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.
4 STARS
Okay, this was the definition of adorable. I don't typically read young adult books that are more focused on romance but with it being Pride Month and this book having a biromantic asexual main character I had to read it! And I am so glad I did.
I loved Alice, our main character. She's funny, incredibly sweet, and she's determined to live her life the way she wants to despite any expectations her family or anyone is putting on her. Which I found admirable. It was easy to rally behind her and want her to be happy. I loved her friendship with Feenie, her best friend. Their friendship made me cry the most and honestly their dynamic between them and Feenie's fiancé Ryan was amazing. Their friendship means so much to me and although they go through some rocky moments in this story I think it cemented how much they really cared about each other. Feenie as a character definitely bugged me, but I have come to the conclusion that characters like Feenie are sometimes going to rub me the wrong way. I still loved her, but I also wanted to slap some sense into her. I loved that she was this strong, protective, loving person, and she also wanted to be a stay at home moms. I think there's a lot of judgment and stereotypes about women who want to be stay at home moms instead of having an office job or whatever you want to call it, and I am happy that Claire Kann brought light to that topic. Especially since I don't see it talked about a lot in young adult. I really loved Ryan because I have a friend that reminds me so much of him. The emotional buffer, diffusing any sort of tension the best he can and being a ball of sunshine and happiness. I found him to be incredibly sweet and it was so cute that he called Alice "Buttons" (my fiancé calls me Button so I felt a little attached to Ryan). And of course I loved Takumi, Alice's love interest. I liked that they really got to know each other before the romance part of their relationship started to form. And their relationship wasn't all romance, they also talked about microaggressions they both experienced with Alice being black and Takumi being Japanese. Which I think is important and something we need to see more in young adult.
The plot is character driven. Despite that there isn't any action driving this plot forward but it wasn't a slow story by any means. I read this book in one sitting because it's only around 300 pages and it gets you hooked into the story. The characters are so well fleshed out and charismatic that you cannot help but want to read about them more. I cannot speak on the asexual representation because I am not ace I'm demisexual, which is a kind of branch of asexuality. Although many asexual reviewers have said that they were incredibly pleased with the depiction of asexuality. However, I am someone who identifies as just "bi" because I am still learning about myself and I haven't decided if bisexual or biromantic but I am learning more towards biromantic. A lot of what Alice describes when it comes to being biromantic did speak to me in a way I am not sure if I have related to before. I did find her family subplot to be a bit annoying at times. Her parents are pushing her to be a lawyer, and her older sister is being incredibly pushy and annoying. I felt myself being incredibly irritated by the situation and I wish the conclusion with her sister ended a bit differently.
I enjoyed the writing a lot. Like I said, the characters were really well written and I think they are the strongest part of this story. I found their dialogue and interactions to be incredibly witty and heartwarming. I did find the writing to be simplistic at times but it's a debut novel and I tend to be pretty lenient about debut novels as long as I felt something while reading. And I definitely felt a lot of emotions while reading Let's Talk About Love. I laughed a lot while reading this and cried almost as much. It definitely tugged at my heart strings. I think it's a fantastic debut novel and I will be keeping my eye out for more of her books in the future.
So I obviously recommend this book!! I think it's fantastic as a romance but even more fantastic as a queer romance. If you're in the mood for a romance or maybe want to read more stories with queer/asexual characters this is definitely the book for you. Romance aside, the friendship between Feenie and Alice is enough to want to read this book. I need more books with great female friendships because this one literally had me in tears with how amazing it was. Read Let's Talk About Love!
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