Iris Kelly Doesn't Date: A swoon-worthy, laugh-out-loud queer romcom

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DiMercurio’s the reason I rated Astrid Parker Doesn’t Fail so high and probably why I enjoyed this book so much too. These characters are supposed to be in their late 20s to their early 30s and they all behave like teenagers at any given moment. In some ways, this felt like the most real, authentic, deep, and fully developed relationship from this series, and seeing the way they communicated with each other and learned to support each other was beautiful to read. For what it’s worth, though, I’d take Bright Falls over Bluebell, Virgin River, or even Stars Hollow (yes, Stars Hollow) any day. I can’t say I’m shocked but I will say that I’m disappointed that Blake hasn’t improved much over the course of writing this trilogy.

I struggled with the third-act misunderstanding/breakup that is so common in contemporary romance, and I struggled with reading the self-sabotage on both sides, but even still, I was so invested in their love story that I was able to push through for that happily ever after. The third-act breakup was so badly done and unnecessary and the HEA was barely even existent, we got one page of it. Every single character in this entire series has been amazing, the small town setting was perfect, I loved each individual journey, and the last chapter was absolutely fantastic. Hands down, after finishing this book, all I can think is how much I love Stevie and I wish I could see this on the screen. Blake has a tendency to introduce characters by describing their race and gender identity (and sometimes also their sexual orientation) in a way that feels a bit stilted and unrealistic.I don’t want to leave Bright Falls, and Iris Kelly Doesn’t Date certainly lives up to the first two novels in the series. She is the author of the young adult novels Suffer Love, How to Make a Wish, and Girl Made of Stars (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), the middle grade novels Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World, The Mighty Heart of Sunny St. I must start by saying that this is a very biased review because for me Ashely Herring Blake can do no wrong and this was proven by the final book in the series, Iris Kelly doesn’t Date.

That isn’t my favorite trope, and there were times I wanted to jump through the page and yell at them to just talk to each other! You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. Queer and POC characters show up and vanish at exactly the same speed, giving you whiplash and making it feel like they are nothing but a checked box on a long list of checked boxes. Blake introduces her readers to a new character, Jordan Everwood, who has arrived from—yes, serendipity and irony are real things, folks—coastal Georgia.

I am feeling very raw after saying goodbye to Bright Falls and the characters I have fallen in love with throughout the series. She is vehemently against dating after a string of bad relationships, including her last girlfriend, Jillian, cheating on her wife with Iris. another thing that left me scratching my head was when Stevie reads Iris's first book after it's published, it feels so personal and she recognizes their romance in the words but it was written before they'd even met. Perfectly happy to ignore her problems as per usual, Iris goes to a bar in Portland and meets a sexy stranger, Stefania, and a night of dancing and making out turns into the worst one-night stand Iris has had in her life.

New insight into iris was just what i wanted to see with the addition of Stevie who is an emotional, strong sweet character and following her journey was amazing. From there the plot got honestly a little too complicated for my tastes, with a failed hookup and a queer community theater production of Much Ado About Nothing leading to a fake dating scheme, with romance lessons and practice sex mixed in, as well as this meta level of the romance novel Iris is writing mirroring her romance with Stevie. Started a bit slow, but grew on me to the point where I was yet again a sobbing mess saying “aww” through my tears. However, I am still thrilled I read it and will likely reread it in the future and will definitely be recommending it to everyone I know who enjoys romance! But somehow this all came together beautifully; I loved the tender vulnerability unfolding between Iris and Stevie, and I wept through the last chapter.Stevie's ex constantly bullies Iris, but it's Iris that gets chastised for standing her ground, Stevie never tries to defend her. I love that Stevie was the one with generalized anxiety, but Iris needed just as much help to believe in herself. We get a little bit in the way of Stevie setting boundaries with her friends, explaining what she needs from them, and asking them to respect her as a person and her choices, but it wasn’t enough for my taste.

Stevie, fresh from a long-term relationship and learning how to manage her anxiety independently, is struggling to get back into the dating scene. Here is one example of how unnaturally she incorporates part of a character’s identity: “…two gay men—one of them trans—played Hero and Claudio.All things I didn't realize until I watched her soften her pointy feelings over Stevie's too-rounded ones. My main critique of this book is that it seemed like Blake had a checklist of every single marginalized identity while writing this and there was someone holding a gun to her head and threatening to pull the trigger if she didn’t mention at least several of them per page. It’s sweet, it’s spicy, it’s sapphic, it’s satisfying—everything readers of Blake’s work have come to love.