recent aspec books i've read
Someone to Daydream About
YA romcom with a demiromantic MC. She already identifies as such at the start of the book. It's hate-to-love, she doesn't like him at all initially, and takes a while to catch up to the fact that she is romantically attracted to him - though the time period of the book is pretty short. "Unfortunately, being demiromantic doesn’t make me immune to thinking some people are absurdly hot."
gay ace MC. subplot when he's a teenager of being upset and jealous when his friend gets a girlfriend and has less time for their friendship and is bullied for being gay even though he doesn't think he is; then later when he meets his love interest in uni he talks about his feelings and the love interest says he's probably asexual. Good in concept, didn't love the book.
nonfic/memoir centred on the authors' experience of falling in love with a friend who doesn't reciprocate, and their relationship deepening because of this. She talks about being acespec a little, and how that affects how she approaches love and relationships. It's nonlinear and sectioned into the ancient greek categories of love, in the latter end especially there's a lot of discussion of challenging various forms of amatonormativity, and of relationships and feelings that defy categorisation.
high fantasy mm romance, start of a series. a mage enters an arranged marriage with a prince. They're both demi-aroace - one has never really had any interest, one had a previous sexual relationship but couldn't return the romantic feelings. It's more focused on the aromanticism, which I enjoyed. I'd say they still fall for each other relatively quickly, I'd have loved for it to take longer than a book, but I do understand why it is this way for plot reasons. Hopefully explored more in book 2. Really enjoyed this
high fantasy, start of a series. The MC is demisexual, only very lightly touched upon. Presumably will later in the series. The romance develops slower and less heated than general, I guess.
"Relationships had always been different for her than most people, which was to say she had never really had one" "she retreated into a place so deep inside herself her body no longer felt her own ... one that needed connection before intimacy." a little too generic fantasy + m/f romance for me, but it's fine
It's Kind of a Funny Story
contemporary romance webtoon, about a guy at a low point moving back to his home city & sleeping on his friend's couch, and a guy who moved across the country after a breakup. One tries to kiss the other after they meet & hang out a bit - the latter is taken aback but does like him & explains that he & his ex were friends for years before he was interested, and they shift into becoming friends (while feelings slowly grow). While he hasn't figured it out yet, there's Q&A chapters talking about him being demiromantic (his little sister is also aroace apparently, tho she's like 12 rn). I like that the other MC also has an arc of being comfortable with being single in the meantime, before they eventually get in a relationship. (which they aren't yet, but maybe on the cusp. it's on hiatus.)
witchy YA sapphic romance. One of the MCs is ace (or acespec). She'd never been attracted to anyone (and is fine with this), but as an overachiever feels like she has to fit into the 'norm' and get a boyfriend; she vaguely attempts this but her heart isn't in it as much as it is with her academic rival who she has to work with, then eventually realises she has some kind of attraction to. She's still in the beginnings of figuring this out, isn't sure if she's ace or demi (or if it's just girls or potentially bi). I thought it was done well enough. Tbh some of it read as arospec too, but I know a) authors often conflate that unintentionally and/or for teenagers especially it can be pretty intertwined when figuring it out. I did like that the boy is just...barely relevant because she's simply not actually interested in him (rather than some annoying forcing-herself-to-date-him-not-love-triangle-situation)
YA contemporary. an aroace singer recently propelled to fame is forced into a PR relationship by her team, with her high school ex-boyfriend (who she broke up with after figuring out she's aroace. Very much about being aroace, about the loneliness of the rest of the world prioritising romance. She's happy and proud to be aroace, but deals with shame because of the aphobia/amatonormativity she faces (which is definitely a narrative I want more of!), and it explores the depths and complexities of her various friendships. There's a side character who figures out he's demiromantic. The only minor critisicm I have is that there's no way a chronically online 19yo who's been aroace for years wouldn't have heard of queerplatonic relationships. I also find it odd that the blurb says she's aroace-spec when she's explicitly aroace, no attraction/interest at all. But: really enjoyed this
