The Romantic Agenda is a phenomenal, compulsive read focusing on two Black asexual main characters, Joy and Malcolm. Joy is very much in love with Malcolm, and Malcolm is so close to Joy that it's been an issue with his past girlfriends. Then comes Summer - the girl Malcolm has been dating in secret - who is willing to accept that Joy comes as a package deal if she's going to be with Malcolm. They head to a cabin for a weekend getaway with Summer's friend Fox. When Joy and Fox decide to fake date, the dynamics of more than one relationship change.

I really enjoyed Joy's open honesty, silly puns, and love for herself. As a main character, I was rooting for her and willing her to move on from pining over Malcolm to find something that was better suited for her. Our Silver Fox was perfection - he's gentle, understanding, grumpy and incredible. While their "fake dating" didn't play out very much in the book, I love how they started to trust each other and open up as they caught feelings. I also really appreciated the discussion about the asexual spectrum through Joy and Malcolm's characters and found it both important to have this representation in a romance novel, and also educational to me as someone who is not on that spectrum. This is a really wonderful romance read.

Read if you:
- Like the grumpy/sunshine trope
- Want a book with ace rep
- Like discussions about boundaries

Thanks to Berkley and Books Forward for the copy of this ARC!