Everyone around Iris Kelly is in love. Her best friends are all coupled up, her siblings have partners that are perfect for them, her parents are still in marital bliss. And she's happy for all of them, truly. So what if she usually cries in her Lyft on the way home. So what if she misses her friends, who are so busy with their own wonderful love lives, they don't really notice Iris is spiraling. At least she has a brand-new career writing romance novels (yes, she realizes the irony of it). She is now working on her second book but has one problem: she is completely out of ideas after having spent all of her romantic energy on her debut.
Perfectly happy to ignore her problems as per usual, Iris goes to a bar in Portland and meets a sexy stranger, Stefania, and a night of dancing and making out turns into the worst one-night stand Iris has had in her life (vomit and crying are regretfully involved). To get her mind off everything and overcome her writer's block, Iris tries out for a local play, but comes face-to-face with Stefania—or, Stevie, her real name. When Stevie desperately asks Iris to play along as her girlfriend, Iris is shocked, but goes along with it because maybe this fake relationship will actually get her creative juices flowing and she can get her book written. As the two women play the part of a couple, they turn into a constant state of hot-and-bothered and soon it just comes down to who will make the real first move…
Title : Iris Kelley Doesn't Date
Author : Ashley Herring Blake
Series : Bright Falls (book three)
Format : eBook (overdrive)
Page Count : 400
Genre : LGBTQIAP+ contemporary romance
Publisher : Berkley
Release Date : October 24, 2023
Reviewer : Hollis
Rating : ★ ★
Hollis' 2 star review
I'm a little bummed I didn't come out of this series with another big win ala book two but this wasn't all bad. Honestly, it's likely on par with my feelings of book one. This time though I think mostly what held this back for me was the overall messiness and drama and also all the messiness and drama about the exes.. most of which never actually feels resolved in a satisfying way considering how much space and energy it took up.
Like with most fake dating tropes, this follows a fairly typical formula. One half of the couple needs help with a particularly awkward social situation, the other is willing to go along with it because they'll never catch feelings anyway because they aren't meant for romance and relationships or love, and they get to have some (consensually) sexy times so why not. And it's all fun and games until lines get crossed, feelings start to brew, etc etc. It was mostly, sometimes, fun but the aforementioned messiness, the drama, and not to mention Stevie's obliviousness, was not only tiring but painful. Not to mention this crossed into some weird meta-ness with Iris being a writer, writing romance (knowing readers dislike a third act break-up, even as she lives one whilst partaking in a fake dating trope she says she doesn't even like reading), and then making weird fourth-wall-esque references to both the book titles of this series as she contemplates her own as well as book one's concept. It got.. weird.
Not helping matters was I waffled between liking and disliking both mains at various points. We started off strong with some sympathy for Iris, because that opening scene with her family was truly awful (and honestly in this day and age why can't we have more dialogue around being single and happy without needing to couple up for fulfilment?), and then likewise with Stevie and having to be confronted with her ex and best friend together, and they would have some really cute moments together, but other times they just felt so discordant.. in ways I'm having a hard time describing outside of my head.
Also, what did not endear me to the read was the typical "when sexy time is happening we all become super sex gurus" and this definitely didn't track considering how so much of this fake dating scheme was to help Stevie with confidence that.. was only needed when it was convenient for the plot?
The more I write this review the more I think I want to round down on this rating. Whoops. Bye bye three star.
I certainly don't want to discourage anyone from picking up this series, it's very queer and mostly sticks to the small town vibe, but this final book just felt like it was trying to do too many things, introduce too many elements and or characters, and I'm left wishing it had spent more time with less instead of less time with more.
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