Everyone around Iris Kelly is in love. Her best friends are all coupled up, her siblings have partners that are perfect for them, and her parents are still blissfully married. And she’s happy for all of them, truly. Iris doesn’t want any of that—dating, love, romance. She’ll stick to her commitment-free hookups, thanks very much, except no one in her life will just let her be. Everyone wants to see her settled down, but she holds firmly to her no dating rule. There’s only one problem—Iris is a romance author facing an imminent deadline for her second book, and she’s completely out of ideas.
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. To get her mind off everything, Iris tries out for the lead role in a local play, a queer retelling of Much Ado About Nothing, but comes face-to-face with Stefania, whose real name turns out to be Stevie. Desperate to save face in front of her friends, Stevie asks Iris to play along as her girlfriend. Iris is shocked, but when she realizes the arrangement might provide her with some much-needed romantic content for her book, she agrees. As the two women play the part of a happy couple, lines start to blur, and they’re left wondering who will make the real first move….
I think I’ll always think of this blog is an extension of my Bookstagram, and not the other way around. But it occurs to me that there’s potentially a very, very (verrrryyyy) small number of people who only see these blog posts as opposed to anything else I do.
All of this to say, I actually read quite a bit more than this blog would reflect. Some books, for whatever reason, I just don’t get around to writing full reviews for. I used to torture myself about this, but have tried to make a bit of peace with it over the last few years.
I’ve always got at least two books going at a time, and usually more like three or four or even five. And something I’ve really come to enjoy these last few years is the occasional romcom! It’s possible that I’ve posted a full review for one that I’m forgetting, but I kinda think they have all been Bookstagram-only posts for me, and I’m really not sure why.
Which is why I’m doing something totally out of character & writing a full review for the third book in a series, having not written reviews for the first two. But I really wanted to highlight these books & talk a bit about how special they’ve been to me.
I really think all three of Ashley Herring Blake’s BRIGHT FALLS books perfectly capture what I’m looking for in a romcom. Across the trilogy, all the characters are just so messy & believable & lovable. I’ve really cherished my time in this quaint Pacific Northwest town, and Blake has made a huge fan out of me (I’m SO EXCITED to start her recent Xmas romcom, MAKE THE SEASON BRIGHT).
And also, let’s be real. Things just got a lot more challenging & scary in this country for the LGBTQIA+ community (and many other marginalized communities as well). The very least I can do is get a little louder about the queer books that I read, especially ones that have been such bright spots in some really dark times.
While I’ve loved all of these books, I think it’s probably still the first in the series, DELILAH GREEN DOESN’T CARE that’s my favorite. There are parts of that book that hit me so hard emotionally, and I think it’s actually the first adult romcom I read, so it feels like it’ll always have a special place on my shelves. The exploration of the sibling relationship between Delilah & Astrid in that first book is the thing that will always stick with me…oof. That one had me Feeling Big Things™️ for sure.
IRIS KELLY DOESN’T DATE was everything I’ve come to expect from these books & more. There were moments where I felt like the story was a touch more convoluted than it necessarily needed to be, but it didn’t really hurt the book in my eyes. And it also exists in this kind of interesting meta space, because Iris is now working on her second romance novel, so this allows Blake to get pretty self-referential with regard to popular romcom tropes (primarily the fake dating trope).
So…I’m gonna save most of the recapping I tend to do (even when I try not to) here and just say: Iris Kelly finds herself “fake dating” a woman named Stevie. We’re introduced not just to Stevie in this book, but to all of her friends. Which creates a bit of a logjam of characters in a way, because this book also includes pretty much all the characters from the first two books. So it’s a lot to juggle for sure, but it all works for the most part.
Obviously the hook here (and I imagine for all romcoms with the fake dating trope) is that fake dating leads to real feelings. So while their arrangement works for a bit (Stevie is trying to show her friends that she’s able to move on from a bad breakup, and Iris is taking the opportunity to explore some “romance” as a way of dealing with writer’s block/inspiring her next romcom) it gets real messy, real fast.
I’ve enjoyed my time in Bright Falls so much. Blake has created a really vibrant & diverse group of characters to carry these books. And the town itself just feels so real to me at this point. A place where I could grab a coffee, check out a great indie bookstore, pick up a pizza & hang out with friends.
I still consider myself a total newbie when it comes to reading romance/romcoms, but the three BRIGHT FALLS books feel like they will always be among my favs in the genre!
Grimdark Dad 