Blake has managed to amp up the spice while maintaining an interesting plot that keeps the reader invested and unable to put the book down. The number of times I had to force myself to set the book aside and make sure I wasn’t late for work or staying up all night trying to read *just one more chapter* is actually absurd. 

I loved Delilah Green and then Astrid Parker, but Iris Kelly takes the cake for me. Blake has become a master at their craft and has absolutely nailed the ratio of sapphic longing-spice-realistic character growth/development. I’m so sad to say goodbye to these beloved characters, but this trilogy has been a pure joy and delight to consume as a reader.

I read this for my book club and originally only planned on reading 50%/until I found the story unbearable. I’m happy to report that I managed to finish the book and only disliked it 80% of the time. 

Let me start by saying: this book is not for me. I am certain there are plenty of people who enjoy this type of romance, but I do not. I adore the cover design, but I sure do wish the two people depicted had been lesbians (personal opinions). It would’ve been a fantastic queer romance. 

Here are some spoiler-y things I both loved and personally detested about the book:

I LOVED the mutual pining and saving the first full-blown sex scene until we were over halfway through the book. I’m not a big fan of diving right in, so the build-up was an excellent selling point for me. However, the sex was unrealistic. I know it’s a special hetero-romance thing to have the MMC and FMC have undeniable chemistry in bed and for him to make her orgasm a million times, but like…did he really? In those positions? I found it hard to believe. And I really couldn’t stop rolling my eyes at the overuse of the pet name “sugar”. 

Sex aside, Luke Brooks has a lot of toxic masculinity to work through. His anger toward every male interacting with Emmy in the book is extremely unhealthy, but labeled as this act of passion. At one point in the bar Emmy tells him he shouldn’t take his anger out on people, she can handle herself, yada yada yada…but then he completely disregards her comments and they have sex and everything is magically okay. This is one big reason why a lot of heterosexual romances bother me. We just continue to perpetuate societal gender roles and toxic relationship structures. 

What I most appreciated from this book is that the author attempts to include positive representation of neurodiversity in Emmy’s ADHD. Emmy consistently talks about it without it being a negative point of conversation, and we get a glimpse of the challenges commonly faced by those with ADHD and other sensory challenges.

I want to reiterate that although this book wasn’t for me, it absolutely has an audience. While I didn’t think the author’s writing had much depth or that their characters had any sort of significant growth/arcs, there are people who will devour this book and enjoy it.

I didn’t enjoy the narration. I love Hayley Kiyoko and wanted to give this a shot, but I’m already in the fence about YA books, and having her as the narrator didn’t work for me.