Stay with My Heart

March 1, 2024
A music-filled offering that tackles mental illness and parental loss with heart and hope. Bangladeshi American Liana Sarkar, a brand-new high school graduate, has a lot to grapple with over the summer before she starts studying music management and marketing at UCLA. She's waiting to get help for her anxiety and depression until she's at college, so that her dad--who's mostly been absent since her mom died--won't see the treatment on his health insurance and find out. Adding to her stress, Liana's best friend has left Los Angeles for a summer program at Columbia, and in an attempt to help a cute boy in a local band, Liana majorly messes up. She not only accidentally sabotages the band's chances for success, but the complications spill over into her working relationship with her music exec dad and her internship at the record company where he recruits new acts. As Liana tries to fix the mess, she gets closer to the band members, including handsome Korean American Skyler Moon. Bhuiyan's multidimensional characters express heartfelt intensity, and Liana's struggles to deal with her grief and mental illness are well drawn and sympathetic. The supporting cast of characters and their relationships--particularly those among the lovable boy band members--provide the story with depth and feeling, making it sing. Song titles open each chapter, and, along with the exploration of Liana's love of the industry, they provide music lovers with much to enjoy. An emotional, lyrical read. (Fiction. 13-18)

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March 1, 2024

Gr 9 Up-It's the summer before college and 17-year-old Liana, who is Bangladeshi American, is splitting her time between working at her uncle's LA record store and interning at the label where her father is an executive. She meets Thomas, a member of local band Third Eye, at a party and shares his music with her father, who has buried himself in work since the death of her mother. But when Thomas ghosts her, she learns he stole the band's songs and used her to get to her father. Liana wants to help the group reclaim their music but can't bring herself to tell them (or her father) what happened, so she takes on a management-style role and helps them prepare for a battle of the bands. Though wary of her input at first, the group soon adopts her as one of their own. The more time she spends with them, the more she finds that Skyler, who is Korean American and incredibly charming, makes her swoon. But her lies weigh on her, and things soon threaten to fall apart. Raw explorations of grief (Skyler also lost his mother), family expectations, and the neglect Liana feels from her father give depth and tension to the novel, which has a cute will-they-or-won't-they romance full of rehearsal room hangouts and late-night drives set to themed playlists. The conclusion is realistic and hopeful, showing Liana, who lives with anxiety and depression, enrolled in therapy. Characters are well-drawn and diverse in racial and LGBTQIA+ identity. VERDICT A sweet read with depth. Hand to readers who enjoy contemporary YA, boy bands, and books about girls who like music.-Amanda Mastrull

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