2023 romance, third and last of its trilogy. Iris has had a few
long-term relationships, but they ended badly; recently she's been
happy with one-night stands. Stevie has an anxiety disorder and is
still recovering from a bad breakup. After a disastrous attempt at a
hookup, they'd never see each other again, except…
These are romance protagonists who are aware of romance
tropes—always a risky thing to do, but Blake pulls it off. Iris is
blocked on her second novel and her therapist (everybody in these
books has a therapist, even Stevie who's mostly working as a barista)
tells her to try something new, so she signs up for auditions at a
community theatre production of Much Ado. Which, as it turns out, is
being run by Stevie's ex, and Stevie, who's had trouble finding acting
work lately, is playing Beatrice.
Since Stevie's friend had sent out photos of the hot hookup before it
turned to panic and vomiting in private, all the theatre people
recognise her, and when she's offered Benedick, the two have to come
up with a story to avoid embarrassment. So it's fake-relationship
time, even as they're admitting how silly that whole idea is. But then
in turn Iris can help Stevie with being a bit less nervous while
looking for a hookup, and Stevie can help Iris with her aversion to
long-term relationships…
These are two deeply messed-up people, and for me that's another
innovation on a par with Astrid Parker's interior design incompetence
in the last book. Most romance protagonists I read may be a bit
displaced by circumstances but they basically have their stuff more or
less together; they have lives of their own, and aren't waiting for a
partner to take them away from all that. (There may be a selection
bias here, because I generally like to read about competent
protagonists.) But Iris, who learned early on that she enjoyed sex and
didn't particularly want more than that, is suffering because her
friend group has quickly gone from happily single to partnered up, and
she still thinks of herself as the easy lay that maybe she was but
people didn't have to call her that. And Stevie's anxiety disorder is
controlled much of the time, particularly when she's on stage, but
when it comes to making decisions about her own life she's less able
to think straight. And both of their friend groups are used to telling
Iris/Stevie what to do for their own good, and both of them are
getting deeply frustrated with that.
It's rare enough to get plausible female friendships in romances; all
too often they leave the woman socially isolated. (Books are better
than films for this, as one would expect.) Here we get not only that,
but friendships where the friend group isn't always right.
I like these people. I like to read about even the annoying ones. One
could start here, but I'd recommend taking the whole series in order.
(Recommended by Russ
Allbery.)