Alice is ready to spend her summer watching her favorite TV shows, hanging out with her best friends Feenie and Ryan, and working at the local library. But her relaxing plans are put on hold when her girlfriend decides to break up with her–because Alice is asexual.

Alice is still recovering from the abrupt breakup when she first sees Takumi, a new employee at the library. He’s not just cute–he completely fractures Alice’s Cutie Code, which she uses to determine everything’s level of cute (pillows and tastefully decorated rooms included). Alice is determined not to fall in love again, not after how things turned out last time. But she can’t help but be drawn to Takumi, who makes her feel safe and understood.

Her friendship with Takumi, however, causes a rift in her friendship with Feenie. Alice values her friends more than anything. Can she fix her slowly disintegrating social life while trying to figure out her future? And how can she make Takumi understand how much she cares about him, and that she’s asexual?

Let’s Talk About Love is a beautiful love story between a Black biromantic ace girl and a straight Japanese American boy. I love how Claire Kann reverts the mixed race relationship stereotypes, which typically pose only Black men and Asian women as desirable.

I don’t normally gravitate towards YA romance novels, but Let’s Talk About Love swept me off my feet in a way I didn’t imagine. Alice was the funniest, nerdiest protagonist I could hope for, and her experience with her romantic and sexual orientations felt deeply real. Takumi is a swoon-worthy but also very grounded love interest whose emotional connection with Alice makes you root for the couple through thick and thin. And Alice’s relationships with her friends are equally important to her, showing the different forms that love can take. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is sick of romance tropes, and I am determined to read everything that Claire Kann has written and will write!

Most of the books that I read and review are middle grade, so it is worth mentioning that this book deals with sex (though not explicitly) and has older, college-age characters.