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Posted in Book Talk

Review: Shapes of Love by L.V. Peñalba

Posted on by Sara B.

Genre 📚: NA Contemporary, Coming-of-age
Tropes 💁‍♀️: Celebrity life, Fake dating/PR stunt, Found family
Rep ✔️: Aroace main character, BIPOC and queer side characters
CW ⚠️: Aphobia, forced outing, cyberbullying
Rating ⭐️: 4/5

As the tagline says, Shapes of Love is not at all a romance — but it is a love story. Grammy-nominated singer Sasha is aromantic and asexual, and the industry has “encouraged” her to stay closeted. She’d like to come out, and she’d like to admit to her fans that her love songs are actually inspired by her favorite fictional characters, but it seems impossible. It seems like she might have to live as her stage name and straight persona “Sassy” for the rest of her career.

Then, Sasha reconnects with her former best friend Kai. Their reunion is captured by paparazzi, and everyone is convinced that Kai is the boyfriend she’s been writing about. The best course of action, according to Sasha’s manager? Fake date, of course. Sasha is reluctant, not wanting to hurt her relationship with Kai when she just got it back. But after signing contracts, setting up dates, and all that… it actually brings Sasha and Kai closer. As friends and friends only. No friends to lovers trope here.

I love finding more and more aroace rep in fiction, especially in YA and NA. They’re not exactly subtle when it comes to explaining what aromanticism and asexuality are, how there’s a spectrum for both, etc. BUT I also get that there’s a lot of misconception about the community, and sadly, a total disregard for them. So I appreciated this particular character’s experiences, her thoughts, her opinions on love — and getting it through some fun fake dating shenanigans. It definitely had my heart bursting.

**Much thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Shapes of Love will be released on May 19, 2026.