Returning to You

by Gwen Tolios

Monica’s relationship with her father is falling apart, made more obvious when her return to Madison after years aboard results in him throwing her out of the house. Lisa Carson, her BFF and old college roommate, takes her in. Turns out Lisa has her own issues with her parents – they’re pushing her to date despite her lack of desire. So when Monica joins a Carson family dinner, she lies and says it’s starting a relationship with Lisa that brought her back to America.

Lisa goes along with the ruse – it gets her parents off her back and it’s only until Monica repairs her relationship with her father and moves out. What Monica failed to take into account however is that crush she had on Lisa in college? Yeah, that didn’t go away.

Genres: Asexual, Contemporary, Romance, LGBT

ebook

Published June 21, 2022

About the author

An ace writer from Chicago, Gwen is slowly working on getting her cat Shady to love her. From selkies to hockey goalies, she aims to write characters we can all connect to.

Reviews

[Gwen Tolios · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes, this is my book, and yes I'm marking it as read and five stars. I cannot tell you how often I have read it and how much I've loved it every time.

I also wanted to outline the rep in here!
Monica - ace and bisexual; both stated explicitly on the page
Lisa - aro and bisexual; both stated explicitly on the page

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm really happy this book exists. As a person on the asexual and aromantic spectrums, the romance genre has usually left me confused, or alienated. But this is the Ace/Aro rom com you didn’t know you needed! And I mean YOU, everyone could benefit from this book. Statistically you know someone who is asexual and/or aromantic, whether they've told you or not. Or you're on this spectrum yourself! Reading this book can provide a window to better understand the thoughts and emotions ace/aro people experience, or a mirror to process your own pile of feelings about relationship norms at large or your college roommate. Also the Chicago references match up with reality, which is always nice.

[aspeccharactersoftheday]

https://aspeccharactersoftheday.tumbl...

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

CW: acephobia, arophobia, biphobia, slutshaming

Monica decides to return to the US to reconnect with her father. Living as a digital nomad has put distance between them. She also spends time with her best friend Lisa, for whom she has had a crush on for a long time. Also she ends up living with Lisa for a while after her father kicks her out, and it's later revealed that he has some form of dementia. When Lisa invites Monica to have dinner with her parents, they start pressuring Lisa to go on dates and find someone so she can be "normal" and seeing how awkward and uncomfortable Lisa is, Monica blurts out that she and Lisa are dating each other. Lisa is annoyed at Monica but agrees to fake date her to get her parents to back off.

I liked this more than I thought I expected to. The way Lisa's parents pressure her to date was hard to read but I'm glad I didn't dnf this because of that. Lisa being aromantic and bisexual was something I really liked seeing, as well as how Monica is asexual and biromantic. Although the way Lisa's mother called her a "nympho" made me a cringe. I didn't know there were people who still use that word. Also I rolled my eyes every time Lisa and her desire for "American Dream" and her bootstraps mentality was brought up. Lisa is the type of person I avoid. Anyway seeing how Lisa learns the word aromantic and having a label to her feelings about romantic attraction was so validating, but her denial when Monica brings up the word for the first time because she feels sexual attraction is a good example as to why everyone should know about the split attraction model. I really like how at the end Lisa and Monica agree to be in a relationship and learn more about and communicate what their boundaries are. I am definitely going to reread this someday and later read more from Gwen Tolios.

[Tris · Rating 4 out of 5]

An honest, angsty romance with ace and aro leads. HFN, but they're determined to try.
They each have a rough time but, gosh, Lisa really goes through it! This was my second read and I kept thinking that maybe I could skip this particular moment of people saying or doing awful things to Lisa? But I was very brave and reread the whole thing.
We see Monica making efforts to understand Lisa's boundaries, but nobody else. It would have been nice to watch Lisa's parents realising how upsetting she finds the thought of relationships and trying to accommodate her... but on the other hand Lisa never told them anything more than the bare minimum. They must find her so confusing!
I also thought that, while Lisa took the blame for the brief split, Monica was the one assuming that Lisa knew where Monica's head was. She could have been a little more patient and waited for Lisa to catch up (it felt like very common neurodivergent/neurotypical friction!). But then, Monica had her own things going on.
The best part, though, is how well the author shows the easy friendship between the two. You can believe that they will make it, but maybe more as lifelong companions rather than married partners. And that's good, because fiction ought to showing us different sorts of relationships!

[Dez Schwartz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't usually read much Contemporary Romance but this book was a great start! I think the LGBTQ+ representation is really well-done, especially the Ace/Aro rep. Even though the characters are no longer college-age, I still feel like this would also categorize well as a New Adult novel. I would say this is more of an angsty novel than a Rom-Com (though there are some cute parts) since the MC is dealing with some high stakes in terms of her family relationships and also her dearest friend. Overall, a solid Contemporary Romance read.