It is a delight to be back in Bright Falls amongst the coven of close knit friends.
This time it’s Astrid’s story and she confusingly finds herself falling for a female carpenter on a big-deal televised renovation where she is the lead designer.
Lots of pining and swoon worthy declarations, plus one of my favorite grand gestures I have ever read. I can’t wait for Iris’s turn next year.

I loved Astrid Parker Doesn’t Fail just as much (maybe more, I keep going back and forth) as Delilah Green Doesn’t Care. The cast from Bright Falls returns, this time adding the Jordan and Everwood family as new characters.

Although this could be read as a standalone, having the familiar characters return from book one is so great. It’s nice to get updates from beloved characters and the scene is set for what will be in store for Iris’ book.

The dedication, ‘For everyone who figured it out a little later in life’, had me tearing up and really set the tone for the way Astrid’s arc was handled. I enjoyed watching Astrid grow as a character and loved the way her coming to terms with her new attraction was handled.

Astrid and Jordan’s relationship is a delightful rollercoaster of tension. I think Jordan’s characterization was great, and I felt like I was falling for her alongside Astrid. For a romance book I’d consider it a slower burn but worth the wait!

Thanks to Berkley and NetGalley for sending me the eARC for review consideration, however all opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed Astrid in Delilah Green Doesn't Care, and was so excited to see that she got her own book! That being said, I felt like Astrid didn't shine as brightly in Astrid Parker Doesn't Fail? I don't know what it was, but something was missing in this book for me and I just felt really let down.. I felt like a lot of this book was more tell than show, and I wanted to see more out of Astrid? I just felt like there wasn't a lot of character growth, I think...

Delilah Green Doesn't Care took us all by storm last year for a good reason. I thought that there was no way the second book could possibly meet up to it, but, for me, Astrid Parker Doesn't Care surpassed even Delilah Green. Did it help that there were several She-Ra references and that Astrid and Jordan are totally Adora and Catra without, you know, being in space? Yes, yes, it did. But I also love how seamlessly Blake manages to fit themes of romance, trauma, abandonment, and friendship into one book. It was truly a delight to read - so much so that I read it all in one day. I have a feeling this will be one of my top books of 2022.

A great next installment in the Bright Falls series! I loved Astrid and Jordan's character development; it was so nice seeing them grow as individuals in their professional and personal lives, and also together as a couple. Astrid's desire for perfection and to please her mother personally struck close to home for me. I think readers will appreciate her internal struggle to become the best version of herself that is different from what's expected of her. Ashley Herring Blake is a phenomenal writer and I look forward to reading Iris' story!

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book. I loved the first book in the series, and while this one wasn't quite as strong, I still enjoyed it. It was nice to check in on Claire & Delilah, and I wish there'd been a bit more of them in this one. It's the same style of generally good, funny, sexy & romantic queer love.

I am absolutely over the moon for this book. Astrid and Jordan picked up my heart and ran away with it in an Instant upon their very first meeting. They are messy and wild and sexy and funny as hell. I want to see this renovation I want to stay at this Inn I want to live in the world of this book. What an incredible addition to the series that only leaves you wanting more and more from this group of found family!

I've been on a sapphic kick this month and Astrid Parker Doesn’t Fail by Ashley Herring Blake is going down as one of my favorites! Designer Astrid Parker and carpenter Jordan Everwood get off on the wrong foot when they first meet and struggle to put differences aside as they work together on a reality tv show to renovate Jordan's grandmother's inn.

From a meet disaster to secretly working together, I loved the way that Astrid and Jordan clashed and then came together. Astrid is a character who now has a special place in my heart because there were so many parts of her arc and journey that resonated with me. Meeting Jordan is the catalyst that sets Astrid off on a journey of exploring her bisexuality and learning to go after all of the things she wanted in life. She transforms from someone who was brittle and breaking under the pressures of a future she never asked for to someone daring to take risks, and I loved how take charge she was in pursuing Jordan.

Jordan is equally special—a character who is struggling to let go of feelings of inadequacy after being left by a partner who made her feel less than what she is. Her path of recognizing that she is worthy of love, that her talents deserve to be celebrated, that she is someone worth fighting for and believing in, really hit me in the heart.

Add in a supportive queer friend group, the perfect balance of humor and levity to contrast the real human emotions at the core, and some truly delicious sexual tension—and this was a winner for me all around. It was a book that I never wanted to put down when I was reading it, and it has me so excited to go back and read the first book in the series (Delilah Green Doesn't Care).

This book publishes in November and I can't wait to have a physical copy for my shelves. AHB has a helpful list of CWs on her website to check out before you dive in.

Another fantastic queer novel from Ashley Herring Blake. I didn't think I liked romance novels until I started reading hers. They're fun, sweet, sexy, and engaging.

I was ecstatic to get the chance to even apply for this book, as I had just recently finished (or more accurately, devoured) Delilah Green. Similarly, I read this title in just under 24 hours.

Astrid's tale is one that doesn't feel as if it's drawing out the world, rather it feels as if it's building on a place that was missing from the first book. As I finished Delilah, I knew I wanted more from her friend's stories. Astrid's story felt right into that place.

I was concerned the queerness with Astrid would feel inauthentic with her history, but its as exactly the opposite. As someone who came into their queer identity later in life than most, I feel deeply connected to her in a way I didn't with Delilah (even though I loved that book just as much).

I also found the callbacks to Delilah were strong and well placed, as were the small hints of foreshadowing that seem to point to Iris's upcoming story (which I can only hope will have a pink cover so the trilogy is bi).

A small note is that there are small grammar errors (but it is an ARC, of course), and I found that the text messages needed some reformatting for clarity.

Besides that, Blake does a wonderful job at creating characters who are equally aware and fully unaware of what they want or need. It was great representation and the story flies by. Totally recommend, and thank you again to Berkley for giving me a chance to read and review!

3.5 this truly took me forever to read and was putting me in a slump. I just don’t care about Astrid. I did like that she came out later in life because I did too so I really connected to her in that way but otherwise idk. The smut level was spicy and I think it was even better than Delilah so I’m glad I read it but it wasn’t my favorite.

just finished this ARC !! super cute follow up to delilah green doesn’t care, but i felt like it was missing something. in the first book we had both delilah & claire as well as the drama with astrid and her then fiancé, but this time it felt like we only focused on astrid and jordan. still loved and recommend but it’s not an instant 5 star read like the last one was for me. excited to hear that the next installment is all about Iris !!!

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

This book was EVERYTHING I wanted. I was hooked from the first chapter. This was one of my most anticipated reads of this year after absolutely loving Delilah Green Doesn't Care and it did not disappoint.

Astrid, an uptight, high-strung perfectionist is hired to do an interior design job for the Everwood Inn, one that's going to be featured on a reality TV show. This is especially important for her to get right, as her career is in a bit of a slump.

Enter Jordan Everwood, granddaughter of Pru Everwood, the owner of the inn, and lead carpenter on the project. She's trying to get her life back together after it completely fell apart, and having to deal with Astrid (especially after their first encounter) is definitely challenging.

The tension between Astrid and Jordan was immaculate, and their banter was amazing. I was already looking forward to a book about Astrid, because I relate to her (maybe a little bit too much), but Jordan's character was such as nice surprise. I loved both of them so much. I was so invested in their story that I was (not infrequently) talking to the book (and sometimes yelling).

Plus, the other character's were featured nicely. It was good to read a bit about Delilah and Claire again, and now I'm also really excited for Iris' book.

Astrid Parker needs to catch a break. After calling off her engagement the previous year, things have been going downhill. Her overbearing mother is making her displeasure at Astrid's situation known, her interior design business is struggling, and it seems like everyone around her has great romantic relationships. When she is given the opportunity to renovate a historic inn in her small city of Bright Falls--on a popular HGTV show to boot!--she jumps at the opportunity. But life has a way of never working out the way you expect.

Jordan Everwood’s life has also taken a sharp turn downward. Newly single and struggling to stay afloat emotionally, Jordan is happy to return to the inn that has been in their family for generations and to act as lead carpenter for the renovation. The morning the camera crew is going to roll into town, Jordan picks up coffee for her family when she *literally* runs into a woman, spilling coffee all over her white dress. She leaves the interaction shaken and with her name in the other woman’s phone as “Delightful Human Who Ruined Your Ugly Dress."

The last thing either of them expects is another run in but when they make their way to the Everwood Inn, Astrid and Jordan are thrown together professionally and personally. Will they be able to set their differences aside to renovate the inn? Can they put on happy faces for the cameras? Will they be able to agree on any aspect of the design? Who knows!

Just kidding, I know, lol. I was a HUGE fan of the first novel in this series—Delilah Green Doesn’t Care—and I think this book continues the story wonderfully. I was beside myself when I saw the first chapter of Astrid’s book at the end of Delilah and I have been anxiously waiting for it to make its way to NetGalley. I am happy to report that Astrid Parker Doesn’t Fail lives up to my own hype.

I thought Jordan and Astrid were really great characters. I enjoy the grumpy/sunshine trope and Ashley Herring Blake incorporates that into these characters beautifully. Each have their own backstories, emotional hang ups, mental health issues, and fears that work to create great tension and obstacles to overcome. It was really fun to see how Claire and Delilah are doing and AHB also set up Iris’ story very nicely (speaking of……I need Iris’ HEA right now, lol).

My favorite part of this book was the tension. I’m a big fan of will-they/won’t-they and that is alllll hereeee. That being said, Astrid is slower paced than Delilah. I personally think it works best here and I was waiting on the edge of my seat, but I can see it being a little bit of a surprise. Overall, I give this a resounding 5/5 stars and I am, once more, holding my breath until Iris Kelly Doesn’t Date makes it’s way to publication.

Couple quick fun comments before I round this out. I waited until I finished She-Ra to start this just because I knew I couldn’t handle any more angst and imagine my surprise that Jordan's truck is named Adora and she has a cat named Catra. It was SO FUN to see two explicit She-Ra references in the first few pages and it felt serendipitous.

Ashley Herring Blake also makes references to other queer romance books that have recently been published. It felt like I was part of an inside joke when I realized Astrid was looking at Written in the Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur and Love and Other Disasters by Anita Kelly. (There were two others mentioned as well but I don’t remember them off the top of my head).

**BIG thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC copy in exchange for an honest review!

Allow me to begin pessimistically - my hopes were not high. I was happily surprised however - I liked this book a lot more than I liked "Delilah Green Doesn't Care". While this book shared some flaws with its predecessor, the things that annoyed me most about DGDC were not a problem here. The pacing of this book worked a lot better and most importantly, Astrid and Jordan's romance felt like the focal relationship of the plot. Don't get me wrong, I love the side characters in both books, but in the first book I felt that the step-sister relationship eclipsed the romance. I loved Jordan dearly and I found her to be a compelling love interest, and I found the development of both main characters was well paced and satisfying to read.
Oh yeah. Speaking of satisfying, this book has a bit of spice to it. And also toothache sweetness. Overall, a fun little treat to read. I find myself looking forward to the next book in the series in a way I was not for this one.

So I was put off almost immediately by the internal-monologue-info-dumping that takes up basically the first 10% of this 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 Green Doesn't Care (the first book in the series), 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.)

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!

I literally could not put this book down. I stayed up until 2 AM reading, passed out, then immediately picked it back up the next morning and didn’t get out of bed until I was finished reading it. There were multiple moments that me smile, laugh, and blush and press my face into my pillow because the characters had so much chemistry it was killing me.
I didn’t think it would be possible, but I might love this book even more than Delilah Green Doesn’t Care. I think it’s because the first book laid the groundwork for Astrid’s character development which happened in this one, so reading felt like a natural progression with great payoff. Her queer awakening, her realizations about her career and her relationship with her mother were all so well done. Jordan was a great character as well, and seeing her gain her own confidence throughout the story was wonderful.
Also, just like with Delilah Green Doesn’t Care, the sex scenes were perfect - I love how much thought this author puts into her characters’ personalities and how that would influence the way they have sex. I’m also a big fan of the way she incorporates consent into those scenes.
So basically, I’m eagerly awaiting the next book about Iris, and any other romance books Ashley Herring Blake may write in the future.

I absolutely loved this! I couldn't put it down and I was so sad to see it end! I loved Delilah Green Doesn't Care so I as very excited for this book and it definitely lived up to my expectations. Blake's characters are so wonderful and unique and real and the journeys both Jordan and Astrid take in this book were just written so beautifully. I loved them together, I loved them separately, of course the side characters are fantastic- I can't wait for Iris' book and I love the development of Delilah and Claire's relationship during this book. Absolutely wonderful, 10/10 would recommend.

Astrid Parker Doesn't Fail is a wonderful follow-up to Delilah Green Doesn't Care in which we get a view of Astrid's life after the cancellation of her marriage with Spencer. I really enjoyed how this book gave a deeper look at the relationship that she has with her mother and how it drives her to make so many decisions that leave her feeling unhappy. Although Isabel seems to be trying at the end of the book to bridge the gap with Astrid, she really doesn't win any points in my book because her relationship with Delilah still seems rather inexistent. The story arc with Jordan is pretty good as well, we see her regain confidence in herself and her work after it was largely destroyed due to her divorce. I am very excited to read Iris's book when it comes out because I love a good fake dating plot!

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for providing me with this ARC. All opinions are strictly my own.

Absolutely LOVED this book! My expectations were very high after reading Delilah Green, and it did not disappoint! Another beautiful love story nestled in a cocoon of self discovery and female friendships. Five golden stars.