What you see is what you get with this New Adult contemporary novel. The protagonist is the youngest sibling of a family of older adults who is working through an era in which it seems hard for even her siblings to relate to. So when thinking about discussing her growing understanding of her romantic needs and wants, it makes sense that she spends much of the book working through this with a therapist and friends rather than anyone in her family. I think there's a real market for this book among the college-aged crowd.

A fun, realistic YA contemporary featuring a character with a lot of voice and personality. Alice is memorable, flawed, fantastic, the plot doesn’t reinvent the wheel but makes the read enjoyable.

This book is one of few filling the void of asexual and/or aromantic books for teens.This is a great pick to hand to kids who are questioning or who may have friends/family in this category.

Did the prose sometimes feel clunky? Sure. Do I care? Literally not at all.

The representation in this book is outstanding--I'm so moved. As a bi ace/aro-spec reader, this was an incredibly affirming read (like, I really needed this, you guys). I love how Alice simultaneously knows herself and her identities while also constantly assessing and reassessing to better understand herself--it felt so so real. Y'all, I love this book with my whole heart.

One of the things that drew me to this title, was its ace representation. In the growing pantheon of YA LGBT+ literature, there is still not a lot... especially featuring a young woman of color. Between the cover featuring a beautiful dark skinned African American young woman and the rep, I was hooked!

Let's Talk About Love was a quick read full of (mostly) likable characters, a take on asexuality I hadn't encountered before, and a refreshing (but almost too twee) character of color who subverted stereotypes. Our collection doesn't have too many books like this one, and our system did end up purchasing several copies. I'm looking forward to reading and recommending more from this author. Thank you for allowing me to read and review this book!

I really, really loved this book! It's one of the first that I've read with an asexual character, much less an ace protagonist, and part of an even smaller group where the main character is pretty comfortable in her skin and her identity. I also appreciate that the story was not completely about her potential romantic relationship, as well as the details of each character that made them feel like real, well-rounded people. Excellent story and amazing representation of a minority that rarely gets included in media.

This book was an absolute delight. I've never seen such an honest and amazing portrayal of an ace person. I would recommend this book to anyone struggling to understand asexuality or to an ace person needing some validation.

The side characters were amazing and I loved the found family aspect. There were toxic families shown and I think the characters handled them the best they could. It showed people that they can make it and they can have a happy life, regardless of how their family treats them. I really loved her relationship with her therapist and the positive representation of therapy.

The love story was swoonworthy and amazing. I loved how their relationship formed and how healthy it was. I think it would really give hope to some people on the ace spectrum when it comes to relationships.

This review makes no sense because I loved it so much. It tackles huge issues without sugar coating them and I was just very excited to see a biracial couple shown in such a great light.

First of all, these characters are supposed to be adults--new adults, most of them, but still--and yet all of them act like children and I found it incredibly frustrating to read.

I am excited that a biromantic asexual black woman is represented in this story. But I think it was the combination of Alice's emotional immaturity and her asexuality that disappointed me somehow: I don't want someone to be able to read about all of Alice's indecision in life and think, "Oh, she just hasn't figured herself out yet" when it comes to her sexuality. I did find that the only area of her life Alice didn't seem to constantly over-analyze was her asexuality, and if other readers find this to be true as well then I may be worried for nothing.

Still, I found all of the characters in this story to be surprisingly immature--apart from the love interest, because of course he has to be pretty much perfect. Sigh. I will say that Takumi's working through figuring out how one partner's asexuality could affect a relationship and how much sex and love are or are not connected was pretty excellent and probably got my rating bumped up an extra star.

Overall a fine book that I would definitely recommend to teens interested in exploring stories about sexuality, but I will continue looking for something I feel provides an even better representation.

I wish this was about teens, because my kids could use a book like this about them. This shouldn't really be labeled YA- there's quite a bit of early adulting going on.

Let’s talk about how beautiful this cover is.
There are not book covers like this. This is beautiful. This is PERFECT. This is EVERYTHING. And I’m so glad this cover exists.

Let’s talk about the fact that this book is about an asexual, biromantic black girl.
Intersectionality for the win! Alice is a fully-fleshed out character, and this story allows her to develop and blossom into one of my favorite characters in YA.

Plus, this book does a great job of educating the reader without info-dumping on the reader.

Let’s talk about how this book is about a girl who is trying to choose her major.
She doesn’t want to disappoint her parents, but she has different ideas about how she wants to live her life.

Let’s talk about how awesome and positive the friendships in this book are.
This book illustrates how friends can become family. Alice’s relationships with both Feenie and Ryan are true and refreshing, and they support each other despite their faults. In this book, we see a real, honest friend fight, one that means everything and hurts everyone, but they still recognize and acknowledge their love for each other.

Let’s talk about how Alice works in a library.
That just makes this book even more awesome!

Let’s talk about how freakin’ adorable the romance between Alice and Takumi is.
This is a sweet romance with little moments. And because Alice is Asexual, there is not any “sexy times” on the page, which makes it great for readers who love romance stories but prefer kissing to sexy times. The thing that made me fall in love with this book was the conversations and banter that Alice and Takumi have on page. It is sweet, it is nerdy, and it is just real life.

Let’s talk about positive therapy on the page.
Because it is great representation to see characters having positive, helpful therapy sessions.

Let’s talk about how SERIOUSLY AWESOME THIS BOOK IS!
Like seriously. Get it, buy it, put it on your library shelves!

(Let’s talk about how I have already read this book twice )

Let's Talk About Love has great representation of Asexual characters, a topic that is often neglected when talking about LGBTQ+ YA Books. The story was sweet and fun. However, it felt like this book would fall under the New Adult category instead of Young Adult. The main character was well into college, her love interest was fully out of college and working, and her roommates were getting married. Other than her questions about her sexuality, it didn't feel like she was really dealing with many teen related problems.

The fact that this book exists makes me endlessly happy. And the fact that it's #ownvoices is even better. Asexuality is hardly ever covered in books, let alone YA, and I have a feeling this book will open a space for readers who identify with Alice.

This. Story. Is. A. Must. Read.
I love the diversity in this book. For me, Alice is a strong, loving character. She's my favorite in this book because he's funny and true. Her love for TV shows is something I can relate to. She's asexual she goes on a bit of a roller-coaster in this book but never gives up who she is. She works at a library I love books set around libraries, bookstores, or books and so no. So, those scenes were a blast for me.

Takumi is charming and clever. Alice's best friends are Feenie and Ryan who are a joy to read. I do like Ryan more out of those two but they show what friendship is like, that's it's a bumpy road, hard but worth it. Her family is a mix of crazy, but I like the different kind of family relationships; Alice's parents and her siblings are similar yet different. They all just want her to get a good paying job in a field that she doesn't want to work in, causing drama.

This book felt like an older YA almost an NA kind of book. The writing is wonderful, plotting flows well. I also love the cover, the colors and feel of it fits the story perfectly.

This book is bubbling over with cuteness! The witty, push and pull, is worth the read. Not only is this book swoony, it's filled some real, moving and powerful scenes of truthfulness. An easy five stars for me.

Let’s Talk About Love is the latest addition to the Swoon Reads line! I’m a huge fan of this line so I was excited to read this novel, especially with all the great things I’ve been hearing about it.

One of the highlights of Let’s Talk About Love is the representation! First, Alice is a biromantic ace and a black woman! The love interest is a Japanese man. The whole cast of minor characters is filled with POC and LGBTQ+. While I am not a POC or part of the LGBTQ+ community, this representation matters and I am so happy that others are finding mirrors within this novel. Also, I love how much issues are addressed within the novel!

Alice is such a cute main character! I adored her Cute Codie, Alice’s way to classify her reactions to aesthetics and cuteness. Alice lives with her best friends and together they really do take on the meaning of creating your own family. Her best friends are fleshed out characters and it was great seeing them as such an important part of her life.

One part I struggled with was the writing style. It’s written in third person past POV, which I am not a fan of for contemporary reads. I’ve just always had a difficult time getting into this POV. Another part that was hard to get behind was Takumi, the love interest. There were parts about that I liked, but there were also parts that got on my nerves.

Overall, Let’s Talk About Love is full of important representation and many people will enjoy it!

Actual Rating: 3.5 stars

This is such an important book, with such an important cover and topic. Cannot wait to hand it to readers.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Alice knows that the way she loves is not what anyone would call regular. Alice identifies as ACE, or a-sexual, meaning that while she may like a person, it isn't about being sexually attracted to them. In fact, she doesn't feel sexually attracted to any one gender at all. This doesn't mean that she hasn't been in relationships, things just tend to be much more complicated when she does get in one, especially because she keeps this fact of her life a secret.

Things change for Alice though when she spies Takumi through the library stacks when he starts working at her library. Takumi is code black on Alice's rating system; hotter than hot! At first, she tries to fight the attraction she feels for Takumi knowing that if she ever were to give in to her feelings, it would just be complicated when she has to tell him about her sexuality. Alice quickly finds out though that sometimes it's too hard to fight feelings that are so strong, even if it means being vulnerable.

Kann has crafted a fantastic novel featuring not only an ACE character, but one of color as well. Kann touches on issues of gender, race, and family; all of which come together to create a complex novel with intense and very realistic themes. Alice is a complicated character, which is how real life often is. Not only that, but it is refreshing to see realistic characters in a teen novel. The characters are older than most featured in the YA genre (Alice is in college, and Takumi is a few years older than her), but Alice and her friends are still facing challenges that teens of all ages deal with. I highly recommend this novel for all libraries!

This was a cute, fluffy YA featuring a protagonist who is a asexual biromantic black girl. Alice has to navigate declaring a college major (one her family doesn’t agree with), keeping the peace with her friends, and figuring out how she really feels about the new guy at work, Takumi. This is the first time I've ever read a book with an asexual perspective, and I know it is going to be so important for many readers.

I wrote a 14 tweet thread about my love for this book and I'll be writing some more pieces in the near future about it, but trust that I loved this book, it's a voice-y, fluffy YA contemporary featuring a biromantic asexual black girl who's gotta figure out her future, navigate her evolving friendships, and explore a bit more about where she falls on the spectrum after an event shakes her up. While being a fun romance, it's also incredible representation that I cannot talk up enough.