Happy Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week, Y'all!!!!

promare stuff part 1

All Our Hidden Gifts by Caroline O'Donoghue! I had never heard of it when I picked it up from B&N, but I ended up loving it and reading the whole series! To this day, it's still one of my favs

As a person who is dying for book recommendations: What is a book you picked up randomly that you heard nothing about previously that blew you away?

I feel like we all have at least one hidden gem we stumbled upon.

Please reblog with your books in the tags :)

Something I recently realized that helped me understand my aro-spec identity is that my "crushes" that I can remember weren't actually fueled by romantic attraction for the person. They were actually fueled by attraction towards the idea of dating/liking them, but not actually them as a person. I wanted to find my soulmate and as soon as I found someone that I thought fit that ideal, I would start daydreaming about being with them, but I wasn't really attracted to them as a person, just my idealized version of them and the relationship. As a result, I couldn't really name any traits about those people that I liked, aside from surface level ones like, "funny," "nice," and "hardworking." And while I was aesthetically attracted to them, I never really fantasized about kissing them or being super romantic with them (aside from maybe hand-holding or hugging), and if I ever tried, it made me uncomfortable and felt like I was violating them. Did anyone else have a similar experience or is it just me?

I WANT A QPR SOOOOOO BADDDDD!!

I want someone that I can call my partner, but not necessarily in a romantic way. I want someone to hug and be close to. I want someone who I can listen to and who can listen to me. I want someone who shares my interests. I want someone that will agree to discuss and respect our boundaries with one another. I want someone who I can just be with, like we can just exist together. I want someone who will go book shopping with me and just listen to me gush about different books. I want someone who will walk down the halls with, and maybe we'll hold hands and maybe we won't. I want someone who will always be ready to comfort me and who I can comfort whenever they need it. I want someone who will help me calm down and think through things carefully. I want someone who I can explore and go on adventures with.

Basically, I just really want a queerplatonic partner/relationship.

edgy emo guy with long hair, jewelry, and dark clothes

alright maybe nobody will get what i'm talking about but writers, what's your character type? what's that one brand of character who is in EVERY SINGLE WIP YOU EVER HAVE. mine's the serious badass older-sister-figure with a blonde pixie cut

Am I the only one who has a few specific friends who I'm really close with and love to be around, and, if they wanted to, I'd be completely down for making our relationship into something different (romantic, queerplatonic, etc.), but at the same time, I don't activity have a crush on them or want to push for a different relationship bc what if they don't feel the same way or don't know what queerplatonic relationships are.

Trying to prove a point to my transphobic parents

Reblog if trans men are REAL, VALID AND HANDSOME MEN, NO MATTER HOW THEY CHOOSE TO PASS

Reblog if trans women are REAL, VALID, AND BEAUTIFUL WOMEN, NO MATTER HOW THEY CHOOSE TO PASS

And finally, because it's a part of my argument for this point, and also because they are,

Reblog if nonbinary and genderqueer people in general, are REAL, VALID, AND GORGEOUS PEOPLE, NO MATTER HOW THEY PASS

Bro, I really just need someone who will rewatch the entirety of Ninjago with me. Guy, girl, nb person, doesn't matter; just someone who will watch the whole show with me and listen to me explain plot points and ships.

She Drives Me Crazy by Kelly Quindlen

Orpheus Girl by Brynne Rebele-Henry

All Our Hidden Gifts by Caroline O'Donoghue (the main romance is nblw, but there is some wlw in the second and third books in the series)

anyways if you’re as upset about the first kill cancellation as i am, here’s a list of sapphic books and books featuring queer girls to check out! for those i haven’t read, i’ve heard they’re worth reading, so please check out any of the books on this list!!

the priory of the orange tree by samantha shannon

the jasmine throne by tasha suri

a lesson in vengeance by victoria lee

the falling in love montage by ciara smyth

not my problem by ciara smyth

i kissed shara wheeler by casey mcquiston

one last stop by casey mcquiston

she drives me crazy by kelly quindlen

some girls do by jennifer dugan

perfect on paper by sophie gonzales

the chosen and the beautiful by nghi vo

siren queen by nghi vo

city of dusk by tara sim

i’ll be the one by lyla lee

flip the script by lyla lee

watch over me by nina lacour

we are okay by nina lacour

the seven husbands of evelyn hugo by taylor jenkins reid

loveless by alice oseman

last night at the telegraph club by malinda lo

a memory called empire by arkady martine

gideon the ninth by tamsyn muir

ophelia after all by racquel marie

PLEASE REBLOG WITH YOUR OWN IF YOU HAVE RECS!! i’m looking to add more sapphic books to my tbr and i know i’m not the only one

Same!! What would hook me in was the elaborate plots and character backstories, not so much the romance. Like, for example, I read a lot of MHA reader insert and OC fanfic, and what I really liked was how creative the OC/reader's backstories would be, or how they would contribute to the storyline throughout the fic, not so much the romance elements; in fact, they were kind of annoying at times.

Edit: in fact, I would write fanfic myself, but what I focused on and enjoyed most was coming up with unique backstories, quirks, character dynamics, and subplots for the OC/reader. And, when it came to writing the romance, I had no idea how to make it believeable, or even how to write it in the first place.

Am I the only aroace-spec person who read a lot of fanfic when I was younger, but instead of inserting myself into the reader insert stories, I would just insert one of my characters or a random OC that was similar to me but not the same, bc it felt weird to put myself into those situations?

Or was that just me?