Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - Iris Kelly Doesn't Date

Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Iris Kelly Doesn't Date by Ashley Herring Blake

12 reviews

cwbillings's review

adventurous funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

“Iris Kelly Doesn’t Date” just warmed me up to romance novels FAST. I’ve never been a huge fan of romance as a genre but man is this book in particular changing my mind! This is well written, the characters believable and genuine, and so gosh darn sweet. I really love this one and found myself relating to the main characters, which I should’ve seen coming as a bisexual writer with a decade of theatre experience myself lol Ugh, what can I say?? Now I’m a Stevie + Iris shipper for life!

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hazel_oat's review

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emotional hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

this one is hard to rate for me b/c it will have the most beautifully written chapter of stevie trying her absolute fucking best followed by iris bumbling around making all the obviously-this-is-the-dumbest-choice choices … so prepare for whiplash?

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e_riahh's review

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challenging emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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author2223's review

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funny lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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lunep's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This was a great book...up until the third act conflict. I was so excited because I was loving it and rooting for Stevie and Iris, they were so cute, so fun, the sex scenes were great, there was angts, but then in the third act conflict Iris lost me. And I feel so mad at myself!! Bc I can think about why she acted the way she acted in a logical way, I understand why she did what she did, but I still think she was unfair to Stevie, and her attitude made me not feel excited at the end 😭😭😭

Like, I even got excited for Stevie when Olivia asked her out!!

, I even tried to think "if Iris was a man and this was a hetero romance, would you feel the same way?" trying to rule out internalized misogyny and tbf...I'm not sure 😩 so that's why I'm still giving it 4 stars, I can't completely rule out internalized misogyny from my feelings and I don't wanna hurt a book that I was genuinely loving up until the 86% mark

There were another couple things I didn't love, but I didn't mind that much:

The way Adri didn't get any accountability ever. I'm sorry but she was a shitty friend/ex, and I know ending long friendship like theirs is hard, but she never even apologized, and Stevie just accepts it because "she knew everything she needed from Adri she'd already given to herself"
after telling each other "I love you platonically", and after the fact that the last conversation the two had on the page ammounted to Adri telling Stevie that she wanted her back but she didn't want to break up with Vanessa???
, nuh uh, sorry
Iris's family. Also never apologized to her for being so shitty and never understanding her, and her brother seemed so misogynystic?? Making "jokes" about how a Happily Ever After is really a "Shittily Ever After" and other kind of "jokes" like that with his BIL, like, just say you hate your wife and go
And, the one I ignored the most bc ofc, this is a romance book, and I was actually rooting for them: that I don't love when a MC is constantly telling their family "I don't want to date, I'm happy by myself, I do not need you to set me up on dates, I actually hate it" and their pushy family doesn't accept it only for the MC to, in fact, fall in love/realize that they weren't happy by themself. The petty side in me doesn't like giving the pushy families the satisfaction lmao

But one thing I ADORED were Iris's friends! At first I was a little lost ngl, when they're first introduced via group chat, because I couldn't keep up with who was who and who was with who, but I know that's on me for starting on the last book of the trilogy lmao, and once I was able to keep them straight, they're just the most supportive, lovely group of friends <3 (specially compared to Stevie's 😒 cuz I don't let Vanessa off the hook either, even tho I didn't talk about her when talking about Adri

,but dating your supposed best friend's ex two months after they broke up?? Hell no, not even the "queer spaces are tight knit" excuse can save that for me

. And now that I think about it, Ren felt way more like Stevie's best friend that Vanessa did)

I also LOOOVED Stevie's character growth, at the end, I felt she was the MC more than Iris (tho, since it was dual POV I'm pretty sure they're both of them are MCs, and neither is just "the love interest") because through most of the book I didn't feel like Iris got much development

besides her getting out of her writing slump and becoming more of a romantic

, Stevie FLOURISHED. I might be a little biased tbf, bc I saw myself on Stevie a lot (I don't have an anxiety diagnosis and I don't think I've ever had a panic attack, but a lot of Stevie's problems with one night stands, romance, and confidence I felt applied to me too), but I just think she grew a lot and I loved seeing her stand up for herself

and then moving to NY and, even tho she got anxious sometimes, pushing through it knowing she can do whatever she put her mind to

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reinspired_reader's review

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emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The characters were great, the world was lovely, and I stayed up way too late the night I started it because I didn't want to put it down. Tender and touching with a sense of humour and good character development. A bit too trope-y for me at times, but hey, it's a romance novel, what are you going to do? Excited to read the other two in this series.

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cats33's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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anastazia_vani's review

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emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

In comparison to Delilah Green and Astrid Parker, this book definitely falls short. It's an overall decent book, but not the quality I've come to expect from Ashley Herring Blake.

Some spoilers ahead.

Iris was great in the series up to this point, but the author relied a little too heavily on past books to flesh out Iris's character. Iris's struggle with self-worth was a large part of her character arc, yet we learned very little about why she felt that way unless it could be related back to something mentioned previously in the series. When new info was revealed about Iris that didn't tie back to Iris's relationships in Delilah Green or Astrid Parker, it was inserted abruptly and awkwardly.

I appreciated that a new group of queer people was introduced in this book through Stevie's friends. However, I was troubled that the author wrote off Adri's behavior off as toxic without directly addressing the signs of emotional abuse that were coming up. From the snippets we get from Stevie about her past relationship with Adri, Adri was very controlling. Even when they are broken up, we consistently see Adri try to manipulate Stevie into doing things that will benefit Adri at the cost of Stevie's own success and happiness. Stevie's internal monologue when she's reading texts from Adri sounds like someone who has had her anxiety used against her to gaslight her into thinking she's reading too much into everything. Adri has so many red flags, and although Ren does call her out for some of it, it's only in the context of Adri being a jealous ex.

I loved Iris and Stevie's relationship despite all of that. They had great chemistry and I was genuinely rooting for them to figure out their stuff as individuals so they could be in a healthy relationship together. Unfortunately, I'm not sure they did that, at least on Iris's end. It didn't feel like Iris ever learned to love herself, and the ending indicated that leaving her friends in Bright Falls to move to New York might not have been the best thing for her. Because I want her to be happy I will say that in my head it all works out for the best and Stevie and Iris get their HEA, but that wasn't the feeling I was left with when the book ended.

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avidreaderandgeekgirl's review against another edition

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emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Narrator Rating: 3 stars

A fake dating relationship between a woman with severe anxiety and another woman with minimal self-worth and commitment avoidance, somehow becomes something more?
I loved the first two books in this series, but boy this one.
Wow, this book was annoying! I don't know why Stevie didn't try to get on better medication! If you're freaking out that much, change your meds. I'm saying this as someone WITH GAD, and SAD.
I could relate to Stevie and Iris, but they just kept doing the absolute worst things they could do in many situations and I wanted to scream at them!
I don't think the narrator helped as she did the most annoying voice for Stevie and some of the other characters. Which just made the book more infuriating.
Overall, a huge letdown from the previous books.

Extra ratings: Fluff - 3/5 Heartfelt- 4/5 Helpful-NA Horror- 0/5 Inspiration- NA Love aka Romance-4/5 Mystery-0/5 Predictability- 5/5 Spice- 3/5 Suspense- 0/5 Tear 1.5/5 Thrill- 0/5 Humor-2/5

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amberlfaris's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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