Alice had her whole summer planned. Nonstop 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.
I borrowed this one from my local library. I’ve been trying to read more diverse books, especially when it comes to romance, and this one was highly acclaimed in romanceland on Twitter. The reviews on GoodReads are fairly split, people loved it or hated it, especially the people represented in the story.
Alice is a black, asexual, biromantic college student who lives with her two best friends who happen to be a couple. More on them in a bit. Alice works at a library and has absolutely no clue what she wants to do from her life. She does know that she’s tired of having to explain what asexuality is and being judged and misunderstood. She wants that intimacy that comes from a relationship. I mean, who can’t relate to that part?
At the library where Alice works, she meets Takumi, a boy who breaks her color code (it’s how she rates the hotness of people she meets) and overall just rocks her damn world. As the summer progresses, Alice and Takumi get to know each other and develop a friendship that turns into more by the end of the summer.
Not everyone is pleased by this relationship. Alice’s BFF’s Feenie and Ryan (the couple she lives with) are less than excited and were the source of much internal screaming on my part. I wanted to yell and scream at both of them, especially Feenie, for much of the story. I almost stopped reading it because I couldn’t take the selfishness anymore but I needed to see Alice get her HEA.
Between the undecided major, the arguments with her parents, the discovering who she is and the relationships that unfold, I found myself really rooting for Alice. This book made me feel a lot of things and that in and of itself is why you should read it.
Please note that I am not the target audience for this story. I don’t know what it is like to be a black, asexual, biromantic female but I do know an awesome book when I read it. Give this one a try.
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