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

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What I didn’t like: at times I felt like this was a little bit miscommunication, or more accurately, lack of communication-y. I understand her wanting to imbue the book with more diversity and to state that diversity clearly, but when it’s a character that’s being mentioned but never actually appears on the page or speaks, someone we never interact with, I don’t need to know their race and gender and sexual identity. and I felt like we never rlly got much of a resolution with her family, esp her little sister, Emma.

I wonder sometimes if there are people out there who are as forgiving as the characters in romance novels. And that brings us to Delilah Green, the town of Bright Falls, and their creator, Ashley Herring Blake. stevie's anxiety really hit home for me - i too find making decisions difficult, i stress about mundane tasks and i can't speak to new people to save my life. Iris and Stevie each have their own compelling pasts, struggles, and dreams, and Blake shows both the hard work and the beauty involved in making those different realities wrap around each other in love. So, as much as I love the fake dating trope, love theater, and much ado abt nothing is my fav Shakespeare play, it fell so flat for me.Once it's achieved, long-term relationships (like Claire and Delilah's) don't seem to require any effort and any sign of work to be done on the relationship is meant to be taken as if the relationship is doomed. For the first thirty-five years of my reading life, I had no idea what went on between the covers of romance novels (well, okay, I had some idea), but if it had anything to do with what was on the cover—hard pass.

it feels as though they're there as an afterthought, like 'oh wait all my mains are white, let me sprinkle in some poc side characters who's entire role will be just to help move the mc's narrative along and thus have no personality at all'. I loved that Stevie was part of her own group of friends, outside of Bright Falls, and we were introduced to more fabulous characters. There's only one problem--Iris is a romance author facing an imminent deadline for her second book, and she's completely out of ideas.

Blake introduces her readers to a new character, Jordan Everwood, who has arrived from—yes, serendipity and irony are real things, folks—coastal Georgia.

Blake’s third and final Bright Falls romance sends the series out on a high note with more spicy sex and genuine emotion…Blake also does an admirable job of wrapping up the series, bringing all the past couples together one last time in a touching finale. So not only do you have a counter to action but you also have a situation where to overcome it, all a character has to do is change their mind. I love a bit of Shakespeare interjected into my fiction (and have seen quite a few genderswapped Shakespeare productions and they just slap) so it just intrigues me so much and I wish I could see Stevie on the stage. Relationships are not just waiting for a magical person that will make you feel teenage love all the time.Together they were incredible - again the spice was phenomenal but they're also so soft and sweet with each other, And you can see such a great friendship beneath all that chemistry making them such a great pairing. Iris and Stevie meet at a bar one night and after a hookup gone wrong, they don't expect to see each other ever again. I also felt like Stevie RLLY needed to learn how to be by herself, not jump into another relationship after the toxic shit with Adri (also, RLLY confused abt her and Vanessa’s whole deal throughout the book, they honestly, seemed like shit friends. I know I said that I didn’t know what went on within the pages of romance novels, but I’ve seen Hart of Dixie, remember?

Still, as the book progressed, I began to really love her and enjoy the way she was incredibly thoughtful and supportive of Iris, in much the same way that Iris was so incredibly supportive and understanding of her. I love that Stevie was the one with generalized anxiety, but Iris needed just as much help to believe in herself. A fake relationship after a horrible one-night stand is anything but an act in this witty and heartfelt new romantic comedy by Ashley Herring Blake. When Stevie desperately asks Iris to play along as her girlfriend, Iris is shocked but goes along with it in a bid to get her creative juices flowing.Phoebe was a trans woman, a brilliant artist, and had been the Empress's lead costume designer since day one. She is vehemently against dating after a string of bad relationships, including her last girlfriend, Jillian, cheating on her wife with Iris. I really enjoyed Delilah Green Doesn't Care, I thought that it was a great deconstruction of the tropes that plagued the romance genre.