#ace lit

Sure, these are all books with adult aroace MCs:

Good Angel by A. M. Bauslid

Seafoam and Silence by S.L. Dove Cooper

A Promise Broken by S.L. Dove Cooper

We Go Forward by Alison Evans (Amz)

The Bruising of Qilwa by Naseem Jamnia

Firebreak by Nicole Kornher-Stace

The Faerie Godmother’s Apprentice Wore Green by Nicky Kyle

“Backgame” by Lev Mirov, in Myriad Lands Volume II

Seafoam and Silence by Lynn O’Connacht

A Promise Broken by Lynn E. O’Connacht

Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel

Vengeful by V.E. Schwab (Fantasy)

I Want to Be a Wall by Honami Shirono (Manga)

Holding Onto Day by E.H. Timms

Create My Own Perfection by E.H. Timms

They're mostly (all?) SFF, though, so for contemp with ace MCs but that are mostly (all?) Romances, try:

A Milky Way Home by Hsinju Chen

Thaw by Elyse Springer

The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun

Learning Curves by Ceillie Simkiss

In My Dreams by Elin Annalise

My Heart to Find by Elin Annalise

The Heartbreak Handshake by J.R. Hart

The Romantic Agenda by Claire Kann

How to Be a Normal Person by TJ Klune

Rising From Ash by Jax Meyer

“[About using language of desire differently between the author and her friends] For them, a word like “hot” could indicate a physical pull of the type Jane had described. For me, “hot” conveyed an admiration of excellent bone structure.”

“I was a little curious about sex with men because everything--books, television, friends--told me it felt fantastic. But I was very curious about what it would be like to be desired, to be loved by someone that I desired too, desired wholeheartedly in a way that hadn’t been the case with my high school ex. That was the root of my longing.”

“..the prospect of five years of an open relationship terrified me, and the fact that Henry wanted to have sex with others was hard to take. Convinced that Henry would fall in love with someone else after sleeping with them, any mention of sexual attraction--his or anyone else’s--prompted tortured projections of abandonment.”

“I had never experienced “just attraction,” a physical impulse -- only emotional desire that manifested physically. I wanted sex with someone only when I was already prepared to change my life for them”

“...for me, desire for love and desire for sex had always been one and the same, an unbreakable link.”

“To the best I can tell, sexual attraction is the desire to have sex with a specific person for physical reasons. Sexual attraction can be instantaneous and involuntary: a heightened awareness, a physical alertness combined with mental wanting. My allo friends say they feel sexually attracted to people they have just met, to people whose company they don’t enjoy, to people they don’t like or even find good-looking.”

my brain is blown dude?? like??? this doesn’t make sense to me at all!! i can find people attractive but that just means i want to get to know them and that the idea of touching them isn’t unwelcome. but attraction is directly tied with who they are as a person! I cannot even pretend to enjoy anything intimate with someone i didn’t actively like!

this part hits home for me: 

“In college, she tried to talk to a friend about being a virgin and struggling to explain that it had nothing to do with morals and saving herself for marriage. ‘My friend said, ‘I feel like other people put out a certain energy when they want to attract someone,’‘ Shari remembers, ‘and I still don’t have any idea what this energy is’”

“And, so, ace spend an inordinate amount of time wondering about this energy that other people are detecting, and experiencing, and expressing, that we are not. People think about sex even if they don’t want to? What makes one person sexually attractive on their visceral level and not another? Allos can even be sexually attracted to people they find ugly? What? Like anthropologists after a day of fieldwork, we commiserate about the mysteries of the local culture, even though it is actually the culture that we were born into--just one that, for a long time, had no room for us and our way of being. There is room now.”

and it actually gets better because this book also speaks about society’s view on sex and how i, personally, internalize a lot of bad messages the media and how society speaks about sex 

Who do I like?

You don’t ask yourself      “do you like boys?” You ask yourself      “do you like girls?”

It is so ingrained in our culture      that you must like the opposite sex

So at eleven I asked myself      “do you like girls”? And I found that I liked them      but no more than the boys That’ll say      I liked them      as friends

And years went by      and my classmates talked about crushes      and the cute cashier at IKEA      and how they should have known      that they were lesbian with a capital ‘L’

It felt as strange to me      as being hetreosexual did

Seing moviestars and regular people      and imagining relationships      and kisses      just felt...                    ...wrong

To me

And I missed all the times      people had a crush on me And I panicked all the times      they confessed their love to me

Forward March by Skye Quinlan (f/f) Let’s Talk About Love by Claire Kann (m/f) You Don’t Have a Shot by Racquel Marie (f/f) Tash Hearts Tolstoy by Kathryn Ormsbee (m/f) Planning Perfect by Haley Neil (f/f) Bonus: Coming later this year, Love Letters for Joy by Melissa See (m/f) and Wren Martin Ruins it All by Amanda DeWitt (m/m)

Yep, here are ones where they're both bi: https://lgbtqreads.com/2021/07/09/fave-five-bi-bi-m-f-romances/

Here's where one or both are trans: https://lgbtqreads.com/2020/05/15/fave-five-m-f-trans-romance/ to which I'd of course now add A Lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall

Here's YA where the guy is bi: https://lgbtqreads.com/2019/07/17/fave-five-m-f-ya-with-bi-guy-lis/

Also check out Claire Kann's work for ace m/f - Let's Talk About Love and The Romantic Agenda for sure - and also Tash Hearts Tolstoy by Kathryn Ormsbee.

For an upcoming pan m/f, check out Ben and Beatriz by Katalina Gamarra:https://lgbtqreads.com/2021/12/20/exclusive-cover-reveal-ben-and-beatriz-by-katalina-gamarra/