Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Iris Kelly Doesn't Date by Ashley Herring Blake

17 reviews

mayareads4fun's review against another edition

emotional funny 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

5.0

After reading exclusively books for my classes, picking this up was a joy. I was dying for a 5 star read and thank YOU Ashely Herring-Blake for delivering. A romance writer AND fake dating??? It's like the book was calling my name for real. 

I feel like I should read the other two in the series, even if I've started out of order. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexual content

Moderate: Vomit and Alcohol

Minor: Emotional abuse

boba_nbooks's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted 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

4.25

Spice Rating: 🌶️🌶️ / 5

Ashley Herring Blake has delivered one beautiful sapphic romance after another in the Bright Falls series, and Iris Kelly Doesn't Date is no exception. 

Iris Kelly is a woman surrounded by friends and family who have found their soul mates. She's happy for them, but she's also getting a little tired of being the stereotypical "good lay" and bitter single friend. Stevie went through a terrible breakup six months ago. But her ex is still in her friend group, and Stevie watches as she falls in love with another one of their friends. Another of Stevie's friends thinks all Stevie needs is a one night stand to get her ex off her mind. Iris and Stevie have a disastrous one night stand but are forced to work together in a Shakespearean play which leads to their fake dating scheme. Both women start to feel that this fake dating might just be starting to feel real. 

I love how these characters felt like opposites but really had so many things in common. Both of them felt as though they couldn't be who their family and friends wanted them to be but found solace and realness in each other. 

I'm going to miss the Bright Falls crew so much! Seeing all the characters from the other books come together was a ton of fun and made me realize how important it is to have your people.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexual content

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Vomit, and Alcohol

Minor: Emotional abuse, Homophobia, and Infidelity

ecombs's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Minor: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, and Gaslighting

madelineslibrary's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing sad 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

Iris Kelly Doesn't Date perfectly wraps up the Bright Falls series, although I seriously wish that there was more. This world she's created is a space that feels realistic and full of such love between the characters. With Iris needing inspiration for the romance novel she's writing, and Stevie needing seduction lessons, this book is romantic, hilariously funny, emotional, and heartfelt. 

This book is for you if you like...

😘Fake dating 
👩‍🏫"Teach me" seduction lessons dynamics
🌇Small Town 
💔Afraid of commitment 
🎭Theatre life
💕Found family 
🌈Sapphic romance (Bisexual FMC & Lesbian FMC)
🫂 Anxiety / mental health rep

The story for Iris and Stevie that the author crafted is so uniquely appropriate for them. I loved seeing both of these characters grow, and also peeking in at the lives of the previous books' MCs. Iris and Stevie make such an adorable couple, and watching them carefully unravel each other with their fake dating trope and "teach me how to seduce someone" lessons had me unable to put this book down! Plus, the gender-bent queer representation in the Much Ado About Nothing production happening in this book was phenomenal to imagine. Now I want to see all of Shakespeare's plays to be re-envisioned this way! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexual content

Moderate: Cursing, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting

Minor: Infidelity and Abandonment

Stevie has anxiety and this story represents scenes where she has anxiety attacks from her pov and how she comes down from them. It's also discussed with other characters in the book. Some of the supporting characters seem borderline emotionally abusive at times even though they have good intentions, but they're put in their place and learn from that experience by the end. An ex that's still in the friend group is manipulative and sometimes gaslights. Cursing language is used. Sexual scenes are graphic and wonderfully written. Brief mention of being abandoned and betrayed by an ex through infidelity.

abby_can_read's review against another edition

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

4.0

📱
I had a good time reading this book and the series. I thought Iris and Stevie were cute together and their relationship was sweet. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexual content

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Vomit, and Alcohol

Minor: Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, and Toxic friendship

cwbillings's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Bullying, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Gaslighting, and Dysphoria

chase0w0's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexual content

Moderate: Body shaming, Vomit, and Alcohol

Minor: Biphobia, Emotional abuse, and Infidelity

e_riahh's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Alcohol

author2223's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

lunep's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Moderate: Biphobia, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Acephobia/Arophobia, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Cancer, Drug use, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, and Lesbophobia

Slut shaming