Aromantic Awareness Week Recommendations
Hello, friends! I hope you’ve been having a great week full of amazing books! In honor of Aromantic Awareness Week, I come to you with a plethora of recommendations spanning genres! Aromantic people face unique stigma and shame from society that can leave people feeling unseen, which is why it’s so important to celebrate the literature that features aromantic characters living full, meaningful lives. Here is a but small selection of books to fill your shelves with!
The Thread That Binds
Fantasy, Contemporary
Spiciness / Heat Level: 🍭
Representation: Aromantic. Asexual, Non-binary, Queer
The books are restless. At the Eternal Library, books are more than the paper, ink, and thread they're made from—they're full of spirits. Only a handful of people will ever be invited to the Bindery to learn the craft of Illumination: the magical creation of intricate illustrated manuscripts, bound with a secret that will make them last forever. Tabby is a dreamwalker, a witch who escapes into the stories of sleep to avoid a birth family that's never loved em enough. Amane is a cartomancer, a medium who speaks for the Unseen, but doesn’t know how to speak her own needs. Rhiannon is a psychic, an archivist who can See into the past, but only has eyes on the future. Their stories intertwine as they discover the secrets of Illumination, the Library's archives, and those of their mentors—the three of whom are competing to be the next Head Librarian, the Speaker for all the books. How do you know who's truly worth being part of your family? Sometimes we must forge connections in order to heal; other times, those bonds must be broken.
Kobo || Amazon || BN || Elsewhere
Ebook: $2.99 (Regularly $4.99)
The Tale That Twines
Fantasy, Contemporary
Spiciness / Heat Level: 🌶️
Representation: Aromantic, Asexual, Non-binary
Chosen to be Head Librarian Opaline Sweetfrond's last apprentice, Juniper Starstitch arrives at the Eternal Library looking to discover the magical manuscript art of Illumination—and to recover the memories lost to the trauma of the massive earthquake that killed one of eir parents a decade earlier. June quickly discovers that these memories can be recovered through the ancient art of reading etheric Threads, the spiritual ties that link the world together. But remembering can be painful, and living in the past means missing out on the present. Even to the point that June’s beloved apprenticeship is threatened by eir inability to let go. It will take the help of friends both old and new for June to untangle the knotted threads of time, including the mysterious and stern Aeronwy Greengrove, who June may or may not be falling in love with, one song at a time... The Tale That Twines is an adult fantasy novel about queer bookbinding witches, found family, memory, fandom, and the power of story to heal from trauma! It is the second book in the Eternal Library Series and the first of two prequels. It also has a companion divination deck called the Threadbound Oracle; the characters are on the cards, and the cards appear prominently in Book 1, The Thread That Binds.
Kobo || BN || Amazon || Elsewhere
Ebook: $2.99 (Regularly $6.99)
Journey Home
Fantasy
Spiciness / Heat Level: 🍭
Representation: Aromantic, Asexual, Queer, Sapphic
Amara and Luiza are two witches in a queerplatonic relationship. When Luiza decides to embark on a journey throught the galaxy in search for the lost fortress of Laura, the Dragon Queen, she ends up finding more than she bargained for, while Amara follows her footsteps hoping it’s not too late.
Ebook: 4.99
The Shimmering Prayer of Sûkiurâq
Fantasy, Young Adult
Spiciness / Heat Level: 🍭
Representation: Aromantic, Non-binary
A deliciously queer magical person story in a secondary world with floating cities and airships, perfect for fans of She-Ra and Steven Universe All thaes life, Oibe Ekêmai has wanted to become a lêqnaemi, a travelling dancer skilled at nudging the world's magic into making everyone's lives a little easier. Thae has trained years for their chance at the Festival of Paths, where new apprentices will be chosen. But the lêqnaemi have secrets they only reveal to those chosen to join their ranks and Oibe Ekêmai and thaes new friends soon find themselves thrust into an age-old conflict. With almost no preparation and certainly no training, their group will have to face the horrors all lêqnaemi have sworn to face and triumph, or the entire world may be lost to darkness forever.
Itchio || Payhip || Kobo || Amazon
Ebook: 3.99
Chai and Cat-Tales
Join Lynn Strong’s newsletter for a free cozy fantasy short story!
Fantasy
Spiciness / Heat Level: 🍭
Representation: Aromantic, Asexual
Three cozy fantasy novellas in one book: “The Prince of Her Dreams,” where the smart funny capable brown ace woman gets her happy ever after; “Priye,” where a nonverbal neurospicy kitten makes her way in a city full of words (and soap); “The Potter's Dream,” where a gentle priest tries to care for everyone, even the mice.
Ebook: 2.99
STAKE SAUCE: Arc 1, The Secret Ingredient Is Love. No, Really
Subscribe to RoAnna’s newsletter to get 10 Stake Sauce short stories, 7 Chameleon Moon short stories, and access to a text-based dating sim called Date the Lizard
Fantasy, Horror, Paranormal
Spiciness / Heat Level: 🌶️
Representation: Achillean, Aromantic, Asexual, Queer, Trans masc
ARC 1, IN WHICH: A cute punk-rock vampire and a disabled firefighter-turned-mall-cop with a dark past join forces to battle the forces of evil. Jude used to leap out of helicopters to rescue/protect people from terrifying infernos. Now, by day, he protects the local mall from rowdy teenagers who ride their skateboards inside. By night, he protects the the parking lot, and the rest of Portland, from undead, bloodsucking creatures of the darkness. Or would if he could find them. Pixie refuses to bite anyone. Assault/murder/draining fluids isn’t punk, even if being a vampire really kind of is. He’s very hungry by now, and the much bigger, meaner, deadlier vamps kick him around on the nightly. And Pixie could use some help staying… ‘alive.’ Time to make a deal.
Ebook: $0.99 (Regularly 3.99)
The Space Ace of Mangleby Flat
Romance, Contemporary
Spiciness / Heat Level: 🌶️
Representation: Aromantic, Asexual
On paper, things look fine. Sam Dennon recently inherited significant wealth from his uncle. As a respected architect, Sam spends his days thinking about the family needs and rich lives of his clients. But privately? Even his enduring love of amateur astronomy is on the wane. Sam has built a sustainable-architecture display home for himself but hasn't yet moved into it, preferring to sleep in his cocoon of a campervan. Although they never announced it publicly, Sam's wife and business partner ended their marriage years ago due to lack of intimacy, leaving Sam with the sense he is irreparably broken. Now his beloved uncle has died. An intensifying fear manifests as health anxiety, with night terrors from a half-remembered early childhood event. To assuage the loneliness, Sam embarks on a Personal Happiness 1. Get a pet dog 2. Find a friend. Just one. Not too intense. As Sam comes to terms with the shameful family secrets revealed in a series of letters left to him by his deceased uncle, Sam falls in love first with his adopted poodle-cross, and then, much more slowly, with a kind and generous trans woman from his tennis club. Reina is so visibly and proudly queer Sam can’t imagine the two of them share a single thing in common. If only humans came with a guide book...
Ebook: $3.99
Riyati Rebirth
Contemporary, Fantasy
Spiciness / Heat Level: 🌶️
Representation: Aromantic, Asexual
With great power comes your past incarnations and future self playing chess with your existence. Kylie Rae thought she was an average honors high school student but discovered during a life-threatening incident that she’s the reincarnation of an ancient magic kingdom’s crown princess. Now people she’s never met want her dead, and she must learn how to survive in this new world while maintaining the façade that nothing’s changed. Forget making A’s, how will Kylie survive to the end of the year when she’s constantly looking over her shoulder? Riyati Rebirth is the first book of a new adult/adult contemporary, low dark fantasy series that seeks to explore themes of identity, legacy, the greater good, and finding your own path in life. The Riyati series includes multiple first person perspectives and multiple queer characters (currently including demisexual/romantic and lesbian representation with more to come in future books), set in the modern day United States.
Direct from Author || Itchio || Kobo || Amazon || Elsewhere
Ebook: $4.99
Jack of Thorns
Romance, Fantasy, Contemporary
Spiciness / Heat Level: 🌶️
Representation: Achillean, Other, Bi, Asexual. Aromantic
“What do you do when a Celtic god rings your doorbell? Laurence Riley is a San Diego florist whose ex won't leave him alone. Quentin d'Arcy is a British earl on the run from his own family. Despite their dramatically opposite worlds, they have so much in common: they're both failing at life, sobriety, and controlling their supernatural powers. Desperate to get his life back on track, Laurence prays for help, and Jack answers. A Celtic deity, Jack has the power to help… For an undisclosed price. Laurence strikes a deal, but soon realizes he can't pay up. His only hope of surviving Jack's wrath is to join forces with Quentin, but can they overcome their differences — and past horrors that won't stay buried — or are their fates already sealed?”
Ebook: £7.99
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The Whisperer in White
Young Adult, Fantasy
Spiciness / Heat Level: 🍭
Representation: Asexual, Aromantic
When the Whisperer speaks, the universe listens. Growing up, Talia had never given much thought to the gray-robed Whisperers and their powers over reality. Their business was protecting the world; hers was hunting in the forest around her village and trying to stay out of trouble. Unfortunately for Tal, one Whisperer in particular becomes her business when she accidentally injures his companion, a talking cat-shaped creature named Morel. As punishment, she becomes the Whisperer’s prisoner, whisked away to his island home for a year and a day of servitude. There is much to do — for both the Whisperer and for Tal — as he prepares for the ritual that must be completed every hundred years to ensure the safety of the world. Tal does as she is told; her priority is to simply finish out her sentence and return home to her family. Yet there are many secrets on the island, many oddities, and they tug at Tal like an itch. As the year goes on, she learns more of the Whisperer, his duties, and the horrifying evils that he and the other Whisperers keep at bay. But secrets still remain: a room that is always locked, a stone monument in the woods, crimson flowers whose very name causes the Whisperer to storm away. Unbeknownst to Tal, something is watching her, and what she does now may alter the fate of the world.
Itchio || Kobo || Amazon || Elsewhere
Ebook: “3.99”
Fire Becomes Her
Young Adult, Fantasy
Spiciness / Heat Level: 🍭
Representation: Aromantic, Bi
In Rosiee Thor's lavish fantasy novel with a Jazz Age spark, a politically savvy teen must weigh her desire to climb the social ladder against her heart in a world where magic buys votes. Flare is power. With only a drop of flare, one can light the night sky with fireworks . . . or burn a building to the ground — and seventeen-year-old Ingrid Ellis wants her fair share. Ingrid doesn't have a family fortune, monetary or magical, but at least she has a plan: Rise to the top on the arm of Linden Holt, heir to a hefty political legacy and the largest fortune of flare in all of Candesce. Her only obstacle is Linden's father who refuses to acknowledge her. So when Senator Holt announces his run for president, Ingrid uses the situation to her advantage. She strikes a deal to spy on the senator’s opposition in exchange for his approval and the status she so desperately craves. But the longer Ingrid wears two masks, the more she questions where her true allegiances lie. Will she stand with the Holts, or will she forge her own path?
Ebook: “$11.99”
Tarnished are the Stars
Science Fiction, Fantasy, Young Adult
Spiciness / Heat Level”: 🍭
Representation: Aromantic, Asexual
A secret beats inside Anna Thatcher’s chest: An illegal clockwork heart. Anna works cog by cog — donning the moniker Technician — to supply black market medical technology to the sick and injured, against the Commissioner’s tyrannical laws.Nathaniel Fremont, the Commissioner’s son, has never had to fear the law. Determined to earn his father’s respect, Nathaniel sets out to capture the Technician. But the more he learns about the outlaw, the more he questions whether his father’s elusive affection is worth chasing at all.Their game of cat and mouse takes an abrupt turn when Eliza, a skilled assassin and spy, arrives. Her mission is to learn the Commissioner’s secrets at any cost — even if it means betraying her own heart.When these uneasy allies discover the most dangerous secret of all, they must work together despite their differences and put an end to a deadly epidemic — before the Commissioner ends them first.
Ebook: $11.99
Nophek Gloss
Science Fiction, Fantasy
Spiciness / Heat Level: 🍭
Representation: Aromantic, Asexual, Questioning
Fourteen-year-old mechanic Caiden was raised with a singular purpose, on an isolated planet serving only one function. When his whole colony is sent to slaughter, Caiden survives and is thrust into a gigantic, diverse bubble multiverse that he had no idea existed. Torn by grief and guilt, carrying only trauma and rage from his previous existence, he finds shelter in a unique starship that has a soul of its own, and he finds family in a quarrelsome crew of alien misfits. Caiden is introduced to worlds of strange species, technologies, and unfathomably powerful foes. He’s forced to grow up too fast physically and emotionally as he struggles toward justice against the slavers who destroyed his world. In the process, he’ll wrestle with his own mysterious origins and discover that the multiverse is much bigger, more advanced, mysterious, and dangerous than he ever imagined.
Ebook: $9.53
A Stage Over Ruthless Stars
Science Fiction, Young Adult
Spiciness / Heat Level: 🍭
Representation: Aromantic, Gay
Aznan is a chronically ill high school drop out living on a space station with an illness that hates gravity. But he's going to be a famous inventor… That's if he can win the biggest tech competition in the system. Held at his space station's circus, and judged by titans of industry, it's one massive showcase to demonstrate his homemade tech in front of a live audience. To win, he'll need his ex-best friend's help. Kairo hasn't spoken to him in three years, not since he left school to join the circus as an aerialist, but Aznan can handle that. Oh, and the local favourites just turned up dead. That, not so much. Everyone's saying sabotage. Murder and riches. A competition worth killing for. And when a second team dies right in front of Aznan's eyes, the official reassurances of glitches and accidents no longer hold. The body count is rising. The Grand Showcase is blasting closer. With nobody willing to stop the show, Aznan and Kairo must unearth the truth or risk their lives with one final act.
Kobo || BN || Amazon || Elsewhere
Ebook: $4.99
How to Share a Cat and Other Life Lessons
Evelyn Fenn
Contemporary, Young Adult
Spiciness / Heat Level: 🍭
Representation: Aromantic, Asexual, Lesbian
Seventeen-year-old Nessa Clarkson is full of questions and confusion. How does she fit into the new household Dad is forging with his partner, Cindy, and Cindy's son? What will being a lesbian mean in practice? And why is their neighbour so reluctant to talk about her past? Moira Cavendish had been famous for a while, in the 1980s. Then she fled the bright lights of London, leaving only a mystery behind her. Moira and Nessa shouldn't have anything in common. But when their paths cross, and they bond over their shared love of knitting and the ginger tomcat that can't decide whose home is best, they find themselves on intertwining journeys of discovery.
Direct || Waterstones || BN || Amazon
Ebook: $6.49
Friends Without Benefits
Evelyn Fenn
Contemporary
Spiciness / Heat Level: 🍭
Representation: Aromantic, Asexual
Academic Clare is in a rut. She is in her forties, her job is stressful, and she feels worn down by the personalities and politics in the university department where she works. She has also just broken up with her latest boyfriend. During one of their regular get-togethers, Clare’s oldest friend shows Clare a newspaper article, pushing her into an exploration of what it means to be asexual. As Clare figures things out, she meets homoromantic couple, Tristan and Matt, nonbinary Ollie, student Jack, aromantic Janice, and Matt’s cousin, Natalia. Follow Clare and her new friends through a series of misadventures as they road trip, take part in Pride, suffer a series of misunderstandings, and forge new relationships.
Direct || BN || Kobo || Amazon
Ebook: “$6.49
Awakenings
Fantasy
Representation: Non-binary, Aromantic, Asexual
Spice Levels: 🍭
Horace has more failed apprenticeships to eir name than e can count, yet that doesn’t stop em from risking the last one to befriend the powerful, amnesiac elf that saved em, and embark in a sentient self-propelling Wagon to help them figure out their past.
Itchio || Amazon || Kobo || Elsewhere
Ebook: $3.99
City of Spires
Fantasy
Representation: Non-binary, Aromantic, Asexual
Spice Levels: 🍭
A hundred and thirty years have passed since Arathiel last set foot in his home city. Isandor hasn’t changed—bickering merchant families still vie for power through eccentric shows of wealth—but he has. His family is long dead, a magical trap has dulled his senses, and he returns seeking a sense of belonging now long lost.
Arathiel hides in the Lower City, piecing together a new life among in a shelter dedicated to the homeless and the poor, befriending an uncommon trio. When one of them is accused of Isandor’s most infamous assassination of the last decade, what little peace Arathiel has managed to find for himself is shattered. In order to save his friend, Arathiel may have to destroy the shreds of home he’d managed to build for himself.
Arathiel could appeal to the Dathirii—a noble elven family who knew him before he disappeared—but he would have to stop hiding, and they have battles of their own to fight. The idealistic Lord Dathirii is waging a battle of honour and justice against the cruel Myrian Empire, objecting to their slavery, their magics, and inhumane treatment of their apprentices. One he could win, if only he could convince Isandor’s rulers to stop courting Myrian’s favours for profit.
In the ripples that follow Diel’s opposition, friendships shatter and alliances crumble. Arathiel, the Dathirii, and everyone in Isandor fights to preserve their homes, even if the struggle changes them irrevocably.
Itchio || Amazon || Kobo || Elsewhere
Ebook: $3.99
Baker Thief
Fantasy
Representation: Non-binary, Aromantic, Asexual
Spice Levels: 🍭
Adèle has only one goal: catch the purple-haired thief who broke into her home and stole her exocore, thus proving herself to her new police team. Little does she know, her thief is also the local baker.
Claire owns the Croissant-toi, but while her days are filled with pastries and customers, her nights are dedicated to stealing exocores. These new red gems are heralded as the energy of the future, but she knows the truth: they are made of witches’ souls.
When her twin—a powerful witch and prime exocore material—disappears, Claire redoubles in her efforts to investigate. She keeps running into Adèle, however, and whether or not she can save her sister might depend on their conflicted, unstable, but deepening relationship.
Itchio || Amazon || Kobo || Elsewhere
Common Bonds
Multiple Contributors, edited by Claudie Arseneault, RoAnna Sylver, B. R. Sanders, and C.T. Callahan
Speculative Fiction
Representation: Aromantic, Asexual
Spice Levels: 🍭
Common Bonds is an anthology of speculative short stories and poetry featuring aromantic characters. At the heart of this collection are the bonds that impact our lives from beginning to end: platonic relationships. Within this anthology, a cursed seamstress finds comfort in the presence of a witch, teams of demon hunters work with their rival to save one of their own, a peculiar scholar gets attached to those he was meant to study, and queerplatonic shopkeepers guide their pupil as they explore their relationship needs and desires. Through nineteen stories and poems, Common Bonds explores the ways platonic relationships enrich our lives.
Contributors include: Morgan Swim, Vida Cruz, Camilla Quinn, Jennifer Lee Rossman, Syl Woo, A. Z. Louise, Cora Ruskin, E. H. Timms, Thomas Leonard Shaw, Jeff Reynolds, Marjorie King, Avi Silver, Ren Oliveira, Mika Stanard, Ian Mahler, Adriana C. Grigore, Rosiee Thor, Polenth Blake
Ebook: $9.99
Still don’t think that’s enough? I agree! If you have the means, I suggest supporting Common Bonds 2 on Kickstarter and help bring into existence an entire anthology focusing on platonic relationships and wonderful aromantic protagonists!