Do I even need to say bow much I loved this book? I love Ashley Herring Blake and she can do no wrong in my eyes! This book just further proved to me that Blake is one of the best queer writers out there.

This was absolutely amazing! I was already a huge fan of Ashley Herring Blake after reading the stunner that is Delilah Green Doesn't Care - but Astrid Parker was even better! I loved being able to spend more time with these great, life changing friendships. And don't even get me started on Astrid's queer awakening because that was an excellent *chef's kiss*. I can't wait to return to Bright Falls to read Iris's story next year!

I absolutely loved Delilah Green Doesn't Care and I was so excited when I got a copy of Astrid Parker Doesn't Fail--and it did not disappoint! Ashley Herring Blake has a way of writing stories that are cute and funny but also have that emotional aspect that makes you feel so many things. Reading about Astrid finally realizing who she truly was on the inside was inspiring, and when she finally stood up to her overbearing mother, I cheered! I loved this book so much, and I cannot wait for the next installment in this trilogy!

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

I am serious, Ashley, you want more than my heart? I already said you never miss with the first one, how do I go harder than that with this one?

Thank you to the publisher and the author for providing me with a review copy of one of my most anticipated reads of the year!

eeeeek! Y'all I cannot express how much I love these books. They are so relatable, so raw and real while at the same time heartwarming, fulfilling and magical. Ashley Herring Blake wrote a character just like me (Astrid). Stubborn, cares way too much about what the world thinks, rigid to a fault, and pristine. Made me realize that I am, in fact, my own problem (thank you Ashley and also Taylor Swift).

Then our other girl, Jordan, has so much trauma to deal with. Losing her life partner after 15 years after being with her through chemo. This might be considered a spoiler to some, so don't read the rest of this paragraph if you don't like any type of spoilers, but I thought it might be good for some to know she didn't lose her to cancer. She actually beat cancer and left stating she needed more. I won't say more, but I know that could have been triggering for some.

Also I need the famous necklace in this book.

Bottom line, one of my favorite rom coms this year and I can't wait for the third book!

Astrid Parker is an interior designer and failure is not in her vocabulary. Jordan is a hot mess. Together? Literal perfection I loved them so much. I had high hopes for the second installment of this story and I was not disappointed.

Thank you #netgalley for an early read of #astridparkerdoesn'tfail

I really liked the first book in the series, Delilah Green Doesn't Care. I wasn't a fan of her step-sister, Astrid, but I decided that maybe she was misunderstood, you know? Yeah...still don't like her. Part of that is because she's constantly running from her problems, and part of that is because she's still too much like her mother. I loved Jordan, and I thought her character was much better developed than Astrid.

Overall, it was good enough. But Astrid's character didn't grow enough to make me care about her.

this was cute and fun! i love a mean female character (or a mean woman in real life) and reading about these two grumps falling in love was super sweet. i preferred this over the first one!

Ashley Herring Blake delivers pitch perfect perfection with her latest book, Astrid Parker Doesn’t Fail.

This book has it all folks: terrific characters, conflict that makes sense and moves the plot along, and truly swoon worthy chemistry. Ashley’s first book in the Bright Falls series, Delilah Green Doesn’t Care has been on my TBR since it came out, so I was delighted to have a chance to read this one. I can confidently say the first book has now moved up in priority! This one can be read as a standalone although I suspect I would have gotten more from it if I had read the other first.

Ashley writes characters that are easy to love and I genuinely enjoyed both Astrid and Jordan. Astrid is a buttoned up, type A character. Highly organised and focused, she is always turned out and proper. Raised by a highly critical mom, she is terrified to disappoint anyone. But even as she does everything by the book, she is struggling to make a success of her interior design business. Jordan is more laid back with her tarot cards, and her vintage truck named Adora and her cat Catra (bonus points for awesome She-Ra references!) but she’s a bit of a mess. After a massive heartbreak a year ago she just can’t seem to pull herself together. She’s been fired from her job as a carpenter and doesn’t know what to do next. She’s stuck. The opportunity to makeover the Everwood Inn represents a major opportunity for both of them and I appreciated the dual viewpoint storytelling so we got to dive deep into the story from both characters’ perspectives.

The power of friendship and family both blood and found is a strong theme in this book. Fans who read the first book in the series will recognize Astrid’s step sister Delilah, as well as her two best friends Claire and Iris. They are delightful. I loved their friendship and how they were so there for each other. Jordan’s twin brother Simon and her grandmother Pru were also great. You could feel the love between them and how it shaped them all as people.

The chemistry between Astrid and Jordan was off the charts great. I loved all the tension the TV show helped create. There are some pretty spicy scenes in this book and they were very well done. I also really appreciated how Astrid started out as thinking she was straight and then, through her growing attraction to Jordan, had to face that maybe she isn’t. It just highlighted how sexuality is fluid and it’s okay to not put a label on things all the time. We see great queer representation in this book with multiple identities present.

Ashley has won another fan with this book. I’ve already ordered Delilah Green Doesn’t Care and I can’t wait for the next instalment, Iris Kelly Doesn’t Date.

Thank you, Berkley Romance for the ARC, in exchange for an honest review.

A perfect sequel! I loved this book so much I can’t even express it. I was so excited for this book and I was so impressed that I wasn’t disappointed by the result. The first book was great but I think I might love this one even more. Astrid really grew on me from the first book and I loved her romance so much!

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.

Ashley Herring Blake does a lot of things right in her second installment of the Bright Falls series. She nails the underlying concept needed for any romance to be successful: The conflict challenging the main characters must be a reflection of a relatable human condition. It drives the purpose and the why of the story. Without it, readers would lose interest in the story and struggle to connect to the characters.

Not so here, though. In Astrid Parker Doesn’t Fail, Blake taps into one’s sense of worthiness and self understanding to drive her story forward. It works too; readers’ hearts are snagged as Astrid and Jordan struggle with a healthy sense of self-worth and love. Blake writes it into the storyline masterfully too. Astrid has a complicated history with her family, especially her mother. Jordan suffers from feelings of inadequacy that are rooted in an emotionally knotty and confusing divorce. Both characters’ histories play on readers’ sympathies, ultimately driving the storytelling and giving it direction. The result is a story that’s not only relatable but emotionally appealing.

Astrid Parker Doesn’t Fail’s storyline isn’t anything readers haven’t seen before; the enemies to lovers trope is quite popular in this genre. What makes it different though is its fresh twist. Along with some creative story arc construction, Blake gives eagle-eye attention to the integrity of each character’s arc. She creates two well-developed and well-rounded main characters in Astrid and Jordan. Their identities and backstories are curated with real care and diligence, adding texture and color to not only the character development but the story as well. With this comes an emotional honesty that can’t be denied and the book shines because of it. Readers form an emotional attachment to Astrid and Jordan that’s hard to refuse, as is their romance.

Likable characters aren’t the only thing that hooks readers’ attention in this appealing tale. Astrid Parker Doesn’t Fail’s romantic timing is spot-on. Blake orchestrates Astrid and Jordan’s romance with real finesse. She not only captures readers’ attention but their hearts, making this book hard to put down. She accomplishes this through nicely plotted starts and stops. These scenes are well-scripted and even a little heart- tugging. The “meet” between the couple is disastrous, to say the least, but it feeds the tension soundly and sets the stage swimmingly. The road to couplehood is fraught with eventful trials and tribulations, but Blake uses it to drive one of the most essential elements of storytelling–character change. Astrid and Jordan’s dark moments are felt full-on, making their sacrifices and declarations of love all the more satisfying.

Final remarks…


The Bright Falls series is built on the solid ground of a fun and entertaining story world; one wouldn’t mind visiting there in real life. It contains a charming and eclectic cast of characters that not only fortify the storytelling, they make it richer. The themes of self-discovery and sexual awakening are compelling, giving Astrid Parker Doesn’t Fail real substance. I enjoyed every minute inside these pages and hope to see more of Bright Falls soon.

Strengths…

Well-developed, charming characters
Fresh and honest storytelling
Fun, banter-filled dialogue
Well-constructed story arc
Emotionally appealing romance

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