OTHER PEOPLE’S BUTTERFLIES / aroace MC discovering her identity
IF IT MAKES YOU HAPPY / MC has an aroace qpr/best friend, and is also starting a new (romantic) relationship
TAKE ME TO YOUR NERDY LEADER / aroallo girl moves to a new town and makes friends and a friends w benefits
LOVELESS / aroace MC discovering her identity
THE RHYTHM OF MY SOUL / two aroace partners at an intense dance company
IMMORAL CODE / high school heist, one of the 5 MCs is aroace
IT SOUNDS LIKE THIS / high school marching band, grey-aroace major side character (/potential future love interest)
DEAR WENDY / two aroace MCs
SUMMER BIRD BLUE / questioning aroace MC
*as a note, some of these only briefly explore aromanticism, and/or explore the ace part of the aroace character more. If you want more details on how much things are explored, see my database!
Week 2, list 2! Still not sure how many books I’ll talk about each week - for now, I’m going to stick with seven.
the girl from everywhere + the ship beyond time - heidi heilig: YA time travel duology, following a girl on a ship that can travel anywhere in space and time as long as she has the right map. Combines historical fiction, contemporary, and fantasy settings, and discusses quantum physics, the effects/ethics of time travel, and colonialism (particularly with regard to 1800s Hawaii). Excellent friends-to-lovers romance.
technically, you started it - lana wood johnson: Loose YA contemporary retelling of Daddy-Long-Legs, told entirely through texts - a girl who goes to school with two boys with the same extremely long name starts communicating with one of them, but they never meet up in person. Demi and bi rep.
the hero and the crown - robin mckinley: Older (published in the 1980s) YA fantasy about a princess who has never fit in at court and who trains herself to become a knight and fight dragons. Featuring a sassy retired warhorse and a hot, mysterious sorcerer. (Does have v. tame on-page romance between cousins).
immoral code - lillian clark: YA contemporary about a group of friends that decide to commit a cyberheist after one of them is denied admission to MIT because of her estranged billionaire father. Fantastic friend dynamics, two different romance subplots, aro/ace rep, excellent banter, hacker girls, an Olympic-hopeful swimmer, a flamboyantly punk visual artist, and a sweet and supportive boyfriend - what more do you need from a heist book? TW: bullying, aphobia.
prince charming - rachel hawkins: YA contemporary romance about a Florida girl whose sister gets engaged to the crown prince of Scotland and who is thrown into a world of etiquette, hot noble boys, tabloids, and high expectations. A lighter alternative to American Royals.
the charlotte holmes series (a study in charlotte, the last of august, the case for jamie, a question of holmes) - brittany cavallaro: YA contemporary series following the modern day descendants of Sherlock and Watson (Charlotte Holmes and Jamie Watson) as they get involved in a series of connected mysteries, most revolving around their elite Connecticut prep school. Featuring a complex relationship that evolves constantly across all four books, equally complex mysteries, poetic writing, and superb characters. TW: Off-page rape, discussion of sexual assault, discussion of suicide, murder, discussion of drug use, drug addiction, and mild self-harm.
i, claudia - mary mccoy: YA contemporary retelling of I, Claudius following a disaffected teenage historian who becomes involved in her school’s Senate and Honor Council, a notoriously corrupt system. She vows to use her power wisely and help the school, but is faced with scandals, tyrants, and secrets, all while trying not to let her power corrupt her as well. This is one of my favorite YA books I’ve ever read, and I cannot recommend it enough. TW: Sexual assault (not to the MC), violence, and animal cruelty (that’s all I remember, but I do recommend looking up full trigger warnings if necessary).
That’s it! I’ll be back next week with more (so much more. Someone literally asked me the other day if I had book recommendations, and I sent them a list of 15 just to start.)
Like, any Jennifer Lynn Barnes book. The Squad is about a cheerleading team that lean on each other and support one another, Tattoo follows four beat friends who get super powers for a weekend, Little White Lies has complicated relationships of familial and platonic at the center, Raised By Wolves is about forming a werewolf pack from misfits etc etc.
Heist Society by Ally Carter has teenage thieves being a cute, little family and doing art theft. It’s lots of fun.
Darkest Powers by Kelley Armstrong has the found family of a necromancer, a werewolf, a sorcerer, a ghost, and a witch. Who doesn’t want that?
The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi is the first of a series where very talented and magically inclined teenagers do crime together, and try and solve an old mystery.
In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan has three teenagers from very different backgrounds, forming an unbreakable bond, and go to magic school together. (The Lynburn Legacy and The Demon’s Lexicon by the same author also makes great use of the found family trope)
Beauty Queens by Libba Bray shows what kind of family a bunch of beauty queens form when they are stranded on a deserted island together.
Vampire Academy and Bloodlines by Richelle Mead follows vampires, dhampirs, and a few humans who form a family at their boarding schools and feature lots of action along as well.
Immoral Code by Lillian Code is another group of teenagers committing crimes together. It’s a solid trope, what can I say?
Share your favorite books with the found family trope!!!
Happy Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week! This year, the celebration lasts from February 16th-22nd, and here are a whole bunch of books to help you enjoy it! (Representation is included/highlighted with each title, where I know it.)
But before you even get there, I must mention the most important resource you’ve gotta know if you’re looking for aromantic fiction, which is the Aro Ace Databaseby…
I was intrigued because I wanted a book that portrays my experience.
The synopsis was meh to me but I wanted to give it a shot regardless.
But after reading some goodreads reviews what i gathered is
Non-ace people find it quirky, cute, relatable and adore the black ace biromantic representation
Ace people are fucking disappointed and do not feel properly represented at all. (And that makes me what to cry)
The other books I read with an ace character were in the "Not your Sidekick" series by C. B. Lee. And I don't know if I really vibed with that either. In the third installment "Not your Backup", where the MC is aroace latinx, we dive deeper into her character. (The whole series is cute and solid, however not anything extraordinary.) But I kinda don't need a book where I just read "You're valid and everyone on the aroace spectrum has different experiences." That's just infodump. That's the first thing you see when you open Tumblr..
And a while ago I started "Immoral Code" but alas I stopped because the ace character was just like 'I'm different, I'm edgy, I'm ace and i have a fckn sidecut and dyed blue hair'.
I don't know where I was going with this but I want to read a fucking nice book that I can relate to.
For Nari, aka Narioka Diane, aka hacker digital alter ego “d0l0s," it’s college and then a career at “one of the big ones," like Google or Apple. Keagan, her sweet, sensitive boyfriend, is happy to follow her wherever she may lead. Reese is an ace/aro visual artist with plans to travel the world. Santiago is off to Stanford on a diving scholarship, with very real Olympic hopes. And Bellamy? Physics genius Bellamy is admitted to MIT—but the student loan she’d been counting on is denied when it turns out her estranged father—one Robert Foster—is loaded.
Nari isn’t about to let her friend’s dreams be squashed by a deadbeat billionaire, so she hatches a plan to steal just enough from Foster to allow Bellamy to achieve her goals.
