This was cute! After reading Delilah Green Doesn't Care and reading the preview for Astrid Parker Doesn't Fail, I think I was actually more excited for this installment of the series. I found Astrid to be an interesting character in the first book and wanted to see what was underneath all her "I need to be what I'm expected to be." pressure.

I enjoyed the romance plot, and while some parts were more dramatic than they needed to be, I was glad to see other moments not be as over the top as they could have been. It was a relief to see the characters assume the worst case scenario in their minds, sit with it, then actually go try to talk it out with each other. I was happy to see Astrid's relationship with her mother leave on a tense note but with room for improvement. After seeing a pretty big focus on the sibling relationship in Delilah Green I almost wish we had seen more of Jordan and Simon working out their issues.

I do feel like I always find something a little off with the author's descriptions of people - this time I raised an eyebrow at every time we were given the phrase "women and nonbinary people." I know this had the intention of being inclusive, but it only seemed to be used when characters were discussing their connection to feminine presenting people, and it gave a feeling like we were just treating non-binary as another kind of woman. At least in this book the author actually used the word lesbian as a label a few times instead of completely dancing around it?

I can't say I'll necessarily come back for Iris's book - I have to admit she's been my least favorite character in the series - but we'll see.