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Bright Falls #2
Astrid Parker Doesn't Fail
An interior designer who is never without the perfect plan learns to renovate her love life without one in this new romantic comedy by Ashley Herring Blake, author of Delilah Green Doesn't Care.
For Astrid Parker, failure is unacceptable. Ever since she broke up with her fiancé a year ago, she's been focused on her career--her friends might say she's obsessed, but she knows she's just driven. When Pru Everwood asks her to be the designer for the Everwood Inn's renovation, which will be featured on a popular HGTV show, Innside America, Astrid is thrilled. Not only will the project distract her from her failed engagement and help her struggling business, but her perpetually displeased mother might finally give her a nod of approval.
However, Astrid never planned on Jordan Everwood, Pru's granddaughter and the lead carpenter for the renovation, who despises every modern design decision Astrid makes. Jordan is determined to preserve the history of her family's inn, particularly as the rest of her life is in shambles. When that determination turns into some light sabotage to ruffle Astrid's perfect little feathers, the showrunners ask them to play up the tension. But somewhere along the way, their dislike for each other evolves into something quite different, and Astrid must decide what success truly means. Is she going to pursue the life that she's expected to lead or the one that she wants?
For Astrid Parker, failure is unacceptable. Ever since she broke up with her fiancé a year ago, she's been focused on her career--her friends might say she's obsessed, but she knows she's just driven. When Pru Everwood asks her to be the designer for the Everwood Inn's renovation, which will be featured on a popular HGTV show, Innside America, Astrid is thrilled. Not only will the project distract her from her failed engagement and help her struggling business, but her perpetually displeased mother might finally give her a nod of approval.
However, Astrid never planned on Jordan Everwood, Pru's granddaughter and the lead carpenter for the renovation, who despises every modern design decision Astrid makes. Jordan is determined to preserve the history of her family's inn, particularly as the rest of her life is in shambles. When that determination turns into some light sabotage to ruffle Astrid's perfect little feathers, the showrunners ask them to play up the tension. But somewhere along the way, their dislike for each other evolves into something quite different, and Astrid must decide what success truly means. Is she going to pursue the life that she's expected to lead or the one that she wants?
400 pages, Paperback
First published November 22, 2022
About the author
Ashley Herring Blake
17 books7,009 followersAshley Herring Blake is a reader, writer, and mom to two boisterous boys. She holds a Master’s degree in teaching and loves coffee, arranging her books by color, and cold weather. 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. James, and Hazel Bly and the Deep Blue Sea (Little, Brown), and the adult romance novels Delilah Green Doesn't Care and Astrid Parker Doesn't Fail (Berkley). Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World was a Stonewall Honor Book, as well as a Kirkus, School Library Journal, NYPL, and NPR Best Book of 2018. Her YA novel Girl Made of Stars was a Lambda Literary Award finalist. You can find her on Twitter and Instagram at @ashleyhblake and on the web at www.ashleyherringblake.com. She lives in Georgia.
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April 5, 2024
rep: bi mc, lesbian mc, bi characters, lesbian character, sapphic side charactetrs, nonbinary side character
*awkward laughter*
where do i even start!
so the characters are underdeveloped, which makes no sense bc both claire and delilah were shining so brightly in their own book! here the mcs have weird, extremely convoluted backgrounds which they love to bring up all the time, but it does absolutely nothing to build their personalities. their motives are unclear, their goals even more so. the chemistry between them is like, barely there.
then we have the non-stop usage of the phrase "women and nonbinary people", which is not only awkward but all it does is equate nonbinary people to "women-esque people". or simply puts them in a "third gender" category - the one that doesn't exist. tell me you don't understand gender without telling me you don't understand gender. the "nonbinary" part, along with describing the race of every new character before even stating their name, truly just feels like it was added for brownie points. (it also doesn't help that all the poc characters are also side characters, and they usually disappear fairly quickly.) you can diversify your books without this unnatural feeling, i promise you.
the word "lesbian", in a book with a lesbian mc, was used 6 times (yes, i counted), and only twice by a character describing herself (although that was one scene and frankly it barely counts, it was more like a joke). interesting, to say the least. not to mention i was expecting a butch lesbian mc, and got uhh... a girl who wears sport bras in public? or something?
the ridiculous tv show drama i won't even touch. it makes zero sense.
it's not bad, per se. it's just disappointing. especially since delilah green doesn't care was so good.
*awkward laughter*
where do i even start!
so the characters are underdeveloped, which makes no sense bc both claire and delilah were shining so brightly in their own book! here the mcs have weird, extremely convoluted backgrounds which they love to bring up all the time, but it does absolutely nothing to build their personalities. their motives are unclear, their goals even more so. the chemistry between them is like, barely there.
then we have the non-stop usage of the phrase "women and nonbinary people", which is not only awkward but all it does is equate nonbinary people to "women-esque people". or simply puts them in a "third gender" category - the one that doesn't exist. tell me you don't understand gender without telling me you don't understand gender. the "nonbinary" part, along with describing the race of every new character before even stating their name, truly just feels like it was added for brownie points. (it also doesn't help that all the poc characters are also side characters, and they usually disappear fairly quickly.) you can diversify your books without this unnatural feeling, i promise you.
the word "lesbian", in a book with a lesbian mc, was used 6 times (yes, i counted), and only twice by a character describing herself (although that was one scene and frankly it barely counts, it was more like a joke). interesting, to say the least. not to mention i was expecting a butch lesbian mc, and got uhh... a girl who wears sport bras in public? or something?
the ridiculous tv show drama i won't even touch. it makes zero sense.
it's not bad, per se. it's just disappointing. especially since delilah green doesn't care was so good.
Shelved as 'interested'
March 29, 2022OMG DELILAH AND CLAIRE CONVINCED ASTRID TO GO GAY
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 3, 2022
↠ 5 stars
For interior designer and impeccably put-together Astrid Parker, failure is out of the question. After her botched engagement over a year ago, Astrid has held tight to the reins of her life lest her world crash and burn around her. When the opportunity to design the renovation of Bright Falls Everwood Inn appears in front of her, Astrid soars. Since the renovation will be televised on a popular home improvement show, it may just be what she needs to put herself back on the map. What Astrid doesn't intend is to butt heads with lead carpenter Jordan Everwood, who despises the plans that Astrid has for renovating her family home. Tension sells better than anything, and when the producers of Innside America ask them to up the ante, Jordan and Astrid clash until their deep dislike for one another is threatened. All Astrid has ever done is what is expected of her, yet there is a chance for her to live the life she truly desires if only she can let go of the rigid control that has reigned over most of her life.
Ashley Herring Blake pens another queer romance reminiscent of Schitt's Creek and the romantic comedy, with lovable characters, emotional depth, and classic small-town charm. Astrid Parker delighted in the first installment of the Bright Falls series and I was elated when I heard the sequel would center around her own love story. Astrid Parker Doesn't Fail completely outsells, elevating her character and developing an enthralling rivals-to-lovers romance at its center. If there is one thing I have come to expect from Herring Blake, it's the unique situations that she crafts for her characters. This secondary romance is no different, concentrating on a home-improvement show and the antics between interior designer Astrid and lead carpenter Jordan Everwood. Oftentimes I find it difficult to engage with the rivalry trope, especially if the set-up isn't there or the rivalry isn't founded on anything concrete, but that was not an issue here. The first chapter establishes an exquisite antagonism with a coffee spill gone wrong and a vengeful Astrid caught in the crossfire. This led to some of the most glorious romantic tension and palpable on-page chemistry as the story unfolded. There is nothing more telling I can say about this other than it completely ruined me. Astrid Parker's story is about the trials surrounding creating the life you truly want for yourself, against a world pulling you in an entirely different direction – how the people in our lives can sometimes show up right when they're needed, even if it doesn't make sense at first. By way of this, Ashley Herring Blake has given voice to a pervasive fear of failure, and just what it means to figure out your sexuality later in life. Astrid Parker Doesn't Fail is a sensational follow-up romance to Delilah Green Doesn't Care, and is shaping up an incredible continuation for the Bright Falls series.
Thank you to Edelweiss and the publisher for providing the arc
Trigger warnings: death, depression
For interior designer and impeccably put-together Astrid Parker, failure is out of the question. After her botched engagement over a year ago, Astrid has held tight to the reins of her life lest her world crash and burn around her. When the opportunity to design the renovation of Bright Falls Everwood Inn appears in front of her, Astrid soars. Since the renovation will be televised on a popular home improvement show, it may just be what she needs to put herself back on the map. What Astrid doesn't intend is to butt heads with lead carpenter Jordan Everwood, who despises the plans that Astrid has for renovating her family home. Tension sells better than anything, and when the producers of Innside America ask them to up the ante, Jordan and Astrid clash until their deep dislike for one another is threatened. All Astrid has ever done is what is expected of her, yet there is a chance for her to live the life she truly desires if only she can let go of the rigid control that has reigned over most of her life.
Ashley Herring Blake pens another queer romance reminiscent of Schitt's Creek and the romantic comedy, with lovable characters, emotional depth, and classic small-town charm. Astrid Parker delighted in the first installment of the Bright Falls series and I was elated when I heard the sequel would center around her own love story. Astrid Parker Doesn't Fail completely outsells, elevating her character and developing an enthralling rivals-to-lovers romance at its center. If there is one thing I have come to expect from Herring Blake, it's the unique situations that she crafts for her characters. This secondary romance is no different, concentrating on a home-improvement show and the antics between interior designer Astrid and lead carpenter Jordan Everwood. Oftentimes I find it difficult to engage with the rivalry trope, especially if the set-up isn't there or the rivalry isn't founded on anything concrete, but that was not an issue here. The first chapter establishes an exquisite antagonism with a coffee spill gone wrong and a vengeful Astrid caught in the crossfire. This led to some of the most glorious romantic tension and palpable on-page chemistry as the story unfolded. There is nothing more telling I can say about this other than it completely ruined me. Astrid Parker's story is about the trials surrounding creating the life you truly want for yourself, against a world pulling you in an entirely different direction – how the people in our lives can sometimes show up right when they're needed, even if it doesn't make sense at first. By way of this, Ashley Herring Blake has given voice to a pervasive fear of failure, and just what it means to figure out your sexuality later in life. Astrid Parker Doesn't Fail is a sensational follow-up romance to Delilah Green Doesn't Care, and is shaping up an incredible continuation for the Bright Falls series.
Thank you to Edelweiss and the publisher for providing the arc
Trigger warnings: death, depression
June 22, 2023
this was a disappointment for me, i can’t lie. i was really excited to get inside Astrid’s head after reading Delilah Green Doesn’t Care since one of my favourite types of characters are the ones who are quite uptight and stoic because they tend to have a lot of inner turmoil— and Astrid was no different. she was definitely my favourite part of the book!
the beginning was a bit slow with not much really happening— the exposition was kind of dragged out. it didn’t really keep my attention. instead, i kept putting the book down to do other things and was very easily distracted because there was nothing gripping to keep me interested.
the beginning of Delilah Green Doesn’t Care is very similar to this with the writing style (a lot of info-dumping, if i’m to put it bluntly) and the setup, but unlike its predecessor, i wasn’t particularly attached to either Astrid (despite liking her on a surface level in the beginning) nor Jordan. Delilah kept me going in book one— i clung to her and rooted for her. i wanted the best for her. while neither Astrid and Jordan really grabbed me, you know? Delilah had a defiant edge to her that gripped me even if i didn’t always agree with her actions. neither Astrid nor Jordan had anything truly distinct about them for me to hold onto.
BUT, by 35% ish, Astrid Parker really had her claws in me. i think because she’s such a prickly and misunderstood individual that it took me some time to warm up to her, to learn her nuances but once i did? god, i loved her! that being said...
i didn’t think her character was utilised properly, especially since she’s the eponymous character. finishing the book, i still don’t feel like i know all that much about Astrid Parker.
it boils down to the fact that Blake, as a writer, has a habit of constantly telling you why a character’s relationship with someone close to them is falling apart and how this is interlaced with a lot of bitterness and resentment within the main character. but then she tends to just leave you hanging by the end of the book. we get a brief paragraph telling us that the characters are working to rebuild their relationship and nothing else.
i think when you’re writing how the breakdown of a relationship has intrinsically impacted the way the character views themself and the way they live their life, then you need to explore how the character deals with this in far more depth.
Astrid’s relationship with her mother is briefly mentioned in the final chapter and how they’re starting from scratch... and that’s it. Astrid has three decades worth of trauma and it has impacted every relationship she’s ever had, as well as her own self-worth which is one of the main premises of the book. her pain and insecurity are what make Astrid compelling and complex, but neither of these things were truly explored beyond the odd internal comment Astrid makes thats supposed to tug at your heart strings.
i just don’t think her character was done justice, unfortunately.
while the romance? i didn’t really feel the chemistry, unfortunately. i mean, Jordan and Astrid had some really delicious tension-filled moments with prolonged eye-contact and heat before they got together as a couple... but chemistry? it was lukewarm at best, for me. i truly didn’t understand why they wanted to be together, what attracted them to each other (beyond aesthetic motivations) and why they ultimately loved each other.
don’t get me wrong, they had some sweet moments together— their bonding at the theatre and the playground, in particular, were so wonderful to read, it made me smile— but these moments were few and far between. i just didn’t have anything to sink my teeth into, to really immerse me in the story and believe their romance.
honestly, it felt like the story had never really begun. it was as though i was constantly waiting for something to happen, for the story to find its rhythm and suck me in. i felt like i was just waiting to have that “eureka” moment which unfortunately never came. i just wasn’t convinced of them as a couple. i didn’t really feel anything at all.
i think another reason i couldn’t fully root for the couple was because there were a few scenes where one main character acted a certain way towards the other main character (selfish, rude, dismissive, manipulative) and it’s completely skimmed over, and never acknowledged again. for example, Jordan goes behind Astrid’s back regarding their shared interior design job and puts Astrid’s job as risk. or when Astrid makes Jordan cry at the coffee shop. or when Jordan decides for Astrid that Astrid only wants to kiss a girl (in a generic, anonymous sense) and doesn’t actually want to kiss Jordan, specifically (making assumptions and decisions about her sexuality). or when Astrid is willing to take credit for Jordan’s work at their job— the latter one came with the implication that their whole relationship was just based on a lie, based on selfishness and inauthenticity.
and apparently they discuss the implications of this... but we aren’t privy to those conversations. again, we’re just told in a paragraph at the end of the book.
then to top it all off, the role of Meredith, Jordan’s ex, was just kind of cheap, honestly. she existed to cause drama and nothing more, and i feel like Jordan really didn’t tackle the trauma Meredith’s abandonment left behind. she occasionally cried a few tears then miraculously forgot about the whole ordeal. i just thought Meredith’s purpose was very odd and misplaced.
the book, overall, just didn’t work for me. it left me feeling pretty frustrated and confused. i really did love Astrid but her trauma and nuances really weren’t explored. she felt one-dimensional more often than not, and im disappointed since i do love her a lot. the execution of her character just really let me down.
thank you to NetGalley and Little Brown Book Group for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!
the beginning was a bit slow with not much really happening— the exposition was kind of dragged out. it didn’t really keep my attention. instead, i kept putting the book down to do other things and was very easily distracted because there was nothing gripping to keep me interested.
the beginning of Delilah Green Doesn’t Care is very similar to this with the writing style (a lot of info-dumping, if i’m to put it bluntly) and the setup, but unlike its predecessor, i wasn’t particularly attached to either Astrid (despite liking her on a surface level in the beginning) nor Jordan. Delilah kept me going in book one— i clung to her and rooted for her. i wanted the best for her. while neither Astrid and Jordan really grabbed me, you know? Delilah had a defiant edge to her that gripped me even if i didn’t always agree with her actions. neither Astrid nor Jordan had anything truly distinct about them for me to hold onto.
BUT, by 35% ish, Astrid Parker really had her claws in me. i think because she’s such a prickly and misunderstood individual that it took me some time to warm up to her, to learn her nuances but once i did? god, i loved her! that being said...
i didn’t think her character was utilised properly, especially since she’s the eponymous character. finishing the book, i still don’t feel like i know all that much about Astrid Parker.
it boils down to the fact that Blake, as a writer, has a habit of constantly telling you why a character’s relationship with someone close to them is falling apart and how this is interlaced with a lot of bitterness and resentment within the main character. but then she tends to just leave you hanging by the end of the book. we get a brief paragraph telling us that the characters are working to rebuild their relationship and nothing else.
i think when you’re writing how the breakdown of a relationship has intrinsically impacted the way the character views themself and the way they live their life, then you need to explore how the character deals with this in far more depth.
Astrid’s relationship with her mother is briefly mentioned in the final chapter and how they’re starting from scratch... and that’s it. Astrid has three decades worth of trauma and it has impacted every relationship she’s ever had, as well as her own self-worth which is one of the main premises of the book. her pain and insecurity are what make Astrid compelling and complex, but neither of these things were truly explored beyond the odd internal comment Astrid makes thats supposed to tug at your heart strings.
i just don’t think her character was done justice, unfortunately.
while the romance? i didn’t really feel the chemistry, unfortunately. i mean, Jordan and Astrid had some really delicious tension-filled moments with prolonged eye-contact and heat before they got together as a couple... but chemistry? it was lukewarm at best, for me. i truly didn’t understand why they wanted to be together, what attracted them to each other (beyond aesthetic motivations) and why they ultimately loved each other.
don’t get me wrong, they had some sweet moments together— their bonding at the theatre and the playground, in particular, were so wonderful to read, it made me smile— but these moments were few and far between. i just didn’t have anything to sink my teeth into, to really immerse me in the story and believe their romance.
honestly, it felt like the story had never really begun. it was as though i was constantly waiting for something to happen, for the story to find its rhythm and suck me in. i felt like i was just waiting to have that “eureka” moment which unfortunately never came. i just wasn’t convinced of them as a couple. i didn’t really feel anything at all.
i think another reason i couldn’t fully root for the couple was because there were a few scenes where one main character acted a certain way towards the other main character (selfish, rude, dismissive, manipulative) and it’s completely skimmed over, and never acknowledged again. for example, Jordan goes behind Astrid’s back regarding their shared interior design job and puts Astrid’s job as risk. or when Astrid makes Jordan cry at the coffee shop. or when Jordan decides for Astrid that Astrid only wants to kiss a girl (in a generic, anonymous sense) and doesn’t actually want to kiss Jordan, specifically (making assumptions and decisions about her sexuality). or when Astrid is willing to take credit for Jordan’s work at their job— the latter one came with the implication that their whole relationship was just based on a lie, based on selfishness and inauthenticity.
and apparently they discuss the implications of this... but we aren’t privy to those conversations. again, we’re just told in a paragraph at the end of the book.
then to top it all off, the role of Meredith, Jordan’s ex, was just kind of cheap, honestly. she existed to cause drama and nothing more, and i feel like Jordan really didn’t tackle the trauma Meredith’s abandonment left behind. she occasionally cried a few tears then miraculously forgot about the whole ordeal. i just thought Meredith’s purpose was very odd and misplaced.
the book, overall, just didn’t work for me. it left me feeling pretty frustrated and confused. i really did love Astrid but her trauma and nuances really weren’t explored. she felt one-dimensional more often than not, and im disappointed since i do love her a lot. the execution of her character just really let me down.
thank you to NetGalley and Little Brown Book Group for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!
January 22, 2023
astrid parker and i have at least 1 thing in common.
i didn't love the first book in this series, and in fact i didn't really like it at all, but here i am anyway. with a gift basket of unreasonable expectations and the enduring human will to hope.
and i liked this!
i don't think it's going to be super memorable for me, and in fact because i read it approx two months ago i can fully confirm it is not, but what it was is cute and fun. and that is my only requirement.
also i love mean girls.
bottom line: hurray for good news!
3.5 / thanks netgalley for the e-arc
i didn't love the first book in this series, and in fact i didn't really like it at all, but here i am anyway. with a gift basket of unreasonable expectations and the enduring human will to hope.
and i liked this!
i don't think it's going to be super memorable for me, and in fact because i read it approx two months ago i can fully confirm it is not, but what it was is cute and fun. and that is my only requirement.
also i love mean girls.
bottom line: hurray for good news!
3.5 / thanks netgalley for the e-arc
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November 10, 2022Source of book: NetGalley (thank you)
Relevant disclaimers: The author and I are social media moots.
Please note: This review may not be reproduced or quoted, in whole or in part, without explicit consent from the author.
And remember: I am not here to judge your drag, I mean your book. Books are art and art is subjective. These are just my personal thoughts. They are not meant to be taken as broader commentary on the general quality of the work. Believe me, I have not enjoyed many an excellent book, and my individual lack of enjoyment has not made any of those books less excellent or (more relevantly) less successful.
Further disclaimer: Readers, please stop accusing me of trying to take down “my competition” because I wrote a review you didn’t like. This is complete nonsense. Firstly, writing isn’t a competitive sport. Secondly, I only publish reviews of books in the subgenre where I’m best known (queer romcom) if they’re glowing. And finally: taking time out of my life to read an entire book, then write a detailed review about it that some people on GR will look at would be a profoundly inefficient and ineffective way to damage the careers of other authors. If you can’t credit me with simply being a person who loves books and likes talking about them, at least credit me with enough common sense to be a better villain.
*******************************************
Loving a book is a complicated thing. Because it can make you unfair in a lot of equally complicated ways. And, given I often see those complications from the other side, I don’t want to be unfair myself. But I also want to be honest so here goes: there’s a lot I loved about Astrid Parker Doesn’t Fail, but I didn’t love it quite as much as I did Delilah Green Doesn’t Care (though not loving something quite as much as Delilah still means I loved it a whole fucking lot). But, y’know what, I reckon that’s probably okay. Books should be different to each other. And they should speak to different people differently.
We last saw Astrid, at the end of Delilah Green, breaking her engagement to her horrible fiancé and partially reconciling with Delilah as they both came to better understand the ways their childhood had separately damaged them. As Astrid Parker Doesn’t Fail opens, she’s in a pretty bad way: her design business is failing, she’s still emotionally entangled with her toxic mother, and her romantic future looks bleak. Then she gets an offer to work as the designer on a series of a reality TV show called Innside America, which focuses on renovating … inns? In American small towns? I don’t even know. Is this a thing for you people? Anyway, the job in question is the renovation of the Everwood Inn and it’s exactly what Astrid needs to re-establish both her reputation and her business. Unfortunately, on her way to the job, a hot carpenter flings coffee all over her and Astrid is—to my mind understandably—snappish about this. The carpenter is Jordan Everwood, heartbroken and recently divorced, and very unwilling to trust her family inn to a woman who was upset to have coffee flung over her. Needless to say, Jordan and Astrid start out in conflict, but soon they end up working together to save the inn and … y’know … maybe each other too?
What I loved about Astrid Parker Doesn’t Fail was … well. Astrid Parker. I think I loved her more than the book was prepared for me to love her because the coffee flinging incident was meant to be her being unacceptably rude to a stranger. But like. I’ve never owned an ivory pencil dress but I feel if I did own an ivory pencil dress and someone tossed three cups of coffee up it … I would want to be compensated for the dry cleaning too? Unfortunately, my commitment to Astrid during Ivory Pencil Dressgate meant that Astrid and Jordan’s initial interactions frustrated me more than than intrigued me. Like, not only had this carpenter ruined Astrid’s frankly amazing-sounding dress, but she was treating Astrid badly too? Once I got over this, however, I did end up really enjoying Jordan and Astrid together: they have a lot of chemistry and it was wonderful to see Astrid finally letting go in the company of someone willing to do the work to get to know who she is. Letting go—in various ways and forms—is a major theme of the book and it really effectively unites the stories of the two women, along with the wider arc of how best to honour the inn’s past while making space for its future.
I was also really happy to see the characters from the previous book—spending fictional time with them felt very much like meeting old friends. I was initially worried that some of Delilah’s “Delilahness” was being dampened by the need for her a play a secondary role in someone else’s story (in the first scene she’s in, for example, she does little beyond make lovestruck faces in Claire’s direction) but once the book gets underway, and Delilah gets to have some one-on—one scenes with Astrid, she felt like herself again.
So yeah. In summary, a lot of what I admired in Delilah Green Doesn’t Care can be found here as well. Loveable characters, trying to navigate their damage, portrayed with care. Wonderful banter, between lovers and friends. Playfulness and passion between the leads. Nuanced emotional dynamics. Really gorgeous writing all round:
As for where Astrid Parker Doesn’t Fail ended up losing me in places… I honestly think it might simply come down to particular differences in perspective. And while I don’t think they made Astrid Parker a bad book or even a “less good” book than Delilah Green (that is absolutely not what I’m saying here), they did ultimately make this a book that spoke to me less. And I’m going to try to talk about the hows and whys of that, not because I am saying there’s anything wrong with Astrid Parker as a work of fiction, or wrong with the way it explores and presents identity, but because it’s easy to forget marginalised people aren’t monoliths. And it’s okay to have representations of marginalised identity that—for whatever reason—do not happen to reflect the experiences and worldview of every reader who shares elements of that marginalised identity.
I think what it boiled down to, for me, was that identity was ultimately presented as something very … legible in the book. Whether that was every character entering the text with their race immediately flagged (which, I understand, is there to push back against the problematic ‘white as default’ view that white readers are inclined to bring to books—but, at the same time, it does mean that all character descriptions follow a pattern of [characteristic] [race] [gender] [optionally with x] which can feel uncomfortably homogenising and compresses all the complexity of racial identity into a single label, which not everybody of that identity will feel reflects them) or nonbinary people introducing themselves with their pronouns (which, again, I understand some nonbinary people do but here it feels like it’s being presented as a default rather than a choice). There’s even a scene where Astrid goes to borrow some romance novels from Iris and, despite not having read them yet, she is somehow able to rattle off the exact identities of the protagonists to the reader despite the fact that isn’t actually information that’s contained in the back cover copy.
For example, Astrid (whose POV we are in at the time) describes Written in the Stars as “a Pride and Prejudice re-telling, queer, a bisexual woman and lesbian” and The Intimacy Experiment as being about “a male Jewish rabbi and a bisexual white female”. It’s pretty clear from the packaging of WITS that it’s an f/f re-telling of Pride & Prejudice but you wouldn’t know Elle was explicitly bi and Darcy explicitly gay unless you’d read the book; similarly you’d only know Naomi was bi if you’d read The Intimacy Experiment. And I’m not saying it’s wrong for either of these books not to carry this information in their packaging at all, I feel it would be detrimental if it did (it feels more important, to me, that we know Darcy is a grumpy control freak than exclusively attracted to women); I’m just pointing out that Astrid’s queerdar is so fucking honed she can discern the sexuality of even fictional people based solely on a hundred words of marketing copy.
Or rather that this feeds back into a view of identity I find personally quite alienating. To me, identity isn’t legible, and perhaps shouldn’t be? It’s complicated and it’s not something that can easily find consensus because we’re all individuals, even when there are things to connect us. And I think what happened to hit the spot for me with Delilah Green is that Delilah herself is messy and so there was scope for the world around her to be messy too; steeped in queerness, yes, but a queerness that was rooted in individual character rather than this broad notion of identity that we find not necessarily in Astrid herself but in the world where Astrid has been placed: which is to say, something listable, discernible and consumable.
Relevant disclaimers: The author and I are social media moots.
Please note: This review may not be reproduced or quoted, in whole or in part, without explicit consent from the author.
And remember: I am not here to judge your drag, I mean your book. Books are art and art is subjective. These are just my personal thoughts. They are not meant to be taken as broader commentary on the general quality of the work. Believe me, I have not enjoyed many an excellent book, and my individual lack of enjoyment has not made any of those books less excellent or (more relevantly) less successful.
Further disclaimer: Readers, please stop accusing me of trying to take down “my competition” because I wrote a review you didn’t like. This is complete nonsense. Firstly, writing isn’t a competitive sport. Secondly, I only publish reviews of books in the subgenre where I’m best known (queer romcom) if they’re glowing. And finally: taking time out of my life to read an entire book, then write a detailed review about it that some people on GR will look at would be a profoundly inefficient and ineffective way to damage the careers of other authors. If you can’t credit me with simply being a person who loves books and likes talking about them, at least credit me with enough common sense to be a better villain.
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Loving a book is a complicated thing. Because it can make you unfair in a lot of equally complicated ways. And, given I often see those complications from the other side, I don’t want to be unfair myself. But I also want to be honest so here goes: there’s a lot I loved about Astrid Parker Doesn’t Fail, but I didn’t love it quite as much as I did Delilah Green Doesn’t Care (though not loving something quite as much as Delilah still means I loved it a whole fucking lot). But, y’know what, I reckon that’s probably okay. Books should be different to each other. And they should speak to different people differently.
We last saw Astrid, at the end of Delilah Green, breaking her engagement to her horrible fiancé and partially reconciling with Delilah as they both came to better understand the ways their childhood had separately damaged them. As Astrid Parker Doesn’t Fail opens, she’s in a pretty bad way: her design business is failing, she’s still emotionally entangled with her toxic mother, and her romantic future looks bleak. Then she gets an offer to work as the designer on a series of a reality TV show called Innside America, which focuses on renovating … inns? In American small towns? I don’t even know. Is this a thing for you people? Anyway, the job in question is the renovation of the Everwood Inn and it’s exactly what Astrid needs to re-establish both her reputation and her business. Unfortunately, on her way to the job, a hot carpenter flings coffee all over her and Astrid is—to my mind understandably—snappish about this. The carpenter is Jordan Everwood, heartbroken and recently divorced, and very unwilling to trust her family inn to a woman who was upset to have coffee flung over her. Needless to say, Jordan and Astrid start out in conflict, but soon they end up working together to save the inn and … y’know … maybe each other too?
What I loved about Astrid Parker Doesn’t Fail was … well. Astrid Parker. I think I loved her more than the book was prepared for me to love her because the coffee flinging incident was meant to be her being unacceptably rude to a stranger. But like. I’ve never owned an ivory pencil dress but I feel if I did own an ivory pencil dress and someone tossed three cups of coffee up it … I would want to be compensated for the dry cleaning too? Unfortunately, my commitment to Astrid during Ivory Pencil Dressgate meant that Astrid and Jordan’s initial interactions frustrated me more than than intrigued me. Like, not only had this carpenter ruined Astrid’s frankly amazing-sounding dress, but she was treating Astrid badly too? Once I got over this, however, I did end up really enjoying Jordan and Astrid together: they have a lot of chemistry and it was wonderful to see Astrid finally letting go in the company of someone willing to do the work to get to know who she is. Letting go—in various ways and forms—is a major theme of the book and it really effectively unites the stories of the two women, along with the wider arc of how best to honour the inn’s past while making space for its future.
I was also really happy to see the characters from the previous book—spending fictional time with them felt very much like meeting old friends. I was initially worried that some of Delilah’s “Delilahness” was being dampened by the need for her a play a secondary role in someone else’s story (in the first scene she’s in, for example, she does little beyond make lovestruck faces in Claire’s direction) but once the book gets underway, and Delilah gets to have some one-on—one scenes with Astrid, she felt like herself again.
So yeah. In summary, a lot of what I admired in Delilah Green Doesn’t Care can be found here as well. Loveable characters, trying to navigate their damage, portrayed with care. Wonderful banter, between lovers and friends. Playfulness and passion between the leads. Nuanced emotional dynamics. Really gorgeous writing all round:
“In truth, she had never been very vocal in bed, but she’d never really thought about why until this very second, with Jordan’s hot mouth searing through her shirt. Oh was a proclamation. So was yeah and right there and just like that and whatever other words people might say during sex. They were tells. They revealed a piece of yourself, something soft and vulnerable and completely at the other person’s mercy.”
As for where Astrid Parker Doesn’t Fail ended up losing me in places… I honestly think it might simply come down to particular differences in perspective. And while I don’t think they made Astrid Parker a bad book or even a “less good” book than Delilah Green (that is absolutely not what I’m saying here), they did ultimately make this a book that spoke to me less. And I’m going to try to talk about the hows and whys of that, not because I am saying there’s anything wrong with Astrid Parker as a work of fiction, or wrong with the way it explores and presents identity, but because it’s easy to forget marginalised people aren’t monoliths. And it’s okay to have representations of marginalised identity that—for whatever reason—do not happen to reflect the experiences and worldview of every reader who shares elements of that marginalised identity.
I think what it boiled down to, for me, was that identity was ultimately presented as something very … legible in the book. Whether that was every character entering the text with their race immediately flagged (which, I understand, is there to push back against the problematic ‘white as default’ view that white readers are inclined to bring to books—but, at the same time, it does mean that all character descriptions follow a pattern of [characteristic] [race] [gender] [optionally with x] which can feel uncomfortably homogenising and compresses all the complexity of racial identity into a single label, which not everybody of that identity will feel reflects them) or nonbinary people introducing themselves with their pronouns (which, again, I understand some nonbinary people do but here it feels like it’s being presented as a default rather than a choice). There’s even a scene where Astrid goes to borrow some romance novels from Iris and, despite not having read them yet, she is somehow able to rattle off the exact identities of the protagonists to the reader despite the fact that isn’t actually information that’s contained in the back cover copy.
For example, Astrid (whose POV we are in at the time) describes Written in the Stars as “a Pride and Prejudice re-telling, queer, a bisexual woman and lesbian” and The Intimacy Experiment as being about “a male Jewish rabbi and a bisexual white female”. It’s pretty clear from the packaging of WITS that it’s an f/f re-telling of Pride & Prejudice but you wouldn’t know Elle was explicitly bi and Darcy explicitly gay unless you’d read the book; similarly you’d only know Naomi was bi if you’d read The Intimacy Experiment. And I’m not saying it’s wrong for either of these books not to carry this information in their packaging at all, I feel it would be detrimental if it did (it feels more important, to me, that we know Darcy is a grumpy control freak than exclusively attracted to women); I’m just pointing out that Astrid’s queerdar is so fucking honed she can discern the sexuality of even fictional people based solely on a hundred words of marketing copy.
Or rather that this feeds back into a view of identity I find personally quite alienating. To me, identity isn’t legible, and perhaps shouldn’t be? It’s complicated and it’s not something that can easily find consensus because we’re all individuals, even when there are things to connect us. And I think what happened to hit the spot for me with Delilah Green is that Delilah herself is messy and so there was scope for the world around her to be messy too; steeped in queerness, yes, but a queerness that was rooted in individual character rather than this broad notion of identity that we find not necessarily in Astrid herself but in the world where Astrid has been placed: which is to say, something listable, discernible and consumable.
June 13, 2023
3.75 stars
The writing draw an enticing and captivating push and pull dynamic between the protagonists, from the opening line. However, it felt like the premise wasn’t fully exploited. I always enjoy a good renovation romcom and for half of the book it was brilliantly caricatured from them not sharing the same taste, being polar opposites to trying to cooperate for the reno project.
The second half was tarnished with unnecessary drama, featuring ghosts from the past and compromising situations that could’ve been easily avoided to focus on and accentuate more the romance and sexuality penchants and discovery aspect of the plot line.
~•~•~•~•~•~
update: thankfully, it did fix my life. rtc 🫶🏼
~•~•~•~•~•~
you better fix my entire life after romeo’s fiasco
br with raerae<33
❛ Love doesn’t always think through the details. Sometimes, love just does. ❜
The writing draw an enticing and captivating push and pull dynamic between the protagonists, from the opening line. However, it felt like the premise wasn’t fully exploited. I always enjoy a good renovation romcom and for half of the book it was brilliantly caricatured from them not sharing the same taste, being polar opposites to trying to cooperate for the reno project.
"You are my destiny, Jordan."
The second half was tarnished with unnecessary drama, featuring ghosts from the past and compromising situations that could’ve been easily avoided to focus on and accentuate more the romance and sexuality penchants and discovery aspect of the plot line.
~•~•~•~•~•~
update: thankfully, it did fix my life. rtc 🫶🏼
~•~•~•~•~•~
you better fix my entire life after romeo’s fiasco
br with raerae<33
November 24, 2022
3.50 Stars. A nice story but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed. This is book 2 in Blake’s Bright Falls series and I went into this read with big expectations. While that is not really fair to Blake, I could not help it when book one, Delilah Green Doesn't Care, is (so far) my favorite romance I have read this year. In fact, I even got to vote for it for Best Romance in the Goodreads Choice Awards. In the 7 years, I have been reading/reviewing on Goodreads, I have never gotten to vote for my actual favorite. Normally I am just voting for the book in each category I’ve actually read or just skipping categories altogether because if you’ve stopped reading Maas like I have, you are normally out of luck. So, finally after all these years, to get to vote for a real favorite made my heart happy. With the first round of voting happening right before I read this new book in the series, Astrid Parker Doesn’t Fail, it was just another thing that reminded me of my love for this series and I think helped to hype up my expectation too high to be met.
One of the things I enjoyed so much about Delilah-GDC, was the amazing cast of characters. I really loved everyone in the book, including the close group of friends and relatives, and found that Astrid especially was interesting to me. I don’t know if I was remembering her wrong, but I really thought she was an ice queen or at least an ice princess, so while she started this book off that way, for 5 pages, she soon turned into this pile of goo and she lost all her bite and that icy shell that I instead wanted to see her love interest slowly melt throughout the book. Again, it could be me, but this was not the Astrid I was expecting and in the end her character was pretty flat and I hate to say disappointing compared to the Astrid of Delilah Green Doesn't Care.
The new main and potential love interest is the carpenter Jordan, to Astrid’s interior designer. I had such issues with Jordan that while I finished this book last night, I just had to look up Jordan’s name as I erased it from my memory already. It’s not that Jordan is badly written, although she is also not as developed as she could be, but she had more of a personal story then Astrid, I just could not stand her for the first 70% of the book. I can’t go into much because I would have to put up a bunch of spoilers, but I do want to complain about one thing so I will put one spoiler. Please only read it if you have read the book already.
When I don’t care for one or both characters of the couple in a romance, most of the time the romance itself doesn’t work for me, and I’m sorry to say that was the case here. It wasn’t bad by any means; it just wasn’t great or magical and I know Blake can write some romance magic. While I felt like there was some attraction between the two, there just wasn’t the chemistry that I want in my sapphic romance. There were some really cute moments like at the movie theater and I thought okay here we go, but then we lost the momentum and went kind of flat again. Again, overall, this was a perfectly nice read, it just wasn’t that special, or wow read that I was hoping for. It’s almost impossible, these expectations, when this author writes one of my favorite books and must follow that up in the same year, in the same series, as that’s a huge ask for anyone. This wasn’t the book that I hoped for, but it was still a pleasant read, and I can’t wait to read book 3 in the series.
An ARC was given to me for an honest review.
One of the things I enjoyed so much about Delilah-GDC, was the amazing cast of characters. I really loved everyone in the book, including the close group of friends and relatives, and found that Astrid especially was interesting to me. I don’t know if I was remembering her wrong, but I really thought she was an ice queen or at least an ice princess, so while she started this book off that way, for 5 pages, she soon turned into this pile of goo and she lost all her bite and that icy shell that I instead wanted to see her love interest slowly melt throughout the book. Again, it could be me, but this was not the Astrid I was expecting and in the end her character was pretty flat and I hate to say disappointing compared to the Astrid of Delilah Green Doesn't Care.
The new main and potential love interest is the carpenter Jordan, to Astrid’s interior designer. I had such issues with Jordan that while I finished this book last night, I just had to look up Jordan’s name as I erased it from my memory already. It’s not that Jordan is badly written, although she is also not as developed as she could be, but she had more of a personal story then Astrid, I just could not stand her for the first 70% of the book. I can’t go into much because I would have to put up a bunch of spoilers, but I do want to complain about one thing so I will put one spoiler. Please only read it if you have read the book already.
When I don’t care for one or both characters of the couple in a romance, most of the time the romance itself doesn’t work for me, and I’m sorry to say that was the case here. It wasn’t bad by any means; it just wasn’t great or magical and I know Blake can write some romance magic. While I felt like there was some attraction between the two, there just wasn’t the chemistry that I want in my sapphic romance. There were some really cute moments like at the movie theater and I thought okay here we go, but then we lost the momentum and went kind of flat again. Again, overall, this was a perfectly nice read, it just wasn’t that special, or wow read that I was hoping for. It’s almost impossible, these expectations, when this author writes one of my favorite books and must follow that up in the same year, in the same series, as that’s a huge ask for anyone. This wasn’t the book that I hoped for, but it was still a pleasant read, and I can’t wait to read book 3 in the series.
An ARC was given to me for an honest review.
December 12, 2022
read the first chapter and it’s giving Darcy/Elle uptight grump/disaster sunshine vibes I’m so here for it
review December 2022: sapphic romance exactly the way I like it, tender, sexy, and just a little bit haunted. also thrilled to report I was so right about the Written in the Stars vibes, Astrid reads it for gay inspiration!!
review December 2022: sapphic romance exactly the way I like it, tender, sexy, and just a little bit haunted. also thrilled to report I was so right about the Written in the Stars vibes, Astrid reads it for gay inspiration!!
September 21, 2023
✔️ queer representation
✔️ fmc × fmc
✔️ small town romance
✔️ strong fmc
✔️ dual pov
✔️ workplace rivals
3.5⭐️ Bright falls is my favorite romcom fictional world!! 🎀🔮🪄
Astrid stood out as a tough, boss babe in Delilah's story and I loved her for it (she gave main character vibes though it wasn't even her story)
It's been interesting and nothing short of amazing to read how things worked out for her. Her progress with her self-love journey with regards to her dating life and also her complex and complicated relationship with her mom and step-sister.
At this point, I'd like to say that this book is a standalone but it's better enjoyed if you read Delilah Green Doesn't Care first. I saw a reviewer write that she didn't see the challenges of Astrid Parker hence didn't understand why she was emotional struggling, that's because she skipped the first book in series..
Don't get me wrong Astrid's challenges from book 1 are mentioned very briefly and referenced to severally but they are portrayed better in the first book. I advise you read that first, it's also fmc × fmc and a pretty fun read.
***
bumping this up my tbr because i miss bright falls 😭 and no one is more main character than astrid parker and I'm here for it 💅🏽💅🏽💙
✔️ fmc × fmc
✔️ small town romance
✔️ strong fmc
✔️ dual pov
✔️ workplace rivals
3.5⭐️ Bright falls is my favorite romcom fictional world!! 🎀🔮🪄
Astrid stood out as a tough, boss babe in Delilah's story and I loved her for it (she gave main character vibes though it wasn't even her story)
It's been interesting and nothing short of amazing to read how things worked out for her. Her progress with her self-love journey with regards to her dating life and also her complex and complicated relationship with her mom and step-sister.
At this point, I'd like to say that this book is a standalone but it's better enjoyed if you read Delilah Green Doesn't Care first. I saw a reviewer write that she didn't see the challenges of Astrid Parker hence didn't understand why she was emotional struggling, that's because she skipped the first book in series..
Don't get me wrong Astrid's challenges from book 1 are mentioned very briefly and referenced to severally but they are portrayed better in the first book. I advise you read that first, it's also fmc × fmc and a pretty fun read.
***
bumping this up my tbr because i miss bright falls 😭 and no one is more main character than astrid parker and I'm here for it 💅🏽💅🏽💙
August 27, 2024
Pride Month
I can see how Astrid and Iris can put people off. I'm still not sure how I feel about Iris. Of the three, I connect to Astrid the most. The stiff upbringing is real. The RBF is real. The feeling of not being able to let go with a partner is real. I won't rehash the premise. You can read the summary. But our baby bisexual has a coming out, and falls in love.
I can see how Astrid and Iris can put people off. I'm still not sure how I feel about Iris. Of the three, I connect to Astrid the most. The stiff upbringing is real. The RBF is real. The feeling of not being able to let go with a partner is real. I won't rehash the premise. You can read the summary. But our baby bisexual has a coming out, and falls in love.
Read
November 24, 2022Delilah Green Doesn't Care was a standout of the year, so I was greatly looking forward to this. I loved Astrid, a terrific character--a classic Karen from the outside, all poised and bitchy and let-me-speak-to-the-manager, actually a seething mass of insecurities and parental expectations. It was glorious to watch her open up and relax into herself, and discover her queerness, and her own wants and hopes beyond not disappointing her mother--and in fact to see that there's even a good side to the 'everything must be perfect' character trait, because she bends over backwards to be right and fair to Jordan in an almost excessive way. Loved Astrid, loved her noisy friend group, really loved the tremendous UST (there is a truly epic near-kiss) and the sex is absolutely scorchio.
The issue for me is Jordan, who felt ... how to put this ... like she was the book's golden child. She never really takes responsibility for her poor decisions and crappy behaviour, she does very little of the emotional work, she spends a lot more time thinking about how she's been wronged than the many ways in which she's at fault (granted this is human nature, but it would have been nice to see her learn). I just wasn't persuaded, beyond the fantastic sex, that she'll make Astrid happy, because the book never really recognises or addresses how self-centred she is: in fact the plot vindicates her. Which is...kind of weird, for a book that doesn't shy away from recognising other kinds of problems.
Hey ho. I'm sad not to have loved this wholeheartedly because I loved Astrid, and I suspect people who have more charity towards Jordan than I can muster up will adore it. And I am very definitely looking forward to Iris's story.
The issue for me is Jordan, who felt ... how to put this ... like she was the book's golden child. She never really takes responsibility for her poor decisions and crappy behaviour, she does very little of the emotional work, she spends a lot more time thinking about how she's been wronged than the many ways in which she's at fault (granted this is human nature, but it would have been nice to see her learn). I just wasn't persuaded, beyond the fantastic sex, that she'll make Astrid happy, because the book never really recognises or addresses how self-centred she is: in fact the plot vindicates her. Which is...kind of weird, for a book that doesn't shy away from recognising other kinds of problems.
Hey ho. I'm sad not to have loved this wholeheartedly because I loved Astrid, and I suspect people who have more charity towards Jordan than I can muster up will adore it. And I am very definitely looking forward to Iris's story.
February 1, 2023
➥ 4.5 Stars *:･ﾟ✧
31/01/2023
With a longing gaze at my bookshelf, I pulled this one off the shelf and opened it up to a random page, because I had been thinking about it that day. They're adorable, I don't care:
Astrid laughed, tightening her leg around Jordan's hip.
"And that cherry stem," Jordan said. "Fuck, that was hot."
"Really?"
"Oh my god," Jordan said, before tugging at Astrid's earlobe. "I saved the damn thing, it was so hot."
"You did not," Astrid said, pushing on her shoulders to look her in the eyes.
"I most definitely did. It's on my dresser right now."
Astrid didn't know what to say. It was a silly thing - a cherry stem tied in a knot - but somehow, the sentiment behind it made her eyes sting. She cupped Jordan's face in her hands and pulled her down for a slow, deliberate kiss.
Buddy read with Amy!! Read this book in two days straight and could not put it down. I've seen lots of people be very disappointed in this book which made me hesitant to start it, but I just loved it. One of Blake's strong suits is definitely her characters. They never felt like cliche cardboard-cutout characters, and I loved them.
I generally understand certain criticism of this book though. There was too much focus placed on the side plot that it took away from some of the romance, and this book tried REALLY hard to be woke. Delilah (a lesbian) says "I don't do cishet men", but...I would also hope you don't do trans men right??? And I read a paragraph of every single person announcing their pronouns. Can't we just have a sentence where Blake says "After ___ shared their pronouns, everyone else shared theirs too." That would have been far better. There were some conflicts that were somewhat irksome and I could have done without; Blake needs to get rid of her obsession with everyone having terrorising exs and making that part of the plot. Regardless, I loved this one - this is one of those books I've chosen to not rate objectively so...that's telling. Now I can't wait until Iris Kelly Doesn't Date!
"Shh," Jordan said, spinning them around, her mouth pressed to Astrid's jaw. "I'm singing to my girl."
━━━━━━━━━━━ ♡ ━━━━━━━━━━━
31/01/2023
With a longing gaze at my bookshelf, I pulled this one off the shelf and opened it up to a random page, because I had been thinking about it that day. They're adorable, I don't care:
Astrid laughed, tightening her leg around Jordan's hip.
"And that cherry stem," Jordan said. "Fuck, that was hot."
"Really?"
"Oh my god," Jordan said, before tugging at Astrid's earlobe. "I saved the damn thing, it was so hot."
"You did not," Astrid said, pushing on her shoulders to look her in the eyes.
"I most definitely did. It's on my dresser right now."
Astrid didn't know what to say. It was a silly thing - a cherry stem tied in a knot - but somehow, the sentiment behind it made her eyes sting. She cupped Jordan's face in her hands and pulled her down for a slow, deliberate kiss.
━━━━━━━━━━━ ♡ ━━━━━━━━━━━
Buddy read with Amy!! Read this book in two days straight and could not put it down. I've seen lots of people be very disappointed in this book which made me hesitant to start it, but I just loved it. One of Blake's strong suits is definitely her characters. They never felt like cliche cardboard-cutout characters, and I loved them.
➥ Astrid Parker (h) is one of my favourite heroines. At this point, it's public information that I have a fatal weakness for the blonde mean girls that have a soft side. Well, that's her. Her vulnerability and kindness really shone through and she's one of those characters you just want to hold and treasure.
"Maybe one day I'll sing for you," Jordan said.
"You will?"
Jordan nodded. "If you bake a cake for me."
Astrid held her gaze and she couldn't have stopped the smile that settled on her mouth right now if she tried.
"Maybe," she said.
➥ Jordan Everwood (h) was also delightful. She was funny and hot and...HOT.
"Shh," Jordan said, running a thumb over Astrid's bottom lip. "It's okay."
"It's not," Astrid said. "I want you, okay? I need you to believe me.
"I do," Jordan said, then she kissed her once, twice, and flipped them around so Astrid's back was to the door.
I generally understand certain criticism of this book though. There was too much focus placed on the side plot that it took away from some of the romance, and this book tried REALLY hard to be woke. Delilah (a lesbian) says "I don't do cishet men", but...I would also hope you don't do trans men right??? And I read a paragraph of every single person announcing their pronouns. Can't we just have a sentence where Blake says "After ___ shared their pronouns, everyone else shared theirs too." That would have been far better. There were some conflicts that were somewhat irksome and I could have done without; Blake needs to get rid of her obsession with everyone having terrorising exs and making that part of the plot. Regardless, I loved this one - this is one of those books I've chosen to not rate objectively so...that's telling. Now I can't wait until Iris Kelly Doesn't Date!
━━━━━━━━━━━ ♡ ━━━━━━━━━━━
November 21, 2022
3.5 stars
This is one of those books where when I was reading it, I enjoyed it. But when I would think about it after, I noticed a bunch of things I didn’t like or didn’t make sense.
I thought Astrid was such an intriguing character in the first book Delilah Green, so I was excited to read this one. But after I finished reading, other than a bad mother and some anxiety we really didn’t learn much about her. And the same with Jordan other than a terrible ex-wife, we didn’t really get to know Jordan either. And the romance was seriously lacking, it was tension and then suddenly together. It didn’t develop well for me. And the whole tv show plot was just so random and didn't fit well with the book as a whole. I honestly would forget about it until it was brought up.
I will say the book kept my attention the whole time and I enjoyed it while I was reading it. But like I said, it’s one of those books where when you sit down and really analyze this book there were a lot of issues.
ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review
This is one of those books where when I was reading it, I enjoyed it. But when I would think about it after, I noticed a bunch of things I didn’t like or didn’t make sense.
I thought Astrid was such an intriguing character in the first book Delilah Green, so I was excited to read this one. But after I finished reading, other than a bad mother and some anxiety we really didn’t learn much about her. And the same with Jordan other than a terrible ex-wife, we didn’t really get to know Jordan either. And the romance was seriously lacking, it was tension and then suddenly together. It didn’t develop well for me. And the whole tv show plot was just so random and didn't fit well with the book as a whole. I honestly would forget about it until it was brought up.
I will say the book kept my attention the whole time and I enjoyed it while I was reading it. But like I said, it’s one of those books where when you sit down and really analyze this book there were a lot of issues.
ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review
December 8, 2022
Astrid Parker could run me over with a bus and I’d say thank you.
November 11, 2024
Exhilarating read!
A more animated, sometimes amusing and nice book #2 of this 'Bright Falls' ongoing series. The storyline could have do without certain sentences and paragraphs which made me lower my rating to 3.5 --- this was cause for my pet peeve, otherwise it's an enjoyable story. Still good supporting friendships and chemistry.
Recommended book and series!
A more animated, sometimes amusing and nice book #2 of this 'Bright Falls' ongoing series. The storyline could have do without certain sentences and paragraphs which made me lower my rating to 3.5 --- this was cause for my pet peeve, otherwise it's an enjoyable story. Still good supporting friendships and chemistry.
Recommended book and series!
December 5, 2022
Welp, I absolutely hate to say it but my 5 star Ashley Herring Blake streak has now come to an end. While I did still enjoy this (hence the 4 star rating!), I can't pretend that I didn't struggle quite a bit in the beginning to care about or connect with Astrid and Jordan. I found both of them to be their own worst enemies for a bit and it really took some time for me to warm up to them. However, once I did, I very easily fell right into the story and I really enjoyed being back in Bright Falls! I especially enjoyed following Astrid's baby gay journey bc I feel like that isn't something that we often get to see in trad-pub romance and my bisexual heart loved to see it, lol. Anyway, while this wasn't the new fav I was hoping it would be, I still had a lot of fun with it and I am definitely looking forward to returning for book three and finding out what the gang is up to next!!
CW: death of a loved one, terminal illness (cancer), anxiety
CW: death of a loved one, terminal illness (cancer), anxiety
November 22, 2022
✨You are my density ❤️✨
Ahhhh SO GOOD. I had high hopes and release that breath you didn’t know you were holding becauseeee I had heart eyes for days and a lot of laughs. Personally, I found this to be funnier than Delilah Green Doesn’t Care and more of a vivid story in my mind. I could totally see this as a movie and I would watch the hell out of it.
Astrid and Jordan each spoke to my soul after their respective intro chapters. Astrid starts the book off with the veneer of having her shit together, while Jordan is the hot mess tornado. Throughout the book, and as you’ve probably guessed because you’re probably very hot because you probably read romance because you’re definitely reading this review, they pretty much swap places by the end of the book. Sometimes you gotta throw yourself on your bed and cry it out and sometimes you gotta respond to emails and answer scary phone calls.
I really appreciated how both characters showed so much depth even in just those beginning chapters! Astrid was understandably angry and showed off her temper a bit, but she also felt so dejected and embarrassed over her actions. Jordan responded in a stoic yet perfectly petty fashion and then immediately broke down in tears. Coming from someone who’s yelled at someone (mayhap at a toxic workplace? where I dramatically quit?) and sobbed all the way home about it? Yeah I relate.
I also really loved how Astrid was honestly only starting to understand her queerness by the end of the book. I found it to be so lovely how we got to discover her identity along with her, in real time, in small increments. (The main couple is a bisexual and lesbian pairing jsyk.) Pretty much all of the supporting characters were also fleshed out with individual identities, representation, and clear physical descriptors.
✨
I loved the supporting characters in this book so much too!! A lot are recurring from book one, but Simon (!), the show crew, and even Isabel (she had her moments) were wonderful additions to the cast. Sometimes friend groups can get annoying or trite (I have some specific examples in mind but I shan’t spill the tea)… So many times these friends never actually feel like people nor do they speak like humans at ALL. Most of the time, I never want to be friends with them.
Delilah, Iris, Claire (Astrid & Jordan as well)? Oh you best believe they would midnight margarita the SHIT out of a Practical Magic viewing. There was a very lovely Kodak moment where Astrid spent a night in with Delilah, Iris, and Claire that made me go awwwwwww. I got emotional seeing such loving and supportive friendships!! I definitely heard the song These Are Days by 10000 Maniacs (yes, this is another shameless plug of the movie, Revenge of the Bridesmaids, featured in my Delilah Green Doesn’t Care review, so?) playing over the montage I was imagining.
*Side note: go watch the music video…it’s inspired. Honestly, I hope Astrid dances like the lead singer.
✨
While I loved the characters, I do think the plot lacked just a little bit of surprise factor for me. I almost kinda wish this happened simultaneously with Delilah Green Doesn’t Care. By that I mean wishing Astrid’s gooey insides were revealed to the reader at the same moment in both books. I get it can’t really work (truly how would one even begin to accomplish this?) because she needed to go through things with Spencer and I did NOT need some messed up love triangle, but I’d have loved to not have seen how soft Astrid could be, prior to this book. I needed Astrid and Delilah bonding in book one and definitely looked forward to it specifically in that book, so again I’ve got no solution only feelings.
When we have an ice queen main character, I do like to be fooled for a proper chunk of the book, ya know? From the get, Astrid feels remorse and embarrassment, but obviously still has defenses in place. So since I liked both characters and liked them together, I wanted a little bit more !suspense! than just them lying to the show crew, which is never fun and always at least slightly stressful.
The moment the lie unraveled, though, was well done, and I actually liked the third act break-up. It was reasonable and helped the characters grow. I was a little bored during the middle—they got interrupted almost kissing a few times and the slow burn nearly took me out—but the beginning and end really won me.
✨
Overall, I’m so happy with this book. I liked Delilah but I really loved Astrid. The Everwood Inn that they were renovating was also a little bit spooky? Dare I say haunted?? I can’t remember if a season is mentioned in the book, but it felt like a perfect read for the ~3 weeks we get of autumn before winter bitch slaps our comfortably-cozy-but-not-too-cold happiness into next May. Hot beverage ✔️ rosy cheeks ✔️ face sitting ✔️.
I’ll definitely snatch it up book 3 when it’s available.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5 🌶🌶🌶*/5
*The language was a bit more explicit than Delilah and the book itself was a bit hotter, though way more slow burn. We got three-ish scenes and many fade to black moments. I had fun during the scenes but wanted a bit more depth from the last one. Props to a sex toy actually being used (!) but it was used off page but but it was used in a hilarious way so I’ll let it slide.
P.S. Would I love the physical copy or pre-order incentive to include a floor plan plus design concept for The Everwood? Abso-fucking-lutely. I have a hard time visualizing ANYTHING let alone how sage green cabinets actually work and look good, so please I beg. (I quite literally don’t see things when I shut my eyes so I’m working with nothing here. This is also why intense clothing description in fantasy novels doesn’t work for me lol.)
Thanks so much to the publisher for an eARC via NetGalley. All opinions are honest and my own.
Ahhhh SO GOOD. I had high hopes and release that breath you didn’t know you were holding becauseeee I had heart eyes for days and a lot of laughs. Personally, I found this to be funnier than Delilah Green Doesn’t Care and more of a vivid story in my mind. I could totally see this as a movie and I would watch the hell out of it.
Astrid and Jordan each spoke to my soul after their respective intro chapters. Astrid starts the book off with the veneer of having her shit together, while Jordan is the hot mess tornado. Throughout the book, and as you’ve probably guessed because you’re probably very hot because you probably read romance because you’re definitely reading this review, they pretty much swap places by the end of the book. Sometimes you gotta throw yourself on your bed and cry it out and sometimes you gotta respond to emails and answer scary phone calls.
I really appreciated how both characters showed so much depth even in just those beginning chapters! Astrid was understandably angry and showed off her temper a bit, but she also felt so dejected and embarrassed over her actions. Jordan responded in a stoic yet perfectly petty fashion and then immediately broke down in tears. Coming from someone who’s yelled at someone (mayhap at a toxic workplace? where I dramatically quit?) and sobbed all the way home about it? Yeah I relate.
I also really loved how Astrid was honestly only starting to understand her queerness by the end of the book. I found it to be so lovely how we got to discover her identity along with her, in real time, in small increments. (The main couple is a bisexual and lesbian pairing jsyk.) Pretty much all of the supporting characters were also fleshed out with individual identities, representation, and clear physical descriptors.
✨
I loved the supporting characters in this book so much too!! A lot are recurring from book one, but Simon (!), the show crew, and even Isabel (she had her moments) were wonderful additions to the cast. Sometimes friend groups can get annoying or trite (I have some specific examples in mind but I shan’t spill the tea)… So many times these friends never actually feel like people nor do they speak like humans at ALL. Most of the time, I never want to be friends with them.
Delilah, Iris, Claire (Astrid & Jordan as well)? Oh you best believe they would midnight margarita the SHIT out of a Practical Magic viewing. There was a very lovely Kodak moment where Astrid spent a night in with Delilah, Iris, and Claire that made me go awwwwwww. I got emotional seeing such loving and supportive friendships!! I definitely heard the song These Are Days by 10000 Maniacs (yes, this is another shameless plug of the movie, Revenge of the Bridesmaids, featured in my Delilah Green Doesn’t Care review, so?) playing over the montage I was imagining.
*Side note: go watch the music video…it’s inspired. Honestly, I hope Astrid dances like the lead singer.
✨
While I loved the characters, I do think the plot lacked just a little bit of surprise factor for me. I almost kinda wish this happened simultaneously with Delilah Green Doesn’t Care. By that I mean wishing Astrid’s gooey insides were revealed to the reader at the same moment in both books. I get it can’t really work (truly how would one even begin to accomplish this?) because she needed to go through things with Spencer and I did NOT need some messed up love triangle, but I’d have loved to not have seen how soft Astrid could be, prior to this book. I needed Astrid and Delilah bonding in book one and definitely looked forward to it specifically in that book, so again I’ve got no solution only feelings.
When we have an ice queen main character, I do like to be fooled for a proper chunk of the book, ya know? From the get, Astrid feels remorse and embarrassment, but obviously still has defenses in place. So since I liked both characters and liked them together, I wanted a little bit more !suspense! than just them lying to the show crew, which is never fun and always at least slightly stressful.
The moment the lie unraveled, though, was well done, and I actually liked the third act break-up. It was reasonable and helped the characters grow. I was a little bored during the middle—they got interrupted almost kissing a few times and the slow burn nearly took me out—but the beginning and end really won me.
✨
Overall, I’m so happy with this book. I liked Delilah but I really loved Astrid. The Everwood Inn that they were renovating was also a little bit spooky? Dare I say haunted?? I can’t remember if a season is mentioned in the book, but it felt like a perfect read for the ~3 weeks we get of autumn before winter bitch slaps our comfortably-cozy-but-not-too-cold happiness into next May. Hot beverage ✔️ rosy cheeks ✔️ face sitting ✔️.
I’ll definitely snatch it up book 3 when it’s available.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5 🌶🌶🌶*/5
*The language was a bit more explicit than Delilah and the book itself was a bit hotter, though way more slow burn. We got three-ish scenes and many fade to black moments. I had fun during the scenes but wanted a bit more depth from the last one. Props to a sex toy actually being used (!) but it was used off page but but it was used in a hilarious way so I’ll let it slide.
P.S. Would I love the physical copy or pre-order incentive to include a floor plan plus design concept for The Everwood? Abso-fucking-lutely. I have a hard time visualizing ANYTHING let alone how sage green cabinets actually work and look good, so please I beg. (I quite literally don’t see things when I shut my eyes so I’m working with nothing here. This is also why intense clothing description in fantasy novels doesn’t work for me lol.)
Thanks so much to the publisher for an eARC via NetGalley. All opinions are honest and my own.
February 28, 2023
This romance was relatively engaging, a bit steamy and an overall serviceable read It's your typical meet ugly, with a brief foray into rivals to lovers territory, but to put it plainly this is simply a book that failed to convince me. I was unconvinced by the romantic chemistry or the idea that this is a viable soulmate level pairing like the book wanted me to believe. The home renovation plot felt more and more contrived the further the story went and the characters (both main and side) felt weak and a bit aimless to me, ultimately arriving at "character development" that felt a bit unearned and in some ways totally out of left field, particularly with regards to Astrid's career aspirations. I just felt that things didn't fully come together with the ease and earnestness that I found myself loving from the first book in the Bright Falls series. A perfectly fine way to pass some time, but I have many qualms, and a level of dispassion for the story that I think earns it a solid 2.5 star in my opinion.
rounded up since goodreads is still too antiquated to have half stars 😒
rounded up since goodreads is still too antiquated to have half stars 😒
December 5, 2022
Sorry but no. Just no.
I kind of liked Delilah's book and I like Astrid as a character much more than any other character that appears in this series, so why did I dislike this so much? It has the same issues as Delilah, but somehow exacerbated and maybe I thought they would go away, but seeing them again made me just fed up?
So let's start with what I enjoyed, and that is Astrid. I just want to give her a hug.
But the list of my grievances will be long and bitter:
First of all, is it really so much to ask for, from an author of sapphic romances no less, to fuckin stop misrepresenting lesbians and lesbian culture? Oh my god. There will be references to stereotypes but no actual knowledge of lesbian terms. It's literally like "wow this woman has short hair, a total soft butch", butch is not an aesthetic, I scream into the void for the millionth time. Butch and femme are like "sapphic genders", it's a serious identity. Butch means subverting and performing masculinity in rejection of male gaze. Then we have the author making a lesbian character say "I don't do cis men". I'd like to believe that Blake just doesn't know how to use the word cis, because there's a couple more unnecessary instances in the book, but this one just reads especially wrong, the implication here is both lesbophobic and transphobic. And when it comes to trans topics... This book is such an example of a shallow perception of inclusivity. You have the narrative saying shit like "she was attracted exclusively to women and nonbinary people" (yeah. that is commonly known as a lesbian. you can use the word), and generally the phrase "women and nonbinary people" repeated ad nauseam but it feels performative because there's no actual nonbinary people involved in those situations? It's like Blake knows (I hope) that nonbinary lesbians exist so why not show us one, mention an ex partner like that at least? There is one nonbinary side character and I mean, they appear in like two scenes and their whole purpose is to showcase people introducing themselves with their pronouns. Nonbinary topics don't begin and end on pronouns....
But then in general, the way Blake writes about queerness just rubs me the wrong way, it feels like it's a club for the main friend group and they want to have their "queer coven" like it's some uniform experience for everyone and not complicated an varied experiences. She feels more concerned with showing it through questionable references instead, like Delilah's "queer pillows" or Jordan naming her truck ADORA (I can't get over this).
The main conflict is also something I found rather stupid?
People were also just generally mean to Astrid in this book and it just felt shitty to read. Idk.
I will still read Iris's book but I'm not having any high hopes for it.
I kind of liked Delilah's book and I like Astrid as a character much more than any other character that appears in this series, so why did I dislike this so much? It has the same issues as Delilah, but somehow exacerbated and maybe I thought they would go away, but seeing them again made me just fed up?
So let's start with what I enjoyed, and that is Astrid. I just want to give her a hug.
But the list of my grievances will be long and bitter:
First of all, is it really so much to ask for, from an author of sapphic romances no less, to fuckin stop misrepresenting lesbians and lesbian culture? Oh my god. There will be references to stereotypes but no actual knowledge of lesbian terms. It's literally like "wow this woman has short hair, a total soft butch", butch is not an aesthetic, I scream into the void for the millionth time. Butch and femme are like "sapphic genders", it's a serious identity. Butch means subverting and performing masculinity in rejection of male gaze. Then we have the author making a lesbian character say "I don't do cis men". I'd like to believe that Blake just doesn't know how to use the word cis, because there's a couple more unnecessary instances in the book, but this one just reads especially wrong, the implication here is both lesbophobic and transphobic. And when it comes to trans topics... This book is such an example of a shallow perception of inclusivity. You have the narrative saying shit like "she was attracted exclusively to women and nonbinary people" (yeah. that is commonly known as a lesbian. you can use the word), and generally the phrase "women and nonbinary people" repeated ad nauseam but it feels performative because there's no actual nonbinary people involved in those situations? It's like Blake knows (I hope) that nonbinary lesbians exist so why not show us one, mention an ex partner like that at least? There is one nonbinary side character and I mean, they appear in like two scenes and their whole purpose is to showcase people introducing themselves with their pronouns. Nonbinary topics don't begin and end on pronouns....
But then in general, the way Blake writes about queerness just rubs me the wrong way, it feels like it's a club for the main friend group and they want to have their "queer coven" like it's some uniform experience for everyone and not complicated an varied experiences. She feels more concerned with showing it through questionable references instead, like Delilah's "queer pillows" or Jordan naming her truck ADORA (I can't get over this).
The main conflict is also something I found rather stupid?
People were also just generally mean to Astrid in this book and it just felt shitty to read. Idk.
I will still read Iris's book but I'm not having any high hopes for it.
March 11, 2024
ashley herring blake talk to a real lesbian IRL challenge
[level: impossible]
[level: impossible]
June 19, 2023
This was so cute 😭 I’m not crying, you’re crying!
July 20, 2022
I came into Astrid Parker doesn't fail with sky high expectations: while I wasn't the biggest fan of Delilah Green, it was still sitting around 4 stars for me, and given my weakness for bitchy, high-strung FMCs with mommy issues, I was expecting to love Astrid's story more. And I will say that I love Astrid and her story more--however, I was still left disappointed by this book.
Lets begin with my criticism: my main criticism is the lack of character depth given to Astrid and Jordan. They both have super compelling, interesting backstories, but I felt as though the author didn't quite know how to do those backstories justice when writing the progressions of their romance. Jordan has an especially interesting backstory with her romantic self-worth due to her relationship with her previous wife, and it was a backstory that I related a lot to. However we never see Jordan come to terms with the situation she went through which was incredibly frustrating to me. I would've liked to see both Astrid and Jordan coming to terms with the more negative aspects of their life in a more than surface level way, which does not happen.
Still, I really enjoyed the writing style, and found the romantic scenes to be very sweet and well-written. While I would've liked a bit more character progression from both Astrid and Jordan to give their romance more flow and compellingness, this book wasn't at all a chore to read, and I really enjoyed my reading experience.
Perhaps what i'm coming to terms with is that not every romance novel is going to be Beach Read by Emily Henry, which I think strikes the perfect chord between romance, romantic comedy, and womens fiction, and provides some wonderful introspection into January's (the FMC) character. I think many will absolutely love this novel, and I'm still a fan of it myself, but I won't lie and say I was satisfied. I think the book could've benefitted a lot from less of the reality TV show plot (though don't get completely rid of it ofc) and more of the beauty of Jordan and Astrid exploring themselves as emotional beings who have gone through some shit and need to recover from it.
Lets begin with my criticism: my main criticism is the lack of character depth given to Astrid and Jordan. They both have super compelling, interesting backstories, but I felt as though the author didn't quite know how to do those backstories justice when writing the progressions of their romance. Jordan has an especially interesting backstory with her romantic self-worth due to her relationship with her previous wife, and it was a backstory that I related a lot to. However we never see Jordan come to terms with the situation she went through which was incredibly frustrating to me. I would've liked to see both Astrid and Jordan coming to terms with the more negative aspects of their life in a more than surface level way, which does not happen.
Still, I really enjoyed the writing style, and found the romantic scenes to be very sweet and well-written. While I would've liked a bit more character progression from both Astrid and Jordan to give their romance more flow and compellingness, this book wasn't at all a chore to read, and I really enjoyed my reading experience.
Perhaps what i'm coming to terms with is that not every romance novel is going to be Beach Read by Emily Henry, which I think strikes the perfect chord between romance, romantic comedy, and womens fiction, and provides some wonderful introspection into January's (the FMC) character. I think many will absolutely love this novel, and I'm still a fan of it myself, but I won't lie and say I was satisfied. I think the book could've benefitted a lot from less of the reality TV show plot (though don't get completely rid of it ofc) and more of the beauty of Jordan and Astrid exploring themselves as emotional beings who have gone through some shit and need to recover from it.
May 8, 2023
in the beginning, there was a lot of words being said but it felt like nothing was actually happening. it was so rough and the interior design/renovations felt incredibly unnatural, despite them being a huge part of the plot.
the characters didn’t have much chemistry either. their development, especially when they were getting together, was lacking sm
i still have hope for iris but this was so disappointing
the characters didn’t have much chemistry either. their development, especially when they were getting together, was lacking sm
i still have hope for iris but this was so disappointing
November 26, 2022
idk this didn’t hit for me like i wanted it to 😭
i absolutely LOVED delilah green doesn’t care!! so i expected to love this as well because i was intrigued by astrid in the first book. but the characters kind of felt flat for me? i was bored most of the time. the plot wasn’t all that interesting w the whole hgtv thing. + jordan & astrid felt like they had no chemistry or much personality.
by the time i finished, i still felt like i didn’t really KNOW these characters if that makes sense. astrid had so much potential and it just wasn’t excused properly for me.
my favorite part was seeing the friend dynamic again between astrid, iris & claire. and of course seeing my baby delilah made me smile so big!!!
although this one disappointed me a bit, i’m very excited for iris’ book <3
i absolutely LOVED delilah green doesn’t care!! so i expected to love this as well because i was intrigued by astrid in the first book. but the characters kind of felt flat for me? i was bored most of the time. the plot wasn’t all that interesting w the whole hgtv thing. + jordan & astrid felt like they had no chemistry or much personality.
by the time i finished, i still felt like i didn’t really KNOW these characters if that makes sense. astrid had so much potential and it just wasn’t excused properly for me.
my favorite part was seeing the friend dynamic again between astrid, iris & claire. and of course seeing my baby delilah made me smile so big!!!
although this one disappointed me a bit, i’m very excited for iris’ book <3
January 26, 2023
my favorite part was the blatant reference to written in the stars, which astrid finds a copy of and gets off to. that was wild.
▴▴▴
otherwise, this is a serviceable sequel to delilah green doesn't care. if we're going to compare romcom series about different relationships within friend groups (which is a super fun trend by the way), i think blake is doing a decent job with this series. it does not suffer from middle book syndrome like the written in the stars series does with its second book, hang the moon. this book forms a lot of helpful connections between the characters. delilah and claire are nicely fleshed out, and it's good to see how their relationship has progressed. i also feel like i have a better understanding of iris and her emotions, which i hope will enrich the third installment when it comes out.
and, most importantly, i no longer hate astrid. i think the first book in the series did her character a serious disservice. she was the wicked stepsister, bland and uptight, and her redemption seemed to be too little, too late. but now the reader gets so much more understanding about astrid's life. we see up close how her mom's ceaseless pressure to be perfect prevented astrid from ever having the opportunity to find herself or learn what she enjoys. in this book, astrid finally has the opportunity to begin discovering who she is. her hesitant queer awakening is also very well done, and i appreciate that there's no jump toward applying labels immediately.
so, this book feels like true redemption for astrid. but she's still not my favorite character here! i felt much more drawn to sweet carpenter jordan, who is recovering from a traumatic breakup and trying to save her grandmother's beloved inn. i love jordan, and honestly, i think she deserved a larger part in the book. she has much less space for development than astrid. and while she does eventually reach closure with her meddling ex, and she does have some heartfelt moments with her grandma and her twin brother, simon, it doesn't really feel like enough development, enough depth. (also, early on jordan is described as "soft butch," and i was thrilled, but she's really... not that butch? weird and disappointing) her whole character feels a bit vague and unfinished.
and the romance is... fine. there's a decent amount of pining and sexual tension buildup, and some fun secret relationship drama. the forehead touching is very appreciated. i feel strongly that astrid needs to be called "baby," and it's good to see that happen. i also really like the inclusion of tarot cards, and the role they play in the final grand gesture. it's a super cute book, but in the end, not particularly memorable.
one of the things that feels off about delilah green doesn't care is the white feminism vibe and lack of diversity, and while this book does technically have more minor characters of color, it feels a little tokenish. blake seems to be trying very hard to be inclusive in her language as well, referring again and again to "women and nonbinary people" as though they're the same thing. the effort is appreciated, but wish it felt more natural and thoughtful. hopefully the next book can improve upon this too!
▴▴▴
otherwise, this is a serviceable sequel to delilah green doesn't care. if we're going to compare romcom series about different relationships within friend groups (which is a super fun trend by the way), i think blake is doing a decent job with this series. it does not suffer from middle book syndrome like the written in the stars series does with its second book, hang the moon. this book forms a lot of helpful connections between the characters. delilah and claire are nicely fleshed out, and it's good to see how their relationship has progressed. i also feel like i have a better understanding of iris and her emotions, which i hope will enrich the third installment when it comes out.
and, most importantly, i no longer hate astrid. i think the first book in the series did her character a serious disservice. she was the wicked stepsister, bland and uptight, and her redemption seemed to be too little, too late. but now the reader gets so much more understanding about astrid's life. we see up close how her mom's ceaseless pressure to be perfect prevented astrid from ever having the opportunity to find herself or learn what she enjoys. in this book, astrid finally has the opportunity to begin discovering who she is. her hesitant queer awakening is also very well done, and i appreciate that there's no jump toward applying labels immediately.
so, this book feels like true redemption for astrid. but she's still not my favorite character here! i felt much more drawn to sweet carpenter jordan, who is recovering from a traumatic breakup and trying to save her grandmother's beloved inn. i love jordan, and honestly, i think she deserved a larger part in the book. she has much less space for development than astrid. and while she does eventually reach closure with her meddling ex, and she does have some heartfelt moments with her grandma and her twin brother, simon, it doesn't really feel like enough development, enough depth. (also, early on jordan is described as "soft butch," and i was thrilled, but she's really... not that butch? weird and disappointing) her whole character feels a bit vague and unfinished.
and the romance is... fine. there's a decent amount of pining and sexual tension buildup, and some fun secret relationship drama. the forehead touching is very appreciated. i feel strongly that astrid needs to be called "baby," and it's good to see that happen. i also really like the inclusion of tarot cards, and the role they play in the final grand gesture. it's a super cute book, but in the end, not particularly memorable.
one of the things that feels off about delilah green doesn't care is the white feminism vibe and lack of diversity, and while this book does technically have more minor characters of color, it feels a little tokenish. blake seems to be trying very hard to be inclusive in her language as well, referring again and again to "women and nonbinary people" as though they're the same thing. the effort is appreciated, but wish it felt more natural and thoughtful. hopefully the next book can improve upon this too!
December 1, 2022
If you aren’t familiar with the sapphic Bright Falls books, Ashley Herring Blake has written two so far, beginning with Delilah Green Doesn’t Care, which I LOVED, and the newest, just released, Astrid Parker Doesn’t Fail, another big love. If you are a fan of Alison Cochrun’s books, these are a must-read, too. And if you really like the “com�� and witty banter with your “rom,” then look no further.
The home improvement show/interior design angle always intrigues me, and Astrid and Jordan were so fun to watch and each lovable and authentic. Friends to lovers is one of my favorite tropes. I also enjoyed Delilah’s cameos. This is a treat of a series, and I’m so grateful it’s continuing with Iris’s story next! Be ready for the steam. 🔥
About the book: “An interior designer learns to rebuild her love life from the ground up with zero blueprints in this new romantic comedy by Ashley Herring Blake, author of Delilah Green Doesn't Care.”
I received a gifted copy.
Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com and instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader
The home improvement show/interior design angle always intrigues me, and Astrid and Jordan were so fun to watch and each lovable and authentic. Friends to lovers is one of my favorite tropes. I also enjoyed Delilah’s cameos. This is a treat of a series, and I’m so grateful it’s continuing with Iris’s story next! Be ready for the steam. 🔥
About the book: “An interior designer learns to rebuild her love life from the ground up with zero blueprints in this new romantic comedy by Ashley Herring Blake, author of Delilah Green Doesn't Care.”
I received a gifted copy.
Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com and instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader
August 16, 2022
Update 8/2022: bumping my review down to two stars, because I read this months ago and it still looms large as one of the biggest disappointments of the year. We--and Astrid--deserve better than Jordan.
hmmm. hmmmmmmmm.
Listen, I am a pretty big fan of Delilah Green, and a VERY big fan of Ashley Herring Blake generally. I came into this book with basically as much goodwill as anyone could bring to any reading experience, and it still didn't quite work for me.
I was put off almost immediately by the internal-monologue-info-dumping that takes up basically the first 10% of the book. Both characters take a full chapter each to just think their thoughts and introduce themselves and their problems to the audience, which felt a little blunt. But once we got past that, the book flew by on a friction-free current of standard romance novel fare. There are no surprises here, which isn't really a big deal. I don't read romance novels to be surprised. But even the steamy scenes felt rote, like the characters are going through the motions of being in the book just as we, the readers, are pretending not to know how the story will end. Like, it's hard to even explain--there was a spark in Delilah, I guess is what I'm saying, and it feels like that spark burnt out somewhere between that book and this one. It reads more like a paint-by-numbers, fill-in-the-blank sort of project, with repetitive will-they-won't-they scenes that copy full sentences from one another and approximately 700 instances of someone "canting [their] head" (what does that even mean??).
There are also many, many, MANY instances of the phrase "women and nonbinary people" to mean, effectively, women, and a cringe-worthy scene where a character says that she "doesn't do cis men." I've always thought that Ashley Herring Blake handles gender thoughtfully, especially in her middle grade work, but this usage belies a more elementary, pink-hat conception of gender than I would have assumed from her. (quickly, because I'm not trying to belabor the point: if you don't understand why this phrasing is harmful, please type whatever you'd type into the comments section into a search engine instead.)
Also, please, for the love of God, Jordan could have been butch. That's more of a "I wanted this book to be a different book than the book that it is" critique, and I don't believe on quantifying that sort of feeling in my star rating, but it's still something that impacted my enjoyment of the story. Please, someone, I am screaming into the void: butch protagonists in mainstream big-deal queer romance. Please.
I'm not mad about this book, necessarily, but I did struggle to see any passion or tension or vision in it. It's just a nice romance novel starring two characters I didn't really connect with or like. Your mileage may vary!
hmmm. hmmmmmmmm.
Listen, I am a pretty big fan of Delilah Green, and a VERY big fan of Ashley Herring Blake generally. I came into this book with basically as much goodwill as anyone could bring to any reading experience, and it still didn't quite work for me.
I was put off almost immediately by the internal-monologue-info-dumping that takes up basically the first 10% of the book. Both characters take a full chapter each to just think their thoughts and introduce themselves and their problems to the audience, which felt a little blunt. But once we got past that, the book flew by on a friction-free current of standard romance novel fare. There are no surprises here, which isn't really a big deal. I don't read romance novels to be surprised. But even the steamy scenes felt rote, like the characters are going through the motions of being in the book just as we, the readers, are pretending not to know how the story will end. Like, it's hard to even explain--there was a spark in Delilah, I guess is what I'm saying, and it feels like that spark burnt out somewhere between that book and this one. It reads more like a paint-by-numbers, fill-in-the-blank sort of project, with repetitive will-they-won't-they scenes that copy full sentences from one another and approximately 700 instances of someone "canting [their] head" (what does that even mean??).
There are also many, many, MANY instances of the phrase "women and nonbinary people" to mean, effectively, women, and a cringe-worthy scene where a character says that she "doesn't do cis men." I've always thought that Ashley Herring Blake handles gender thoughtfully, especially in her middle grade work, but this usage belies a more elementary, pink-hat conception of gender than I would have assumed from her. (quickly, because I'm not trying to belabor the point: if you don't understand why this phrasing is harmful, please type whatever you'd type into the comments section into a search engine instead.)
Also, please, for the love of God, Jordan could have been butch. That's more of a "I wanted this book to be a different book than the book that it is" critique, and I don't believe on quantifying that sort of feeling in my star rating, but it's still something that impacted my enjoyment of the story. Please, someone, I am screaming into the void: butch protagonists in mainstream big-deal queer romance. Please.
I'm not mad about this book, necessarily, but I did struggle to see any passion or tension or vision in it. It's just a nice romance novel starring two characters I didn't really connect with or like. Your mileage may vary!
June 22, 2024
Astrid, jestem z Ciebie dumna.
September 19, 2023
1.5 / 5 ✰ DNF at 88.8%
I have so many problems with this book, i find the characters boring and ultimately the romance uncompelling, but most of my problems fall under 2 categories:
1. artificial and nauseating attempts at being politically correct (that ironically end up backfiring)
how do you know? did you ask what their genders were? or what their ethnicities were?
did you ask the cards if they were nonbinary? or does the packaging advertise "hey enbies and people of color on the cards", ig it could.
Every time the author wishes to refer to women she instead writes "women and nonbinary people". This is NOT inclusive! quite frankly it just seems like the author thinks nonbinary people are the same as women. I dont like this at all. Including nonbinary people in your character's language is great, but do it in an authentic way, dont just replace every "women" with "women and nonbinary people". There actually is one nonbinary character, but they are barely in the book and their entire existence seems to be just an excuse to have an extremely painful scene where everyone introduces themselves with their pronouns.
Delilah says "I don't do cis men." wtf? Does that mean she does transmen? Also, Jordan asks Astrid "Have you ever kissed [...] anyone who wasn't a cishet man?" again wtf? would it make a difference if she kissed a bisexual man? a pansexual man? this just seemed gross and weirdly gate-keepy towards Astrid. Jordan then uses this as a reason to not kiss Astrid, which really just seems a lil biphobic. Its not like Astrid was unsure of her feelings or attraction to women, she just hadnt kissed "anyone who wasn't a cishet man" before.
Despite desperately mentioning people of color and different types of queer people, all the main character are... white sapphic femmes. The one character who wasn't sapphic, Astrid, realized in this book she is. The author even had to make Ruby, Claire's 12 year old daughter, sapphic. Im usually not against fictional worlds where only gay people exist (The L Word for example lol), but it just feels a little weird in this book. There are literally no masc/butch characters (Jordan absolutely does not count), or (main cast) non-cis characters, or non-white characters, or non-sapphic characters. The author wont shut the fuck up about these groups of people, yet she simultaneously represents none of them (though that might be for the best since it would probably be superficial and poor representation if she did).
Everybody is gay, but somehow the book manages to feel so sterilized and not diverse. Like all of them came out in middle school, none of them faced backlash, nor do they currently. Even Astrid's mother, who's apparently evil, barely seems to care. I dont actually like consuming media that is heavy on homophobia and negative experiences of being queer, but weirdly this just felt way too sterilized and unrealistic.
Nothing can escape the author's need to be poorly progressive. Jordan's mother is described as having "undiagnosed depression" as if its some horrible thing, which yes, depression is horrible, but the author acts like the state of it being undiagnosed is the horrible part (lots of people technically have undiagnosed depression. the difference between undiagnosed and diagnosed is one person could be bothered to go to a doctor and have them tell them that yes, they do infact have depression). She then gets diagnosed and magically bippity boppity her depression is gone. Thats just not how that works and it felt like a forced attempt to shove mental health into this story just so the author could tick it off her "progressiveness" list without actually tackling it at all.
The funny thing is none of this would have bothered me if it just wasnt mentioned at all. I've read plenty of books without trans characters or depression being tackled and been completely fine with it. Please, just stop beating me over the head with this superficial "progressive" crappy excuse for writing.
2. story issues
Jordan is just an asshole for like the first 30% atleast. She was just very unlikeable and i found it frustrating to read. Why did Jordan (and the show's host) blame Astrid for the design as if she wasnt doing her job by providing exactly what her clients asked for and were satisfied with? None of Jordan's shitty and unprofessional behavior was remotely justified.
This book honestly just seems like the author wanted to shit on Astrid for like 300 pages. The start of the filming seemed like some weird highschool drama where everyone on the crew and Jordan were great friends whilst Astrid was excluded and left to be the awkward "loser". Astrid apparently just sucks at her job too, even though shes been doing it for several years supposedly successfully until recently. Then, Jordan comes up with the idea of , pressures Astrid into it and then ASTRID GETS BLAMED BY EVERYONE FOR IT?? And then,
*The Meredith Reveal*. This was clearly set up to be some soap opera-y reveal, which i think is a little silly to have in a story like this anyways, but fine have it. If you are gonna do it though... atleast make it make sense! The idea that
some small things:
The author clearly loves alcohol. I dont think i've ever read a book that mentioned alcohol and drinking so much. Not a big deal, im just not a fan.
The Iris-Jillian subplot with the phone swapping is very unbelievable, 1. people have different models of phones, 2. people have different phone cases, 3. did they at no point turn on the phones? Maybe its just me, but i would definitely notice if i had someone else's phone.
The super-inclusive-wow-so-diverse! tarot cards. im not personally into tarot at all so maybe im biased, but it seems so weak the way its used as a part of the romance.
And.. what is this weird exposition-y dialogue? It literally sounds like a skit.
I'm very disappointed in Astrid Parker Doesn't Fail and i was never a very big Delilah Green Doesn't Care fan to begin with. DGDC still managed to be interesting, mainly through Delilah being a compelling character, even though some of these cracks appeared. But in APDF the compelling characters are gone and the cracks are now deep crevices of politically correct bullshit. Don't read this, just read Delilah Green Doesn't Care instead.
I have so many problems with this book, i find the characters boring and ultimately the romance uncompelling, but most of my problems fall under 2 categories:
1. artificial and nauseating attempts at being politically correct (that ironically end up backfiring)
"She smiled while she put on her favorite print button-up, white with colorful merfolk of various races, ethnicities, and genders"
how do you know? did you ask what their genders were? or what their ethnicities were?
“Looks pretty diverse—not everyone is white, and there are all women or nonbinary people on the cards.”
did you ask the cards if they were nonbinary? or does the packaging advertise "hey enbies and people of color on the cards", ig it could.
Every time the author wishes to refer to women she instead writes "women and nonbinary people". This is NOT inclusive! quite frankly it just seems like the author thinks nonbinary people are the same as women. I dont like this at all. Including nonbinary people in your character's language is great, but do it in an authentic way, dont just replace every "women" with "women and nonbinary people". There actually is one nonbinary character, but they are barely in the book and their entire existence seems to be just an excuse to have an extremely painful scene where everyone introduces themselves with their pronouns.
Delilah says "I don't do cis men." wtf? Does that mean she does transmen? Also, Jordan asks Astrid "Have you ever kissed [...] anyone who wasn't a cishet man?" again wtf? would it make a difference if she kissed a bisexual man? a pansexual man? this just seemed gross and weirdly gate-keepy towards Astrid. Jordan then uses this as a reason to not kiss Astrid, which really just seems a lil biphobic. Its not like Astrid was unsure of her feelings or attraction to women, she just hadnt kissed "anyone who wasn't a cishet man" before.
Despite desperately mentioning people of color and different types of queer people, all the main character are... white sapphic femmes. The one character who wasn't sapphic, Astrid, realized in this book she is. The author even had to make Ruby, Claire's 12 year old daughter, sapphic. Im usually not against fictional worlds where only gay people exist (The L Word for example lol), but it just feels a little weird in this book. There are literally no masc/butch characters (Jordan absolutely does not count), or (main cast) non-cis characters, or non-white characters, or non-sapphic characters. The author wont shut the fuck up about these groups of people, yet she simultaneously represents none of them (though that might be for the best since it would probably be superficial and poor representation if she did).
Everybody is gay, but somehow the book manages to feel so sterilized and not diverse. Like all of them came out in middle school, none of them faced backlash, nor do they currently. Even Astrid's mother, who's apparently evil, barely seems to care. I dont actually like consuming media that is heavy on homophobia and negative experiences of being queer, but weirdly this just felt way too sterilized and unrealistic.
Nothing can escape the author's need to be poorly progressive. Jordan's mother is described as having "undiagnosed depression" as if its some horrible thing, which yes, depression is horrible, but the author acts like the state of it being undiagnosed is the horrible part (lots of people technically have undiagnosed depression. the difference between undiagnosed and diagnosed is one person could be bothered to go to a doctor and have them tell them that yes, they do infact have depression). She then gets diagnosed and magically bippity boppity her depression is gone. Thats just not how that works and it felt like a forced attempt to shove mental health into this story just so the author could tick it off her "progressiveness" list without actually tackling it at all.
The funny thing is none of this would have bothered me if it just wasnt mentioned at all. I've read plenty of books without trans characters or depression being tackled and been completely fine with it. Please, just stop beating me over the head with this superficial "progressive" crappy excuse for writing.
2. story issues
Jordan is just an asshole for like the first 30% atleast. She was just very unlikeable and i found it frustrating to read. Why did Jordan (and the show's host) blame Astrid for the design as if she wasnt doing her job by providing exactly what her clients asked for and were satisfied with? None of Jordan's shitty and unprofessional behavior was remotely justified.
This book honestly just seems like the author wanted to shit on Astrid for like 300 pages. The start of the filming seemed like some weird highschool drama where everyone on the crew and Jordan were great friends whilst Astrid was excluded and left to be the awkward "loser". Astrid apparently just sucks at her job too, even though shes been doing it for several years supposedly successfully until recently. Then, Jordan comes up with the idea of , pressures Astrid into it and then ASTRID GETS BLAMED BY EVERYONE FOR IT?? And then,
*The Meredith Reveal*. This was clearly set up to be some soap opera-y reveal, which i think is a little silly to have in a story like this anyways, but fine have it. If you are gonna do it though... atleast make it make sense! The idea that
some small things:
The author clearly loves alcohol. I dont think i've ever read a book that mentioned alcohol and drinking so much. Not a big deal, im just not a fan.
The Iris-Jillian subplot with the phone swapping is very unbelievable, 1. people have different models of phones, 2. people have different phone cases, 3. did they at no point turn on the phones? Maybe its just me, but i would definitely notice if i had someone else's phone.
The super-inclusive-wow-so-diverse! tarot cards. im not personally into tarot at all so maybe im biased, but it seems so weak the way its used as a part of the romance.
And.. what is this weird exposition-y dialogue? It literally sounds like a skit.
"I called you to offer your renovation a feature in Orchid."
It took a second for Natasha's words to sink in, but even when they did, Jordan wasn't sure she'd heard correctly.
"Orchid," she said.
"Yes."
"As in your design magazine that I see on every grocery store checkout line I've ever been in."
Natasha laughed. "And every major city newsstand across the country."
I'm very disappointed in Astrid Parker Doesn't Fail and i was never a very big Delilah Green Doesn't Care fan to begin with. DGDC still managed to be interesting, mainly through Delilah being a compelling character, even though some of these cracks appeared. But in APDF the compelling characters are gone and the cracks are now deep crevices of politically correct bullshit. Don't read this, just read Delilah Green Doesn't Care instead.
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