Title: Let's Talk About LoveAuthor: Claire Kann
Publisher: Swoon Reads
Rating: 3/5 Stars
Hardcover, 304 Pages
Published January 2018
Rating: 3/5 Stars
Hardcover, 304 Pages
Published January 2018
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.
I first heard about this book when it was being buzzed about all over social media, especially through all of our other blogging friends! I read about this book and was immediately interested, and I added it to my TBR, and it's been a little bit of time since I got a copy of the book, but I finally managed to have a sliver of down time in between my college classes, so I jumped right into this one. So without further ado, let's get into this review!
As the summary explains, Alice's summer plans fall apart when her parents insist on sending her to law school and she ends up also running into this super adorable guy that she's crushing on during her job at the library. However, there's something she doesn't tell this adorable, heart-fluttering Takumi -- she's ace, and she doesn't know if that will be a deciding factor for their friendship and potential relationship, especially given the way that her previous relationships tended to hit bumps in the road once she came out. So this book follows Alice's struggle with accepting herself in addition to finding the courage to tell the people she cares most about, all while juggling the changes in her life that her parents (who don't know anything about her asexuality) that are insisting on setting her life on a course that she doesn't want to take.
What I enjoyed about this book was the great support system that Alice had throughout everything. She had her parents and her siblings, even though sometimes they didn't get along all of the time. She had Feenie and Ryan, who were some of the most supportive and awesome best friends that I've ever seen in any books -- I can't think of any of my friends that would let me live with them after they got married. She even had Takumi, who became such a great support system over time. Not to mention the fact that he was super swoon-worthy -- he was smart, adorable, and could cook! Some of the stuff he made Alice in the story definitely made me super hungry, that's for sure!
My favorite character in this book was definitely Feenie. She was outspoken and fierce, and even though Alice thought she was prickly at times, it was clear that Feenie loved her and Ryan more than anything else in the world, and come hell or high water, she was going to be there for him. Plus, she said a bunch of hysterical stuff throughout the story that had me laughing out loud and sending Snapchats to my friends. So she was definitely my favorite!
One of the things that I wasn't crazy about in this book was the way that I never really felt like I knew what Alice was really feeling, in terms of her own personal thoughts and emotions. Since the book is in third person, I found it really hard to get into her head at times, which made it kind of difficult for me as a reader. I also noticed that I haven't felt anything like that when I read third-person books in the past, but lately, it's been glaringly obvious to me and it definitely distracts me a lot while I'm reading. So I think that was less than a "this book" thing and more of something I've been noticing lately across multiple books that I've read.
Another thing that I wasn't crazy about in this book was the fact that I feel like time jumped so fast during certain periods of the story, and I feel like a lot of important moments that I wanted to see as a reader weren't really shown to me. I feel like Alice and Takumi got really close really fast, and there were several references to things that they did together -- for example, the paragliding incident -- that were totally glossed over and lightly alluded to or summed up later. I understand doing that with some less important scenes, but it's pretty clear that Alice and Takumi's friendship/relationship is incredibly important to the story, so glossing over something like that (especially so early on in their interactions) left me feeling a bit confused.
However, just because those two things weren't my favorite doesn't mean that this wasn't a good book! Overall, I really enjoyed reading Let's Talk About Love. It was a funny, adorable story about making new friends, learning to adapt to life's changes, and falling in love. I think Claire Kann did an excellent job of explaining asexuality, both to the other characters in the book and also to the reader. I feel like I learned a lot that wasn't entirely clear to me before, so I finished this story with a much greater understanding of asexuality than I did previously -- and that's something that's really important to me, because I find it important to make an effort to learn about the things that I might not understand fully.
If this book isn't on your TBR yet, I definitely encourage you to check it out -- hopefully you love it!
As the summary explains, Alice's summer plans fall apart when her parents insist on sending her to law school and she ends up also running into this super adorable guy that she's crushing on during her job at the library. However, there's something she doesn't tell this adorable, heart-fluttering Takumi -- she's ace, and she doesn't know if that will be a deciding factor for their friendship and potential relationship, especially given the way that her previous relationships tended to hit bumps in the road once she came out. So this book follows Alice's struggle with accepting herself in addition to finding the courage to tell the people she cares most about, all while juggling the changes in her life that her parents (who don't know anything about her asexuality) that are insisting on setting her life on a course that she doesn't want to take.
What I enjoyed about this book was the great support system that Alice had throughout everything. She had her parents and her siblings, even though sometimes they didn't get along all of the time. She had Feenie and Ryan, who were some of the most supportive and awesome best friends that I've ever seen in any books -- I can't think of any of my friends that would let me live with them after they got married. She even had Takumi, who became such a great support system over time. Not to mention the fact that he was super swoon-worthy -- he was smart, adorable, and could cook! Some of the stuff he made Alice in the story definitely made me super hungry, that's for sure!
My favorite character in this book was definitely Feenie. She was outspoken and fierce, and even though Alice thought she was prickly at times, it was clear that Feenie loved her and Ryan more than anything else in the world, and come hell or high water, she was going to be there for him. Plus, she said a bunch of hysterical stuff throughout the story that had me laughing out loud and sending Snapchats to my friends. So she was definitely my favorite!
One of the things that I wasn't crazy about in this book was the way that I never really felt like I knew what Alice was really feeling, in terms of her own personal thoughts and emotions. Since the book is in third person, I found it really hard to get into her head at times, which made it kind of difficult for me as a reader. I also noticed that I haven't felt anything like that when I read third-person books in the past, but lately, it's been glaringly obvious to me and it definitely distracts me a lot while I'm reading. So I think that was less than a "this book" thing and more of something I've been noticing lately across multiple books that I've read.
Another thing that I wasn't crazy about in this book was the fact that I feel like time jumped so fast during certain periods of the story, and I feel like a lot of important moments that I wanted to see as a reader weren't really shown to me. I feel like Alice and Takumi got really close really fast, and there were several references to things that they did together -- for example, the paragliding incident -- that were totally glossed over and lightly alluded to or summed up later. I understand doing that with some less important scenes, but it's pretty clear that Alice and Takumi's friendship/relationship is incredibly important to the story, so glossing over something like that (especially so early on in their interactions) left me feeling a bit confused.
However, just because those two things weren't my favorite doesn't mean that this wasn't a good book! Overall, I really enjoyed reading Let's Talk About Love. It was a funny, adorable story about making new friends, learning to adapt to life's changes, and falling in love. I think Claire Kann did an excellent job of explaining asexuality, both to the other characters in the book and also to the reader. I feel like I learned a lot that wasn't entirely clear to me before, so I finished this story with a much greater understanding of asexuality than I did previously -- and that's something that's really important to me, because I find it important to make an effort to learn about the things that I might not understand fully.
If this book isn't on your TBR yet, I definitely encourage you to check it out -- hopefully you love it!
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