I've been looking to add more Own Voices into my reading repertoire and was excited for ASTRID PARKER DOESN'T FAIL. A friend really liked DELILAH GREEN DOESN'T CARE which I was not aware of until I mentioned ASTRID to them after I was finished reading. Therefore, not knowing it was part of a series, the book stands alone. There is enough background dropped that doesn't leave you wanting in ASTRID.

I love Jordan. She's bright, sassy, dresses with #goals, and seems like someone I would want to be best friends with. I loved there was a non-binary character and it was just a person in the book and not an add-on just because. Astrid's relationship with Delilah and their friends felt real and that's important.

Astrid's slow coming out was a bit halting in that in that she didn't seem to feel she was repressed but rather clues in her past were the path that lead her to recognize who she really is which was nice. And there was no shame to her reveal.

Blake recently posted on Twitter that the third and final book in the series has been completed but no ETA on publication date but I'll be sure to read it once it comes out!

Astrid Parker Doesn't Fail is the second Bright Falls book and follows Delilah's stepsister Astrid! I so excited seeing another great cover and who it was about. I really enjoyed this one, but I liked the first better. This one felt a bit more out of control/unrealistic but also made for some funny moments. The smut in it was again really good. I liked the TV aspect and there's a character with they/them pronouns! I loved getting to see more of Delilah, Claire and Ruby. The highlight of this book for me were the she-ra references.

Another solidly good F/F romance from Ashley Herring Blake. This one made me tear up a few times, which doesn’t normally happen when I read romance novels!

In this second in her Bright Falls series, we see the fallout from Astrid’s breakup with her fiancé in Delilah Green Doesn’t Care. And she’s not doing great. But, thanks to the first book in the series, we know the source of Astrid’s ice queen demeanor and the vulnerability beneath that icy exterior. Observing Astrid emerge from a lifetime of controlling behavior from her mom and find love with the adorable Jordan was lovely on so many levels.

I love that the author — white herself — provides each character’s race/ethnicity when she introduces them; no whiteness by default here. And seeing how Delilah and Astrid’s relationship has grown since the last book.

The much anticipated follow up to “Delilah Green Doesn’t Care”, has Ashley Herring Blake cementing herself as a go-to adult romance author.
“Astrid Parker Doesn’t Fail” the second in the “Bright Falls” romance series but easily holds it’s own as a standalone novel as well. I loved that I feel confident recommending this book to someone who hasn’t read the first book in the series.
This novel follows Astrid Parker, the step-sister to Delilah Green from Blake’s first book. Astrid Parker is a driven interior designer armed with impeccable fashion, snark, and some serious mommy issues. When she gets the opportunity to renovate and modernize Bright Falls most renowned Inn she jumps at the chance to kick her career up a notch. Astrid expects to excel and succeed as always, and get her foot in the door with a famous TV designer. What Astrid doesn’t expect is Jordan Everwood, her construction lead for the renovation and the confident and stubborn granddaughter of the Inn’s long time owner Pru Everwood. Jordan and Astrid have very different ideas of what the Inn needs during the big renovation, and get off to a less than stellar start as co-workers. With Astrid and Jordan butting heads, they need to decide whether they can work together to help save the Inn and navigate the growing feelings between them that may not be as hostile as they first thought.
Astrid taking the spotlight let’s the reader see behind the uptight and at times snotty Astrid that was characterized for so much of Blake’s first book. The cast of characters in this novel are funny and heartwarming, and it’s easy to see a whole series spanning out with these characters in Bright Falls.

Astrid Parkers Doesn't Fail to meet and exceed every expectation I had for Blake's sophomore Adult Romcom.

Astrid has always been perfect, from the men she has dated to her career. She has never deviated from the path her mother has always sought out for her. That is how she ended up Designing for Bight Designs, and how she becomes lead designer for a renovation at Bright Fall's coveted Everwood Inn, which is to be featured on a popular HGTV show Inside America.

Jordan's life has been in shambles. The only good thing about her life is being head carpenter for her Grandmothers renovations at their family inn. Well, it was good until she runs into the cold hearted designer who is leading the project. Jordan grew up in the Everwood inn, and see its history. While Astrid just wants everything clean and modern.

The two butt heads at every turn, from the wood of the cabinets to the color of the walls. The tension is hight, but at some point that heated tension turns into heated lust.

I loved everything about this book. Being able to see all the old characters from Delilah Green was perfect. I enjoyed seeing Astrid and Delilah work on their relationship through out the book as well. The best part of the book for me was that is a later in life coming out story, Throughout the novel we watch Astrid deconstruct the image of herself that she, more like her mother, has made for herself, and find out who she is and what she wants out of life.

Without giving much away, I thought Jordan's storyline was heart wrenching and relatable as well. Ashely wrote these characters so well and really made you feel for them every time something happened to them. I also enjoy reading Ashley's work because these characters are queer and in their 30's, which isn't very common in romcoms. It is usually younger people, and I love seeing everyone at any age getting a happy ending.

Overall this was well written, witty, medium spice and a relatable af. I would highly recommend this to anyone and everyone looking for a great romcom.

rep:
Lesbian MC, Bi or possibly pan MC, bi, lesbian, queer side characters, side biopic rep

cw
grief
emotional abuse
sexual content
homophobia
cancer
alcohol use

I enjoyed this book. This is the second book in the series, and I did not read the first book (yet - I am going to). This is the first book that I had ever read by this author, so I went in with an open mind. I had no idea what to expect. It was cute! Disclaimer: I read this book on the beach with a margarita in my hand. I had a delightful time. I was so in love with life and love and just living my best life. It made me more likely to love everything, I think. Normal at home Sho might have liked it a bit less. I have notes. 

The characters were cool. I liked Astrid and Jordan equally. I felt like "these are people I might know". They were easy to identify with. I liked Astrid's friend group. I enjoyed the pacing of the story. I enjoyed the tension of them remodeling a house together and disagreeing. The tension was good. I enjoyed it. I loved the "perfectly put together" meets "beautiful disaster" of it all. I enjoyed reading this book. I will almost certainly revisit this author. 

Now, on to the notes: A lot of this book felt like the author wanted to check all of the inclusion boxes. I'm not sure if reviews for the first one asked for more representation or if someone gave her notes that just saying "women" is limiting, but something clearly happened. The author says "women and nonbinary people" roughly as many times as S. Meyer says "it rains in Forks" the first chapter of Twilight. It does not make sense, and just felt out of touch for me.  It made it feel like she meant to say "trans women" or "female presenting" or something separately from "women" (red flag for me) and her editor was like, NOPE! Cant do that! (Of course, this is rank speculation. I'm trying to rationalize it in my mind. It does not make sense.  

The author also described the race of every character immediately. This is probably just a preference for me, but I'd rather you just describe what a person looks like than slap me with a bullet point list about them. I'll figure it out. It almost felt like every new character could have started with them having a baseball card stuck in the page. Astrid Parker: White. Cis Female. Straight (or is she? - Repressed Lesbian? Bi?). Blonde. Perfect. You can tell me all of these things without this awkwardness. If this was a first book or a very early book, I would chalk it up to "still figuring out her voice", but this author seems to have many books out, most of them with excellent reviews, so I do not really know what happened here. 

I also did not really enjoy the TV aspect of it all. I read two queer books on vacation and somehow they were both centered on TV shows that I absolutely could not get into. This isn't THAT big of a deal for me. Just a personal preference. I don't need to love every aspect of the story, I knew there was a TV show involved going in, I expected it to be exactly as it was. It was not badly done. I just wasn't into it. 

All that being said, I did enjoy reading this book. I will probably read the first book in the series. I am interested in Delilah's story. This review is already too long, so I will wrap it up. I enjoyed it. I probably would have enjoyed it less if I was any less happy in my situation. 

Trigger Warning: Jordan's ex went through cancer. She is still living and in remission, but the cancer is talked about quite a bit.

ASTRID PARKER DOESN'T FAIL was an absolutely incredible follow up to DELILAH GREEN DOESN'T CARE. With Astrid being my favorite character from the first book, I had high expectations going into this book, and they were exceeded!

What's the opposite of a meetcute? Whatever it is, that's what Jordan and Astrid have: Jordan runs into Astrid (literally), spilling coffee all over her expensive dress. Astrid screams at her and demands she pay her dry cleaning bill. Astrid is trying to revive her career as a designer by working at an inn being featured on a television show. The job becomes super awkward when she realizes the inn belongs to Jordan's family, and Jordan is working on the renovation with her.

This book is SO cute, and I can't stop thinking about it days after finishing! The tension between Astrid and Jordan is incredible, and it's such a good hate-to-love storyline. Astrid has some incredible personal development in many areas of her life - her sexuality, her career, and her relationship with her mother. Her gay panic was delightful! I love watching an uptight character spiral out of control and have to rebuild her life, so this was such a fun storyline to me. It also has some great spice scenes - how does a scene with no skin to skin contact manage to be SO hot?! I adored every minute of this book, and I know booktok will love ASTRID as much as DELILAH if not more.

Oh my god. Astrid Parker has never done anything wrong in her entire life she is completely perfect in every single way. I love love LOVED this book. Dare I say I even loved it more than the first installment of the Bright Falls series. Jordan & Astrid had my heart from the spilled coffee. Such a delightful, heartfelt, steamy book. It’s also just amazing have so many queer women on the pages together, it makes my heart feels so full honestly.

I was blessed by the @NetGalley higher powers to read Astrid Parker Doesn’t Fail by @ashleyhblake early AND DAMN IT DID NOT DISAPPOINT. Enemy’s to lovers. Bisexual awakenings. A slow burn that did not let me down. 🔥 be still my queer heart. Comes out 11/22/22 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Astrid is given the chance to do an HGTV renovation design on an historic inn. This is the perfect opportunity on a perfect project for her and she’ll do a perfect job of it what with her drive for perfection. But on her way to the first meeting a woman runs into Astrid, literally, spilling coffee over the perfect dress she’s chosen. Astrid gets very angry, very vocally angry, and who should the coffee woman be but the head carpenter on the coveted job and the granddaughter of the inn owner!

That sets the tone. Their relationship and opinions about the renovation are at odds. The film crew picks up on it and asks Astrid and Jordan to play it up a bit. But they are slowly becoming closer and are agreeing to a bit of subterfuge to keep up pretenses. Astrid’s job and life suddenly don’t seem so perfect to her anymore. But Jordan increasingly does.

This is a classic enemies to lovers tale as well as being a lesbian romance with a bit of lovers in denial thrown in. It has something for everyone.

Both of them are coming off disastrous relationships and are so vulnerable and gun shy. Astrid has never had a relationship with a woman so she’s kinda clueless at times about what is happening. And she needs to take it slow. Both are genuine and engaging and the second half of the book is really, really steamy.

I look forward to recommending this book.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I loved this book so much! It was fun, sexy and emotional in so many ways focusing on a story line about the more adult themes of queerness and finding out your queer later in life.
Astrid was such a star in this book. She was honest and real with just the right amount of feeling like your growing into your parents.
Jordan. Sweet Jordan. I thought she was the sweetest thing while also having a strong sense of self and not being written as just ‘love interest’. Both women were strong and coupled each other perfectly. I wasn’t groaning reading one part and waiting for the next, both were equally amazing.
I adored the queer culture in the book from the tarot to the books to the casualness of just being queer as an adult.
This book had me giggling and screaming at the characters. And maybe a few tears were shed too. What can I say? I believe in destiny.

Thank you to Berkeley and NetGalley for sending me the eARC for an honest review.

This is really sweet (and spicy!) rom com. The characters are diverse and well-rounded and I really liked how the plot didn't fall into any of the traditional romance tropes.

This was a bit of a slow start, but once the clothes start dropping the story and character development flew off the page. An A+ followup to Delilah Green

Thank you Net Galley for the digital arc! Ashley Herring Blake does it again. And she does it so well. I fell in love with Delilah Green, and fell in love with Astrid Parker just the same. This is a wonderful story of creating yourself, feeling comfortable in your own skin, and falling in love, and so much more. I really enjoyed the interior design aspects of this too, it was great for sense of place and visual appeal. Ashley Herring Blake’s writing style is so captivating and unique, it is truly impossible to turn away. Phenomenal book, and I’m already so excited to read the next. Can’t wait to purchase this in November! This is a MUST READ! ⭐️

This was AMAZING! I loved it!! I wasn’t as into the first one but I loved Astrid’s relatable perfectionism and her and Jordan were so cute together! Also there’s a shoutout to other queer romance novels in this. Love it!!

A truly delightful sequel to Delilah Green Doesn't Care. Light-hearted, enemies-to-lovers, slow burn. Excellent, steamy sex scenes. Did not fall into any miscommunication tropes (which is something personally I don't care for). All around, an excellent read!

The second book in the Bright Falls series is another fun, LGBTQ+ romance. In this one, Astrid is trying to pick up the pieces of her life after a failed engagement ( that we saw play out in Delilah Green Doesn’t Care). She is a naturally uptight personality and is even more high strung as she embarks on her latest job— designing the inn in town. It’s even being featured on a reality design show. But on day one, she collides, literally, with Jordan, the carpenter on the job. Then Astrid is forced to change her plans in many ways.

I like this series and find the characters to be interesting. There are some spicy scenes, and it is nice to see a variety of queer characters represented. Read Delilah Green first to get a fuller picture of the setting and the friend group.

Ashley Herring Blake does it again with Astrid Parker Doesn't Fail, and is quickly becoming one of my favourite authors with her Bright Falls series. Taking an unlikeable character and turning her into someone we can empathize with, relate to, and really love and root for is something that made this book stand out to me. Not only that, but I love the way the author explores coming out in your later years with Astrid, which is something not often represented in queer stories. Moreover, despite being a queer love story, the central messaging in this romance is one that I think is universal, making this a book that I would recommend to everyone and anyone who has ever struggled with challenging parental expectations, discovering your passions, and learning how to be confident in who you are.

A delightful, enemies to lovers sapphic romance. I didn’t feel as attached to the build up in this one as Delilah Green, but it was still a sweet read. Any romance fan will love this cute read.

I am officially obsessed with this author. She is so good at plucking the heartstrings and, erm, other strings. She is quickly becoming an instant-buy author, and I'll rec her to anyone looking for romance with style and substance.