Wow. What can I say other than I have devoured this book today and loved absolutely every moment of doing so. Claire Kann’s Let’s Talk About Love is simply a delight, an eye-opener and a shout out to nerds everywhere. I would like to mention here that this is not a YA (I thought it was). Turns out it’s more of New Adult and probably one of the best college-age novels I have personally read.
Let’s Talk About Love is about Alice, recently dumped by her girlfriend who couldn’t deal with the fact that Alice is asexual. It pretty much ruins Alice’s summer plans, which largely consisted of binging her favourite tv shows and eating her favourite snacks with her now ex-girlfriend and her best friends in between shifts at the library. Instead, Alice has to face the fact that she is probably never going to be able to date anyone who understands her and loves her for who she is, not to mention the worries she has about her own future. When she meets Takumi, the new employee at the library, Alice experiences a rush of feelings she never expected. They develop a special friendship, but as Alice’s feelings continue to develop… can she risk everything for a love that might not be returned?
First of all, Alice is a phenomenal character. She is unbelievably nerdy, a complete romantic like me and adorable in a way I really can’t describe. She had me laughing and crying. She was just the perfect main character and I wish she was real. Seeing the world through her eyes and her experiences was truly fascinating and eye-opening. I spent the whole book just hoping and wishing that all of Alice’s dreams would come true. The way I feel about the characters is always the most important thing to me when I read any book and so to me this book was perfect. While Alice’s family drove me a little insane with their instance to throw Alice into law school (something she didn’t want to do), and while I got a little fed up with the way Alice’s best friends treated her during their fight, I still loved them all and thought they were great and necessary parts of the story. It goes without saying that Takumi is a fantastic character, I loved him. I love his openness, his genuine heart, his love for cooking Alice food, the way he looks after his twin nieces and so many other things. He was just adorable and I loved his connection with Alice so much, it is literally everything I could ever ask for in a book that makes you squee (just like Alice does when she is overwhelmingly excited).
A big part of this novel is all about Alice’s identity, in terms of her being biromantic asexual, black, female and entirely unsure about what she wants to do with her life. While she’s happy with who she is, she struggles with the way the world sees her, especially the way no one, except her best friends, seems to understand her and the fact that she is asexual and what that means. Her relationships in the past have all led to her being dumped and when she meets Takumi and develops feelings for him, she has to decide if she can tell him the truth about who she is, knowing that might ruin her chances at ever finding love, something she longs for more than anything else. Before reading this book, I knew a little about asexuality, but now I understand it so much more. I am so thankful for this book in teaching me about it because I think it’s so important for everyone to understand others, to stand by them and to see that love is love. This book does an amazing job at telling a story about someone who is asexual and I think it will speak to so many people, whether they are bi, asexual or straight like myself.
I cannot say enough how much you should read this book right now. It is the perfect book to read during Pride Month! 🌈Also, by reading and talking about it, you can also support black authors, which is something I plan to do more often!✊🏻✊✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿 Thank you so much Claire Kann for writing such a wonderful book that made me smile, taught me something important and will stay with me forever.
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I hope you enjoyed reading this review and that I maybe convinced you to read this book! I would love to hear your thoughts 😊
Happy reading and HAPPY PRIDE MONTH,
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