Review: Let's Talk About Love by Claire Kann

Let’s Talk About Love

Claire Kann

Publication Date: January 23, 2018

Hardcover, 288 pages, Swoon Reads

Genres: YA/NA, Contemporary

Goodreads

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.

My Review

This book has been on my TBR for a while, and I didn’t pick it up because I’ve been on a fantasy/sci-fi roll for the past year or so. It’s truly hard for me to get into YA contemporary nowadays. But the asexual rep in this one had me curious, and since it was Pride Month, I wanted to go for it.

Thankfully, Let’s Talk About Love has college-age characters, so it’s more of a New Adult title than Young Adult, which means a more emotionally stable protagonist and some deeper relationship feelings. I love reading about a female main character who knows who she is inside but is just trying to figure out what she wants to do in the world. In college and even today, I had the same issues. Alice is fun, quirky, down-to-earth, and asexual. However, this story isn’t just about Alice’s sexuality. It’s about her relationship with her friends, parents, counselor, and her uncertainty in picking a major.

At first, Alice’s inner dialogue was a little difficult to sync with. She’s has a unique narration style, but after a few chapters, it gets easier and more fun to follow. She also drops a lot of fun pop culture references, including a Dean Winchester/Supernatural reference. That’s an automatic win in my book.

As for the side characters, that’s where I have a few issues. Feenie and Ryan are Alice’s best friends, and Alice decided to move in with them over the summer. When Alice and Feenie get into a fight over Feenie and Ryan ditching Alice, it’s kind of just let go by both characters. I did not like that. If you invite a friend to go to a party with you, and then you abandon her to hook up somewhere without even telling your friend where you’re going, you’re a jerk. You need to apologize. But Feenie never really did. And Ryan was pretty wishy-washy about the situation too. I just felt like both friends were trying to keep Alice from living her own romantic life and make new friends. Almost in the same manner Alice’s parents were trying to keep her from pursuing a different college major. While Feenie and Ryan had redeemable moments, I just couldn’t get over how $hitty they acted during all that drama. Maybe I could’ve accepted everything if the situation wasn’t glossed over and there’d actually been a true fight/conversation about what had happened. Things were simply resolved too easily. And perhaps that’s just how life works sometimes, but I personally was disappointed in how it all played out.

Now, Takumi, he’s quite the stud muffin. He can cook, he reads stories to small children, he babysits, and he’s just super sweet. I kind of wish he’d had a flaw or two, just to make him more realistic. (Stupid book boys giving readers everywhere unrealistic expectations about real-life men. Lol.) Regardless, he and Alice were both super adorable together.

All in all, this is an important book. Not just because of Alice’s asexuality, but because it deals with a character who doesn’t have her life together towards the end of her college career. It’s important for high school and college readers to see that kind of representation in their books. It’s also important they see characters like Alice take charge of their lives, even when others, including parents, put obstacles in their paths.