#CBR10Bingo: Underrepresented
Alice’s girlfriend dumps her because she can’t really handle the fact that Alice is asexual and while she’s perfectly willing to engage in sexual acts to please her girlfriend, she herself doesn’t really get much out of it. Dumped and heartbroken, Alice swears off dating entirely. She moves into the spare room at the apartment of her two best friends (who are a couple) and is determined to power through the summer enjoying good food, binge watching TV and working at the library.
The only problem? There’s a new guy, Takumi, working at the library and he makes Alice feel all sorts of new and unwelcome things – especially since she’s sworn off dating. Convinced any non-asexual potential partner is likely to be as put off by her asexuality as her ex-girlfriend, Alice is adamant that she and Takumi should only be friends. Because they really do click pretty instantly, and she starts spending a lot of time together. Enough time that Feeney, Alice’s BFF is beginning to feel jealous. On top of all her confusing new feelings and having to find time for Takumi, Feeney and Ryan (Feeney’s boyfriend and Alice’s other flatmate), Alice wants to change her major at college and her parents do NOT approve. Everyone in Alice’s family has studied law, and her parents see absolutely no future in studying interior design, which is Alice’s passion.
I picked this book for the “Underrepresented” square in the CBR10Bingo because it fits into the category in SO many different ways. The author is a woman of colour, sadly a very underrepresented group among romance writers. The heroine is an asexual (but not aromantic) and bisexual black woman. The hero is a handsome Asian guy. Also, unlike a lot of New Adult books featuring college students, Alice actually seems to struggle with her course load, not to mention financing her studies – issues that rarely seem to actually feature in these stories.
Full review on my blog.
This one has been on my list for a while. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!