Let's Talk About Love

by Claire Kann

Alice had her whole summer planned. Non-stop all-you-can-eat buffets while marathoning her favorite TV shows (best friends totally included) with the smallest dash of adulting--working at the library to pay her share of the rent. The only thing missing from her perfect plan? Her girlfriend (who ended things when Alice confessed she's asexual). Alice is done with dating--no thank you, do not pass go, stick a fork in her, done.

But then Alice meets Takumi and she can’t stop thinking about him or the rom com-grade romance feels she did not ask for (uncertainty, butterflies, and swoons, oh my!).

When her blissful summer takes an unexpected turn, and Takumi becomes her knight with a shiny library employee badge (close enough), Alice has to decide if she’s willing to risk their friendship for a love that might not be reciprocated—or understood.

Genres: Romance, Young Adult, Contemporary, LGBT, Queer, Fiction, New Adult

281 pages, Hardcover

First published January 23, 2018

Reviews

[Hailey (Hailey in Bookland) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*

[Drcong O ' · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally a book about an asexual, biromantic black mc!!! Guys my heart is literally bursting from the cuteness, please read this!!! The friendships are so pure and lovely and Alice is such a realistic and relatable MC and you can't help but loving her. And Takumi? He's mine, sorry.

I loved this book. Everything about it was so adorable, informing, sweet, realistic, relatable and made my insides mush.

Alice's girlfriend broke up with her because Alice "doesn't like sex" and that's not true, Alice just doesn't care about sex which she talks about throughout the book. I may not be asexual, but I understood Alice's struggles and related to her. She's the sweetest human being and I just want to wrap her in warm blankets. I love how and this book was informative without being preachy and I think a lot of teens figuring out their sexuality will be able to relate to this.

The book is about Alice, a nineteen year old college student struggle with being asexual. She's comfortable with her sexuality and has told her closest friends, but is hesitant to tell others because she's unwilling to educate and explain it to others. The story follows Alice's coming out and understanding who she is. While the book deals with serious topics, there's always a light undertone keeping the story fluffy and light.

SOME THINGS WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT:
1. Alice's character!!!!

Alice is an asshole.

ALICE IS AN ASSHOLE.

Alice is not a perfect and likeable character and throughout the book we can see how everything is centered around her. She thinks about herself whenever it comes to her friends, but she realizes she's an asshole and that's perfectly fine. When she had an argument with her friends she realized she wasn't being a good person and changed herself for the better. Plus she was rude to Takumi.

2. AMAZING FRIENDSHIPS
This book has one of the best and realistic friendhsips. How many of us hate that trope where girl meets boy and forgets she ever had friends and her life now totally revolves around this boy? This book has that trope, BUT CALLS ALICE OUT ON IT. When Alice starts spending more time with Takumi, her friend does get angry and yes they fight. It happens between the closest of friends especially when friends live with each other. It also shows how important communication is. If you want to know what the other person's thinking and why they're behaving the way they are, YOU GOTTA SPEAK!!!!

3. GOOD ADULTS
In most books adults or counselors are just portrayed as bad and making everything worse. (It may be in some cases, but not all.) But in this book, we have a counselor that Alice can talk to about how she's feeling and she trusts enough to share with. She feels better and finds the advice helpful and I was screaming because YES!!!!

4. We also see how Alice is dealing with college life and career and I felt like this would be more New Adult??? A good NA that isn't all sex and romance, but with informative, sweet and diverse stories.

5. TAKUMI
Takumi is Japanese and also the one who broke Alice's Cutie Code (that's how she "rates?" people) and our love interest. He's such a sweet and soft boy, I love him.

Overall, a cute and heartwarming book with YUMMY FOOD!!! Definitely recommended.

buddy read with Lola. 😊

[Innastholiel · Rating 1 out of 5]

I shouldn’t rate this book because it’s too close and it hurt me too much for me to see it clearly. But I rated it anyway because even though I primarily hate it for personal and petty reasons, there are plenty of things about it that are bad despite my personal feelings.
__________________________________

I hate this book.

I hate it because it’s like every stereotype in every YA contemporary ever mashed together. I hate it because it reads like a loose assortment of scenes and tropes put together and called “novel” just for the hell of it. It has no plot to speak of, and every “issue” these characters had stemmed from a lack of communication. I hate it because of that, and I hate it because there are narrative intrusions in parentheses that read like the commentary of a fangirl reading the new chapter in their favourite fanfiction.

I hate it because the narrator is the most ridiculous and “cute” (neither of these is meant as a compliment) person I have ever had the displeasure of encountering within a work of fiction. I’m sure this wasn’t meant to be hurtful, but I hate how childlike Alice is because asexuals aren’t children, neither are we immature or underdeveloped, but Alice strikes me as all of those things. She talks like a 12-year-old; she’s bubbly and adorable and never listens or thinks about other people, and I hate it.

I hate this book because the love interest has no personality to speak of. I hate him because he takes pictures of Alice without her consent, which is called creepy and romantic in the same breath and then never talked about again. I hate this book because it portrays Takumi as the most perfect person for Alice ever, because even though Takumi is decidedly not asexual, of course — of course — he’ll never ever have sex with Alice if she doesn’t want to (compromise? what’s compromise?), and he totally isn’t hoping that she’ll change her mind one day. I hate this book because Alice and Takumi never just fucking talk to each other, and I hate their relationship because it never develops; it’s just perfect from the moment Alice finally learns to speak to him like a normal person.

I hate it because the minor characters are nothing but cardboard cutouts, and I hate it because Alice’s (ex-)girlfriend is demonised because she wants to be fulfilled sexually. No. Sexual incompatibility is a valid reason to end a relationship, so no. No to the implication that Margot is a monster because she wants sex to play a significant role in her relationships. Asexuals aren’t special snowflakes. We are not better because we don’t feel sexual attraction or don’t want to have a sexual relationship. If your partner is asexual and you aren’t, hell, if you’re in any relationship — regardless of orientation — that doesn’t fulfil you, you are not obligated to stay in it. We are not fragile, and we are not children, and we are not untouchable because of a label we apply to ourselves.

I hate this book because it tries so hard and completely misses the point. It tries so hard to incorporate so many things; that love means different things to different people, that arousal and attraction aren’t the same thing, that there are more than two kinds of attraction, that asexuals can have and enjoy sex, that just because you don’t desire someone doesn’t mean you can’t love them romantically — all of these things. It talks about all of them and more, but it still failed me because I don’t think any of these things are discussed in enough detail. Whenever it tries to be serious, it reads like bad Tumblr discourse, and after a few paragraphs, it’s over again; Alice’s bubbliness and the stupid insta-love butting in and ruining any chances this book had of doing something profound. I hate it because it had so much potential and will probably only end up confusing people more.

And lastly, I hate this book because it was supposed to be for me. I was supposed to recognise myself in these pages. I was supposed to celebrate that finally, finally asexuals are getting some explicit visibility. I hate this book because it hurt so much. It hurt to go into it expecting some genuine exploration of what it means to come to terms with being asexual and have it turn out to be every YA romance ever, happy ending and all. I hate this book because it does not mirror my own experience, and I hate it because I do not recognise a thing I like. I know that makes me petty and vindictive. I know that it makes me a hypocrite and a fraud. I know that it makes me wrong because I cannot condemn someone for having a different experience from my own, but this book hurt me so much with the offhand way it portrays something I have struggled with so much. It hurt me, and I hate it for it.

[Jesse (JesseTheReader) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very sweet read! I loved reading about Alice and seeing her come to terms with her sexuality. I think my favorite part was following her as she tried to communicate her identity to other people because it showcased her growth in being comfortable with who she is.

[emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

The word “hero” gets thrown around a lot these days…

Never in reference to me, though. And honestly I feel that my tireless fight in the battle against the not like other girls trope should make me qualify for epic poetry about my courage and strength, at the very least.

But it’s beside the point now. I give up.

I am now going to do a full 180 and commit to becoming not like other girls.

The main character in this book is so quirky, so filled with unparalleled manic-pixie-dream energy, that men not only fall in love with her - THEY COOK HER EVERY MEAL. THEY ALLOW HER TO LIVE RENT-FREE IN THEIR FANCY APARTMENTS.

And also, these are handsome men! Who are well-adjusted! With jobs and prospects!

Okay, it’s actually man, singular, but whatever. If he’s cooking you every meal and giving you constant attention you don’t need more than one.

It’s time for me to become Totally Random and start dressing like a fourteen-year-old Disney Channel star. It’s Code Waffles LOL XD. We’re going Full Quirky.

(I hate being an adult who’s in charge of my own life, so it’s worth it.)

Anyway. I have a lot more to say about this book (even though, yes, I have already said a lot. Stop sassing me, my internal monologue version of the person reading this review), so let’s do some bullet points.


- WHY IS THIS SO CONFUSING? FOR WHAT. WHAT’S THE REASON

This is mostly a little something called “there are so many unacknowledged time jumps in this book, leaving me a shell of my former self with no understanding of the timeline, existing outside of time in a humanity-less wasteland of my own creation.”

Also, a series of inexplicable moments that didn’t make sense to me, like actually for real can someone please explain them to me because I feel like I’m losing my mind, genuinely.

Example Numéro Un: when our main character and the man who takes care of her life for her are having their touchy-feely ooey-gooey Feelings conversation, Mr. Caretaker says...
“‘It’s not the medicine. [...] It’s you.’
Her gaze drifted to the pictures.
Oh.
Oh.”
WHAT? OH WHAT?

Or when Alice (Quirk City, population 1) asks about Takumi’s (Adult Extraordinaire) nieces’ mom being white and he asks if that’s a problem and she refuses to answer that, this conversation follows:
“‘I see you,’ he said, but tightened his arms around her anyway.
‘Sorry.’ Because it felt like she had to say something.
‘I’m too tired to care, but just do better.’
Alice side-eyed him. ‘You are way too perfect for my liking.’”
I have read this passage 800 times and I remain at a loss for what happened here.


- REPRESENTATION, BABY!!! WE LOVE TO SEE IT

Our main character, Alice, is a biromantic asexual Black woman. Her love interest / personal chef Takumi is Japanese. Alice’s friends and coworkers are a range of ethnicities and sexualities and it’s a real pleasure. It feels wonderfully realistic and rich! Like real life.

(I can’t speak to the rep as I am not asexual, but I’ve seen both positive and negative responses from ace people.)


- TALKIN BOUT CHARACS (COOL WAY OF SAYING CHARACTERS)

I do not care for Alice.

Yes, she is funny, but she is always high energy in a way that for me is exhausting, and people are always being obsessed with her. Like her older male therapist is always like “Ha Ha! I am so very amused by you and your antics, dear Alice. You are hashtag So Random.”

I do not like that sort of character writing, but that is just personal preference.

What is slightly less personal preference?

Alice is a bad friend and kind of a bad family member. Other people (besides Takumi) seem to factor into her thinking very little if at all. People who are introduced as her friends at the beginning never reappear. It’s exhausting.

She kind of acknowledges it though, which is nice, but still feels like too little too late. I just had to spend hundreds of pages reading about an unkind individual. This is a punishment that deserves more of a reward than a tiny bit of character development!!!

Anyway.

I like Feenie, Alice’s best friend and roommate, and no one else. Me and Feenie are going to run away together and pretend this book is about her.


- THE TINY COMPLAINTS I LOVE TO TREAT MYSELF TO WRITING OUT

I am not someone who often has perspective preferences, but this obviously should have been written in the first person. Even I, a point-of-view dunce, can see that.

Now let’s finish this on something hilarious.

At one point Takumi does this whole magic trick flirting thing and then gives Alice the card she picked from the deck and he magically pointed out and he’s like “keep this as long as you need it to bring you happiness and then give it back to me and I’ll teach you the trick so you can bring that happiness to someone else”...that whole thing never comes up again.

That made me laugh more than anything else in this whole book.


Bottom line: This was pretty fun and yet I managed to complain for three pages!! Being me is such a blast.

------------
pre-review

i really need to up my manic-pixie-dream-girl skills. trying to get a man to fall in love with me and cook me all my meals and let me stay rent-free in his apartment.

review to come / 3 stars

------------

i will never stray away from my biggest passion in life: finally getting to books years after they're sent to me

(thanks to the publisher for the copy)

---

i am spending this month reading books by Black authors. please join me!

book 1: The Stars and the Blackness Between Them
book 2: Homegoing
book 3: Let's Talk about Love

[Melanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blog | Instagram | Twitter | Tumblr | Youtube | Twitch

This was our February 2020 pick for the Dragons and Tea Book Club! 🐉☕

[kav (xreadingsolacex) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This in no way impacts my review of the novel.

I’m in need of a setting to give this novel 6 out of 5 stars because h o l y c r a p y’all, this novel changed my life.

LET’S TALK ABOUT LOVE is a story about a biromantic asexual black woman, Alice, in college, living with her two best friends who are dating, and working at a library where she meets Takumi, who changed her life forever.

I requested this ARC as a biromantic asexual reviewer because I have never seen those words in any form of media before. N e v e r. When I heard that not only was a book going to be published with a biroace main character, but the main is a queer woman of color, I was sold.

And for good reason.

Let’s start with the representation. LET’S TALK ABOUT LOVE gets representation right.

Racial microaggressions are constantly addressed in this novel, primarily through Alice and as well as briefly through Takumi, who is Japanese. As a non-black person of color, I can’t speak firsthand on the representation, but I am aware that the author herself is black making that aspect ownvoices and as a person of color I can attest to some truth to it from my experience. Furthermore, this novel also discusses (though not in these exact words and briefly), how black people have to work twice as hard to get half as far as people with more privilege and that is so true and important to discuss.

Then we can discuss how this novel also combats gross sexism. Whereas I do not want to go in-depth as to not spoil anyone, let’s just say there’s a party scene with a drunk male that completely brings to light a HUGE issue in our society.

Finally, this novel gets the queer rep right. I heard that the original manuscript had some issues with the ace rep, but I can say with full confidence that this book had none of those issues with the ace rep and I would even go as far as arguing that it is the best representation I’ve seen. Now I can only speak from my own personal experiences, but Alice often discusses her fears as an alloromantic asexual when it comes to dating which I can relate to so much. There is a specific chapter towards the beginning of this novel where Alice talks in-depth about her struggles with asexuality, including the fears of being alloromantic and asexual as well as the possible reactions from people and the fact that it’s ridiculous that she needs to “come out” because the default believe is that she is heterosexual.

Now I talk in-depth about the representation, but there is so much more to this novel.

Can I just take a moment to note how unbelievably well the characters and relationships are developed?

Though I would it’s arguable that their personalities may fall a slight bit into certain classic contemporary stereotypes, there is so much more to them. I loved how you could tell each character had their own character and they had their own individuality.

The relationships are developed just as well, if not better. During an emotional encounter between Alice and her best friend, Feenie, I started crying. I started crying because of how realistic this relationship, and all others in this novel, were. And these characters also admit they have flaws. They know they’re not perfect and that is so important.

I would say that the writing of this novel is a little basic, but I think that’s understandable as it’s a debut. I think the author was really trying to get into a teenager’s head and whereas she did succeed on that front, the writing had a little less “oomph” as a result.

The journey Alice goes through during this novel is remarkable. The person she is at the end is not the same as the person she starts out as and her story is important. It highlights real aspects of so many other teens and young adults out there.

I can’t even express to you all what it felt like to see the words “biromantic asexual” in an actual book. I don’t have the ability to express what representation like that for the first time ever means. So you’ll have to see it for yourself by reading the novel.

Other notes:
• this novel does confront problematic rhetoric as stated in the representation section, so be aware of that
• this novel highlights the fact that it is okay to want to be a stay-at-home mom
• um...read the book when it comes out in January

[megs_bookrack · Rating 2 out of 5]

**2.5-stars**

I'm sorry, y'all, but I struggled with this one.

S-T-R-U-G-G-L-E-D.



It wasn't a bad book. It was okay, but I just couldn't get into the story.

I really had to push myself and contemplated calling it quits halfway through.



I went into it expecting to fall in love with the story and characters.

In fact, I have been anticipating it for so long that I think I may have inadvertently set myself up for failure.



It's not you, Book, it's me. I wanted to love every moment of you, but I just didn't.

I found you a bit...



...boring, if I'm being honest.

There I said it.



I couldn't stand Alice's friend, Feenie.

Alice, I liked, but eventually I grew tired of her issues with her parents. I understand it is easy to avoid confrontation, but it is your family. I just couldn't connect with the way she handled them and her siblings were terrible.



Feenie was the worst though. Every page with her on it annoyed me.



I did eventually enjoy the relationship between Alice and Takumi, but even that took a while.

I enjoyed how diverse this story was. I had never read a book with an Ace main character before and I definitely enjoyed learning about her life, that was honestly the highlight for me.

The end was stronger than any other part of the book and I actually wouldn't mind a continuation just to see where Alice ends up.

Does that seem contradictory?



I guess I was just underwhelmed because I expected to love this SO MUCH.

Damn you, Hype-Train.

[Cece (ProblemsOfaBookNerd) · Rating 4 out of 5]

My heart is overflowing

[Kathryn S (Metaphors and Miscellanea) · Rating 1 out of 5]

Disclaimer: this "review" is closer to a rant. I regret nothing.

I. Am. So. Mad. At. This. Book. Seriously, I am one angry ace right now. I was so excited about this book; I had seen it listed so many times in articles with lists of books featuring asexual main characters, and plenty of people had written great reviews of it on Goodreads. I should have realized early on that most of those glowing reviews were not from OwnVoices reviewers; the one highly-ranked review I saw written by someone who is actually ace was quite critical.

It became apparent that the people who praised this book were glad because it taught them about asexuality. The thing is, simply having representation isn’t enough, especially if that representation is bad. And BOY HOWDY was this representation bad. Maybe someone out there can see their feelings reflected in the story told here, but for me–based on my own experience, the experiences of other aces I know, and the little research that actually exists on asexuality–it was inaccurate, full of stereotypes, and generally just not good.

Oh, and the book itself was pretty crap as well, so before I start tackling all the ways in which the book does aces dirty, might as well address the writing issues.

The plot is pretty dull on its own. You have Alice, a college sophomore, who hasn’t declared a major yet, despite her family’s endless pressure to choose political science and then go to law school. She’s also biromantic and asexual, and her girlfriend/roommate just broke up with her because the two are not exactly sexually compatible (one being ace, the other having a very high sex drive). So Alice moves in with her two best friends, Ryan and Feenie (who also happen to be dating each other), and decides to spend her summer working at the library and avoiding responsibility. But then, in walks Takumi: the new library employee, who is so dang gorgeous that Alice is suddenly questioning her sexuality and starts falling head over heels for him. And it all unravels from there.

So let’s start with the characters, because frankly, they all suck. Alice is so dang immature for a 19-year-old. She likes things aesthetically, even if not sexually…so she rates people on a color scale that she calls the “cutie code.” What kind of fifth-grade-level bullshit is that? She is like a real-life Tumblr post, actually using phrases like “squee” in conversation and then has to explain them to people. She also barely uses any social media outside of Tumblr, so…that’s annoying. Of course, to give her personality, she needs interests, so the author made her like…Netflix and food. No, I’m not making this up. She binge-watches shows and sometimes writes analytical essays about the characters (because she’s too sophisticated for fanfic or something), and her other major interest is that she loves eating. Usually eating junk food. It is absolutely bashed over the reader’s head again and again how much Alice likes to eat. We get it, she likes food (and apparently has the metabolism of a Gilmore, because she never gets fat from it). But she doesn’t cook, because like every ~quirky~ girl, she’s sO cLuMsY and manages to injure herself anytime she tries cooking. Ugh.

Perhaps it is no surprise, then, that the boy who falls for this Manic Pixie Dream Girl Wannabe is Mr. Bland As White Toast Even Though He Is Japanese. Takumi is a kindergarten teacher (yeah, he’s already graduated, which means he is at least 3-4 years older than Alice). He is a total sweetheart and a health food nut who doesn’t seem to have many interests besides working out and taking care of his nieces. His character has little-to-no growth throughout the story, and his defining characteristic is that he is gorgeous. Which we are also reminded of over and over and over again. And for some reason he is super into Alice right from the beginning, even though her first interactions with him are just her being awkward and tripping over her words and saying nothing. What the heck. There isn’t any real chemistry between them, just him being sweet and her being smitten with his good looks.

Then there is Feenie, aka the world’s worst best friend. Feenie has anger management issues and gets in fights all the time. Sometimes this seems sweet because she will fight fiercely on Alice’s behalf; she once punched a girl who insulted Alice in the locker room back in high school. But she is also really mean and insensitive. I won’t go into detail on what all she does wrong (though a lot of it involves ignoring Alice because she is so caught up in dating Ryan), and she never apologizes for any of it. Somehow, by the end of the book, it’s all Alice’s fault?? And Feenie doesn’t apologize for any of it, despite being a total dick to Alice for so long?? It pissed me off. AND she tries to pressure Alice into having sex with Takumi, even though Alice says she doesn’t want to multiple times, because Feenie is curious and lives vicariously through Alice’s dating life, because she has been dating Ryan basically since the dawn of time.

The other characters are barely mentioned at all, tbh. Ryan is super nice and a great friend but we barely see him. We hear once in a while about other people Alice sort of knows, like her boss at the library, but her only real social life is hanging out with Feenie and Ryan, and then Takumi. Her family is super one-dimensional: a nice dad and older brother, a mom and older sister who put tons of pressure on her, and that’s it.

Then, these lukewarm characters are thrown into a meandering plot that is basically just Alice being full of angst over whether having a crush on Takumi invalidates her asexuality. Never mind that she frequents Tumblr and knows there are different types of attraction–she still doubts whether any of her feelings are valid! And oh, woe is me, I can’t pick a major! Like, yeah, that’s a legit problem tons of people deal with, but it isn’t enough to form the backbone of a story, or even a compelling side plot. It’s just kind of…there. And, spoiler alert, by the end, all Alice has decided is to switch her major to something her parents don’t approve of, and with the help of a therapist, she decides she has been an absolute asshole to everyone and apologizes. That’s it.

The writing isn’t good either. Mostly a very juvenile tone (see previous commentary on how childish Alice is), but it is in third-person? So it feels like we are basically hearing Alice’s thoughts, and the narration sounds more like Alice’s than that of a removed narrator. Just put it in first person and be done with it, dammit.

Finally, just a weird thing that rubbed me the wrong way: Alice is a black, queer woman. In other words, she is a triple minority, and the intersectionality of her identities makes for an especially complicated set of expectations and experiences in the world. And yet, the author only touched on this in roughly two random sentences in the middle of the book, then never mentioned it again. She talked about being a black woman (like people trying to touch her hair and the problem with that, or like the expectation that black women won’t be as successful on dating apps), which was awesome, but never really wove the queer part into any of it. This wouldn’t be that big of a deal, except that the whole focus of this book is Alice’s sexuality (and romantic orientation), and it doesn’t go into the extra layers of complexity that entails for her; it treats it like her race and gender fall into one category, while her biromantic asexuality is totally something separate.

Now, on to what I find most problematic about this book: the ace rep. This isn’t a long piece, but it is the thing I am angriest about for sure.

First things first: it is established from the beginning that Alice doesn’t really care about sex. Cool, that’s common for aces. Then it mentions that she has had sex before. Also cool, lots of aces have sex, for a variety of reasons. But then it describes her experiences, saying that she would just kind of lie there while it was happening, that she didn’t experience much of anything from it. Now, hold up. Research has indicated that the vast majority of people who are asexual can and do still experience arousal from sexual activity and stimulation. So that’s kind of weird, but whatever, we’ll go with it for a second, because it still ends up weird. See, this experience is directly contradicted later in the book, when Alice describes an orgasm as being something like a nice stretch after running–feels good in the moment, but then she doesn’t really think about it outside of that context. So…she does enjoy it? She just doesn’t react when it’s happening? I’m a bit confused, I guess. Because, again, it is totally possible to not experience sexual attraction but to still enjoy the act of having sex. They’re two totally different things, and yet Alice sounds like she thinks the two must go hand in hand. For someone who frequents Tumblr and seems pretty dang knowledgeable about the ins and outs of asexuality, it’s odd that she can’t make that distinction. Then there’s the fact that she freaks out when she sees Takumi for the first time because it triggers some physical arousal “down there.” Like, she freaks out about this and calls Feenie because she can’t believe it. Again, ace people can (and often do) experience arousal from seeing things that are sexually charged, like porn or naked people. And yet Alice is here, alarmed because she’s never experienced that before (and she mentions watching things like the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, so it’s not like she hasn’t watched things that are arousing before) and thinking, again, that it somehow invalidates her being ace. If someone finds that consistent with their experience, cool, and I’m happy for them. But it isn’t consistent with what is more widely understood about asexuality, which is irksome. Asexuality is not about arousal or physical response. It’s about attraction. Get it right.

AND THEN. THE STEREOTYPES. When Alice first sees Takumi, she absolutely melts into a puddle. She can’t get a sentence out. She can’t stop thinking about how gorgeous he is. It’s like watching a middle schooler having a crush for the first time, and I just…why??? Just because aces don’t experience sexual attraction doesn’t mean we respond to other types of attraction like we’re adolescents. There’s nothing “less sophisticated” about an aesthetic or romantic attraction, and I cannot for the life of me understand why it was deemed necessary to reduce Alice to a puddle in the face of someone who she finds really, really good-looking. Again, maybe some aces have had this experience, and if you have, then I’m glad this book reflects something you’ve felt. But especially since there is so little out there, as far as in popular literature, about asexuality, this is a really problematic stereotype to show, as it reduces aces to some sort of immature not-adults because we don’t think about sex.

And speaking of not thinking about sex…oh my god, we are just bludgeoned over the head about how Alice is asexual. You know how I said her only real personality traits are liking Netflix and food? Yeah, the only other defining trait she has–and probably the most-discussed one–is just the fact that she is ace. She thinks about it constantly. She talks about it constantly. Anytime she sees anyone, she starts thinking, “Do I want to have sex with them?” The answer is always no, but still, she obsesses over it. I promise you, we are not all like that. The book is called Let’s Talk About Love, but from the way Alice thinks, tbh I think Let’s Talk About Sex would have been more accurate. Oh, but wait, Alice barely talks about her asexuality with people she's actually interested in, which is half of why her girlfriend broke up with her at the start, because the two didn't discuss their expectations beforehand. AAGGGHHHHH.

Then, as if that weren’t all bad enough, I listened to this one on audiobook, which made it even worse. The narrator was not AWFUL, but I had several big gripes about her:

- She mispronounced words. Specifically, she pronounced “ally” like “alley” (seriously, in a book about the queer community, you’re going to mispronounce the word for someone who supports that community?), pronounced “corset” like “cor-SET” (which, whatever, I guess), and pronounced “Tagalog” like the phrase “tag a log” (which is just culturally insensitive).

- She wasn’t good at integrating people’s speech with descriptors of speaking. Like, if Alice said something, she would say it like, “Blah blah blah.” (Beat) Alice said. With that pause in between, as if the two are separate thoughts. Very jarring.

- Why did she have to make everyone sound so melodramatic?? Especially Alice. The way she articulated things just made it sound like she was trying to over-act everything, so Alice sounded sappy and dumb and generally just not like a real person.

- She did that awkward thing where female narrators just make every male voice kind of scratchy/husky, which is so freaking annoying.

All that is to say, I didn’t like this book at all and would not recommend it for anyone. If you want books with asexual characters handled well, I would recommend The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy or Every Heart a Doorway or even Tarnished Are the Stars (which was so-so as a book but did a great job with one of the main characters being ace). I’ve heard very good things about Tash Hearts Tolstoy and Beyond the Black Door as well, though I can’t vouch for them personally as I haven’t read them yet. This was a fun rant to write, but please, for the love of all that is good in this world, don’t waste your time on this one.

Find this review and more bookish content/hot tea on my BLOG!

[Chelsea (chelseadolling reads) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I looooooooved the writing and asexual representation in this, but the plot of the story as a whole wasn't really my favorite. With that being said, I'm definitely still really excited to read her next book, If It Makes You Happy, because it centers around a queer fat girl. SIGN. ME. UP.

[Virginia Ronan ♥ Herondale ♥ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m on BookTube now! =)

”The bottom line was her body had never shown so much as a flicker of sexual interest in anyone. But that didn’t mean she liked being alone. That didn’t mean she wasn’t lonely. That didn’t mean she didn’t want romance and didn’t want to fall in love. It didn’t mean she couldn’t love someone just as fiercely as they loved her.”

So the ratings of “Let’s Talk About Love” are very diverse and range from 1 star up to 5 stars. I can see why some people would think this book is boring or didn’t do an aro/ace rep justice, but the thing is, every review is subjective and every opinion is too. (At least that’s what I think.) There will always be people that think a book is bad because it didn’t address issues the way they wanted it to - or how they wanted it to - and that’s legitimate. As a writer, as an artist you’ll have to learn that not everyone will like the things you write/create. So this said and all out of my system I’ve to say that I enjoyed this book! A lot, I may add.

”If this guy was on a show, he'd be considered the kind of gorgeous that would cause midseason plot twists and act-two spinouts, leaving the viewer on the edge of their seat because their beloved characters were goners after looking into those dark brown eyes."

The love story between Alice and Takumi was so sweet it basically glued my mouth shut with all the sugar. *lol* I really liked their friendship that developed into more and I could totally understand why Alice was hesitant to give into Takumi’s advances at first. Sure, it probably wasn’t Alice’s smartest move to go for a relationship with a girl that is known for her “sexual energy” but then again you don’t choose who you fall in love with. I think she should have told her ex-gf that she’s asexual instead of keeping it a secret though. It was the thing that stood between them and eventually led to her gf breaking up with her. Plus that former relationship made it hard for her to trust Takumi.

”That’s right. You live with us now.” Feenie beamed, a question forming in her eyes. “Fuck, I love you. I think sometimes my mind blocks out how much, so every time I remember feels like the first time I’m realizing it.”

Another theme that was tackled in “Let’s Talk About Love” was the friendship between Alice, Feenie and Ryan. Which was super problematic (in my opinion) and complicated but at the same time very realistic. I mean it was obvious they loved each other, but they had a really bad communication and that made up at least half of their problems. I know a lot of people think that Alice was too egoistic and self-centred but in my opinion not everything was Alice’s fault. I mean Feenie and Ryan ARE a couple and even though they love Alice, that doesn’t mean that she can’t feel left out.

”How am I doing that? And why is this all my fault? Why do you two have a Get Out of Ditching Alice pass that I’m supposed to accept because you say so? How is that fair to me?”
“We don’t ditch you,” Ryan said.
“You do. You have for years. I just don’t say anything because I don’t want us to fight, but the second I find an actual friend on my own, you two act like this.”

If your two best friends are dating you automatically feel left out. It’s a fact. Because they want time together and you’re just not a part of that equation anymore. Well, and the moment Alice spent time with Takumi, Feenie blames her for neglecting their friendship? Quite honestly if Feenie and Ryan would have left me all alone at a party with strangers because they wanted to have some “alone time” in a room I would have given them hell for their attitude, especially if they made me go there in the first place. Guess it’s just me though. For me, personally, a friendship is going both ways and not a one-sided thing. Feenie giving Alice the cold-shoulder for weeks was not okay and if she would have treated me that way I would have given her a piece of my mind. So yep, I guess you can say that the friendship between Alice and Feenie was a topic that made me angry. Truth be told, I would have never been able to be friends with someone like Feenie. Not that Alice dealt with it any better... Don’t get me wrong, they love each other. Obviously. But I prefer my bestie talking things out instead of giving me the silent treatment. Thankfully we’re all different and friends are actually the people you can choose for yourself. ;-)

”First of all” – Feenie pointed at her – “you are not broken and I don’t ever want to hear that again. Second, being attracted to one person doesn’t necessarily change who you are. Maybe you’re graysexual instead of straight up ace. There’s just something about the way Takumi’s genetic code arranged his face and body that appeals to your brain chemistry. It’s insta-lust. Enjoy it for what it is.”

So that leads me to the next topic at hand: Alice’s asexuality. I’m not asexual so I don’t know if it was well done or not, but I think I got a better understanding for what it’s like to be asexual in a world that is full of hormone-driven teenagers and adults. XD As far as I understood it Alice has a cutie code and Takumi exceeded it. She feels sexual attraction towards him but she doesn’t feel a need to go through with it, or to say it even more plainly: She might feel hot all over her body when she sees him but she has no desire to actually have sex with him.

I kinda liked that Alice knew she was on the aro/ace spectrum but still tried to define what this meant for her as a person. I saw a couple of reviews that said the representation wasn’t done right and some reviewers actually defined as aro/ace and mentioned that they don’t feel like Alice. I understand why some people wouldn’t feel represented by Alice, but to be fair I’ve to say that everyone is different and experiences things differently. The aro/ace spectrum has many different definitions/terms and Alice could have also been greysexual, fraysexual or acespike. So what I’m trying to say is that for some aro/ace people Alice’s rep might actually have been on point. Every spectrum on the LGBTQ+ rainbow has different shades and varies so I think it’s safe to say that some people might actually like the aro/ace rep in here. Well, and others will dislike it, but that’s okay. We are all individuals and diverse and beautiful in our own way and as long as we’re aware of that, we’ll be fine. ;-)

”Say what?” she whispered.
“That I like you,” he whispered back. “Everything you do and say is so endearing, and it’s ridiculous because I can’t stop thinking I need this person in my life. I need to be near you. If I could stand close enough to you, maybe I could absorb some of your shine.”

And now let’s talk about the best thing of this book: The relationship and love story between Alice and Takumi. I absolutely adored those two and they were so freaking cute I couldn’t stop grinning. Seriously, Takumi is perfect! Like super perfect and I have yet to find something about him that’s not great. *lol* This man always said the right thing and even when he wasn’t perfect he was somehow perfect? XD Does that make sense? I really liked his character and that he was so open-minded and didn’t just assume things. Alice and Takumi were pretty direct with how they felt about each other and their little gestures were everything. <33 Yes, Alice was pretty rude at first but it was because she was already super insecure and didn’t know how to deal with her sudden attraction for Takumi. To be honest Alice had a lot on her plate and I think we can cut her some slack here.

”This should go without saying, but I’m going to say it anyway, partly because I want to, but also because I think you need to hear it. If knowing you’re asexual makes someone see you differently, then they don’t deserve to be in your life. My feelings for you are exactly the same as they were an hour ago. This doesn’t change anything between us.”

Conclusion:

All told, I really loved this and it was one of those books that always had me craving for more interactions between Alice and Takumi. I was basically living from one chapter to the next, constantly hoping for more of their funny conversations! *lol* So if you want a light and adorable romance that tackles a couple of serious topics as well, you’ll definitely enjoy this! =) I might have had my issues with Feenie as a character but that didn’t take away any of my enjoyment so four stars it is!

_____________________________

I actually managed to read this in time! Go me! XD
Also I absolutely LOVED it! This was such a feel good book and I adored Alice and her friends. Even though Feenie definitely has to work on her social skills. *lol*
Best thing about this was Takumi though! Like boy, this man is too perfect! <333

Full RTC soon! Stay tuned! ;-)
_____________________________

I’ve about a week before I need to return this to the library and I refuse to give it back without having read it first. XD I must have borrowed this book about a gazillion times and I was always forced to return it.
But not TODAY!!!



Erm I meant not this time. ;-P

I’m going to read this or I’ll go down trying! *lol*
Also finally a book in which the MC is aro/ace! We need more reps like that!!!

[Romie · Rating 5 out of 5]

thoughts after first read in february 2018

It's 1:50am, I don't even know why I decided to write this review right now but here I am.

I remember when I first heard about this book, it was somewhere around May 2017 and I just got extremely excited about it. Then people started getting ARCs and loving it — one of my friends fell in love with this story and because I trusted their judgment I preordered the book without knowing much about it.

Alice is a 19-year-old biromantic asexual Black girl whom girlfriend just broke up with her because she ‘doesn't like sex’ as her ex put it — I don't agree with these words, neither does Alice because like she explains it later in the book, it's not about her not liking sex, it's her not caring about it. Not one bit. She's obsessed with everything that is aesthetic and has a Cutie-Code™ for everything — ranking from green to red. Until Takumi arrives and scores black on her Cutie-Code™ scale. Unheard of.

I cannot say that this book is perfect, it has a lot of YA tropes, but I honestly didn't mind because the tropes used in this book are some of my favourites, I live for them. The writing could have been a bit better but for a first book it's SOLID. I'm excited to see how Claire Kann's writing will evolve in the future!

Now the story … I read this book in a one day, do you really think I didn't enjoy what I read? I couldn't put this book down, it was absolutely adorable and I could relate to Alice so much! The way she talks, or thinks, or acts ... it screamed me. And I absolutely adored soft boy™ Takumi.
Alice is someone strong, although she was born into a wealthy family, she's making her own choices no matter the consequences because she's trying to do what's best for her. She has to deal with microaggressions every single day of her life without a break, in a white allocishet world, she's a queer woman of colour. She's strong and passionate, and I loved that she decided to see a counselor when she found herself needing to talk to someone. I found this choice extremely mature, it's something I deeply appreciated. It's nice to read about someone going to see a counselor because they need to talk, it's important to have a safe space — if you cannot find one, you can create one, that's what Alice did.
I wasn't expecting to like Takumi as much as I did. The cuteness. The disrespect. What is life. Because we're seeing this story through Alice's eyes, I never really knew what he was thinking, but I liked his way of behaving: asking for consent, making sure Alice is happy or talking to her when he sees something is bothering her, keeping his distance when she doesn't want to talk, being overall kind ... soft boy™.

I love, and I mean it, absolutely LOVE the way this book deals with being queer. It's not something I get to read about that often, and it's not something I get to see done well a lot. I cried a lot during the last few pages because of how Alice felt, it hit close to home. Alice wonders several times if it will always be like this: having to come out to everybody, getting the same questions, having to defend yourself over and over again, getting rejected for who you are which is something you have no control over ... it just hurt to read about that. It hurt because so many of us feel like they will automatically be rejected and never get a happy ending.
This book took the time to deconstruct a lot of cliché and stereotypes concerning asexuality, to call out acephobia and that's something I'm grateful for because we do need more books like this one.

[enqi ༄ؘ ｡˚ ⋆♡]

"If knowing you’re asexual makes someone see you differently, then they don’t deserve to be in your life.”

this is my most anticipated book of 2018. it has amazing representation and the heroine is black, biromantic and asexual you're welcome

[Emma Giordano · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an enjoyable book! It took me quite a bit longer than expected to get through, but nonetheless, I'm pleased I gave it a read.

CW: acephobia

To be honest, I really did not love the writing style of this book. It felt a bit amateur and surface-level for my taste. Sometimes it felt as if the author was trying to push the "my main character is super quirky!" thing really hard. Additionally, I've always felt people who criticize the excessive use of a certain form of punctuation were just being nit-picky but MY GOSH there are so many parenthesis in this book!! Why are there so many parenthesis!! 90% of the time, it could have just been a normal sentence!! There is never ever a reason for there to be 3-4 lines (sometimes in a row!) in parenthesis on one ebook page the size of my iPhone 7. I swear, there are more pages with parenthesis than without in this novel and once I noticed it, I could not un-see it. Never again will I underestimate the fury cause by over-indulgent punctuation, my goodness.

I also did not LOVE the story arc. Though there are distinctive plot lines, such as Alice expanding on what she believes to know about her identity, Alice deciding whether or not expressing her sexuality to new people is worth the risk, and her struggle to find her career path, it felt like one of those novels where the point is just to "follow this character over this specific period of time!" which are not my favorite type of stories. I prefer more defined plot lines which significant events and to be frank, watching Alice just live her life over this summer was boring at some points. Though the main plot lines are intriguing, it was a fairly mundane storyline.

On the plus side, I really enjoyed the representation in this story! Alice is a black, biromantic and asexual girl who falls for her Japanese coworker. I was pleased to see how conversation about these different identifies were expressed through the story. The passages on asexuality were particularly my favorite. I'm not ace and I'm unsure if this book is own voices, but it really does seem like Claire Kann just GOT IT. It's clear the author took great care in creating authentic, well-fleshed out characters. The value of this novel is evident, and I would highly highly recommend to anyone looking for more asexual fiction.

Overall, this wasn't my favorite book but I am still glad I read it. The writing is not the strongest, but I feel it holds a strong meaning to many readers. I probably would not recommend it on the construction of the story alone, but if you are looking for more books specifically centered on ace characters, I definitely think it's worth the read.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the first time I've read a book with an asexual character and I really loved the exploration Alice went through with her sexual identity. The beginning of the book had me really feeling for Alice when her girlfriend broke up with her because she was frustrated that Alice didn't seem to enjoy or want sex. Then, Alice sees the new boy at work and is super confused over her feelings and is really hesitant to jump into another relationship when she's been burned in the past because of her sexuality.

First, I really loved how Alice was in therapy trying to understand herself. That was great! I also loved the side plot of Alice and her two best friends who are in a relationship. The balance between the three is awkward since two are dating and Alice is just there. They went through a lot of trials and I loved that the friendship was also something explored with Alice's character. Takumi was adorable and I also enjoyed watching that romance play out between them. It took time to build, which I appreciated it. There were just so many complexities to Alice's relationship and with her trying to understand herself.

Know going into this that it takes place in college and does read as a more new adult book or for older YA readers. There's a lot of exploration of sexuality, being comfortable with who you are, and your place in various relationships in your life.

[Trina (Between Chapters) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here's what I loved:
-The discussions of asexuality and romance.
-That therapy was normalized.
-It's set in college! And in a library!
-I really liked Alice and Takumi as characters.

Here's what I didn't enjoy:
-There was a conflict between Alice and her best friend that stressed me out to no end. Because Alice was so relateable, I was firmly on her side of the situation and felt the friend was unfair and selfish but it was all forgiven after statements like "I would die for you, you're my family," which don't change actions. I wanted to like how the book focused on found family and I feel like I can't critique other peoples' friendships but friend fights are something that hit close to home for me, especially with the subject they were fighting over, so I viscerally disliked these scenes. This sucked a great deal of enjoyment out of the book for me.
-There was also conflict between Alice and her family, and my feelings are pretty much the same as above, although that had a much better resolution in my opinion.

Audiobook review: Average, but would recommend.

tw: acephobia, slight harassment by drunk dude bros.

[l.]

LOOK AT THE TAGLINE, GUYS!! I’m sold (on the pun & this book).

Also, who wants to take a minute to appreciate the diversity in this book with me; we have a Black bi- (or pan)-romantic asexual female main character, the love interest is Japanese, and in addition to the queer rep, there is also Latina and Filipino rep.

(*)

Bonus #1: Did you guys know that the colors on the cover of this book are actually the colors of the Asexuality Flag (I didn’t)? I’ve already learned something new without even having opened the book yet. Talk about impactful.

Bonus #2: Notice the card the ace of hearts on the spine? So much thought went into the appearance of this book, wow.

[T. · Rating 3 out of 5]

**Note: I read the free-to-read version of this book that was posted on Swoon Reads, which may not be is not the final version.

**2nd note: I'm removing my one-star rating after seeing reviews saying the problematic stuff has been fixed in the published version. I haven't read that version myself yet, though.

**3rd note: Here's a review of the published version that shows that not *all* of the troubling stuff has been fixed: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

**4th note: Well, I finally read the published version and actually was not as impressed as I expected to be. The worst stuff is gone (phew!), but I still found Takumi's behavior creepy and inappropriate to the point of bordering on harassment. Planning to write up a more thorough review later.

I really wanted to like this book. A contemporary novel about a black ace girl, written by a black woman (who is also ace, I believe)? Yes! I was so happy and excited that this existed. But sadly, I ended up having pretty major problems with it. Basically, I think Takumi treats Alice badly throughout the story, and is allowed to get away with it because he’s the love interest/Alice likes him. This review will mainly focus on that and the portrayal of asexuality. **Spoilers ahead.**

[TW for discussion of sexual harassment in this paragraph] First, when Takumi is flirting with Alice after he’s just started work, he definitely crosses the line into sexual harassment, asking things like “Want to know what I would do with you? To you?” and getting in her personal space. Which is not an okay way to treat a co-worker, especially when they’ve made it clear that they don’t like it!

But, somehow, Alice goes from not liking him at all to being best friends with him. I didn’t really understand how they got so close so quickly. What did Alice actually see in him, especially after he was so obnoxious to her? His bad treatment of her continues when he lies to her that he forgot his wallet to get her to come pick him up from a bar. Manipulation is not a good way to start a friendship. And again, he’s being really touchy without having her permission. Later he kisses her on the cheek and then says he’s sorry and that he shouldn’t have invaded her personal space, but this is a pattern with him, doing something like that and then only realizing it might have been an issue afterward, instead of asking permission beforehand. Alice always seems fine with it, though, which bothered me; fiction often portrays a lack of consent as okay, or even romantic, and Alice being okay with Takumi not having her consent before he kisses/touches her plays right into that.

[Sexual assault TW for this paragraph] Speaking of that issue, I was flat-out horrified when Takumi pushes Alice against the car and kisses her. After they’ve specifically said to each other that they just want to be friends, this is really not okay! Even if Takumi thought Alice liked him, she said she wanted to only be friends, and he should have respected that. He had also said he was okay with being just friends, but apparently that was a lie. At times I was impressed with Alice and Takumi’s level of communication, because fictional relationships tend to not feature very good communication; I liked that they talked about their feelings toward each other and what they wanted their relationship to be like. But then a lot of that turned out to be lies (they actually liked each other all along, and didn’t want to keep their relationship a friendship), which means it wasn’t actually good communication at all.

[Sexual assault TW for this paragraph] The most disturbing part for me was the sex scene. After they kiss, Takumi orders Alice to get in the car—no asking, just commanding. Her dress scrunches up and she tries to pull it down, but he’s already pushing his hands up her skirt. She tries to say something to him, but he kisses her so she can’t speak. This came across as pushy at best, and rape-y at worst. Especially since Alice isn’t really sure how she feels about this happening. Which makes sense, when Takumi just sprung it on her suddenly and never bothered to ask if she actually wanted it! He even admits this later—“I felt terrible after. We’ve never talked about sex and I thought maybe I pushed you too far”—which, as I said before, is a pattern with him; he does something invasive, and only later realizes he should have asked Alice’s permission beforehand.

Later, when they actually are going to talk about their relationship, Takumi continues being awful by putting off the actual talking because he’d rather just kiss Alice. She literally keeps saying “We should talk” and he’s basically just like, “Nope, I’d rather kiss you.” And again, Alice lets him get away with this, because it’s supposedly romantic I guess? And when they actually do finally talk, Alice ends up having to reassure him that him pushing her into sex wasn’t a problem. She literally has to comfort him, because he can’t handle the thought that he might have done something wrong.

I also was just confused about Alice’s asexuality and her feelings of attraction. At the end, she says she had sex with Takumi because he wanted it, but in the moment, we’re told, “This was happening. And she didn’t want to stop.” She tells Takumi “You’re attractive to me,” which I thought was her saying she’s realized she does feel sexual attraction toward him, but then the next thing she says is that she doesn’t care about having sex with him. And she says she was fine that they had sex, but then she says she doesn’t want to have sex just for him and doesn’t want to feel like sex is something she has to do. So there seemed to be a lot of contradictions, and I just wasn’t sure how Alice actually felt.

It ended up kind of feeling like her asexuality was just a device to keep her and Takumi from becoming a couple sooner, instead of like this was an authentic exploration of what it’s like to date as an asexual person. I also was bothered that our ace protagonist experiences arousal-on-first-sight toward the guy who ends up becoming her love interest; exploring the idea that arousal doesn’t equal attraction is good, but it basically read as “he’s so hot even an ace girl’s body responds to him”. And her going along with sex because he wants it (if that is in fact how we’re supposed to read the sex scene), with zero communication about it between them, just felt icky.

If this was a romance novel featuring two allosexual characters, I would be disappointed by all this stuff—lack of consent is *not* sexy/romantic, not matter what your orientation—but not surprised. However, I am somewhat surprised to see all of these problematic aspects in a book about an ace character. I would have expected someone familiar with the ace community to handle things like consent, for instance, in a much better way. But it seems like the story was basically trying to be a typical romance novel—strong attraction at first sight, sudden passionate sex, “let’s not talk, I’d rather kiss you”—with an ace character, and maybe some aces will appreciate that, but it really did not work for me. I want more stories about asexual people, but I don’t want them to fall into problematic tropes or put ace characters into disturbing situations in the name of romance.

[Evy · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.8 stars.

[ADDENDUM: THIS REVIEW IS LONG. I had a lot to say. TLDR; The representation is great but I was very bored.

BUT if you think the below enumerated list sounds like something you'd like, consider giving this book a try! I think other people might be pulled in where I wasn't.]

------------

I so so badly wanted to like this, and I'm very sad to have to give it such a low rating. There is A LOT to like:

1. ASEXUAL, BIROMANTIC REPRESENTATION.

2. POC representation! Both in the main character, her love interest, AND the gorgeous cover.

3. Thus, intersectionality! A biromantic, asexual, black main character. There are definitely unique ways those identities intersect (the hyper-sexualization of black women, combined with being asexual), and this book explores that a bit.

4. A Japanese love interest. Interracial romance!

5. They meet at the LIBRARY THEY BOTH WORK AT :D

6. Exploration of microaggressions. I felt this book brought those up and exposed and addressed them really well, but also pretty casually and subtly.

7. The main character is in college, not high school. Not that there is anything wrong with books set in high school, but I feel YA as a genre lacks college/university stories.

8. The writing style. It won't be everyone's cup of tea, but I really liked how it brought out Alice's personality. I liked the way it played with parentheses. (To express Alice's thoughts in different ways).

------------

The ace rep. I feel like I should start by talking about this!

I identify as biromantic and asexual, and so I guess I can speak to those parts of the novel a bit (although obviously just from my own experiences, and not for all ace folks). I am NOT however a person of colour, so I can't say the same for those parts of the book (Alice's and Takumi's experiences as people of colour, and Alice's particular experience of the intersection of being biroace and black).

I'm not really up for a super close analysis, and I don't know how appropriate that is? If the author is ace herself, and this novel is ownvoices, I don't want to analyze her experiences of asexuality. BUT if she isn't ace and this novel ISN'T ownvoices, I don't mind as much analyzing those aspects of the novel. Is that fair? (as far as I can tell, the ace representation ISN'T ownvoices, the author isn't ace. PLEASE CORRECT ME IF I'M WRONG).

(I would really like in the future if authors would be more up front about these things. Maybe authors can start including prefaces or author's notes where they say which parts of their own experiences informed the representation, AND which parts were not informed by personal experience.) (as I did with this review! I'm ace, I'm white. I felt fairly obligated to be up front about my perspective.) (Obviously it wouldn't always work, and authors should be entitled to their privacy, but if you're writing a book about an asexual/whatever identity character and you're not asexual/whatever identity, it seems most responsible to me to let your readers know about that).

These thoughts are not meant as criticisms in any way at all! They're just reflections.

But okay, as far as the ace rep went, I felt that it was largely spot-on, and mostly resonated with my own experiences.

Particularly her CUTIE CODE?? Which OMG is going to sound ridiculous, because I feel like people will think that part was immature and too weird. BUT I, TOO, TOTALLY DO THAT THING SHE DOES, where you look at people and categorize them into non-sexual levels of cuteness O.o

What else really resonated?

THIS:

"In middle school, she had pretended to have a crush on Patrick Furlong so she would have someone to talk about, too."

YUP.

The most jarring element might've actually just been Alice finding out she was ace from a one-on-one with her health teacher. What health teacher knows about asexuality??? And why wouldn't they teach it in class??? But I guess they must be some out there, somewhere. (???)

On a more meta note, I do have to say I'm already getting sick of the ace story of "I don't want to have sex with people so I might as well just give up on romance, why would anyone ever want to date me if we can't bond through sex." This story line has been part of the plot in all the novels with ace main characters that I've read except Every Heart a Doorway (THE BEST).

I don't know if it's problematic exactly, at least in small doses. But it's not creative, and it feels to me more like something an allosexual person thinks ace people all worry about. (It might just seem that way to me because I personally don't worry about it much. So I tend to just get frustrated with it.)

Actually OK, as a plot line it does feel strangely unsettling to me, but I have trouble articulating exactly why.

I guess I just sure hope that as we move into the future, ace stories don't ALL include the "refusal to try romantic relationships because of being ace" thing.

Anyway. Moving away from that weird analysis.

------------

I also liked Alice's character! I think she will be hit or miss for people. She's pretty immature in a lot of ways, and has a lot of concerns I didn't quite understand (wanting to major in Netflix, for example. Or denying the support her parents want to give her for further living expenses). But she seemed genuine, and like a real person. I felt the writing style really brought her character out, too.

------------

That all makes it sound like I loved this book! But unfortunately despite ALL THOSE ENUMERATED THINGS, I was just really really bored the whole time.

Alice's problems basically add up to:

- She has a huge crush on a boy she works with but oh no she's ace, they'll have to just be friends.
- Her best friend is super upset she's spending time with someone else.
- Her parents want her to go to law school and she doesn't want to.

The way this plays out is through basically just an entire novel about Alice hanging out with Takumi, having small arguments with her friend Feenie, and avoiding phone calls from her parents and siblings. FOR 300 PAGES.

And okay, I get that all of these are valid issues that someone might have, and are very relatable, BUT unfortunately none of them add up to something I want to read a whole book about.

Where is the plot?? By page 100 all that had happened was a bunch of conversations with Takumi, along with a lot of telling about how Alice finds him unbearably cute. Honestly, I found he didn't have much personality and was a pretty boring character. I could tell they both liked each other a lot, but as a reader I didn't feel the chemistry.

------------

On a different topic, I also had a lot of problems with Feenie, Alice's "best friend."

In my opinion, Feenie is a possessive, manipulative, awful friend. We were clearly supposed to have sympathy for her and see her side in their argument but I just couldn’t stand her.

The following contains very minor spoilers, I guess, for things that happen in their friendship. I almost didn't spoiler-tag it but decided to play it safe.

If you ditch your friend at a party to go have sex (as Feenie does), and then you get mad at your friend for leaving the party without you (NOT being mad because you were worried, but because the friend had the GALL to DO SOMETHING WITHOUT YOU) (as Feenie does); and then you get mad at your friend for continuing to spend a lot of time with a new friend, when you were being passive aggressively mad at her for the above leaving-the-party thing (as FEENIE DOES)---YOU ARE NOT CORRECT IN THEN getting mad at her for spending ALL her time away from you!

Alice is allowed to make other friends! She’s allowed to spend time with other friends, ROMANTIC OR OTHERWISE, ESPECIALLY when Feenie has been a jerk. UGH. That plot line was just frustrating, and every time it came back up I kept getting upset and mad in a totally unenjoyable way.

How the heck is it that we’re supposed to feel any kind of good feelings for Feenie, and like their friendship at all? She’s a manipulative, possessive, emotionally abusive monster.

The plot just seemed to imply we were supposed to feel Feenie was at least partly right in being angry at Alice, that Alice was partly responsible, and that it was great that they went back to being friends and Alice apologized.

But honestly, if you have a friend like Feenie, who is possessive and who gets passive-aggressively angry for extended periods of time, DON'T PUT UP WITH THEM. Get away from them. Or talk to them and tell them that their behaviour (as a whole, not for the single incident) is hurting you.

Probably, my problems with Feenie were somewhat because they related a bit too close to personal experiences. (I guess in other words her behaviour was triggering to me, in that it upset me badly, beyond the pages of the book).

Probably my problems with Feenie are also part of why I was bored--they kept pulling me out from being immersed.

So I don't think everyone will feel she was a bad friend, which is fair, too.

------------

Anyway!! Overall, no matter how awesome the representation in a novel is, if I'm bored the whole time, I just can't rate it highly!

For the levels of boredom it put me through, and the anger at the stupid friendship, I wanted to give this book 2 stars. But I had to give it 3 and add some extra points, because the representation is just really awesome, and this book does a lot of really excellent things.

-------------

In the end, if the list I started out with sounds like something you'd be into (WHO WOULD SAY NO TO THAT LIST), I'd say go for it! Give it a try. There is a lot to like, and maybe you'll be pulled in where I wasn't.

Basically I think everyone should at least try this book, and see if it's your cup of tea?

But if you're still struggling by some ways in like I was, maybe bail! It doesn't really get more plot that what it's got, and Alice's character remains what it is. What you see in the first 50 pages is pretty much what you get for the rest.

I'm looking forward to future books from Claire Kann!

[Hiba · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let's Talk About Love is the most cutest, relatable, educational (without being info dump-y) and the most positive NEW ADULT novel I've read so far. And I'm kinda angry why this is published as a young adult book when it's clearly NA. All the characters are 19-21, dealing with college life and plunging into the blackhole of adulthood and it's honestly the most ideal NA book and now I'm going to rate all my NA stories in accordance with this one.

This book is about Alice, a nineteen year old college student who's asexual biromantic. She's honestly the most relatable character I've read about in a long long time. She loves food, TV shows, her two friends, and she loves kissing(!!!) and cuddling(!!!!!!!!!) She's comfortable with her sexuality but does not want to come out to other people and explain it to others. Honestly, my knowledge on asexuality is all tumblr based so I don't know how well was it, but most of the reviewers who are asexual and biromantic agrees it was on point, so I hope the knowledge I've gained from this book is authentic. This book talked extensively about how sex and romance are two different thing, about how Alice, an asexual person, canbe such a happy person who can find her own killer romance(!!!!)

Love shouldn’t hinge solely on exposing your physical body to another person. Love was intangible. Universal. It was whatever someone wanted it to be and should be respected as such. For Alice, it was staying up late and talking about nothing and everything and anything because you didn’t want to sleep—you’d miss them too much. It was catching yourself smiling at them because wow, how does this person exist?? before they caught you. It was the intimacy of shared secrets. The comfort of unconditional acceptance. It was a confidence in knowing no matter what happened that person would always be there for you.

I didn't expected this book to be this much romantic, but to be honest, this romance was one of the cutest one I've read. It's cheesy, wayyy too much cute and full of cliches. And I fucking loved it. I loved both Takumi and Alice and their romantic scenes were so amazing. There was insta attractionbetween these two but what follows is the extremely cute slowest-burn friendship/romance . I loved how Alice and Takumi had great communication and made it clear what they want from each other.

Another great thing about this is the positive depiction friendships and found families. Both Feenie and Ryan are amazing characters and I loved loved loveeedddd the dynamics between these three. You know, in any romance novel there's this stupid fucking trope that the friends completely dissapears once the Hero enters and they play no significant role? Well this book have that trope and it calls it out. Feenie(Alice life long BF) and Alice fought and they didn't talked to eachother for a long time once Takumi came into the gane but then they rebounded(!!!!) Feenie is such a freat friend and I want Claire Kann write something about her and Ryan because I want more of them.

Another plus point for accurate discussupion about how college life is a nightmare abd how difficult it is to select your major. This is so very rare in NA.

With all the good things, there were also few bad things that stopped me from giving this book 5 stars. First off, I thought the writing was kinda immature. Maybe author was trying to show how quirky Alice is but in reality the writing initially made it very difficult for me to read more then few pages. It took me alot of time to get comfortable with this. Second thing, I didn't understand how all of them were so rich?!?! I mean, both Alice and Takumi are librarians and trying to pay for their studies by themselves but then they'll go to paragliding and going to hotel under the sea and I'd be like how the fuck is that possible. Also, I absolutely didn't like how Alice ex girlfriend was potrayed. She appeared in only first two or three chapter but she was kinda demonized for breaking up with Alice because of sexual incompability. Sure, she said some very bad things to Alice, but author kinda shames her for wanting to have healthy sex life in the process of making Alice look innocent.

Overall, I enjoyed it. I wanted to rate this lower but this book is very important and it's underrated so I gave it four stars. This book is a slump rescuing book, so if any of you are in a bad bad slump, please consider this book. There's like 75% this book wont dissapoint you.

[Biz · Rating 4 out of 5]

”Life could be cruel. But it could also be wonderful.”

This is a tough review to write. I really wanted to five star this book because it has hella diversity and it was so fun, but there were also some issues with the writing and with Takumi. However, that doesn’t mean that this isn’t a book that deserves lots of readers and support, because it deals with a lot of issues that marginalized peoples have to deal with today, while still maintaining a light aura.

What I Liked
1. The diversity!! The main character is bi and ace and so many of the main and side characters are poc (including the mc and her love interest)!!! This book talked a lot about microagressions towards women, black women, and Japanese men and I learned a lot. It also talked about discrimination against poc and bi and ace people in the lgbt community and how the Internet is a great resource for those who don’t fit the “cis white gay” narrative that seems to be prevalent in a lot of places.

1.5. I’m not ace, myself, so I can’t really speak on the accuracy of Let's Talk About Love's portrayal of ace people, but as far as I could tell, it was good. I learned a lot from it and other ace reviewers have said it’s accurate, so I think it’s definitely a worthwhile read for ace readers and for those who want to learn more about the ace spectrum!

”Sex... was like jogging. All the people in the world could say it’s so amazing and great for you, but if you don’t care about jogging, you’d rather spend your time with a Netflix queue and a box of donuts.”

2. The characters were amazing, and hilarious, and I loved them all. Not only that, but they were all flawed! I got really frustrated with Feenie and Ryan and annoyed at Alice sometimes but I love them all. The relationships were dynamic and well written and I loved the importance placed on platonic and family relationships, and it really emphasized that you make your own family.

3. The pop culture references. This book was full of them and it was nice and fun to geek out with Alice over all the things. There were all sorts of easter eggs from the big and obvious to the witty ones that were hard to catch. This was a book written by a book nerd for book nerds and I love it.

”’You smell all minty.’
‘Toothpaste.’
‘Just like Ron and Hermione,’ she mumbled.”

4. The humor!! This kind of goes with the pop culture references because some of it relied on the reader’s knowledge and love of television and books, but besides that there were some really funny jokes in there. And all the jokes were kind of wholesome and happy and I feel so warm and fuzzy after finishing this. This book absolutely abused the use of parentheses to denote vocal cues but honestly I am all around here for it. None of the jokes fell flat for me, and I think it’s because this is the kind of humor that Millennials and Generation Z kids have developed on the Internet. This book had phrases such as “unholy underwater hell” (in reference to Bubble Guppies) and ”Why on earth should she confront her problems when running had such delicious benefits?” This is the kind of humor that THRIVES with the current generation. Let’s Talk About Love was the perfect blend between humor and dealing with the hard topics.

”They stopped for lunch, sitting on the floor and using upturned boxes as tables. [sic]

(A large pizza – half extra cheese, half pineapple, and real bacon. Not that Canadian stuff.)

(It’s ham. Canadian bacon is literally ham.).”

5. Mentioned this briefly, but this book is completely wholesome without being annoyingly so. I can rarely take a book that uses the word “tarnation” seriously, but Alice is the kind of person that can use words like that and that’s just the way she is and it never felt forced or jolting or anything. It also made the friendship between Alice (sweet, loving, adorable) and Feenie (loud, loves to fight, the Mom Friend) even more funny and enjoying to read. I love that trope and I will stand by it until the day I die.

6. Everyone in this book is dramatic as heck and it’s hilarious. Nobody’s really that petty (okay maybe Feenie a little bit) but Alice is over here thinking ”Is it possible to marry regret?” when she sucks at flirting and Takumi thinks he’s dying when he has a cold. It’s amazing.

What I Didn’t Like
1. hmmmmm okay. I liked Takumi in general but there were some weird and kind of creepy moments when I was like wtf? wtf? wtf? wtf? wtf? wtf?

One of these moments was when the book referred to his budding friendship/relationship with Alice like this:

”Any time they were alone he pounced like a sly, scavenging hyena.”

That really threw me off and I was like???? That’s creepy????? And not romantic??? I mean the writing then goes on to talk about how hyenas are actually super cute and totally misunderstood!! But still. When I hear a guy being compared to “a sly, scavenging hyena,” that doesn’t really make me think ‘aw!!!! how romantic!!!’ it makes me think that this man is a creep and he needs to stay far, far away from the main character who I have grown to love and want to protect.

Another quote that made me uncomfortable with Alice and Takumi’s relationship was this conversation between Alice and Feenie:

”’Do you even like him?’
‘He won’t leave me alone to dislike him in peace so yeah, I guess.’”

Once again, not romantic, and all-around kind of creepy. Liking someone by default because they don’t give you enough air to breathe is Not Good. And I wasn’t even getting those kind of vibes from Takumi and Alice’s relationship, which makes this quote, honestly, unneeded. It’s a cute relationship with cute development and this quote a) makes Takumi sound like a stalker, which he isn’t; and b) perpetuates the idea that if you bug someone long enough and don’t leave them alone, they will eventual grow to care for you.

And lastly, there is a moment that happens while Alice is taking care of sick-Takumi and she finds a photo album with pictures of her. Sure, a lot of them are from when they were hanging out together, but there were also ”a few pictures of her at work [that] made her frown, [and] a couple of her sleeping [that] made her cringe.” I mean, taking pictures of her at work is kind of whatever but honestly? Taking pictures of a person while they are sleeping, printing them out, and putting them in a photo album is a major red flag on the creep scale. He never asked her permission to take the pictures and never asked her permission to print them, and Alice is as surprised as the reader to find that he’s done this. If I had found out that someone I trusted took pictures of me while I was sleeping I wouldn’t think it was cute, I would think it was stalker-y. That’s a real violation of trust.


So really, there was only one thing I didn’t like, but that was kind of a big thing. But, have no fear, potential reader, all this business with Takumi felt more plot-driven than character-driven, and so I was able to separate it from the rest of the book, if that makes sense. It was mostly stuff in the writing itself instead of something that Takumi actually did. This is still definitely a great, funny read that I would recommend to those looking for something with quirky humor, cute friendships, and lots of diversity.

I was provided an eARC copy through NetGalley in exchange for a complete and honest review.

[Adri · Rating 5 out of 5]

QUEER UPLIFTANCE HAS REACHED NEW HEIGHTS, Y'ALL 🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈

[Olivia-Savannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ah, what can I say? Never before have I wanted to rate a book 3.5 stars more than now. I don’t do .5 ratings because Goodreads and Amazon don’t work that way, but if I could I would’ve for this novel. Let’s Talk About Love is everything the book promises to be – it’s about Alice, an asexual main character who is trying to figure out her sexuality, her future, and how everything in her life fits into who she is becoming.

I think I’m going to try and address what is the main focus in this novel, and that is Alice as an asexual main character. I must admit that my knowledge is very limited on this topic, and this is the first time I’ve actually ever come across an asexual character in any novel (does that say something about representation and how needed this novel was?). I won’t be able to say how accurate this representation is because this isn’t an own voices review, but I will say that I learned a lot. If you know nothing about asexuality, you’ll definitely learn something about what it means for the person, how to better understand the person, and what difficulties the person who identifies as asexual may experience.


What I also really loved in this novel was the person of colour representation. Basically, the first thing that attracted me to this novel was seeing the girl on the cover and thinking: YUP, I have to read this! And even though that’s not the main point in the novel, there are subtle mentions of what it means and involves when you have afro hair. And about the work ethic which often comes with black culture. There are other subtle references and I think that’s exactly how it should be – it doesn’t have to be the main focus of the novel, but having it included made me feel represented properly in a novel and in an accurate way. Every time I came across one of those moments I couldn’t help but smile.

Alice is also a character who is trying to figure out what she wants for her future. She’s studying at the moment and trying to determine what she wants to declare her major as. I feel like her issue is one a lot of young adults will be able to relate to – trying to figure out who you want to ‘be’ and having that approved by those close to you is something challenging. However, at the same time I felt like this was very much a plot line or sub-plot included hastily and off to the side just to have it included? It didn’t feel so well developed, although I can understand why it was included.


This book also focuses on friendships and family, and how those relationships change and adapt as you grow older. Because regardless of what anyone says, those relationships will shift and change (take it from someone experiencing it right now.) Alice has two close friends and as they are each getting into relationships, finding time and the way their friendships will fit into everything kind of becomes complicated. Again, this was another element to the story I loved because I know a lot of people go through this.

Even though the romance is kind of what is one of the most important things in this novel, as it directly relates to Alice’s asexuality and her processing it – I still felt like it wasn’t too exciting. Takumi was a brilliant love interest. He was adorably sweet and kind, and almost perfect. Maybe a bit too perfect? I felt like whenever he made a mistake or did something wrong, you couldn’t really blame him at all. It would be a natural human response as they tried to figure things out. So even though I really liked him, his lack of flaws (in my opinion) made him a bit too perfect.

The writing style of this novel was light hearted and quite bubbly. It perfectly matched Alice’s personality and worked wonders for the story telling.


You might be wondering why this book only has an okay rating when I seem to have enjoyed most things about the book. My main reason is this: even though I feel like I learned a lot and this book had brilliant representation, it still felt very very… contemporary. Contemporary in that it never really struck a deep chord with me, or moved me, or did anything to make it a very memorable or deep read. The only thing I really will take from this novel is what I learned about asexuality. And even though that is a very big and important thing, I wanted more from the fictional side of things.

But all in all, I will say that this one is a worthwhile read. It was fun, I raced through it, and I learned a lot. And if you like contemporaries, I am sure you’ll find this one very enjoyable!

Relevance to today: I think this novel’s relevance for today is pretty obvious: we have a person of colour main character who is also asexual! We need representation like this, and it’s good for people who don’t identify as either of those to learn more about them as well.

This review and others can be found on Olivia's Catastrophe: http://oliviascatastrophe.com/2018/01...

[kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5* Let's Talk About Love made my heart squee. It gave me all of the happy, fuzzy feelings. With it's wonderful exploration of asexuality, witty dialogue, loveable characters and addictive relationships, I couldn't recommend it more highly.
I absolutely adored Alice and Takumi and there are passages I'm sure I could read one hundred times over and never get bored. I LOVED the fact that this focused on an older teen/young adult and the fact that she didn't have her life 100% put together and sorted it, it was very refreshing. Another refreshing element was that although the friendship dynamics were brilliant, they weren't perfect but It also wasn't all drama. It was real and flawed and lovely. I also thought having a main character who was asexual, biromantic and black, all explicitly stated on the page, (as apposed to simply being eluded to) was wonderful. The discussion of Alice's relationship with her family was also great to read.
All in all, this was wonderful. Plus, any character that has a t.v addiction on the same level as my own is always going to make me happy. The world needs more books like this.

[K. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Trigger warnings: aphobia, creepy af dudes at parties, some seriously mediocre parenting?

3/2/2019
I stand by everything I said last time. The end.

29/1/2018
This book. This book, this book, this book. I've been dying to read this book for over a year now, and words cannot describe how much I squealed when it arrived on my Kindle the other day.

This book tells the story of a biromantic, asexual African-American girl who's crushing on her Asian-American coworker. She works in a library. She fangirls over Dean Winchester. And her cat is named Glorificus after Glory from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Needless to say, I adored her.

The friendships are wonderful. There's an emphasis on Found Families. The writing is great. I laughed, I cried, I finally understand why people flail over their book boyfriends because Takumi is mine.

I do question this being classed as YA because Alice is 19 and has just finished her freshman year of university, and it deals with the move to adulthood and choosing your future and struggles to pay your bills far more than I think a YA book would have done. But it's also not a typical new adult book. So...*shrug*

Basically, I loved this from start to finish, and I highlighted a million things.

[Sara ➽ Ink Is My Sword]

✪✪✪1/2

“Love shouldn’t hinge solely on exposing your physical body to another person. Love was intangible. Universal. It was whatever someone wanted it to be and should be respected as such.”

A perfect book for a light summer read. Friendship, love, romance, cuteness, diversity, self-discovery and a bit of seriousness.

💭Pre-reading thoughts:

📖 BooktubeAThon Challenge #1 Choose your first read with a coin.

This was one of my most anticipated book releases of 2018, I hope it doesn't let me down.

[Maria Clara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Y ¿SI TE DIJERA QUE SOY ASEXUAL😳?

ASEXUAL: No experimentar atracción sexual y/o no desear contacto sexual.

¿LO SOY?
¿LO ERES?
¿NO LO SOMOS TODOS EN ALGÚN MOMENTO DE NUESTRA VIDA?

🌸(Ay, santa Cachucha, que ya ni sabe lo que se dice...🥴)

Ejem..., sin comentarios, y es que esta historia es una pasada! Es más, esta comedia romántica es súper divertida y a nuestra protagonista se le va un poquito la olla, vamos, un poquito demasiado, pa'qué negarlo😂. Eso sin contar con Takumi, un chico que hará sufrir a Alice de un modo muy pero que muy perverso...🔥

(Y yo que ya me había relajado...😍)

Pues te aconsejo que no bajes la guardia, porque donde hay atracción hay dudas, y miedos, y esperanzas y situaciones en las que no sabrás si reír o suspirar de lo bonita y tierna que es esta historia... Es más, por eso de rizar el rizo, también hay un psiquiatra, aunque el pobre está un poco perdido, ya sabes, por....🤫

[disco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alice is a queer, black, woman who kicks ass. I love how this openly discusses asexuality, and how it is different for each person. ::APPLAUSE::

Young adult literature usually takes the cake for me because of how diverse they are.

[Laura (bbliophile) · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fact that this is a book about an asexual biromantic black woman finding her happily ever after is so incredibly special and wonderful and I wish there were more books like this.

This book made me so incredibly happy. I loved Alice and Takumi together. Their dynamics are amazing, the way they tease each other, watch movies together and cook food for each other is the cutest thing, and I had a big grin on my face while reading their scenes. They’ve easily become one of my favorite YA couples ever. I know that’s kind of a huge thing, but it’s the truth. They’re just too cute.

Alice is asexual. This is something that’s clear from page one, and the book deals incredibly well with representing this. It discusses some hurtful stereotypes, but instead of focusing mostly on the suffering of queer people, like a lot of queer books do, this one focuses on the good stuff. That Alice is asexual, that she finds her happily ever after, that she has people around her who understand her and love her for who she is, and that she can have a killer romance.

When Alice and Takumi first meet Alice immediately feels attracted to him, which confuses her a lot so she goes to a counselor. This is something I really appreciated reading about. Therapy is so incredibly important, but there’s often such a big stigma surrounding it. Seeing a character going to a therapist, them having very helpful conversations with their therapist and it not being a big deal and them not being ashamed of it is just so incredibly meaningful.

Another thing that I really liked about this book is that the main character is 19, and is really struggling with what she wants to do in terms of her future job and/or study. It’s something that I, and a lot of other people, can relate a lot too, but we don’t often see this portrayed in books because most YA main characters are younger. Also, Alice works at a library and that’s so much fun to read about!

A thing about this book that I really didn’t like was the fact that there’s a scene where Alice is at a party with her friends, who have left her alone for a while, and she’s assaulted. Assault is a thing that should be taken seriously, but after this particular scene it’s never brought up again. The characters never talk about it or say how wrong it is, or even mention it to anyone, and because of that it feels like it’s brushed off and almost normalized (not that it’s an okay thing to do, just that it happens so often that it’s normal and it’s not worth discussing), which is just not okay at all.

I also didn’t always like the writing. The writing was fun, easy to get into and upbeat, but the dialogue felt a little messy and random sometimes. Like I accidentally skipped over a few words or sentences. This was a bit annoying, but didn’t take away from my overall enjoyment of the book.

So, even though there were a few things I didn’t love about the book, I overall really enjoyed it. This is that kind of book that you want to pick up when you’re feeling a bit down, because this book is guaranteed to make you very happy. I really hope there’ll be more books like this in the future.