Review: "Iris Kelly Doesn't Date" by Ashley Herring Blake

 

Iris Kelly Doesn't Date by Ashley Herring Blake
Published October 2023 via Berkley
★★★

In this third book in the Bright Falls universe, Iris doesn't date—she's more comfortable with casual sex than long-term romance. And Stevie does date, but she's still reeling from the end of her last relationship (not least because her ex, still one of her best friends, is now dating one of her other best friends).

I enjoyed the first two books of this series, but book three felt a bit as though the series is running out of steam...which is unfortunate, because it also felt a bit as though Stevie's friend group was introduced here so that there will be sufficient characters for future books. There's Ren, the very definition of a Diversity Character: Ren was Japanese American, nonbinary, pansexual, and the single coolest person Stevie knew (25). There's Adri, Stevie's toxic ex, who's perfectly dreadful but could probably be given a redemption arc. And there's Vanessa, Adri's current girlfriend, who isn't really characterized beyond hot and too good for Adri but could be fleshed out if she dropped Adri.

Iris spends a fair amount of the book struggling to write her second romance novel, eventually falling back on tried-and-true tropes, both in her novel-within-the-novel and in the novel itself: Fake dating. It was one of Iris's least favorite tropes—she could never really imagine a situation in real life where fake dating would be necessary—and yet...here she was with Stevie-whatever-her-last-name-was standing before her, asking Iris to fake date her (109). And that's fine, I guess. I am rapidly tiring of the recent narrowing in on certain tropes (fake dating, enemies to lovers, grumpy and sunshine), but I understand that it's really no different from, e.g., the way category romance has leaned on particular tropes for decades—it just now has a Gen Z TikTok spin to it, and I'm a salty millennial who doesn't understand TikTok, or TikTok trends.

But I didn't find myself particularly invested in either Iris or Stevie—I want good things for them, sure, because they're perfectly nice characters and one wants nice things for one's nice characters, but if they'd gone their separate ways in the end I...would not have been scandalized, or really all too bothered. I think I may just be tiring of this as a series, though; there are only so many times that romantic leads from previous books can show up on page to make goo-goo eyes at each other, say "awwwww, baaaaabe, I love you so much", and make out in front of all their friends before it gets old. (It's annoying in real life, and it's annoying in books. And yes, I know, if I pick up a romance novel I should probably know better.) I can't rule out reading further books, should they come about—you never know, I might love Adri ProbablyHasALastName Euler Isn't Actually Toxic—but...I wouldn't mind a bit of a departure from tropes and people incessantly swooning over their established partners.