Let’s Talk About Love is a romance novel with an asexual heroine (specifically, a bi-romantic asexual heroine). Alice, the heroine, is a university student whose parents want her to become a lawyer, a career in which she has no interest. She has two best friends, Feenie and Ryan, who are engaged to each other, and she struggles with feeling like the third wheel. She also struggles with romantic relationships because she doesn’t want to come out of the closet as asexual. The only people who know specifically that she is asexual are Feenie, Ryan, and her therapist.
Alice has a part time job at the library where she meets Takumi. Alice is instantly attracted to Takumi and, to her confusion, she even experiences a moment of arousal (the therapist helpfully explains the difference). There was one horrible moment when I thought the storyline might involve her being “cured” in some way but rest assured, this is not the case. Alice is as asexual at the end of the book as she is at the beginning, and this is portrayed in a positive light.
Alice has very romantic feelings towards Takumi, but she’s afraid to talk about being asexual. As a result, they don’t date, but are flirty very close friends. After Alice has a fight with Feenie, she ends up more or less living at Takumi’s place. Alice is stuck in all of her relationships until she’s willing to put her cards on the table. She can’t resolve her problem with Feenie without clearing the air, which Alice knows will be unpleasant. She can’t move from friendship to romance with Takumi without being able to discuss her asexuality with him. She can’t have a good relationship with her parents as long as she keeps pretending that she wants what they want.
This book is diverse in terms of sexual orientation, gender, and ethnicity. Alice is Black, Takumi is Japanese-American, Feenie is White, and Ryan is Filipino. Many of the supporting characters are Black or Latina. Throughout the book, Alice has to deal with a variety of microaggessions as a result of being a Black woman. She also refers to not fitting in with the LGBT clubs on campus because she’s biromantic, asexual, and Black.
The characters are so self-centered, so dramatic, so bad at communicating, so intense…exactly like my friends and I were in college. I’m sure that many college students are even-tempered, have good common sense, and have excellent communication skills, but they did not hang out with me and my friends because my friends and I were having loud arguments about Central America in the Quad. We were smart, we were passionate, and we were insufferable, just like Alice and Feenie, and, to a lesser extent, Ryan and Takumi.
Thus, when I say that this book does a great job of portraying young college students, that’s both good and bad. Yes, it’s good writing – but also, you have to spend an entire book with people who are capable of manufacturing drama over a broken pencil. These characters, especially Alice, are exhausting. Alice is the point-of-view character (the book is written in third person, a nice change from all the first-person YA’s and NA’s) and she’s very sympathetic. She has a lot to deal with. She tries to be a good person. She’s smart and funny. She’s just also exhausting, because her emotions are always at extremes. I like this book, but I’d like it better if it came with a side of decaf coffee.
An extra plus was the book’s inclusion of therapy as a positive and healthy way to work through problems. Alice’s therapist is helpful and friendly, and is educated about asexuality. Her friends are happy that she’s going. There’s no stigma attached. I found that to be both realistic and refreshing.
In conclusion, this book does a great job of discussing asexuality and different forms it can take, as well as other common problems that students have. There is an appropriate amount of ramen. The romance is very sweet. I thought it was a little unrealistic not because of asexuality but because of the flirt-to-friends-to-romance arc seemed to go on forever. Then I realized that that’s pretty much exactly the romance I had in my sophomore year of college. Well played, book, well played. As long as you have enough energy to keep up with the heroine, this is a lovely romance!
This book is available from:
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well.
Thanks!
Looove that cover!
This sounds so good! I’m really intrigued by the positive(!!) inclusion of therapy and also the fact that the protagonist’s asexuality is not attempted to be “cured” or made fun of at all. And I agree with CatG that the cover is wonderful!
I’m almost done with this. I totally agree with your statement that the characters are exhausting. I keep having to take breaks. It’s been a much more stressful reading experience than I expected, considering how many early reviews referred to it as “fluffy.”
I love that cover! It sounds like a good read, but the main character has way too much in common with one of my children for me to be able to read it. If you found it exhausting to read about these kids, I can assure you it’s just as exhausting to parent them!
Thank you for the warning! Sounds like the sort of thing I’d wind up chucking against the wall. I have tried to watch both ‘Girls’ and ‘Insecure’, and got immensely frustrated both times because I never did the aimless twenty-something thing. DO NOT DATE POINTLESS PEOPLE. THIS IS NOT COMPLICATED. (Yes, was ruthlessly practical from a young age regarding matters of romance.)
This story sounds like my catnip. I like frustrating characters like byronic heroes or some YA heroes.
I guess if someone managed to find a FxF variation of Varney the Vampire or Polidori’s The Vampire, I would latch onto it like a vampire.
Today’s been a long day for me. So I’ll throw some money to sbtb this way. Cheers.
I’ve been eyeing that cover for awhile. I’m always looking for bi heroines and since I’m bi and demisexual I’m double interested.
But. I don’t really care for NA – I’ve started reading a little more of it now that I don’t work with college students and I’ve read some enjoyable queer NA. But my problem is that if the characters don’t read like actual late adolescents, it annoys me, but the more accurate depictions can be exhausting or kind of boring (or both). Between the mood swings and the poor impulse control, even well adjusted late adolescents can be pretty overwhelming.
The colors on the cover were chosen to reflect the Asexuality Flag!
http://www.asexualityarchive.com/the-asexuality-flag/
Nicollette: Try Carmilla – f/f/ vampires published 1871
I don’t think dating people you’re not intending to commit to is necessarily “pointless,” or even “impractical.” It certainly can be pointless, but like…
1) Not everyone knows what they want, what they need, to some extent who they are, and who might suit them. There’s nothing wrong with dating around trying to figure this out; in fact, for many people, that is the best way TO figure that out.
1a) Sometimes people do think they know what they want/need/who they are… and they’re wrong. That is also something you learn from experience. How do you get the experience? The hard way.
1b) It’s not always easy to tell immediately whether you’ve actually found what you wanted, because humans are complex creatures and superficially similar surface behaviours can reflect very different underlying realities. This is especially true when you’re very young.
2) Not everyone is interested in committing early on, but that doesn’t mean they don’t want companionship, and as long as everyone knows the score, there’s nothing wrong with it.
3) Lots of people do not enjoy being celibate. This is because celibacy sucks. There is NOTHING WRONG with finding casual sex partners, FWBs, or people to casually for sex purposes, again as long as everyone is on the same page.
4) Love often is complicated.
I mean, it’s great when someone knows what they want from the get-go! But it’s not the only way to be, and it’s not an inherently superior way to be either, and the implication that it is bothers me, because it seems both unnecessarily judgemental and (sorry) slightly slut-shaming. Let people walk their own path. It might not be your path, but that doesn’t mean it’s not the right path for them.