Iris Kelly Doesn't Date

Y'all, I struggled with this one a bit. There are so many conflicting emotions going on in my brain right now.

Looking at it holistically, it's the third in a series. Delilah Green was excellent, Astrid Parker didn't really do it for me. Iris Kelly is sort of inbetween, leaning toward Delilah, a bit?

I'll say this, Blake can write characters. I loved Iris Kelly, the bold and brassy lass of Irish descent whose temper is as fiery as her passion. Her family is ... verging on unbelievable? I don't know that there's a likable older parent in this series, but Iris' mom is almost worse than Astrid's and Delilah's. This all actually would cohere a lot better if I believed that we were supposed to be filtering our perceptions through Iris' slanted, tempestuously-colored eyes, but I don't get that sense. I think we're supposed to take literally that her mom is condescending to the point of seeming like a negging pick-up artist, and her family is just a ball of uncontrollable.

And Stevie is wonderful, too, in her own way. But also just this side of realistic? I truly don't know how one could exist as a successful actor being that much of a doormat to everyone around them. Flaws are fine, but enough cracks in the mirror and it's a bit hard to actual understand what's being reflected back.

But they make sense together. Maybe the trick is to not assume this is set in our universe, but in one slightly removed. If you can put aside the absurdity of nearly every situation our fierce females face, their story and connection is one that can make your heart sing (or get up on stage and prance around in a donkey's head, as required). I think most people can suspend their disbelief to get to the goodness at the core of the novel, but I won't pretend it comes without effort.