3.75 stars. After LOVING Delilah, I was so excited to spend more time with the Bright Falls trio. This was cute, but didn't live up to the first for me. There was lots to love here - I just adore Astrid and watching her discover and understand her bisexuality was super charming, and the glimpses we got of Iris, Claire and Delilah were the best (especially her chat with Delilah after her dream!). However, it really bothered me that Astrid was treated as the villain of this story multiple times. The beginning was even weird to me - yelling at someone after they knock you over, spill coffee all over you, and break your shoe seems like a very natural stress response? Also, it was JORDAN's idea to lie and yet somehow Astrid got labeled as the bad person here, and Astrid did half the design but Jordan ended up with all the credit. I also thought Jordan as a character was lovely but a bit inconsistent - didn't love her shoutout to therapy but then no mention of it again, nor was there any acknowledgement of anything she might have learned in therapy (it seems like she really, really still needed it). I'm still very excited for Iris' story next and can't wait to spend more time with these ladies, I just think Astrid deserved to be treated a bit better (and would have loved for this book to end with HER in therapy lol).

The Bright Falls series by Ashley Herring Blake is absolutely top tier sapphic romance. I didn't fall for these characters to the same extent as the pair in the first book, Delilah Green Doesn't Care, but I'm sure there are people with the exact opposite experience—definitely give the whole series a chance! While the central 2 weren't as effective for me this sequel had the same care for its characters and the same focus on the importance of great friendships and family connections. I love that just about every kind of relationship is given care and attention.

Also, if Ashley Herring Blake isn't already receiving a stipend from the California Dreaming vibrator company, they should really get on that, stat.

When I heard that this book was going to be a thing, I was a little upset. Because I was not a fan of Astrid in the first book. But I know that just because she was rude, it didn’t make her any less deserving of love. So I decided to give her a chance…. And although she was a lot more mellow at the end of this, it took a rando lady who was also mean to get her there.

Ok so let’s start with the characters. I disliked everyone in this book besides the twin bro and the grandma. Neither of which are the main characters lol They were the most mellow and knew how to talk to people. Like the book opens with Astrid mad at Jordan because they ran into each other and had an accident. And like she was mad at the wrong things. Like she was mad at her dress, not at the fact that that shit was probably hot. She didn’t even mention that lol It was weird. I thought she got what she deserved when she saw who Jordan was. BUT Jordan was also terrible. She kept saying it wasn’t personal and stuff like that, but man, it really felt that way. Especially since neither one of them wanted to talk about anything. And then when they did, Jordan never really said exactly how much it meant to her. She always just beat around the bush about things. And y’all know nothing boils my blood more than miscommunication. And speaking of that, I was really pissed at the way they were doing Astrid. Like she was following what Simon told her. I don’t understand why nobody was mad at him?! Like why was this her fault? And I got mad at her because when they showed the first sign of disagreement, she should have quit, if nothing else to save face. I know she wanted that exposure, but man, this whole thing just was stupid.

The writing style of this was just ok. I didn’t like this one nearly as much as I liked Delilah Green. If I hadn’t been so mad at the characters, I think I would have enjoyed it more. I would have enjoyed it more if there was more about the legend of the house or the tarot reading. But I felt like that was left out to make sure that Astrid was in the wrong in the way she was planning. This annoyed me because it felt like things were happening to further the plot? If that makes sense. Because so much of this book would have worked if they had just talked.

The romance was weird. I know this was an enemies to lovers romance, but this was a little weird. I never got the clear line of them crossing from enemies to lovers. It just seemed they were attracted to each other and then they began to hate each other less and less. But it was never really clear when that line was crossed. I think I wanted more of a definition. I think it’s because I’m not one who likes enemies to lovers books, so that actual line was needed for me. And even when they were finally together, Jordan didn’t trust that woman. She only had to see one person and listen to what she was saying to have everything come falling down. Like if that’s all it took, for someone you claim you don’t even like, what’s going to happen when it’s someone else that you can actually tolerate? Idk, that just rubbed me the wrong way. (And let’s not just talk about the fact that she was a terrible person and TRASH for what she did in the end. Because babyyyyyy I will be here all day.)

The ending was also just ok to me. There isn’t any background to the tarot that they keep talking about, so it just seemed weird that it kept being used in the surface level. I wanted to know more about her doing and why she started and why it was important to her. Like it was just casually slipped in there. And yes I know that there’s the reason she started it in there but there’s no explanation and the whole thing is merely mentioned. But I wanted more. Especially if it’s used in the grand gesture. I thought it needed more than what it was given. The epilogue was cute and I was glad it gave a little checkin with the characters. Expecially Astrid because I felt really bad with the way things ended for her. Even as someone who wasn’t a fan of her, I didn’t care for how things happened for her.

This book wasn’t as good as the first, but it did help me get interested in the other characters. Which I realized might have been the plan when I saw that there was Iris’ book coming out next year. But she was always my favorite character, so I was already excited. But I am super excited to see what’s going to happen. Hopefully their book is more like Delilah’s.

In the much anticipated sequel to Delilah Green Doesn't Care, Ashely Herring Blake has hit it out of the park once again with Astrid Parker doesn't fail. Even though we are building on a pre-existing character from the previous book, it's exciting to see what will happen to Astrid.
While I was slightly disappointed that her familial relationship with Delilah was barely in the background, I was glad to see her grow away from the toxic relationship she had with her mother.
The new cast of background characters felt just as real and flushed out as any of the others. This book is a can't miss for anyone who is a fan of the first book!

Source 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.

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.

If there’s one thing you know about me, it’s that I fell head over heels in love with Ashley’s writing with Delilah Green Doesn’t Care. So obviously, I am over the moon in love with Astrid’s story (perhaps… even a little more?)⁣
⁣
Astrid Parker is Miss Perfect. Everything must go according to plan. She doesn’t fail. ⁣
⁣
Jordan Everwood is a mess. She has a broken heart. She’s lost her touch when it comes to carpentry, her passion.⁣
⁣
What happens when opposites collide - literally, outside a coffee shop? Chaos, romance, and a whole lot of sexual tension (my GOD)⁣
⁣
I am literally obsessed with this book. Ashley made me laugh, smile, and cry my eyes out on more than one occasion. I cannot tell you just how much Astrid and Jordan’s journeys resonated with me, and how empowered and inspired I felt. ⁣
⁣
If there’s one book you need to read this year, it’s this one. So go get it! Now!!!

Astrid Parker is freaking out. Her life is slowing down. Except for when she crashes into that woman. And spills coffee all down her dress. The dress that makes her ass look fantastic. And on the day that she's supposed be filming for a TV series that will help her decorating business get out of it's slump. Her mother is already on her back, her business is doing horribly, and this is just the straw that breaks the camel's back. She goes off on the woman. Too bad this is the granddaughter of the hotel owner and the leader carpenter.
Jordan Everwood hasn't exactly had an easy time of it lately. Her former wife was dealing with cancer which meant that Jordan was going through it as well. Now her family home (sure she only spent summers there but that is where she felt loved) is being turned into something she doesn't even recognize.
The two are slow to come to some sort of middle ground and I'm not entirely certain of the HEA but it was still a fun read.

Four stars
This book comes out November 22, 2022
Follows by Delilah Green Doesn't Care
ARC kindly provided by Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

I knew from the moment I finished Delilah's book that I was going to love Astrid's book. I so related to her uptight, trying to please everyone ways and I immediately felt a connection to her when I picked up this book. I loved watching Jordan break down her walls. I loved the relationship the two of them formed together. I loved the backdrop of the inn and the renovation. And of course, I loved Astrid's friend group once again. I'm very much hoping Iris and Simon get a book of their own because I don't want this series to end!

This review is in exchange for a Netgalley eARC.

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I adored Delilah Green Doesn't Care, and when I saw the author's sequel starring Astrid on Netgalley, I applied for an ARC immediately. Prickly characters are some of my favorite to read, because there's always some event (or several) which makes them move a little different through the world of romance than your typical hero/heroine. It takes the love interest more time to peel back those layers, and it takes trust from the MC to allow that to happen. Astrid Parker had all the makings of a great prickly MC, and I may have pined over the love interest's description and image on the cover. All systems are ago.

Where I struggled with this book was the pacing. The storytelling didn't have a hold on me like the first book. I kept putting the book down. This may have been a me problem, not a book problem, but when I really love a book, I will use every spare moment I have to keep reading. Unfortunately, that was not the case for me with this book.

Now for the things I loved. I -loved- the initial setup of Astrid knee-jerk reacting to her favorite ivory dress getting ruined on a big important day. I also really liked the callouts to other books without naming them. Written in the Stars, The Intimacy Project... yes. Also, I want Iris's bookshelves. And the attention to detail on the Inn's renovation with all those beautiful descriptions? Yes, please!

Overall, I gave this book a 4/5. All the framework is there for a great book, and it certainly checks all the romance must haves. There was just something about the pacing that didn't do it for me.

This had so many good parts. Such great representation and female empowerment- I am legit looking for a clit necklace to buy now. Multiple underlying messages that are just beautiful. I found a little bit of myself in Astrid and I really loved watching her come into herself. I actually found a little bit of myself in most of these characters. A really beautiful, impactful read.

And Spicy! 18+ multiple scenes
Pretty good build up. Intense passion but slow to actual action.

Easy read to follow and understand.

Second in an interconnected standalone series. One of the better books like this where there is enough recap that I don’t think you’d have to read book 1 to follow.

Lesbian
Non-binary
Bisexual
Mentions of trans persons (no character) and pan sexuality

Special thanks to Netgalley and Berkley Publishing Group for this digital ARC.

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. [SPOILER I was really unhappy about how the credit was actually given for the design. While yes, the main idea had totally changed and that wasn’t Astrid, but the idea was raw, and they said Astrid used her designer eye to make things work and to do things Jordan didn’t know how to do. They worked non-stop night after night, and Astrid thought they should have shared credit, but Jordan said no because they are supposed to be “enemies” …. And then when shit hits the fan all that work Astrid did for months means nothing? It was all Jordan? Raw ideas yes, but Astrid getting no credit for all her work just didn’t sit with me. (hide spoiler)]

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.

Okay Ashley Herring Blake! How are both of this author’s books SO good?! I loved their first one and I loved this one. I know Astrid is suppose to come off as cold, snobby, etc but I loved her! She reminds me a lot of myself and I completely empathized with her need to please her mother. Her and Jordan were just so swoon worthy together. I loved their somewhat enemies to lovers story. I can’t wait to see read Lila’s story next!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

This was a teeny bit of a disappointment for me after having loved Delilah Green Doesn't Care so much, but it was still good! Just not a favorite.

We're following Delilah's Type A sister, Astrid, and another character named Jordan as they fall in lurve. Astrid has been hired as the designer for the renovation of the Everwood Inn, a locally famous inn that is supposedly haunted. They are televising the renovation on Innside America and Astrid feels like this is the last chance she has to save her dying business. Jordan has just been fired from her carpenter job in Savannah and has come home to lick her wounds, and get a sort of second chance herself by being the lead carpenter on the reno. They clash immediately.

Something about this just didn't gel perfectly for me. It felt a little bit labored. I'm not sure how else to explain it. Plus, there was so much going on in each character's head, I feel like their time together getting to know each other got short shrift. I wanted more from it. I also thought Jordan's arc worked much better than Astrid's did, unfortunately, since she's the title character. It did all work and I liked it, but it also didn't have the magic for me that the first book did. Maybe because Delilah wasn't the main character (her scenes in this one were highlights of the book).

[3.5 stars]

Astrid Parker Doesn’t Fail is book two in Ashley Herring Blakes, Bright Falls series. Thanks so much to Berkley for this advanced copy to review (out now)! Book one in this series, Delilah Green Doesn’t Care, is one of my all time favorites so I’ve been very eagerly awaiting this one.

APDF is an enemies to lovers workplace romance about an interior designer and a carpenter who learn they have to work together on a renovation project after a disastrous first meeting. It’s funny and sexy and a little bit magical and has:

- a charming old inn that may or may not be haunted by a meddlesome, matchmaking ghost
- lesbian/bisexual pairing with a queer awakening
- opposites attract, workplace rivals in a small town setting
- a very cathartic demo day scene
- a tarot inspired grand gesture
- tons and tons of behind the scenes details for HGTV lovers
- lots of cameos from Claire, Delilah, and the rest of the gang
- some very steamy steam that left me wondering if I’ll ever look at a walk in pantry the same way again

I did not love this one quite as much as its predecessor but still enjoyed it immensely and cannot wait for book 3!

*Received as a free ARC*
I absolutely adored this book! It was sweet and fluffy, with just a hint of angst. I loved the focus on how it's never too late to learn about yourself and your identity. I also deeply related to both Astrid and Jordan's anxiety and fear about not having their lives perfectly together. I'd absolutely recommend this to fans of adult queer romance.

This was another incredible installment from Bright Falls. Astrid is perfection personified just like in Delilah, but this time we get to see her falling apart and questioning everything including who she is and what she wants. Then there Jordan who is recovering from a life-changing loss but knowing exactly who she is and what she wants....right? When they meet they are immediately oil and water which makes this story that much better for the reader. We get so much more of the friendship between Astrid, Claire, Iris, and now Delilah that makes my heart melt. The budding romance between Astrid and Jordan is sweet, and confusing, and for both of them life altering. They both discover things about themselves they never even knew and I absolutely loved every second of this book and hope we get more books from my favorite little north western town.

This book was a delightful read. Both Astrid and Jordan were well fleshed-out characters. Astrid especially, with her fear of failure and her need for perfection, and her baby queerness, was so relatable. Both Astrid and Jordan are at a crossroads and this renovation is a chance for both to truly figure out what they want in life. For Astrid, it is an attempt to save her company but as we learn through the book, to break out from under her mother’s thumb and discover what truly makes her happy. For Jordan, it is healing from a painful breakup that shook her foundation and to rediscover her passions. There is a bit of enemies to lovers like conflict but more of the differences in opinions between Astrid and Jordan that just enflame their attraction.

This is a story of growth, for both Jordan and Astrid. While they have really supportive people in their lives, they are really forced to take time and examine what they want and what makes them happy. This story, while about women in their 30’s, has a bit of a coming to age feel to it. It shows that the reader that they’re never to old to make changes and that it is important to find the things in life that make you happy. There is a lot about this book that really resonates with me as a reader and as someone considering the next steps in her own life. I really appreciated this story and thought it was absolutely beautiful!

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for allowing me to read this ARC!

Content Warning: cancer, cheating, emotional abuse (parental), verbal abuse (parental).


Astrid Parker has her life together. Although she's established herself as an ultra-successful interior designer, business hasn't exactly been booming lately, which is exactly why she needs all the exposure from Innside America that she can get. Filming an episode of the renovation of the local Everwood Inn, where Astrid is the lead designer, is just what she needs -- but what she doesn't expect is that she'll butt heads with the carpenter granddaughter of the inn's owner, Jordan Everwood. Jordan is dealing with her own personal issues and failure, and she's not in the best state of mind to deal with what she thinks of as Astrid's "uninspired" design for the inn. But against all odds, Jordan and Astrid find themselves growing closer, even as the showrunners encourage them to have on-camera conflict... and Astrid begins to realize that everything she thought she knew about herself might not be true after all.

I reviewed Delilah Green Doesn't Care on this blog previously, and if you've read that post, you'll know that I absolutely adore it. I'm not huge on contemporary romances, let alone romcoms, but it really struck a chord with me that no other romance has managed to before. Her characters were relatable, the romance was just the right amount of fluffy and serious, and the entire book was just plain fantastic. However, with all of that being said... I'm afraid to say that Astrid Parker Doesn't Fail simply didn't satisfy me in the way the first book did.

Since this book is, first and foremost, a romance, I think the main issue is that Jordan and Astrid never feel quite as convincing, or as interesting, as Claire and Delilah were. Even when you don't compare the two books, many of the scenes between them are not that engaging. While I like both of them individually, the sparks between them feel sometimes lukewarm. Most of Blake's books have a lot of infodumping, and this one was no exception, but while typically I don't mind it, it felt as if it was doing most of the emotional footwork for the characters in this, never leaving any subtlety to their emotions or motivations. Instead of letting us (and Astrid and Jordan) figure it out for ourselves, we're told how they feel, why they feel it, and then they're immediately sent on the way to fix it.

The scene that sticks out most to me is when Astrid and Jordan go to the theater, and it's probably the best scene in the book, but I also wondered why they were divulging all of these secrets to one another, alcohol notwithstanding. It just felt... a little strange, and they hadn't quite had the development to make it seem believable. The narrative is punctuated by issues like these.

It's not that this book is awful (it's not), but none of it is really convincing. I also have to address how corny this book often is, and not in a cute way. Of course, it's kind of a given that when you read a cute romance (particularly one with comedic elements), there will be some corny moments, but it's usually the kind of corny that makes you smile. In this case, it made me cringe.

One more thing: Blake's takes on race and gender in this one made me pause. She uses the term "women and nonbinary people" pretty much nonstop, and I hate this. I hate this so much. Why does she conflate women with nonbinary people? What about people who associate themselves with masculinity? What about transmac people, who still identify as nonbinary or genderfluid? I could just go on about this, and it just struck me as so odd. She also describes everyone race first in this book, which felt really weird.

So, would I recommend it? To Blake's fans, probably. If you're a big fan of the romance genre, I think you'll probably enjoy this one, even if it's not the best you've ever read. For me, it was a bit of a drag: not the best, not the worst. I'll leave it up to you wise people whether you decide to pick it up or not!

Astrid Parker Doesn’t Fail comes after Delilah Green Doesn’t Care, but I read them out of order (as I often do) and it was fine!

I loved it. Interior designer working on historic inn reno for a TV show meets the inn’s granddaughter (who is also the carpenter for the reno).

The meet cute is dramatic so there’s a bit of the enemies to lovers trope, there’s a lot of self discovery, there’s some excellent steam, and there’s great characters (both main and secondary) with good representation.

Oh, and there might be a ghost!

Sound interesting? Go grab it! I’m already looking forward to the next one.

Ever since the end of Delilah Green doesn't care, I have been excited to see Astrid Parker's story unfold. This definitely did not disappoint. My attention was immediately captured. I loved the balance between the characters and their personal stories and the actual plot of renovating this apartment. I related so heavily to Astrid so it was refreshing. In the end, I was super happy and felt like I had a good ending.