Review: Let’s Talk About Love by Claire Kann

Buckle in folks, because this will be a long review about how much I LOVED Let’s Talk About Love. It had it all. It had fantastic characters, amazing representation, diversity, and it spoke to my heart. That’s all I ever ask for.

Summary

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.

Review

I’m going to list all the reasons why I can’t stop talking about Let’s Talk About Love!

• Writing Style. It was punchy. It was short and sweet and to the point.  And it had so many of these little thoughts I have which I frequently ALSO put in brackets. You’ve seen these during reviews where I have a thought that’s loosely connected, so I just smush it in there with brackets.
• Asexuality Representation. This is the best book I’ve read with ace rep in it. Maybe I need to read more (I definitely need to read more), but this was described with such clarity. While Alice is struggling with both figuring out her identity (not in ace v not ace, but like on the ace spectrum) and also telling people, there’s a clarity to her assessment that she is ace. And she has to have all these convos with her friends and LI (love interests) about this. We need more rep like this. And we need it now. (Or I need it now). This was so beautiful to read and it almost broke my heart because of that.
• (I want to touch on something. This book was the center of a controversy on Twitter where a reviewer had said that this book was ‘unrealistic’. Like who would ever want to be in a relationship with an ace person, and yada yada. And that was super harmful and awful. BUT I want to say that because they have those conversations, that’s one of the reasons this book is so great. Because it’s not unrealistic and because QUEER PEOPLE DESERVE HAPPY ENDINGS. I’m not just saying in this book, but in every book. There’s too much queer baiting and just erasure and all sorts of awful things. That we want, we NEED queer characters to have happy endings).
• Racism Discussion. There was subtle examination of Alice’s race and how it affected her life (ie how long it takes to do her hair) and also more overt examinations (how being from a more affluent family created problems for Alice too). I don’t want to get into too much because you have to read this book for yourself. (and if you care about my feelings), but this delved into microaggressions and also the nuanced glances at intersectionality.
• This friendship between Feenie, Ryan, and Alice is at the core of this book. ITS SO DARN GOOD.
• Side Characters. I loved them. Um Feenie, come be my BFF. Like I loved the side characters. Everyone from Takumi’s nieces to Ryan. Give them all to me. (Including her fam, totally love her family)
• The cover is perfect.

I loved this book so truly, madly, deeply. I know that to each their own and especially with rep that’s a tricky one. But for me, this was so precious.

Please go support Let’s Talk About Love on Amazon(US), your local indie, and add it to Goodreads.

Discussion

What was the last book that touched your heart?

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