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A review by dejreads
Terms and Conditions by Lauren Asher
5.0
I am very skeptical of non black writers writing black characters, so I was entering reading this book guided. However, Lauren Asher did pretty well with writing Iris. While reading, I saw myself in Iris as a black woman. especially considering her viewpoint on love. So, I applaud Lauren for that because some non black authors when they have black lead characters, they sometimes don’t make it known that they black with subtle things. For example, Iris getting braids for her and Declan’s honeymoon. It is a known rule (kinda) that us black woman tend to get braids when we go on vacation. So little things like that made me enjoy the book as a black reader.
The chemistry between Declan and Iris was there. I adore the sunshine/grumpy trope because of this book. I adore the fake dating also. So y'all should know I was going to eat this up. Anyway, I wanted them to do it so bad by the time the tenth chapter hit. However, Lauren Asher did a wonderful job of building that tension up so when Iris and Declan did finally do it—as a reader I felt every freaking emotion from both characters. The adorable thing of Declan and Iris sending words in different languages about how they feel, was so cute. Declan making everybody use a certain font because he researched that it's better for people who have dyslexia aka what Iris has thought hinder her progress in life. Loved their dynamic.
I also adored Iris and Cal's friendship. At first, my biggest concern was the fact that Iris didn't have any black friends. I don’t care how you were raised, every black person have at least one black friend. I feel like the author could have gave Iris another friend that was black. However as the story goes on, I did kinda altered my view on this point because it's revealed that Iris puts her personal life on hold for her job which hinders her making friends. But it would have still be nice to me as a black reader for the novel to have more than what? Four black characters in the book.
One thing that did irk me was that during the arguments and when it was time to make up, Declan didn’t beg enough for me. He didn’t grovel enough for my liking. Iris folds so quickly and I mentally wanted to tell her to please stand up my good sis. Although, I enjoyed their dynamic—it was times where I was like “Yeah, Iris his childish tantrums ain’t it” I suggest everyone to go listen to Not My Job by Flo because I really needed Iris to sing that song to Declan immediately.
Overall, It was a good read. The smut scenes were good. There weren't a lot of smut scenes though, which I didn't mind. I don't like books with a lot of smut. Simply because I like a nice smut to plot ratio. The plot was good for a stand-alone book. I don't plan on reading the other two books in the series though, but I have heard good things about both books from other reviewers who read all three books in the series.
The chemistry between Declan and Iris was there. I adore the sunshine/grumpy trope because of this book. I adore the fake dating also. So y'all should know I was going to eat this up. Anyway, I wanted them to do it so bad by the time the tenth chapter hit. However, Lauren Asher did a wonderful job of building that tension up so when Iris and Declan did finally do it—as a reader I felt every freaking emotion from both characters. The adorable thing of Declan and Iris sending words in different languages about how they feel, was so cute. Declan making everybody use a certain font because he researched that it's better for people who have dyslexia aka what Iris has thought hinder her progress in life. Loved their dynamic.
I also adored Iris and Cal's friendship. At first, my biggest concern was the fact that Iris didn't have any black friends. I don’t care how you were raised, every black person have at least one black friend. I feel like the author could have gave Iris another friend that was black. However as the story goes on, I did kinda altered my view on this point because it's revealed that Iris puts her personal life on hold for her job which hinders her making friends. But it would have still be nice to me as a black reader for the novel to have more than what? Four black characters in the book.
One thing that did irk me was that during the arguments and when it was time to make up, Declan didn’t beg enough for me. He didn’t grovel enough for my liking. Iris folds so quickly and I mentally wanted to tell her to please stand up my good sis. Although, I enjoyed their dynamic—it was times where I was like “Yeah, Iris his childish tantrums ain’t it” I suggest everyone to go listen to Not My Job by Flo because I really needed Iris to sing that song to Declan immediately.
Overall, It was a good read. The smut scenes were good. There weren't a lot of smut scenes though, which I didn't mind. I don't like books with a lot of smut. Simply because I like a nice smut to plot ratio. The plot was good for a stand-alone book. I don't plan on reading the other two books in the series though, but I have heard good things about both books from other reviewers who read all three books in the series.