up to her to take Third Eye under her wing, prepping them for a music competition where the prize is a record contract. But can she keep her secret? And what happens when she finds herself falling for Sky?
BFF Charm: Oda Mae Brown
Liana, girl. It was so hard to root for Liana when she didn’t own up to her mistake. She kept getting more and more intertwined with the band, and the anxiety of knowing that they were going to find out about her actions really got to me! But Liana has a reason for her not telling her father that she made a mistake: she and her dad have not gotten along since Liana’s mother died, and the one sentence of praise he gave her for “trusting her intuition” and finding Thomas meant that she couldn’t bear to let him know she was wrong. So she stumbles through her humility and tries to make amends to Third Eye. She’s a tough cookie to love, but Liana is a messy teen with a good heart overall.
Swoonworthy Scale: 6
At first, Skyler is a real piece of work. We meet the handsome, brooding leader of Third Eye at a house party, where he asks girls to name three of the bands’ songs for a date. Liana is disgusted. When she hears about his selfish nature from Thomas, she hates Sky even more. But when Thomas is revealed to be a liar and a fraud, we question Sky’s reputation for being cruel. Is he actually? And he turns out to be kind… and has really nice eyes… Yeah, there’s very little kissing in this book, but when Sky confesses his feelings, it’s SWOONWORTHY. Trust me, y’all.
Talky Talk: With Lyrics In Your Eyes
I personally loved how the chapters were all titled with songs from existing songwriters to best express Liana’s feelings. This entire book is a playlist set to romance and I’m. Here. For. It.
The characters talk like teenagers, they’re messy like teenagers, the author really got into their headspace. I believed them. Such magic doesn’t always happen in books, so I’m happy.
Bonus Factor: Pride and Prejudice
Okay, hear me out! I don’t think this book was marketed as a P&P retelling, but I see parallels. Thomas is Wickham and Sky is Darcy. Liana is prejudiced against Sky at the start but then when she sees him in a softer light, he improves. There’s no Pemberley or Lydia to round out the story, but the trope exists!
Bonus Factor: Found Family
I love when there’s a group of misfits who find each other and become each other’s family. Third Eye grows to accept Liana’s intrusions and they end up deeply caring for each other. (Which makes the anxiety that they’ll find out about Liana’s mistake with Thomas even more of a tension-builder!)
Bonus Factor: Mental Health Rep
Liana deals with depression – exacerbated by her mother’s death – and spirals a lot. I appreciated that the author included days where Liana can’t seem to get out of bed or do anything worthwhile because she just doesn’t have the energy for it. Bhuiyan convincingly writes about what it feels like to attend to grief, and it makes sense (unfortunately) that Liana’s father is pulling away from his own daughter. Which brings me to…
Anti-Bonus Factor: Dan Scott Award for Awful Parenting
He’s not a bad parent in that he’s abusive or hurtful. But Liana’s dad is neglectful. He doesn’t tell Liana that he loves her. The only words of praise she receives is if she does her intern job at his record company well. So you can imagine that I don’t love this character, but he’s a realistic look at what an emotionally absent father can be like. Liana has to grow despite his disappearance from her life (or, because of his disappearance).
Relationship Status: Music to my Heart
Book, you were fresh and special. From the excessive Taylor Swift references, to discussing cultural shifts in brown families, I thought you were a great read.
Literary Matchmaking
If you happen to be in need of more anxiety caused by an overachieving college-bound girl, crack open Tracy Badua’s This Is Not a Personal Statement.
The Love Match by Priyanka Taslim is legit a Pride and Prejudice retelling and also features a Bangladeshi main character.
Wanna stay in the music groove? Check out Sarah Dessen’s classic romance, Just Listen.
FTC Full Disclosure: I received a free e-book from the publisher. I received neither compensation nor kittens in exchange for this review. Stay With My Heart is available now.
