“The Alpha and his Ace” by Ana J. Phoenix

This is the last book from the Great Ace Digital Book Box for now! I thought this one was pretty cute. It clearly was written with the goal of spreading information about asexuality and how a relationship with an asexual could work. The story talked about Brandon, a guy who can turn into a wolf. In fact, he’s the alpha of his pack. And his mission is to find his mate, who he’ll know on sight to be his mate, so that he can gain the respect of his pack.

Right off the bat we’re told that Brandon is gay, and really comfortable with that. He is a bit of a player and loves hitting up gay bars for one night stands and the like. But then he meets Aidan and realizes instantly that his human is his mate. Only problem is that Aidan is asexual and doesn’t think that it’ll work out. So the majority of the story is these two rooting out their issues and figuring out how to communicate to each other and navigate their boundaries.

It’s a pretty quick read, I expected there to be more discussion about the whole wolf thing and what’s up with that lore, but the book really skips around that and goes straight to the relationship drama. And the book raises a number of good points that I really appreciate when talking about mixed relationships. Like how websites like AVEN contain good information, but it really says nothing about the individual you are talking to. You have to make sure to ask about people’s personal boundaries and what they are willing to do instead of assuming based on their asexuality.

But other than that there isn’t that much to the book. Also I really didn’t expect a kind of detailed description of a hand job in a book with an asexual focus. So it’s a nice easy read, but that’s about it. Definitely get on the Great Ace mailing list though, I can’t wait to see what will come next!