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

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She’ll stick to her commitment-free hookups, thanks very much, except no one in her life will just let her be. I wonder if I built up book one too much and maybe I didn’t actually love it as much as I thought i did. The problem is that in a story motivations to not do things are a huge drag on the plot—particularly considering the fact that most negative motivations are overcome by the character simply deciding they don't care any more (or, rather, that they do care and are now motivated to do the thing). And that brings us to Delilah Green, the town of Bright Falls, and their creator, Ashley Herring Blake.

Which means eventually, the reader is rooting for the character to get over him/herself already and do the thing we want them to do.If I have to, though, I’ll settle for Delilah Green cameos in every single one of Blake’s future novels. This entry was posted in Lesbrary Reviews and tagged ****, anxiety, Ashley Herring Blake, biphobia, bisexual, bright falls, bright falls series, F/F, f/f romance, fake dating, fauxmance, iris kelly doesn’t date, liv, Oregon, reality tv, renovation, romance, small town, small town romance, trauma by Liv. Iris Kelly is struggling to get her love life together because she's "really good at sex" but struggles in relationships.

It seems like in the previous book, everything was Astrid's fault and she was not allowed to be hurt. With Iris, I really related to the way everyone in her life was constantly pressuring her to live life the way they thought was best. this wasn't a perfect book, but what it was was cute and frustrating and angsty and OHMYGODTHESECHARACTERSARESOSTUPIDPLEASEJUSTTALKTOEACHOTHER. Ah yes, so, it turns out that “throwing every single queer stereotype at the wall and seeing what sticks” worked for me for precisely one book. Once again I wish I’d listened to the first book because as much as I loved it, I regret not hearing a book choke-full of Delilah Green.I felt the representation was great and loved how the author addressed that being an actor and dealing with anxiety are not mutually exclusive and that playing a part can be an escape for those who suffer from anxiety to get out of their own head and take on a new persona.

Jennifer Crusie blogged about it a bit back (or, if that link doesn't work, here's a cache of the original) and it changed how I understand story. My main critique of this book is that it seemed like Blake had a checklist of every single marginalized identity while writing this and there was someone holding a gun to her head and threatening to pull the trigger if she didn’t mention at least several of them per page.I must start by saying that this is a very biased review because for me Ashely Herring Blake can do no wrong and this was proven by the final book in the series, Iris Kelly doesn’t Date. It’s a bummer that I didnt connect with Stevie that much, bc I can DEF relate to her anxiety, particularly abt dating/meeting new ppl (not quite to her levels, but, still) but I never rlly did. The book doesn't even give the poor guy any lines, but makes a point to mention him again, this time by the narrator: "It was two gay men - one of them trans(.