I took advantage of a sale at Dreamspinner Press to pick up some works of fiction with asexual characters. Last month, I reviewed titles from their Harmony Ink Imprint. This month, I’m review titles from their main imprint.
Here’s the catch – Dreamspinner Press, in its main imprint, only publishes M/M and M/M/M+ romance. This is unlike Harmony Ink Press accepts all kinds of LGBTQ+ stories, not just M/M+, and not just romance.
A lot of asexual readers, for various reasons, are really into ‘M/M’ stories. I am not one of them. I have no objection to M/M, and I can enjoy an M/M story on the same terms that I would enjoy an M/F story, but a story being M/M is not a draw for me.
Actually, M/M does have a disadvantage when it comes to appealing to me – the lack of prominent female characters. All else being equal, I enjoy stories which prominently feature female characters more than stories which don’t. It’s not because I’m trying to be politically correct – I just naturally prefer reading about female characters. M/M, by definition, tends not to feature characters. M/F, by definition, does feature at least one female character, which means that M/F has a slight advantage over M/M for me. F/F, of course, has an even greater advantage.
However, there are M/M stories out there that I like. I want there to be more (good) asexual representation in all fiction, and if the M/M genre is doing it better than other genres, then add oil to keep M/M burning!
These are the stories I will review at some point this month:
“Pretty Sally Couldn’t Marry Albert” by Jefferson Parrish
Model Citizen by Lissa Kasey
How to Be a Normal Person by T.J. Klune
Of Monsters and Men by Caitlin Ricci
Candy Land by Lissa Kasey
I did not buy every Dreamspinner story with an asexual character. Here are reviews of the ones with asexual characters which I haven’t bought (and thus will not review):
Ace by Jack Byrne – review #1 (positive) and review #2 (negative)
Taking the Long Way by Max MacGowen – review #1 (positive) and review #2 (positive)
Coffee Cake by Michaela Gray (review at Just Love)
The Notes Which Do Not Fit 
I just read the “negative” review you linked of Jack Bryne’s “Ace”, and wow. But the positive link seems to be broken, and I’m curious. I’ll read more if these other reviews soon. 😉 Very interesting to see all these perspectives.
Hmm, it seems that that website has been shut down. I’ve changed the link to the Internet Archive version.
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