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A review by indiekay
Astrid Parker Doesn't Fail by Ashley Herring Blake
4.0
I enjoyed this one a lot more than Delilah Green - though I think I was enjoying this book and then by the end my enjoyment waned a lot. I liked both characters and there were some bits that had me smiling, but I also think the pacing was really off. The majority of the book is about the two characters before they get together, then they're together for SUCH a short amount of time before they're saying I love you and the book ends. And the audiobook is 12 hours long, so there should have been more happening? I think if I'd read this instead of listening I might have been more bored.
I agree with other reviews that you can't read this as a standalone. Any context you got about Astrid from the first book (her relationships with her ex and her mom) and barely re-iterated here and would feel incredibly under-developed if you read this as a standalone. It's also obvious Astrid hates her job, but when it's presented that she'd actually want to be a baker instead, that feels incredibly underdeveloped? There's one scene where she looks at a scone at a flea market, then she and Jordan start baking but never actually finish because Astrid's mom interrupt them, and then suddenly at the end of the book Astrid is a bnb manager and baking for the bnb. And like. We never even SEE her bake in the book. She could be the worst baker in the world for all we know.
Another problem I have with this series as a whole is the clumping in of "women and nonbinary people" CONSTANTLY. Women are never mentioned in this book without also tacking on non-binary too. Characters just immediately know when another person is nonbinary, there's a tarot card deck that's filled with art of women and non-binary people (PLEASE tell me how you can tell that the art in this tarot depicts these nonbinary people? I am SO serious. Like how are we looking at this art and knowing immediately how one character is a woman and the other is enby? Do the enbies all have mullets?), and all the lesbians say they date women and nonbinary people, but like - just AFAB nonbinary people? On one hand I do believe there are definitions of lesbianism that can include basically anyone that's not a cis man, and that trans mascs and trans men can identify as lesbians after transitioning because labels are just guidelines, not strict rules. But on the other hand, it just feels like this author's definition of a nonbinary person is a woman who uses they/them pronouns. And I just wish if Ashley Herring Blake is going to keep saying her characters are attracted to women and enbies, that she'd actually show that on paper by having a nonbinary main character (if she has written that please let me know, I've only read these Bright Fall books).
Ugh God. This just ended up being one of those reviews were I say more negative than positive stuff, but I really did enjoy most of this book.
I agree with other reviews that you can't read this as a standalone. Any context you got about Astrid from the first book (her relationships with her ex and her mom) and barely re-iterated here and would feel incredibly under-developed if you read this as a standalone. It's also obvious Astrid hates her job, but when it's presented that she'd actually want to be a baker instead, that feels incredibly underdeveloped? There's one scene where she looks at a scone at a flea market, then she and Jordan start baking but never actually finish because Astrid's mom interrupt them, and then suddenly at the end of the book Astrid is a bnb manager and baking for the bnb. And like. We never even SEE her bake in the book. She could be the worst baker in the world for all we know.
Another problem I have with this series as a whole is the clumping in of "women and nonbinary people" CONSTANTLY. Women are never mentioned in this book without also tacking on non-binary too. Characters just immediately know when another person is nonbinary, there's a tarot card deck that's filled with art of women and non-binary people (PLEASE tell me how you can tell that the art in this tarot depicts these nonbinary people? I am SO serious. Like how are we looking at this art and knowing immediately how one character is a woman and the other is enby? Do the enbies all have mullets?), and all the lesbians say they date women and nonbinary people, but like - just AFAB nonbinary people? On one hand I do believe there are definitions of lesbianism that can include basically anyone that's not a cis man, and that trans mascs and trans men can identify as lesbians after transitioning because labels are just guidelines, not strict rules. But on the other hand, it just feels like this author's definition of a nonbinary person is a woman who uses they/them pronouns. And I just wish if Ashley Herring Blake is going to keep saying her characters are attracted to women and enbies, that she'd actually show that on paper by having a nonbinary main character (if she has written that please let me know, I've only read these Bright Fall books).
Ugh God. This just ended up being one of those reviews were I say more negative than positive stuff, but I really did enjoy most of this book.