Ashley Herring Blake

An interior designer learns to rebuild her love life from the ground up with zero blueprints in this new romantic comedy by Ashley Herring Blake, author of Delilah Green Doesn't Care.

For Astrid Parker, failure is unacceptable. Ever since she broke up with her fiancé a year ago, she’s been focused on her career—her friends might say she’s obsessed, but she’s just driven. When Pru Everwood asks her to be the designer for the Everwood Inn’s renovation that will be broadcasted on a popular home improvement show, Innside America, Astrid knows this is the answer to everything that is wrong with her life. It’ll be the perfect distraction from her failed love life, and her perpetually displeased mother might finally give her nod of approval.

However, Astrid never planned on Jordan Everwood, Pru’s granddaughter and lead carpenter for the inn’s renovation, who despises every modern design decision Astrid makes. Jordan is determined to preserve the history of her family’s inn, particularly as the rest of her life is in shambles. When that determination turns into a little light sabotage, ruffling Astrid’s perfect little feathers, the showrunners ask them to play up the tension. But somewhere along the way, their dislike for each other turns into something quite different, and Astrid must decide what success truly means. Is she going to pursue the life that she’s expected to lead, or the one she wants?

Astrid Parker Doesn't Fail

( I listened to the audiobook of this so I will also be talking about to narrator's performance) 

THIS BOOK!!!! I don't know where to begin telling you about the love I have for this book I loved being back in bright falls and getting to see the gang again. following Astrid in this book was so fun I loved getting to know her better and seeing her relationship with her mom. I like how Astrid and Jordan's relationship developed throughout the book and as a tarot bitch I need what they have. seeing how Delilah and Claire's relationship had grown and gotten stronger since we last saw them was nice and seeing that Astrid and Delilah have gotten closer since the last book and that Delilah has settled into the friend group was also nice 

Kristen DiMercurio has officially one of my favorite audiobook narrators she perfectly captures the personality and emotions of each character and gives them each a unique voice   

Wes Michaud

( I listened to the audiobook of this so I will also be talking about to narrator's performance) 

THIS BOOK!!!! I don't know where to begin telling you about the love I have for this book I loved being back in bright falls and getting to see the gang again. following Astrid in this book was so fun I loved getting to know her better and seeing her relationship with her mom. I like how Astrid and Jordan's relationship developed throughout the book and as a tarot bitch I need what they have. seeing how Delilah and Claire's relationship had grown and gotten stronger since we last saw them was nice and seeing that Astrid and Delilah have gotten closer since the last book and that Delilah has settled into the friend group was also nice 

Kristen DiMercurio has officially one of my favorite audiobook narrators she perfectly captures the personality and emotions of each character and gives them each a unique voice   

This was a really cute, fuzzy RomCom with GREAT chemistry & an awesome leading lady in Astrid 😍. Their rivals-to-lovers banter was top notch & the spice was 🔥! Not to mention an AMAZING queer found family that was dynamic & funny & loving 🫶🏽🫶🏽🫶🏽.There were moments where Jordan felt a little bit like Delilah 2.0, & the third act break up felt a little too contrived & rushed. But in spite of the flaws, this sapphic romance is both sweet & sexy & watching these women work towards loving each other AND understanding themselves will tug at the heart strings ♥️.

Sharanya Sharma

doesn’t it feel a bit performative when every character HAS to point out that they only date (or feel attraction towards) women or non-binary people. but the one (1) enby character we do have we see for a literal TWO seconds. idk, it’s just something that i’ve noticed is a pattern in this series.

SAPPHIC HALLMARK MOVIE! Absolutely too cute to be true. Very sweet. 

Sophia 

SAPPHIC HALLMARK MOVIE! Absolutely too cute to be true. Very sweet. 

1/5 spicy rating 

loved it! can't wait for the third book of this series

Nina Herder

laura

Astrid Parker Doesn’t Fail was a lot of fun. I loved seeing the characters from Delilah Green again, and meeting new ones in this book. This book is about a journey, and finding who you are, and I just loved it. Ashley Herring Blake is a fantastic writer in the romance genre, and I can’t wait to read more. I loved the romance between Jordan and Astrid because it started off a little messy, like life and love. I recommend this if you love queer romances with a lot of hear

Steph L 

loved it! definitely more meaningful than DGDC

berenice!!!

Amery Mcmullen

Wonko the Sane

** spoiler alert **
           With thanks to NetGalley and Little Brown for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

Astrid Parker Doesn’t Fail is the second book in the Bright Falls series that began with Delilah Green Doesn’t Care and will continue next year with Iris Kelly Doesn’t Date. Each book in the series so far has been a contemporary Sapphic romance, each with their own tropes.

This book’s main trope is Enemies to Lovers. Our two leads, Astrid and Jordan, get off to a pretty bad start when Jordan barrels into Astrid one morning and covers her expensive dress in coffee. But oh no, it turns out they have to work together on a renovation that’s being filmed for a reality show, and the host really wants them to play up their enmity for the cameras. Whatever will they do.

Fall in love, obviously.

For most of the first half of this book I was sure I was going to give it two stars. The first thing that irked me was my feeling that we were supposed to take a dim view of Astrid and disapprove of her “meanness” when dealing with Jordan when they first met. But…what did she do that was so wrong? Be a bit snappish to someone who hurt her (scraped palms were mentioned) and damaged a $1000 dress on a really important day? Expect said clumsy oaf to pay for dry cleaning? Seems reasonable enough to me. Jordan honestly behaves much worse in the few chapters after this interaction, in my opinion, but it feels like the narrative wants us to take her side.

So, rough start. For the next 100-150 pages it didn’t really improve. However, when they stop butting heads for no reason, the book improves somewhat. Enemies dispensed with, we move to the lovers part of the book.

From this point on it’s so much so contemporary romance: good sex, drama-creating exes, miscommunication, disaster, breakup, pining, grand gesture love declaration, happily ever after.

If that sounds like a formula you would enjoy, you will like this book.

Personally I would have liked more development of Astrid. Lip-service is paid to her feelings about developing a queer identity in her 30s. I would have liked more examination of that and less of Jordan’s texts from her ex.

Overall, 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3.

Astrid Parker Doesn't Fail

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