The Romantic Agenda

By: Claire Kann

Narrated by: Adrienne Walker

Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

One of...
Parade's Best Romance Books of All Time
NPR's Books to Celebrate Pride Month
Buzzfeed's Most Anticipated LGBTQ Reads of 2022
Goodreads' Most Anticipated April Romances
Betches' Books To Add To Your Spring 2022 Reading List

Joy is in love with Malcolm.
But Malcolm really likes Summer.
Summer is in love with love.
And Fox is Summer’s ex-boyfriend.

Thirty, flirty, and asexual Joy is secretly in love with her best friend Malcolm, but she’s never been brave enough to say so. When he unexpectedly announces that he's met the love of his life—and no, it's not Joy—she's heartbroken. Malcolm invites her on a weekend getaway, and Joy decides it’s her last chance to show him exactly what he’s overlooking. But maybe Joy is the one missing something…or someone…and his name is Fox.

Fox sees a kindred spirit in Joy—and decides to help her. He proposes they pretend to fall for each other on the weekend trip to make Malcolm jealous. But spending time with Fox shows Joy what it’s like to not be the third wheel, and there’s no mistaking the way he makes her feel. Could Fox be the romantic partner she’s always deserved?

©2022 Claire Kann (P)2022 Penguin Audio

Open my mind!!!

This book open my mind!!! It gave me so many new ways to express myself. You never think about the details and expressing yourself or how you feel. Great job to this writer and also great job to the narrator for expressing it. Great feel good story.

Fell for it!

Despite her mocking romantic tropes right from the start, I still fell for the story and fell in love with Joy and her complexities. A satisfying ending, a feel good story.

good story, anticlimactic ending

The story was good and definitely enhanced by the performance of the reader. The preachy rants tucked in throughout the story to explain asexuality were a little annoying to me because I was so thrilled to have that representation in a romance novel and then totally ruined the whole thing by inserting preaching responsibility and complaining about a lack of understanding and inclusion of ace folks.

“everything about you is devastatingly wonderful”

I cannot recommend this book enough!!

Overview: Joy has been (secretly) in love with her best friend Malcolm since they met in college. When Malcolm invites Joy to a weekend getaway, she thinks it could be the perfect opportunity to finally tell him how she feels... except she's only being invited to entertain Fox, the best friend of Malcolm's new friend/crush Summer...who hates Malcolm. Let the weekend summer shenanigans commence!

Things to look forward to: fake dating, pining, quirky banter, grumpy Silver Fox & sunshine Joy, discussions of asexuality & consent, discussions of systemic and daily racism, setting of healthy boundaries with friends and romantic partners, and adult conversations with emotional maturity!!!

CW: mentions of online harassment about asexuality & body positivity (Joy is a social media model)

Not my kind of read

I had so much to say about this book. I feel this is a read for students or young adults period! I don’t want to take away from the Author’s writing style. I do love the sense of humor in the main character I definitely laughed throughout the story. The mindset is youthful, The characters seemed they were still still in college or just graduated not in their 30s.
I do love the information about being a sexual, learning and looking through different lenses.
I don’t like when women don’t know their own worth and just settle.
The main character is weak to me even though she moved on @ the end, Empower your characters! Being A sexual isn’t a disability or hinders who you are as an individual.

This book frustrates me, and not because of the asexuality.

So, one of the things that locks me into a romance novel is the quality of the characters and their ability to make me root for them. The problem with this story; however, is that the heroine is one of the most emotionally immature characters I’ve ever read. Not that other characters are off the hook (I’ll get to them in a minute), but Joy in particular is controlling and pushy in a way that completely doesn’t match all the boundaries she holds others to as it relates to her personal space. For example, she’s so clear that she has to control how Fox touches her, which is fine; however, she rarely if ever asks for permission to engage with his body, going as far holding him down while she tweezes his eyebrows without giving him a heads up of what’s going on and giving him any chance to bow out before going in. She bullies her way into EVERYONE’s mind and personal space, and doesn’t observe any level of thoughtfulness around reciprocity when people people try to hold boundaries around her.

So that’s one piece that upsets me and my homegirls…BUT THEN there is the overwhelming emotional dishonesty she observes in her relationship with Malcolm! Out the gate we learn that she not only loves this man, but has been IN LOVE with him, and has not clearly articulated that in a way that he hears clearly (NOTE: she’s told him she loves him on several occasions, but no straight up “I’m IN love with you and would like for us to be a couple.”). She actively holds this unarticulated longing, but then gets mad when Malcolm is not talking to her, and goes DAYYYYYYS not sharing his feelings about anything either. They are both insufferable and Joy’s calling it “self-sacrificing”, but it isn’t self-sacrificing, it’s poor communication masked as “giving each other space”. To add insult to injury, Joy asserts such an arrogant sense of knowing regarding Malcolm’s inner world that she is clearly blind to the fact that she does not know him as well their 10 year friendship would lead her to believe, even when folks in proximity to them both (aka, Fox) are sharing what they’ve clearly intuited from being around them together. If their relationship was as platonic (even lovingly so) as Joy asserts, there wouldn’t even be a reason for the tension that plagues their dynamic for so much of the story, because 1) Malcolm wouldn’t have even coerced her to come on this trip in the first damn place, and 2) they wouldn’t have spent damn near a week after returning from the trip to talk their shit out! So there’s that.

Ultimately, Fox is the only person who seems to have any genuine emotional maturity in this book, though I fear he’s setting himself us for heartbreak too messing around with someone who has such a clear deficit in her self-awareness. Summer manages to pull off some maturity in the boundaries she sets in her budding relationship with Malcolm; however, given that it sits squarely in this overwhelming attempt to force Joy in a friendship with her makes her as damn near insufferable as Joy & Malcolm. Ultimately, this book is terrible TO ME, and not indicative of a healthy love story (even one including ace characters—and I say this keeping in mind, but no faith, that it MIGHT change my mind in the last 45 minutes I have to get to the end)! If you like emotional mess and having no couple to root for then give it a shot, I guess. 🤷🏿‍♀️

A perfect ending

There were a few stylistic choices I wasn't huge on near the beginning of the book, but the plot and characters drew me in and wouldn't let go. First time getting to enjoy a romantic comedy with an asexual MC. Most excellent!
I think the performance was a little fast, but it didn't detract from the story overmuch.
All in all, definitely worth the time and credit.

Book Review

This book was amazing! I thought the author developed the characters very well. I also like how she incorporated the black female perspective while also educating the audience on Asexuality. This book is a must read for the summer. Highly recommend.

A wonderful summer listen!

I truly enjoyed this book. I connected with them. I wanted to bake a cake and a pie !

all the feels

I absolutely loved the romance, the comedy, and the overall diversity in this story! I would recommend it as an easier read, however it has some pretty complex concepts. It touched on racism, sexualities and more.