I really enjoyed seeing an asexual character in a romance.

This was mostly fun, cute, and flirty. I adored Joy but unfortunately Fox and Malcolm both fell flat for me; I felt that neither was fleshed out enough.

I will certainly read more by this author, but this wasn’t a favorite.

"The Romantic Agenda" is the story of Joy, an asexual, 30-year-old Human Resources employee who has been in love with her boss/best friend- Malcolm- for the majority of her adult life. On a trip with Malcolm, his soon-to-be girlfriend and the hilariously grumpy Fox, Joy realizes Malcolm isn't her only option and Malcolm realizes Joy won't always be tied to his side.

Joy is a very dynamic and realistic character. Her sensitivity to others makes her an excellent narrator and allows the reader to feel the story deeply. Joy's ability to love herself and her body also makes her very compelling, (especially in the romance genre). The ace representation was great to see and written in a very thoughtful way. I would recommend this book to any romance lover!

Thanks NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review. The Romantic Agenda did not disappoint! The fake dating trope was perfectly used, the romance, the emotional intimacy, and Joy as a protagonist to root for. I loved seeing an asexual romantic lead! Claire Kann’s writing pulls you in and has you reading all the scenes like Joy reads Fox’s facial expressions: earnestly and delightedly!

Say it with me, "Asexuality is a spectrum". Good job.

I can already see it in the few reviews that are here but people are gonna come for the ace rep in this but we are not doing that! Stop saying that representation isn't good just because you don't personally relate to it. Asexuality is a spectrum. There are so many ways that asexuality exists and intersects with people's other identities. Just because this asexual representation may not look like your view of asexuality, does not make it bad or invalid etc. I am tired of having this conversation.

Now that I've started my review with a little bitty rant, can I just say that I really really liked this book. The ace rep is really freaking good and I love that we get two Black asexual characters who both experience asexuality very differently. I personally did not relate to their asexuality but I also recognize that asexuality is a spectrum and what my aceness means to me and looks like to me can be and will be different from other asexuals.

As for the actual plot and characters I adored Fox and Joy. They were my favorite and I loved them both so much. I loved their banter and their conversations and I would have loved to see more of that honestly. Unfortunately I kind of strongly disliked the other two main characters in this book.

So this whole book is focused on Joy who is in her 30s and is in love with her best friend Malcolm. The only issue here is that Malcolm either doesn't know that Joy is in love with him or ignores it or doesn't feel the same way because he keeps dating round after round of women who end up not being the right one. When Malcolm asks Joy to go away with him with his new girlfriend and her friend Fox, Joy reluctantly agrees. The four of them end up in a cabin and all work through a lot of personality clashes and a little bit of drama, a little bit of angst. Summer, Malcolm's girlfriend, is a piece of work. I did not like her and I found her extremely annoying. I'm not sure if we as readers are supposed to like her but I was not a fan. As for Malcolm, I'm pretty sure that we're supposed to like him but I despised him. I thought that he was selfish and manipulative and acted like a toddler. He drove me nuts and I lived for the moment when Joy realized that she and him were not meant to be together.

As much as I love Joy, Fox is the absolute highlight of this book. He is so grumpy and hilarious and I loved everything about him. I loved the grumpy sunshine dynamic between him and Joy and I loved how respectful and thoughtful he was. Maybe that is a low bar, but that's what we're working with here.

I did have a few issues with the abrupt endings to a few scenes. There are maybe three or four moments where a scene feels like it's actually just getting started but you turn the page and you realize that it's over. It's either a new chapter or a new section and whatever was happening in that scene is done and gone. It felt kind of like getting robbed of feeling the characters experiences and I was a little bit of a letdown for me. I also wish that Joy would have been just a little bit more angry with Malcolm. I wanted her to stand up for herself and push back a bit more. Obviously friendships can and do look different for everyone, but I was a little bit underwhelmed by that resolution. I also would have loved to see a bit more of Joy and Fox as a couple but that's just nitpicking at this point .

You'll realize that I still gave this five stars and I'm giving it five stars partly to combat the aphobia that is already in these reviews and that I can predict in upcoming reviews, but also because I genuinely enjoyed this book. It may not be an all-time favorite but I can definitely see myself rereading it at some point, especially once the audio is released. I love and appreciate more asexual representation and having TWO Black ace characters is worth celebrating. Friendly reminder that this is also own voices asexual representation and we do not shit on someone else's sexuality and the way that their are sexuality presents itself.

This book made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside as an ace reader. Here Claire Kann shows new facets of asexuality that we don't usually see in fiction - she reminds us that asexuality is a spectrum with many nuanced subsets and that being ace doesn't mean you don't deserve or want to be loved. Joy is a perfect example of this. She's jubilant, flirty, and unashamed of herself or her sexuality. The only thing that has her down right now is that she's in love with her best friend and she's going on a retreat with his new girlfriend. I loved how we got to see Joy grow through this book and also explore her relationships with Fox, Summer, and Malcolm individually. While some may say it doesn't contain enough "romance" content or isn't steamy, I disagree. Growing deeper connections and exploring yourself is INCREDIBLY romantic and the slowest burn can sometimes be the hottest. (Also there's primo pie-making content)

*Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review*

We truly need so many more asexual main characters in romance! Joy's and Malcolm's experiences being ace are very different from my own experience, which makes sense, because asexuality is a spectrum, and it's important to have a broad representation of that spectrum. That's also why I want more asexual rep in romance, because there are so many different experiences that deserve to be told.

It actually took me a while to get into this book, because there was a lot of conflict and a lot of tension between the characters. But at the same time, this tension was done well, and it made for really valuable character growth. Although I do have to say that both Malcolm and Summer were the most annoying characters I've read in a GOOD while.

Joy herself was actually pretty annoying as well at times, but at the same time, I genuinely loved her. She's the kind of sunshine character that's larger than life, dialed up to 100, and that was a bit much at times, but that also got addressed on the page. Fox, our grumpy love interest, I just LOVED. He was truly such a great character, and I really liked the budding romance.

Most of all, I appreciated that this book had a different pace from most romance novels, since Joy is set on Malcolm, who is clearly not right for her, for a big part of the book. I liked seeing her slow realization that this was never going to work, and her realization that there were other options for her. The romance, because of this, ends when it's still in the early stages, so I would say the book has more of an HFN than an HEA,

Okay. Picture this: A rom-com. Nice! you are saying, because everyone loves a good rom-com, or if they don't I don't care to know them. We all need some fluff and love and laughs from time to time.

In this rom-com, we have a woman. She is quirky and fun, which are good things to be in life and in books, for the most part. She is also asexual, which is excellent, because asexual rep in rom-coms is roughly equivalent to a day you wake up and think it's Wednesday and it's actually Friday, in terms of both how rare and how pleasant it is.

Said woman has been in love with her best friend for YEARS. Like, a decade number of them. Her best friend is always there for her, he's the only one who gets her, and they have an immediate chemistry and vibe that everyone notices. There's just one catch: they kissed a long time ago, and they both bungled the follow up, and they've been in just friends purgatory ever since.

This book follows these two people going on vacation together, and for around three quarters of the book, our lovely protagonist remains mooning over him.

Now what if I told you the best friend I just described was...wait for it...NOT OUR LOVE INTEREST.

Dun dun dun.

Things get a whole lot less fun real fast.

This book has a lot going for it, but a romance the character spends 75% of thinking that she is in love with another major character is not ideal. If it absolutely HAS to happen, there should at least be a process of transferring the feelings from one to the other.

Or even, perhaps, a scene of realization.

This had...drumroll please...neither.

I've read one other Claire Kann book, which also followed an ace protagonist who was quirky and fun to the extreme, an in fact unsafe level of borderline manic pixie dream girl status that involved every supporting character being actively in love with her at all times, even when this didn't make sense in the context of the, you know, plot or story.

And that was the case here, but I found the whole thing mostly cute and fun just the same. They both got three stars, in the end, even though this had some Girl Hate for Character Development and a Grand Declaration with a Cut and Scene Change, two things I'm not a fan of.

Nobody's perfect, after all. Least of all a three star read.

Bottom line: I will keep trying Claire Kann until I Kann find the book that'll work for me B)

I really wanted to enjoy this book. The plot line has an overall My Best-friend's Wedding feel with a happy ending, which is what I was hoping for. However, I found a number of issues revolving around how the characters were written.

The main character was a strong African American female who could express her feelings eloquently and always said what she meant. However, there were moments of underlying racism towards Caucasians, unrelated to the character, that made the story difficult to read. Moments of her analyzing Summer's personality related to another white person? Understandable and more of stereotyping than racism. That didn't bother me. Her mentioning overcoming societal racism for her work? That didn't bother me either, as she was not bitter, and it was an essential part of understanding the character's background. What bothered me were the moments where, unnecessary to the story, there would be comments of racism toward the Caucasian characters. Such as suggesting that Summer would play the white girl victim card after being nice to our main character if the main character refused to go to the store with her. It is one thing to say that she was worried about Summer being whiny and getting Malcolm's sympathy, or Joy coming off as the bad guy, but it is another to place a racial innuendo on that. If roles were reversed, and someone said they were afraid of Joy being "black girl overdramatic", readers would throw a fit.

I will say I found it interesting to dive into the mind of an asexual woman during a blooming romance. It was not something I had ever thought about, and was well explained by the author through the eyes of Joy. I appreciate this clever character dynamic and think it was extremely well done.

Overall, this ARC has a lot of potential and an interesting premise. I simply am not the right reader, or perhaps not the intended audience. Either way, I appreciate the opportunity to read it. Thank you #netgalley, #ClaireKann, and the publisher for the opportunity to read this ARC.

2.5 stars. I’m really bummed that this didn’t end up being successful for me because there is nothing I want more as an ace romance reader than ace romances to love. I will start with this: I think the ace rep in this is really really good and that was my favorite part of the book. Where this didn’t work for me was the characters fell flat, the plot was not very believable and didn’t end up working for me, and ultimate I wasn’t really rooting for the love interest and Fox to get together. I liked Fox but he didn’t feel fleshed out enough for me to really love. So ultimately while I really loved the ace rep (in more than one character!) and thought it was great and there were some great conversations about being ace online and in person and how a lot of people don’t understand just how complex and diverse the ace identity is, the rest of the story didn’t end up being as successful as that element for me.

Full review will be up closer to release week. The Romantic Agenda by Claire Kann. Joy loves Malcolm. Malcolm loves Summer. Summer loves love. Fox is Summer’s ex-boyfriend. I adore Claire’s writing style and can’t wait to read Claire’s next book!

This was a really well done romance! I really enjoyed Let's Talk About Love, and although I still do really like that one better than this one, that's more based on my personal preference and I think the characters in the other one were younger so a little more relatability to me in that way. Although the characters in this are older, i still really enjoyed it and I think the romance was really planned out well. It was just really cute and you could really see the progression of Joy falling in and out of love which was really nice. Insta-love has its place in some books but the slower burn works a lot better in this book. Overall I think this was really good!

Joy, an asexual Instagram model and executive assistant, has been in love with her best friend Malcolm pretty much since they met at an asexuality booth in college. Malcolm is a serial monogamist who is currently intent on wooing one of his friends, Summer, whom Joy has never met. Joy is invited along on his wooing-vacation in order to keep Fox, Summer's best friend and ex-boyfriend, company. Of course, romance ensues.

I picked up this book because I found myself in the mood for a queer asexual romance. I have not read Claire Kann's Let's Talk About Love and had seen mixed reviews of it, most of which seemed to harp on the main character's childishness. This book premise seemed more adult (Joy is 30 after all and pretty settled in her life), but I cannot really speak to any other comparisons between the two.

I was a little uncertain of this book at first. We don't meet Joy's main love interest, Fox, until the 11% mark of the book and the first 10% is certainly her pining after Malcolm. In fact, Joy seems so into Malcolm that I initially found it difficult to see how Kann would convince me that Joy was open to love/romance/anything at all with Fox. But Kann pulls it off. The banter and romantic gestures between Fox and Joy are so dynamic and dazzling that you cannot help but be drawn in.

First of all, Joy is such a dynamic character. I love that she's super confident: in her asexuality, in her boundaries, and in her fashion. Like honestly, I'd love to *be* her, and I don't often say that about romance novel characters. In fact, I could see how others might argue that Kann went too far to the cool-ace archetype that Angela Chen references in Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex (She's a go-go dancer! She models! She knows she's hot! She's comfortable discussing masturbation!). However, Joy's depiction is accurate to many asexual people and it's never done at the expense of other aces (aces who are maybe uncomfortable talking about sex or kissing, etc.). However, Joy is definitely a flawed character. If you have low tolerance for characters that make mistakes and can be (a smidge) judgmental, you might have issues sticking with this one.

I also adored Fox! The romance was done so, so well (definitely a grumpy/sunshine romance if that's your vibe). There's all the wonderful cute romantic gestures you read a romance for (He makes her a flower crown that MATCHES her dress!! She gives him a spa day where she focuses on caring for him and makes him pie!) I honestly love that Fox is just so overwhelmed by the dazzling, confident, honest bundle that is Joy. Also, as expected, there's terrific representation of consent, boundaries, and physical intimacy without sex. Kann is careful to ensure that boundaries are discussed not just for Joy, but also for Fox. I only have a few (relatively minor) complaints about the romance between Fox and Joy that touch mostly on communication. One, we never learn what his ring represents. It may represent the promise Fox made to Summer's older brother, but we're never actually told that so I'm kind of left wondering. Two, I wish there was a little more discussion of long-term plans. There's so much communication in everything else, that I'm surprised that was not discussed more (but this is a romance novel I guess?). There were also several times that I felt the fake-dating trope was unnecessarily shoehorned in, but it didn't bother me too much.

I am fully aware that many of the things that I really, really enjoyed about this book are going to be things that others are really going to dislike. Namely, Joy obviously has a complicated relationship with Malcolm. They have been friends for over a decade. Joy has put her plans of ocean-based research on hold to help Malcolm run a local bar and Malcolm prioritizes Joy so often that it strains his romantic relationships. I honestly loved that this was part of the plot, because I think complicated deep friendships are often a part of the queer (especially queer asexual) experience. Seeing that kind of deep, long-term friendship represented on page (as well as the complexities that it adds to dating), was amazing.

There are some aspects of Malcolm and Joy's communication that I wished had been tweaked, but I also think that was part of having dynamic and flawed characters. I appreciated that Fox seriously recommended that Malcolm and Joy attend couple's therapy of some sort (I'm SO here for friendship therapy) and I love that Summer is ultimately understanding and accommodating of Malcolm and Joy's complicated relationship. My only other complaint is I wish that queer platonic relationships had been mentioned (since that seems to fit, or at least align with, Malcolm and Joy's relationship) and that either Malcolm or Joy had some crisis about what even is romantic vs. platonic love. But I get it, my little queer heart can't have everything I'd like in one novel.

Overall, if you have low tolerance for complicated friend group dynamics and flawed characters, you might want to skip this one. Otherwise, I really would recommend this romance novel (I think it's worth the read :) )

I’m always happy to see more ace representation in romance, and I really liked What’s Love Got to Do With It, so I was excited to read this new Claire Kann book. And I was so disappointed by it. The characters are flat, the plot makes little sense, and I didn’t really care about anyone by the end. It pains me not to give it a higher rating, but I just can’t.

Joy watches My Best Friend’s Wedding and it inspires her to make a play for her friend Malcolm, who’s in a new relationship with Summer. Joy has been pining in secret for Malcolm for years. But is it really that secret? Malcolm definitely seems to know how she feels and chooses to ignore it. Summer really wants to meet Joy because Malcolm talks about her all the time, but maybe she’s just threatened and wants to stake her claim. And to this mix we add Fox, Summer’s ex who is grumpy and suspicious of everyone’s motives. Fox is the biggest enigma, supposedly, but he immediately proposes a fake relationship to Joy and seems to fall for her fast.

Everyone is thrown together at a weekend getaway planned by control freak Malcolm, who has scheduled them down to the last second and gets angry if anyone wants to deviate for a bathroom break (Malcolm needs some therapy). It’s not a bad premise, but it’s messily executed and I just couldn’t get into it.

Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for the ARC to review. All opinions are my own.