Anything and everything by Lauren Asher is pure gold. The plot, the characters, the dialogue, the funny moments, the romance, and the emotional pull she infuses in her stories are always an absolute joy to read. Once again, Lauren did a fantastic job in presenting Iris and Declan’s story.

Once again, we’re back in the fictional world of Dreamland and this time we got to read Declan’s story, the eldest brother of the Kane siblings. In the previous book, “The Fine Print” the moments where Declan appeared, it was clear right off the bat that Declan’s sole purpose in life was to achieve his goal in becoming the CEO of Kane Enterprises, and that was still the plan in, “Terms and Conditions”. Declan being the grumpy man that he was didn’t exactly make things easy, especially when Iris went out of her way in securing a fiancé for Declan, in part of the plan to secure his portion of inheritance his grandfather left him. Surprise, things didn’t end up going according to plan as Iris had hoped and suddenly Iris found herself agreeing to marry Declan. Of course we then got the marriage of convenience trope and it’s one of my favorite tropes! I freaking loved it! Not to mention, the grumpy/sunshine trope, but big emphasis on grumpy because if you thought Rowan was grumpy, wait until you see how much of a grumpy man Declan is. 

Early on, I already found myself loving Iris. Don’t get me wrong, I liked Declan, but this book showcased Iris and my goodness this book officially solidified my love for Iris. Make way for Iris people because SHE IS THE MOMENT! Not to mention seeing some of the aesthetic videos about Iris, I was so excited to learn more about her. With the little introduction to Iris in the previous book, I was eager to see what she would be like, and exactly her dynamic with Declan was like in terms of her being his assistant, her backstory, and more. As I continued reading I was intrigued with Iris’s determination with her work ethic and her boss queen attitude. In other words, when I grow up I want to be like Iris. I also found it interesting the reasoning behind why Iris felt the need to work harder than others *no spoilers but you’ll find out while reading* Iris was not only Declan’s assistant, but she played a significant role in most of the projects that Declan worked on, including her ideas, presentations, and more! Iris went above and beyond in her job, but while that was great, majority of the time she didn’t receive the gratitude from Declan at times (in my opinion, Declan sometimes took Iris for granted). 

This story had great character development as well as insight into both Declan and Iris’s lives. Iris was a people pleaser, always wanting to do the right thing and making sure everything was accounted for, making sure Declan had everything he needed, but at the end of the day who would provide Iris the care and love she deserved? Obviously in the end she got her happy ending, but the road leading to it wasn’t easy nor was it the traditional way one would expect. Iris was already a strong woman to begin with, but through this book she really started to realize what she wanted out of her life, and didn’t back down when push came to shove (Queen!) Declan was a close off person, one who didn’t trust easily, and was ruthless in both business and live. With more of Declan’s backstory, it highlighted the reasoning why the way that he was, and my heart went out to him like I just wanted to hug him! Over the course of the story, Declan went from being a total serious, grumpy man that hated everything to slowly softening his harsh edges and gradually opened up himself which was amazing. 

I honestly felt like Iris was center stage in this story and I was all for it, and I loved the character development with Declan, the grumpy man sure did learn from his mistakes, and seeing him grow into a better version of himself was amazing. As always Lauren just knows how to write a fantastic epilogue/ extended epilogue and I was all smiles, giddy with over excitement and absolute joy! This story was magical, beautiful, funny, witty, meaningful, and romantic. Can’t say enough good things about this story. As always, anything by Lauren Asher is a must read!