Title: Let’s Talk About Love
Author: Claire Kann

Summary: College sophomore, Alice, is having a difficult time. Her girlfriend just broke up with her, her parents are trying to force her onto the law school track, and her best friends/roommates seem to be drifting away from her. But then Alice meets Takumi, a charming and beautiful boy, who may be able to make her to take the leap into love. However, Claire afraid to reveal her asexuality to Takumi, can he love her enough to accept a relationship on Claire’s terms?

Review: Asexuality appears to be the new trend in YA books and I have read many that feel as if asexuality is just being used to get the book a little extra buzz which is why “Let’s Talk About Love” felt refreshing. The book is one of the first on the topic that organically integrates the character’s asexuality into the narrative. Alice’s sexuality does not define her whole character, it is just one of the many things that make her a person and Kann did a wonderful job of creating a fully developed, layered, main character. However, our wonderful main character did not have a fully developed romance. The relationship between Alice and Takumi felt at times rushed and at other times one sided. Takumi is introduced as a attractive and kind possible prince charming but for the reader to love him we must ignore his relationship baggage and slight control issues. Their relationship didn’t quite feel genuine or really a romance with the books conclusion feeling a little to neat and perfect.

Bottom Line: “Let’s Talk About Love” is a YA books that actually broaches the subject of asexuality in an honest and realistic manner however the romance aspect of this romance book is lacking.

Final Rating: 3 out of 5

What an enjoyable read! It's rare to have a topic that isn't that talked about written with such warmth and grace. The characters were wonderful.

Can we just talk about how excited I am that this book exists? It’s got BPOC and Japanese representation, asexual biromantic representation, and a really lovable narrator. Plus, look at that cover! It’s beautiful.

Alice has known she’s asexual for a while. But the thing is, she still wants (and deserves) her own love story. Just because she doesn’t care about sex doesn’t mean she can’t feel love or affection, though almost no one seems to understand this — no one except her two longtime best friends, though they’ve started planning for their wedding and subsequent life together.

Let’s Talk About Love definitely includes romance, but it’s also about Alice’s personal journey. About her learning more about her asexuality, about her learning not to hide from her other problems with her family and friends. With her major undeclared, her future uncertain, and her parents pressuring her into pre-law, many young college students will find they have much in common with Alice.

I loved Alice. She was a funny, cute, awkward narrator, and I truly enjoyed her perspective. There were only a few times when I literally rolled my eyes at my book: The overly-used ‘current’ pop culture references, and the times when Alice’s love interest was literally informing her he liked her or found her attractive and she would still be all, “Oh my god, I wonder if he likes me??” There’s a difference between not being able to tell when someone’s flirting and literally not listening when someone says they find you attractive and want to hang out.

This review is weirdly short, but this is honestly all I have to say about Let’s Talk About Love. It was a cute book, and had some really amazing representation. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys cute romance, realistic fiction, or anything with good representation.

This review seems a little matter-of-fact, but don’t let that deter you! I really did enjoy reading this book, and I hope you do, too.

It's impossible for me to give this a star rating. There were a ton of positive things about it, and it's worth a read, but I am not the reader for this book and struggled so hard to finish. But what I disliked, others will love.

The Good

Alice's asexuality: This is the only book I've ever seen, let alone read, that offers such a nuanced view of asexuality with multiple frank discussions between characters and within Alice's head about the asexual spectrum. Like, the book even acknowledges that asexuality is a spectrum and uses the word graysexual. It shouldn't be groundbreaking to do this in 2018, but it is. Her complicated mess of emotions was mostly refreshing (a tad annoying sometimes, but again, I don't typically read books like this). I really enjoyed Alice's thoughts on her sexuality, especially how she didn't view it as a problem until other people viewed it as a problem, and her insights with her therapists and all those scenes, particularly those discussing her asexuality, were awesome.

Alice's Therapy: I am always here for characters going to therapy. It seems like it never happens, and I try to note those books that do include it. It was also really great that the therapist was through her school, as I feel like so many college students don't know their school has counseling services for crazy cheap, if not free. Sure, not at all schools have this, but many four year universities do and considering how intense the adjustment to college can be, it's something that deserves highlighting. Also, even better, her going to therapy was judgement free. No one looked at her different or made any snide comments about it. Her best friend even said good for you, once she knew.

Intersectional: I'm a white women, so I can't comment on the rep for WOC, but I adore the fact that this book is intersectional. The lit world needs more of this. I'm always on the lookout for the book that I can point to and be ready for anytime someone might ask me for a book with a character that looks like them.

Rape Culture: That may seem like a weird thing to list as good, but I swear it is. There's a scene at a party where Alice is cornered by a drunk creep who makes racist comments to her that he thinks are compliments and makes her completely uncomfortable and gets angry when she rejects him. Her feelings in this scene are so spot on. She manages to get away safely, and it's a small scene, but it's so real. There's also another scene where a guy hits on her at the beach and wants her number where she feels she has to be nice to be him because it takes courage to put yourself out there and ask someone out. And there's this thought process where she feels a little unsafe/uncomfortable (not solely because of her asexuality), but because she worries if she says no he won't take it well. He could be a serial killer for all she knows. Having had those same thoughts, it was beyond important and validating to see that on the page. The assumption of women having to be nice when being hit on yet men not having to be nice when rejected is rarely seen in books or talked about beyond groups of girlfriends. The uncertainty and fear these situations can create is real. It was fantastic to see that on the page.

Friendships: Alice and Feenie's (and Feenie's boyfriend Ryan) friendship with Alice was a nice touch even if Feenie and Ryan are underdeveloped as characters. Alice and Feenie were fun together and their commitment to each other as friends was sweet.

Alice: Alice is a fun character (most of the time) and fairy well rounded even if she got on my nerves sometimes.

The Bad

Side Characters: All the side characters are underdeveloped. I don't feel I know much about Feenie, Ryan, or Takumi, and the Takumi is the love interest here and arguably a driving force of the book, but all of them fell flat for me, and they had plenty of page time.

Friendship Problems: So, sure, a lot of friendships go through bumps, and it can very hard to be in Alice's position where your best friends are dating and you're trying to figure out your place, but the drama between them was super annoying. The party scene mentioned above happened while Ryan and Feenie had gone upstairs to be alone, and Alice left the party after that. Feenie saw Alice leaving the party as ditching her and Ryan, and Alice saw them going upstairs and leaving her alone as ditching Alice. Alice never told Feenie about why she left the party or that she got accosted.

Off Page Shenanigans: There's a whole lot of stuff happening off the page. Paragliding with Takumi. Going in a hot air balloon with Takumi. Okay, maybe only two things, but considering how underdeveloped his character is and how Alice talks about these events, it would've helped me to be in these scenes.

Alice is "poor": Spoiler, she's not. And so many people will not have a problem with this, but it drove me nuts. Alice comes from a very successful, upper-middle class family full of lawyers. She does the whole my parents have money, but I don't thing. I grew up in poverty, so this kind of thing is beyond annoying. You still have money because you have a parental safety net that if something drastic happens (unexpected big medical bill, car troubles, etc.) there is someone to provide for those things. Where as someone who is living in poverty, those things threaten your entire security, and you start to worry about being homeless and getting food on the table and getting to a job to hopefully keep those things from happening. Her parents are paying for school, so she's debt free at this point. They do cut her off because she decides not to become a lawyer, but once she talks to her Dad later, he agrees to pay some bills, as he did for her sister when she quit law school twice. Again, not something that would happen if your family didn't have money. Alice has some growth about this, which was nice to see.

The book is light-hearted and bubbly, which was terrible for me. It wasn't that it was poorly written (the writing is solid), but the tone and style is just not at all for me. At all. Goodreads said I read this for five days, and I literally thought I had been reading it for weeks.

I still recommend this book though for those both in the ace community and those who know nothing about asexuality. It's an important book to be aware of, to support, and to have in your library collection. If your library doesn't have it, talk to your librarians and tell them you want it. And even though Alice is in college, this is likely to appeal to younger readers, I think partly due to the lighter tone.

If you're into contemporary romances, this is an enjoyable read with a HEA, and you should give it a try.

I loved this book. This is the first book I’ve read with an asexual character.

At first, I was worried when Alice started having feelings for Takumi. I didn’t want the story to turn into her discovery that she wasn’t actually asexual. I was relieved that didn’t happen. The story is about Alice learning to accept her orientation.

Even though many readers may not be able to relate to Alice’s orientation, her relationship with Takumi is relateable. She has butterflies in her stomach for the first time, when she meets him. She’s constantly thinking about him and she can’t figure out why. This is the first time she experienced romantic attraction.

I think the book needed more tension. Alice had her personal problems, which were important and valid. But there weren’t a lot of exciting, tense moments to drive the story. I would have loved a surprise or shocking event throughout the story. I also would have liked to have seen more of her family. They created conflict with Alice, because they didn’t agree with what she wanted to do in life.

I really enjoyed this story and I highly recommend it!

The main character is a biromantic asexual, a thing I haven't seen in a book before. The story was good and flowed lovely. The only thing keeping this from a 5 star is the love interest, I wasn't sold on him, but that's okay.

Let's start by acknowledging how important this book is. It definitely gets a spot on my best list for the year, even though it's not a favorite. I love the way the author addresses the microaggressions Alice has to deal with as a black girl and how difficult (but not impossible) navigating relationships can be when you're asexual. I had some major misconceptions about asexuality going in, so I ended up learning a lot from it. I kept stopping to google things and ending up getting a book from the library on asexuality so I'll be a little more educated. I had some quibbles with the writing; it occasionally felt a little all over the place. Overall, it was a positive experience and a cute read. It left me with a smile on my face and I'm glad to see more ace rep and some intersectionality.

Excellent representation of an ace protagonist. Engaging, fun, and heartfelt. I've purchased the physical copy for my classroom!

I read this in one sitting so that says a lot. I was initially interested in this book because she works in a library. Once I started reading I couldn't stop. It's an interesting topic that brings up things I'd like to discuss with other readers. Will definitely be a contender for my book club.

3.5 of 5 stars
This is a lovely, powerful, and deeply important story. Biromantic, ace, woc rep? Yes please!
The story was my favorite part of this. As a nerdy, ace lady, I easily saw myself in Alice. I understood her struggles and loved seeing her logic laid out on the page. Though I feel like the story lost some of its momentum towards the climax and became slightly muddled, it found it again by the end.
The writing was sometimes difficult for me to follow. There were lines that I loved and highlighted and will quote for years to come, but then there were also sections that were so stilted or confusing that the slowed me down or pulled me out of the book entirely.
Though it’s not a perfect book, it is a wonderful one and one that I will recommend frequently. It was a quick, fun, and satisfying read, especially as an ace reader.

Let's talk about how much I loved LET'S TALK ABOUT LOVE - from the characters and their story and the emphasis on the dynamics of relationships that are changing and evolving to the cute quips and fun of new friendships. This book has everything that I love about young adult contemporary!

I first found out about Let's Talk About Love when Swoon Reads asked readers to vote for the cover. The final cover is the one I voted for. YAY! I loved the boldness and the energy from it. It is perfection! This is ALICE!

I want to be friends with Takumi! He is thoughtful and observant and just the kind of person you want to be around. He makes things brighter. That is how he comes across - Alice struggles with his "perfection" a bit because it makes her take a look at herself and her perceived inadequacies, but Takumi sees her the same way she sees him.

LET'S TALK ABOUT LOVE is the first book that I've read with an acknowledged asexual character. While this is just one example of one experience (through a character's perspective), I have some new knowledge and plan to read more about it and educate myself.

Alice shares her experience of being sexualized, objectified, stereotyped, and fetishized - I was sickened by the party scene because I knew that feeling. It's sad to say that I'm sure that many readers will be able to identify or understand her fear, her frustration, her annoyance and her anger.

Favorite Quotes:

"If I could stand close enough to you, maybe I could absorb some of your shine." - Takumi explaining why he needs Alice in his life.

"I spend a lot of time trying to figure stuff out. Like, my feelings and sorting through my thoughts. I don't think I overthink, but I like to know why things are the way they are for me and why they're different from someone else." - Just one example of her self-awareness. I love that Alice and Takumi are contemplative characters.

"I guess it's a good thing I have health care because I cannot fight. If I had to, I'd talk a punch for you. Just not in the face." - The lengths that Takumi would go for Alice. This made me laugh out loud.

I love the voice the author has given to Alice and reading about her becoming an adult. I could read more about Alice and her experiences of college and her life beyond this moment.

There are many wonderful things about this book that I could go on and on, but I hope readers will decide to pick up this book and discover them for themselves. I'm looking forward to reading more books by Claire Kann and I'm looking forward to reading LET'S TALK ABOUT LOVE again!!

I knew from the moment I read the words "knight with a shiny library employee badge" that this book would be completely irresistible, and boy was I right! Now, before I get into my full review, though, I think one thing that needs to be addressed is how diverse this book really is. Alice, the protagonist, is a black bisexual and asexual teen. This concept was a little tough for me to grasp at first, but once I got deeper into the book it started to make sense. Alice is bisexual in terms of falling in love with people, she's just not that interested in going past second base with them (hence the asexual). Now, I can't speak for how accurately this was portrayed (I'm completely and fully straight) but from my perspective, I think the author did a pretty good job. It is by far the most diverse book I've read in a long time, and that's saying something because I really enjoy reading diverse books!

As for the rest of the story, another confusing point is what genre this book falls into in terms of YA and NA. All of the characters had already gradated high school, but I've read a couple of NA novels and I can say for sure that this book was written in a YA style, only with older characters. Me personally, I happened to think that was an interesting thing to play around with. And the great news is that it worked really well!

Of course, my favorite feature about this story is that yes, a good majority of this story takes place in (no surprise!) the library. That was the location where Alice first met Takumi, and they ended up spending a lot of time there together. Unfortunately, neither character was particularly bookish, but I think that just by putting one of the main settings in the library makes the book fairly bookish in nature!

The rest of the book was pretty enjoyable, but yes, the ending was fairly predictable. Overall, I would give this book a full four stars, and I really hope that Claire Kann comes out with more diverse books like this in the future (we need them)!

Rating: 5/5 Stars
 I just want to start, by saying that I am so incredibly humbled to be a part of the promotional blog tour for this amazing novel. I'm not usually one for the contemporary genre; most of you know that Fantasy has and will always hold my heart in its cruel, world-defining grasp.
 However, when I heard that Claire Kann's novel featured a bi-romantic asexual protagonist I had to get involved. I have never read a book that so accurately and completely represents my identity before - as both a person on the asexual spectrum and as someone who has very recently started exploring their relationship to queerness and bisexuality.

I want to start, since its the main reason I basically-almost begged to be a part of this blog tour, by giving you an idea of how much I loved the rep in this novel. Claire Kann does an amazing job at capturing how it feels to exist as an alloromantic asexual. I really deeply connected with how Alice had to both internally and outwardly cope with her approach to feelings of romance and attraction and that - as is often the case within the community - just because those feelings come to light it doesn't automatically mean that an ace person wants to do anything about it, or that it even is what they fear in the first place. She delves into what it feels like to experience impostor syndrome as a queer person, and I really appreciated the Chapter in which Alice speaks to a professional about her confusion. She explains that she is scared, and nervous; that she doesn't know how to navigate these new feelings and what if she has to explain to any of her future romantic interests that she can sometimes experience attraction but its just not happening with them. I've been in relationships where I've not experienced that attraction; I've had to navigate the fears that Alice faces - that in our society, sex and love are synonymous - and that Alice is afraid of what facing that alone might mean for her. It was really well explored, and I loved how it played into the romance between her and Takumi. It built really well and on the subject of my new favourite contemporary duo, I have to give credit where it's due: Kann is really excellent at making her characters feel vibrant and real.
I wrote briefly in my last blog post that Alice is someone I really relate to a lot; and that's still true. I understand on a very personal level, what its like to want autonomy from your parents. I know how it feels to be pressured into making decisions that are less than stellar, based on what your family expects of you. Alice and her experience as a young adult are...scarily close to my own. It feels nice: an honour even, to see myself in someone on paper.
 Now its also important for me to note that I am a white person. Alice is black, so I can't speak for that representation in too much depth since it wouldn't be in my lane to do so, but I do want to say that I think Kann really captured the ways that all aspects of Alice's identity intersect with one another. That her aceness and her bisexuality don't exist in tandem with her identity as a WoC but are very much entwined with it. 

 Okay so, enough about Alice amirite? What about the rest of the novel? 
 Well, all of the characters felt real; they were interesting and imperfect and complicated. I loved Alice and Feenie's relationship because of (shocker) how alike it was to some of my own. Fulfilling friendships aren't perfect, and liked that Kann explored that. I liked how diverse and interesting her cast was overall - none of them felt too like caricatures, although a couple of them did feel like their whole personality was built around how they existed to serve a purpose within the novel. But I get why that happens; its a debut and not all side characters are going to feel as fluid and interesting as our main ones. Still, that's zero reason not to pick this book up and definitely didn't detract from the experience of reading overall.
 In terms of plot, I enjoyed it thoroughly. There's not too much I can say without being overly spoilery but I really really enjoyed it. Anyone looking for their "stories set during college" rep should definitely eat this up. The college experience is different to how University in the United Kingdom works, but I wasn't too campus heavy so I was able to manoeuvre the differences really easily.
 Honestly this is a really solid debut. The writing was simplistic but digestible, which meant I flew through the whole thing in two or three sittings. It's some of the best ace rep I've ever read ever, I loved every second of it and won't hesitate to add it to my list of favourite contemporary novels.

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.

Let's Talk About Love is likely the most diverse book I've ever read. Not only is the protagonist asexual, but also a woman of color, and biromantic. And her love interest? Japanese. Lovely! Did you all think 2017 was the year of diverse books? Nah, it's 2018.

So, the book starts off with a bang. Alice is getting dumped. Her girlfriend just bursts into their shared dorm and drops the news on her in two seconds flat. Alice is shocked, and also not shocked. She knew her asexuality was the issue. Margot (the now-ex) is not aware of her asexuality and the reason for that is that Alice knows Margot wouldn't understand it. This is obvious because of the fact that as she is dumping her, Margot basically tells her she isn't “normal”—gosh, what even IS normal anymore? Get into the present, Margot. *eyeroll*

Anyway, so we begin the story with Alice being heartbroken and feeling pretty negative about her situation. She has two amazing best friends that support her and are there for her. I loved the dynamic between the three of them (her two best friends, Ryan and Feenie, are a couple). They are like family to each other and they have adorable traditions and I just love it. Near the middle of the book, the three of them do begin to struggle with their three-way friendship a bit and this really adds a lot to the story. I think it fit in perfectly; it highlighted some of the flaws in our protagonist and allowed her to come to admit these flaws to herself and grow as a person. Top-notch character-growth right here. A+++ on that front.

The actual diverse aspect of this book, in the sexuality sense, was tough for me at first. I had to remember that just because someone is asexual doesn't mean they can't be attracted to someone in other ways—such as aesthetically or romantically, as in the case of Alice. I consider myself to be a part of the LGBTQIA+ community, but I am still a sexual human being. I am just gay. It is pretty simple for me, you know? I had to put my brain outside the box and really try to understand, because you need to do this to understand Alice and to get how she feels. I feel very enlightened after reading this book. The author did a fantastic job of explaining asexuality and biromaticism. I will admit ignorance when it comes to some of these things. I am but a mere lesbian in this world of diverse and interesting humans.

The romance aspect of this book was great, and pretty important. I appreciated that the author truly let Takumi and Alice get to know each other and actually begin to fall in love, rather than just WHAM—instalove, you know? These two spent a lot of time together and really got to know each other. If course, Alice hid her asexuality for a long time, but this is understandable. She needed to do that so we, as readers, could see how tough it can be for someone to come out about this. She and Takumi had to be close, had to be invested in each other already, for us to really feel Alice's fear at the possibility of Takumi's rejection. It was an emotional rollercoaster near the end, I have to admit.

Throughout the book, we also watch Alice struggle with her plans for the future, school and career wise. Her parents are pressuring her to go to law school...which Alice isn't too keen on. This element of the story wasn't really necessary in my opinion. It was just sort of throw-away.

The book also moved a bit slow for my liking. I think this was, in part, due to the multiple subplots being laid out and tied up. It wasn't too bad, but something to note. It just dragged a little in the middle of the book.

Overall, this book was great! I thoroughly enjoyed Alice as a character. She is so damn quirky, unique, and memorable. I will never forget her. She is definitely the most diverse character I've ever come across and her personality is lovely. The romance was well thought-out and very true to what I think a real-life situation would be like for someone like Alice. The dynamics between all of the characters were amazing and the story was, overall, very enlightening and interesting. I am very happy I read this book and learned from it as well. I definitely recommend this one!

I was drawn to this book initially because it's a romance with an ace POC for a main character...the very few books discussing asexuality that I know about aren't really billed as romances, and I was really interested in getting that perspective. This has been published by Swoon Reads, for heaven's sake. I was ready to lift my embargo on romances to check it out.

My knee-jerk reaction, at least during the beginning of the book, was that of feeling a little underwhelmed. As I mentioned, romances aren't my thing (which shouldn't be confused with liking a good love story). What I did like, though, was that all the discussions surround Alice's asexuality felt pretty normal. Author Claire Kann was not pedantic about explaining the complexities of Alice's feelings, and she pulled in other issues on occasion as well--like sexual harassment, racial identity and discrimination, and (IMO) abusive relationships. I started to feel invested about a third of the way in, and then I had to know how everything shook out for Alice.

While I liked the story overall, I had a few gripes. For one, it was kind of jarring that we saw Alice and Takumi hanging out rather casually, but it always seemed to be pretty low-key, with her spending more and more time at his place with the occasional excursion to the beach...NBD. But then all of a sudden, we learn he took her paragliding, for a hot air balloon ride, and all this other stuff. What? I have no idea why those actual activities were glossed over--they felt kind of thrown in there for the heck of it with very little discussion of why or any real significance of forwarding the plot. Also, Takumi felt pretty flat. Apart from him needing (a rather short period of) time to try to understand Alice's sexual preferences, this guy has no real depth. He's Cutie Code Black attractive, basically a Renaissance Man, and doesn't really get upset with Alice being pretty rude to him through much of the book. What are his faults? Maybe I'm putting too much effort into this...one of the stand-out characteristics about the romance genre is that it is driven by plot and not character. I just wish Takumi had as much to offer us as Alice.

And let's talk about Feenie. I know she and Alice finally came to a truce in the end, but HOLY SHIT. She's abusive. Like, seriously abusive. She manipulates Alice throughout the book, giving her the affection she craves, but it's apparently totally cool that she has violent anger issues. And that she and her boyfriend are adults living on their own and still feel the need to get it on in a room at a party like they were 14 years old, all the while leaving Alice to be harassed and potentially abused by drunken ogres. It seemed pretty clear to me throughout the book that Feenie seemed to have expectations about the nature of Alice's orientation...she was used to Alice having very few romantic interludes and getting all of her attention, and the minute that Alice finds someone she clicks with, Feenie cannot deal. I'm sorry, but since when does Alice have to spend all her time at home? If she's paying rent and keeping up her space, there's no discussion. I don't blame Alice for avoiding Feenie...I would drop her like a hot potato. I just hope as Alice gets older, she grows out of that "friendship."

Whew. Anyway, considering these issues I took with the book, I did really enjoy reading it. It provided a little escape to some difficult reading and living I've dealt with lately. I hope there are more like it to come, and I hope Claire Kann has a prosperous career...there's a lot she offers in her prose, and the YA world surely benefits from Let's Talk About Love.

Many thanks to Swoon Reads and Net Galley for this advanced copy.

Have you ever started reading a book and within the first few chapters gotten a warm fuzzy feeling in the pit of your stomach? This feeling could mean many different things in the world of reading but for me, it signaled right off the bat that I was going to love this book no matter what lay ahead in the story. This may sound super cliche, but you should always trust your gut feelings, because I was right and enjoyed reading every minute of Alice Whitley's story and her journey to finding love.

Not only did I have an immediate reaction when first reading this book but, this book is also the most diverse read I have read in a while. Alice Whitley is a sophomore in college who, within the first few pages of the book, gets dumped by her girlfriend Margot who also happens to be her roommate. This moment is not only devastating for Alice but also extremely awkward. The reason why Margot broke up with Alice is because, after Margot accuses her of never being able to desire her sexually, Alice admits to Margot that she is asexual. Not only is Alice asexual but she is also a women of color as well as bisexual. The amount of representation found in Alice alone was not only surprising but also completely refreshing. It is one of the reasons why I enjoyed this book so much.

While I am unable to connect with Alice in regards to her sexuality and ethnicity, it was her personality that sometimes made me feel like we were long lost friends. Her Cutie Code, which helps her assess how attractive she finds someone aesthetically, is a variation of what I have done with my friends since high school. While the reasoning behind my "code" is because, as my friends put it, I'm a little boy crazy (and still am), it was this similarity that allowed me to understand and relate to Alice even if our sexualities are different. In addition to that, Alice's love of binge-watching TV shows and how she used that to sometimes cope with what was going on in the world around her is another reason why I related to her so strongly because I am literally the exact same way. Seriously, when she talks about wanting to lose herself in the fifth season of Supernatural and "pass out once her serotonin levels overloaded on the cutie patootie badass with the biggest heart named Dean Winchester", I have never related so much to a character in my entire life. Oh, and the fact that she is working at a library over the summer and I currently work at a library just sealed the deal even more.

Ok, enough about my fangirling over Alice and how much we are alike. As was mentioned above, this book is about Alice's journey to finding love as well as herself. After the breakup with Margot, you see Alice struggle to understand why sex is so important when it comes to love as if it is a requirement for someone to be able to say that they love someone.

"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 don'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."

That is my favorite passage in the whole book. The words said above are so simple and I have probably either heard or said them at least a few times in my life but seeing them printed just made them so much more profound that I am pretty sure I had a mini epiphany while I was reading it. Anyone can relate to these words regardless of what their sexuality is and that speaks so much to how wonderful this book is.

Let's Talk About Love has so much more that I could gush about but we would be here forever, trust me. All I can say is that you should read this book. It is a diverse read with a super relatable main character, extremely loyal side characters, and an adorable romance. I can't believe this is Claire Kann's debut novel, but I can't wait to see what she has in store next.

It is honestly a shame that I have never seen a book out there like Let’s Talk About Love. The story follows an asexual main character and has a good balance of humour and serious events. I would say that this is both an excellent resource and an excellent story, perfect for those wanting to know more about asexuality.

This book tells the story of a biromantic asexual college student figuring out her future. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book with an asexual main character, so this book was eye-opening for me. I adored the themes of friendship and how the main characters work in a library. Let’s Talk About Love tackles some serious topics, and I admired the fact that it is both cute and raises awareness.

Alice is such an amazing main character. She is independent and transforms so much throughout the book. Alice has a great sense of humour, and she has a great group of friends. Her relationships and her daily struggles are so realistic, making it easy to connect with her. I can’t honestly say if Alice’s asexuality is portrayed realistically, but it seemed believable to me.

Let’s Talk About Love is a book all about a biromantic asexual woman and is, I believe, the first of its kind. The story is both light and heavy, and the main character is relatable. I would definitely recommend this book, as it is a great resource.

I was part of the promotional blog tour for this book!

Lets' Talk About Love perfectly represents a biromantic, asexual, black girl with a diverse cast to support her while she struggles to be vocal about her orientation and through her dramatic conversations.

I absolutely adored this book. Let me start by appreciating the on-point representation. Now, a little disclaimer: I'm not black but I'm a POC; I'm not labelled as asexual but romanticism holds more importance in my life than physical affection; and I'm not queer but I always try to educate myself about them, so sorry if my opinions might be differing from the more relatable readers.

This book is vocal about everything that ones need to hear. As a black protagonist, though Alice doesn't pin-point each and every occurrence, she doesn't fail to subtly mention the racial micro-aggression almost every POC has to go through. Right from the start when Margot (her ex-girlfriend) breaks up with her and wonders why Alice doesn't like sex but she's black, to the end when Alice has an emotional conversation with her dad where he mention how black people have to be perfect, inhumanely good at everything and even then [they] can fail because that's the way the system is set up. Not only this, even Takumi (the love interest), at places, voices out the irritating misconceptions he comes across as a Japanese. In addition to being a biromantic, black person, Alice struggles all the more with her orientation. While she's comfortable with her choice, she isn't very comfortable with being outspoken about her label. More often than not, she finds herself running away from flirts because she's afraid it would all eventually lead up to that one explanation she's dreaded to—why are you asexual?

One thing I loved about the story is how accurately it explains asexuality but doesn't sound like an information brochure. The main theme prospers so well: Asexuality isn't about not liking sex, instead it's about not needing/wanting/giving a damn about sex. The story, almost perfectly, deals with every possible solution people can offer Alice—like the ever-so-annoyingly-dumb have you gone to a doctor because it's not natural to not want sex. The protagonist makes it evident how wrong the entire notion of acquainting sexual desire with romantic feelings is, and how upsetting the already assumed conceptions can be.

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.


Not only does the book focus on what asexuality means, it also encompasses what asexuality can possibly mean. The overall concept about orientation—it doesn't follow a set of rules and is simply a label to identify oneself, according oneself—is superbly intertwined.

Asexuality isn't something that's black or white. There is a multitude of shades of gray in between. Being potentially sexually attracted to one particular person isn't as outlandish as you've convinced yourself it is.


I think this review would become too lengthy and potentially spoiled if I keep praising the representation so let's jump to another excellent aspect of this story: contemporary humor. God, do I love some good humor set in my times, lol. Alice's story is in a third-person limited narration and she comes across as this fun loving, dramatic girl who I loved! As an over-dramatic myself, her struggle to be coherent around her crush or how highly she has ranked food in her life is so refreshingly funny (and relatable), I can't even. There are references that can delight those who get them.

The characters are so well-thought and sorted to uplift this story, each one had their role to play in Alice's life. Her best friends, Feenie and Ryan, who are engaged, always stand by her side but their individuality is taken in account too, when they get upset with her over things I don't want to spoil for you guys. Even Alice's family and her equation with them is simultaneously dealt with, giving more depth to her character. The relationship is developed amazingly. While there's the initial attraction and the whole I-have-a-crush-on-you-so-I-can't-breathe-around-you scenes, Alice and Takumi gradually like each other. There are peaks and downs, and through the course of the journey, Alice grows to be a better person—a more happy person.

Also, an honourable mention: Tumblr and aestehtics are given a much-deserved attention in this book and I couldn't have been more happy! I'm a cutie addict and cherish all things aesthetic so when Alice mentions a Cutie Code she uses to categorise people, I loved her. Moreover, she accounts all the Tumblr Asks she has read about her fellow asexual individuals or how much she has educated herself about her orientation through the Internet, it's all too realistically great. While most things worked for me, the writing seemed a little bland. There are numerous parentheses and sure, they work for the humor, but they aren't something I completely enjoy so this might be my personal take.

Overall, I would recommend this to everyone who want to either relate themselves or educate themselves about under-represented labels, while enjoying the story of a dramatic nineteen-year-old.

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