I absolutely devoured and adored every word of this book. Delilah is a photographer who has lost both her parents as a young child and was raised by her ice queen waspy step mother alongside her perfect step-sister Astrid. She is hired by Astrid to photograph her perfect high society wedding in her small hometown that Delilah fled as soon as she turned 18. Claire is a single mom of a sassy tween and Astrid’s best friend from high-school who along with their third bestie Iris complete “the coven” as Delilah used to refer to them. There are so many things I absolutely loved about this book. There are so many relationships that are explored in this book; those we want, those we need to let go of, those that are incredibly toxic, and those we never knew we needed at all. This is an incredibly realistic exploration of all of these complicated relationships and the way they all weave together and how important they all are, whether we know it or not.

If you are looking for something to read next after Casey McQuiston’s One Last Stop, then this is the open door, steamy, romance you are absolutely looking for.

This is quite possibly the best sapphic romance I've ever read.

Hot Takes
- Delilah is my dream woman: grumpy and covered in tattoos give me them all
- We love a single parent situation in romance and this single parent situation was *chef's kiss!*
- The general story line of this is soooooo good! And it's sooo hard to come up with a trope for this, but that also works so well for the story!
- The friend group in this is FANTASTIC. I'm finding that in romance, having that solid friend group adds the best amount of perfection to a story and this did it.
- I cannot wait for Astrid's story!!

Read If You Like
- Rachel Lynn Solomon type romance, with a great story, great steam and swoon characters
- Fix Her Up for your best friend's weird sibling vibes

Blake is an American author of many YA and middle school novels, but this one is an adult romance. When Delilah was ten, her father died suddenly and she was left to be raised by her stepmother, who had her own daughter, Astrid, who was the same age. Delilah always felt like an outsider and she fled town as soon as graduated high school, visiting rarely. Now she is back, lured by a huge paycheque, to photograph Astrid's wedding events. When she reunites with Astrid's friend Claire, the attraction she feels throws her and her life is about to change forever. This is a fun, smart, sexy romance and is a great recommendation for fans of the genre. It is the first of a series with the second one featuring more about the character of Astrid to be released in November.

Thank you @berkleyromance for a copy of Deliah Green Doesn’t Care. I enjoyed this romance between Deliah and Claire. The attraction between them was hot and I enjoyed seeing how quickly Deliah was ingrained in Claire’s life.

It was nice to see the relationship between Astrid and Deliah mend. The setting of this small PNW town sounded so pretty and picturesque.

I loved this! Delilah Green DOES care, but she struggles to show it! This book explores a theme of "I always thought everyone hated me, but maybe I just didn't have perspective???" as Delilah comes to realize that she had more people rooting for her than she ever realized. Delilah's father married Astrid's mother when the girls were children, only to die shortly after, leaving Delilah in the care of her stepmother who didn't know what to make of a strange child. As soon as she graduated, Delilah left her small town home and never looked back. Until, that is, Astrid hires her as a photographer for her upcoming wedding. Delilah reluctantly returns and finds that Claire, Astrid's childhood friend, is now a divorced single mother who is queer and ready to date again. Delilah and Claire have a really lovely romance, and Delilah's relationship with her sister is complicated and messy in all the best ways.

Included as a top pick in bimonthly February New Releases post, which highlights and promotes upcoming releases of the month (link attached)

This was a wonderful rom-com about two woman finding what they perhaps didn't realize they needed. I loved the two main characters (Delilah and Claire) and all the supporting characters also!
I have loved Ashley Herring Blake's middle grade and YA books and was super excited when she took the leap into adult fiction! I look forward to the next book in this series!

I loved every second of this book! Spectacular, steamy, hilarious, heartwarming, I could not put it down!

This book was so good. So good. It's fun and dramatic and queer and interesting. Delilah returns to her hometown after years away in NYC pursuing her photography career. She's called back to photograph her stepsister's wedding, and their relationship is full of tension and resentment, on both sides. Claire, one of Delilah's stepsister's best friends is juggling her business, her tween daughter, and her unreliable ex. There's understandable trust issues and intimacy issues for both of them, and seeing them work through these issues, and how they impact both their romantic relationship, and their platonic relationships with others is really interesting.

I became really invested in these characters and their problems, but beyond that, the story is genuinely fun to read. The plot involving Astrid's wedding, and the associated hijinks were great, and the common goal, even with the motivations being slightly different made for great bonding.

One of my favorite parts is the inclusion of a visibly bisexual character. This representation is so important to me, and this felt real and wonderful. Claire's unapologetically bi and I love her for it!

I would recommend this book if you like: flirting!!, queer love, supportive friends, hijinks!!
I would not recommend this book if you hate: single parent romance, small towns.

This felt like the best hallmark movie of a sapphic romance. Great Character development, bi representation, and solid examination of a queer character without making them a caricature.

Delilah Green Doesn’t Care does so many things right - light-hearted fun, steamy romance, AND sweet moments.

This is my first Ashley Herring Blake experience and I am sure it won’t be my last! You will fall in love with the world of Bright Falls and it’s residents. As a PNW girl myself, it brought me a lot of comfort and nostalgia.

We find Delilah Green Living her life in NYC when she is whisked back to her home town of Bright Falls, Oregon to shoot photos for her sister Astrid’s wedding. Astrid’s best friend Claire finds herself in need of a hook-up and finds herself wrapped up in her best friend’s sister’s charm. Oh, and did I mention that NO ONE likes Astrid’s husband? Claire and Delilah, along with another BFF of Astrid’s Iris, join forces (a little bit reluctantly on Delilah’s part, but only because she is too cool to be a joiner) to commit hijinks to stop Astrid from marrying a dud. Of course, Claire and Delilah are forced to spend time together and the sparks FLY! But will these opposites be able to stay together when they realize they want more than just a wedding hook-up?

I had so much fun reading this! As a Bi-Queen, I loved reading about a fellow Bi-Queen. Claire was sweet and dynamic. Delilah was cool and ultimately a big cinnamon roll. Obviously, I was always rooting for them to be together. This is a romance book, but it also dives deeper into relationships and all the different kinds of love a person can have. It was nice to see how the siblings were able to foster their strained relationship and ultimately understand each other better. We love to see sibling love.

I would definitely recommend and am excited to read all about the people of Bright Falls!

Why You Should Care About Delilah Green Doesn't Care by Ashley Herring Blake

What do you get when you pair a bookselling, single mom Modcloth maven with a seemingly apathetic yet strong-willed tatted photographer? You get a deliciously sapphic romcom with gorgeous descriptions of the Pacific Northwest setting and equally gorgeous women loving women.

I'll be completely honest. The main reason I signed up for this ARC through Netgalley was because Delilah was serving some serious Rosa Diaz from Brooklyn 99 vibes, and I adore Stephanie Beatriz. Plus... the tats. I'm a sucker for full-sleeve tats. Now mix vintage bombshell with edgy artist, and I'm sold.

Ashley Herring Blake's Delilah Green Doesn't Care is an ode to many of our favorite tropes. Leaving the big city for a small town chance at love. Found family and mending broken bonds. Only one bed. But the best of all? The love interest is the main character's sibling's friend. Katie Erin and I are both huge suckers for this trope. Shared history is like the perfect appetizer in a romance!

Claire Sutherland, our polka-dotted vintage vixen on the cover, is a single mother, and this is a family dynamic I don't see enough in romcoms. So often, it's hard to pinpoint exactly what the personal stakes are preventing two characters from reaching their Happily Ever After sooner, but, in this book, the reason for Claire is built-in. Like many parents, Claire wants to protect her preteen daughter from future heartbreak---whether that be from her ex or Delilah Green.

Obviously there are more stakes at hand, but this is a NO SPOILERS book review blog. If you want to know why Delilah doesn't care or what holds these beautiful ladies back from getting hot and heavy for 90% of the book (because let's be honest, the 10% of spicy spice we get is never enough), be sure to order your copy soon! Preorders are available now, and print books will be available in a bookstore near you February 22, 2022.

Overall rating: Five lavender and silver stars!

This is a fun and spicy romance novel. It's an aged up alt loner - popular girl pairing, with a few classic tropes like there's-only-one-bed. Delilah Green was an outcast, both in her family and in their small town. As soon as she graduated high school, she moved to New York and started her career as an artist and photographer. When her step-sister, Astrid hires her to photograph her wedding, Delilah dreads spending two weeks back in her oppressive hometown and with her cold step-sister and stepmother. But when she runs into Astrid's best friend, Claire, things start looking up. Claire is beautiful and sweet, and Delilah can't keep her eyes off of her.
I love a pairing that tames the alt loner, and this is a prime example. The book is a little spicy, but filled with sweet moments of Delilah building connections not only with Claire, but with Claire's tween daughter.

I really enjoyed this romance! The relationship was sweet, sexy, and believable (if a little rushed). I really appreciated how much time was given to other relationships outside of the main romance, specifically Delilah & Astrid's relationship as well as Claire's complicated relationship with Josh, and Delilah's burgeoning relationship with Ruby. While some things were a little over the top (Iris's and Spencer's characterizations come to mind), overall I thought this was well-balance, well-written, and very enjoyable. For me the biggest flaw was how quickly things progressed and how easily Delilah decided to leave her entire life in NY. That being said, the fact that Delilah had found not only a romantic relationship but also a renewed closeness with her sister does do a lot of work towards explaining that move. Overall, this exceeded my expectations.

Delilah Green Doesn’t Care follows Delilah, a photographer in search of her artistic break as she reluctantly returns to her hometown to photograph her step-sister, Astrid’s wedding. While she plans to stir up as much trouble as possible while keeping everyone at arm’s length, she finds herself attracted to Claire Sutherland, one of Astrid's coven of best friends and the trip that started out as a major pain in the ass is turning into something much more enjoyable.

There have been a lot of m/m queer romances that have captured my heart, but I can't think of a single sapphic romance that has done so until now. The relationship between Claire and Delilah is hot, but the emotional serves just as much as the physical. Both of them have difficult pasts, and while it trips them up in some moments, ultimately they are able to provide comfort to each other. Each feels that the other actually sees them, and that is what love is all about at the end of the day.

The thing that makes this book so revelatory is that it is fairly mundane in terms of the plot. It’s not a coming-of-age story or a 'finding myself' moment, it just acknowledges their identities as queer women and revolves around the characters’ personal growth. And as much as this story is a romance, it's also about found family. Delilah has a rocky relationship with her step-sister, Astrid, and we learn throughout the story that these two interpreted the events of their childhood through completely different lenses, leading to less than kind feelings about each other. It was just as meaningful to see them get to know each other and finally attempt to reconcile as it was to see the romance bloom in this story.

This has been one of my favorite books of the year so far and I'm eagerly awaiting Astrid's book. The tease at the end was enough to have me counting down the days until 2023.

I absolutely ADORED this small town, opposites attract, dual perspective sapphic romance!! Full of lots of Gilmore Girls charm, a wonderful cast of queer characters and beautiful but complicated female and sister relationships.

Delilah is a broody, talented NYC artist who has always felt left out and alone after her father died leaving her with her cold stepmother and her stepsister Astrid. When Astrid hires Delilah to photograph her wedding, she is forced to return to her home town of Bright Falls and face all the people from her past she thought never liked her.

Enter Claire: a curvy single mom with a huge heart and one of Astrid's two best friends. Not realizing who Delilah is at first, Claire tries to hit on her in the local bar. The chemistry between Claire and Delilah was top notch and they just complemented one another soo well. Each recognizing the other's secret pains and wanting to make them happy.

Highly, highly recommend this feel-good queer love story that has the perfect amount of steam and swoon! I can't wait to go back to Bright Falls and get more of Astrid and Iris's stories. Fans of Alexis Hall, Alexandria Bellefleur, Casey McQuiston, Alison Cochrun or Anita Kelly will absolutely delight in this new group of friends to fall in love with. Much thanks to NetGalley and Berkley for my advance review copy!

Get ready to fall in love with this chaotic ragtag team of females!

This book was honestly so cute. The way Delilah and Claire were so stupidly into each other made me keep going “dawwww!” They are adorable and I love them with my whole heart.

I’m so excited that this is going to be a series and I can’t wait for the next book. I’m not grateful and not grateful for the sneak peek at the end. Grateful because it’s excellent and exciting. Not grateful because waiting for book 2 is going to be so hard.

I received an eArc from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This is one of those books where the characters pop off the page and feel alive (well, the women at least) but the plot is just incredibly weak. It's as though all the conflict is resolved off screen. It was fine. I would have given this three stars if it weren't for the lesbians.

Thank you Netgalley for the advanced reading copy! This was my first book by Ashley Herring Blake, and it will most definitely not be my last - I loved this book and look forward to reading the next one in the series. Delilah Green left the small town of Bright Falls for New York City the minute she turned 18 and has never wanted to return, but does so to photograph the wedding of her estranged step-sister Astrid. Claire Sutherland is Astrid’s best friend and a single mom with trust issues who runs the local bookstore; she finds herself immediately attracted to Delilah when she comes into town for the wedding. This book balances hard topics of familial grief and mistrust with romantic comedy so well - maybe the best I have seen this delicate balance done in a while. I cried and laughed, usually from reading one page. There are moments of tenderness and insight that are really heartbreaking and beautiful. The queerness of the main characters shone through lovingly, while also treating the side characters with respect. Again, I loved this book and highly recommend it to anyone who likes contemporary, sapphic, and LGBTQ+ romance, small towns, and complicated family dynamics.

My issues with this book were totally personal preference. This is a fantastic romance debut, wonderfully written and well-paced, full of interesting characters.

The thing is, I really don't mesh well with characters like Delilah, and to a lesser extent Claire, characters who are really determined to assume the worst about people as a defense mechanism and who wield their individuality and independence like swords instead of shields. It's self-sabotage to the max, how Delilah is absolutely shutting her eyes to efforts that Astrid has made through the years, telling herself her stepfamily despises her and then doing the best she can to live up to what she assumes are their low expectations of her.

And Claire does the same thing, too - her daughter's father has been a flake in the past, but it's clear that he's trying hard now. I'm not a parent, and I certainly have no experience in comforting a child who's been let down by a parent, but Claire is essentially sabotaging her daughter's relationship with her father. It was really tough for me to have both characters constantly picking the worst case scenario available and acting as though that was the only possible option.

I do really truly 100% recommend this book - I think it will be deservedly beloved by many people, and I'm really eager for Astrid's book. I just... kind of hope Josh gets one too? And I hope that future characters can treat themselves, their friends, and their romantic interests with a little more gentleness.