This was adorably fun, a little spicy and just the right amount of emotional. I loved this from start to finish. Delilah Green is a character I care very much about now, but I was so pleased to find myself in other characters as well. This book is a beautiful ride of healing, romance, and life.

I loved loved LOVED this book! The romance was obviously the center, but I felt like it was balanced out with so many other aspects of the leading ladies lives. It was such a good balance of so many different pieces of their lives that it kept the book interesting and moving along where other rom-coms would tend to drag. I loved seeing the character development and getting to know more about each of the characters, side included!

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book! The title and this beautiful cover drew me in and i was excited to read this book! I will be recommending this book to others for readers advisory.

Okay, this book is so cute! I love a grumpy/sunshine romance and this was exactly that. It was giving "Count Your Lucky Stars" by @alexandriabellefleur vibes and I was HERE FOR IT!

This was more than just a romance. It deals with estranged siblings reuniting, a family with divorced parents and shared custody, a toxic relationship (not the main couple though lol), and other topics that were important for the characters' development. It was really well done and I cannot wait for the second book, "Astrid Parker Doesn't Fail" coming Nov. 22!

Thanks to @netgalley and @berkleypub for providing me with the e-arc.

This book was genuinely so good. Both Mcs were so easy to love and I rlly liked how their relationship progressed.
All the characters made me smile and laugh and giggle like a crazy person and don't even get me started on the tension between Delilah and Claire. The plot and the dialogue were so addicting that it took me less than a day to finish the thing.

Delilah Green hoped she'd never return to Bright Falls, Oregon. But as a photographer struggling to make ends meet while breaking into the art scene, she can't turn down a hefty paycheck to shoot her stepsister's wedding. As soon as she arrives, Delilah finds herself drawn to Claire, a hot single mom and one of her stepsister's best friends. All Delilah wanted was to survive the two weeks in her hometown and leave forever, but something about Bright Falls — and Claire — make it hard to leave.

Delilah and Claire are such different and complex characters, and their chemistry is undeniable! This steamy romance also has a lot of thoughtful conversations about friendship, reckoning with difficult childhoods, and letting love in. I had a blast visiting Bright Falls through Delilah and Claire's eyes, and I can't wait to find out what happens to Astrid in book 2!

This book was very cute and spicy!
I loved that the main characters had an easy time communicating with each other- I hate when the conflict in romances is the lack of communication..yawn.
I really enjoyed this LGBTQA positive romance and recommend it to those looking for something cute with a blend of family drama added in.

This was a sweet and steamy romance in the realm of second-chance, with a lot of heart and feelings involved. Delilah is a strong main character, and her relationship to Claire is organic and heartfelt.

Delilah is a edgy photographer from NYC, photographer Queer people in water being her go to subject. But she has been hired for two weeks to photograph all the ins and outs of her estranged step-sisters wedding. Ending up back in Bright Falls wasn't exactly something she wanted to do but she can't pass up the payday. She bumps into Claire a single mom or a pre-teen and the best friend of Delilah's sister Astrid. Claire has been in a dating rut lately, dealing with an pre-teen and the sudden reappearance of her Dad have put her in a weird place. She unknowingly hits on Delilah in a bar before realizing it's her best friends sister and quickly falls for her. They try to keep their fling a secret but the two grow closer as the two weeks Delilah is in town slowly tick away.

This was a super adorable Queer romance. The relationship between the two characters was believable and didn't feel forced at all. I love the potential for more books featuring Queer characters in the future from this author and I can't wait for the sequel featuring Astrid.

I've decided to DNF this book at the 50% mark. I made great progress through the first third of the book and enjoyed the budding relationship between Claire and Delilah, but I've been struggling since. I feel like there has been zero character growth and zero advancement in plot. Delilah is unlikeable and very juvenile. I just feel like for being a female-female potential relationship it feels very hetero in how it is written. It's really just not for me.

There is no love lost between Delilah Green and her miniscule home town, Bright Falls. She fled when she was eighteen and barely looked back, preferring to spend her time pursuing her artistic dreams in Manhattan. Delilah was orphaned at ten and left in the care of her stepmother, a woman who isn’t precisely evil, but certainly lacks empathy. Delilah has returned to Bright Falls periodically for events with her stepfamily, but she really regrets having committed to a two week visit to photograph her stepsister Astrid’s wedding festivities. Astrid defines high-strung, and they’ve never been close, but the fee is too good to pass up.

Claire Sutherland took a different path – she had a baby right out of high school with her then-boyfriend, who didn’t exactly step up. Her ex has ducked in and out of their lives for years, and Claire has been her daughter’s rock, providing a loving and stable home. Along with the support of her mother and two best friends, Iris and Astrid, Claire has created a great life for her kid. Ruby is a headstrong pre-teen just starting to rebel, and Claire has enough on her plate without a force of nature like Delilah blowing into town.

The mutual attraction is instant, but Claire knows it can’t go anywhere. She and Iris have concerns about Astrid, and Claire knows Astrid would see any connection with Delilah as a betrayal. The stepsisters aren’t on good terms, and Claire doesn’t want to rock the boat. Meanwhile, all Delilah can think about is how much she could rock Claire’s world.

I loved this book so much! Delilah is a character you might recognize – she’s emotionally closed-off due to her childhood trauma, but she just needs to feel safe to let herself love someone. I adored her, she’s such a softy underneath all that thorny pain. This is kind of a grumpy/sunshine romance, as Delilah is a hedgehog type while Claire is all teddy bear. Claire only really lets herself unleash hell when her daughter is involved, and that’s totally fair game. The romance hits well; both characters are willing to entertain the attraction but neither is really ready for love until they have to confront the possibility. They both also go on a journey to discover where they are in life: Claire has to let go a little bit, and try to forgive and move forward, where Delilah has to accept the past and get on with her life, with the understanding that she isn’t really alone.

There is a lot to love about this book: the posse of queer besties, Delilah’s one liners, and wedding blunders galore. The representation is great – Delilah is a lesbian and Claire is bi, and both perspectives really ring true. The secondary characters are pretty strong, and the other plotlines all work really well. While a lot of B-plots feel like they’re only there to take up space, all of the events of this book feel natural and causal. I particularly adored Astrid, who is maybe not so loveable, but really needs to be loved. Her dynamic with Delilah is great, and I’m excited for the rest of the series. The next book will follow Astrid, and I can’t wait to get my hands on it.

One thing that doesn’t really fit the story is Iris, long-time friend of Delilah and Astrid. She has really great chemistry with Delilah – they’re both somewhat catty people! – but she doesn’t really vibe with the two women she has been friends with for years. Iris, Astrid and Claire are supposed to have been inseparable since they were children, but Iris doesn’t actually seem to like Astrid, and she basically just bounces jokes off Claire like she’s a wall. Generally, I didn’t buy the three of them as friends. None of them really seems to like each other, or even have much in common. Their bond isn’t really well established, which makes it difficult to see the three of them as the author intends. While this is my only problem with the book, it does make a difference, since the friendship between these three is a huge part of the plot.

Other than that, however, I enjoyed the book very much. Delilah Green Doesn’t Care is a delightful story of two women finding love where they least expect it, and I highly recommend it.

Delilah Green Doesn't Care is a delighful rom-com full of some of my favorite tropes. The chemistry between the main character and love interest had me swooning. I couldn't put this one down and I recommend it for fans of Love and Other Disasters by Anita Kelly, One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston, and The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun.

Nothing makes me happier than cute gay romcoms and boy did this book deliver. You've got Delilah who is a tatted up grungy queen with a idgaf attitude matched with a sweet as pie bisexual single mom who's entire aesthetic is plus size vintage. I separately I love both of these characters but together they make a great power couple. This book is the perfect combination of sweet and angsty and spicy. If you're looking for a sweet sapphic romcom this is the book for you!

(Tiktok Review Coming)

*Thank you Berkley Publishing and Netgalley for the eARC of this book*

“Delilah Green Doesn’t Care” - @ashleyhblake

💁🏼‍♀️SYNOPSIS: Delilah swore she’d never go back to Bright Falls, where she has terrible childhood memories, but she must return to photograph her sisters wedding - and may find love along the way.

💁🏼‍♀️REVIEW: This was the sapphic romance I didn’t know I needed! WOW, I simply loved this entire story!

Delilah is more of a hardass; doesn’t take relationships seriously, in for one night stands, but this changes when she meets Claire, one of her sister’s bridesmaids. The problem is Delilah has a rocky relationship with her sister, so as a result of this relationship, she’ll have to keep things with Claire quiet.

I loved Claire and Delilah. Their romance was done perfectly, and I appreciated the bisexual representation in Claire. I really loved her daughter as well, who plays a big part in Claire’s life and the decisions that she makes.

I also loved the complicated relationship with Delilah and her sister, Astrid. I know I’ve had a complicated relationship with my own, and families can be complex, so I loved watching their story unfold and the growth that came from it.

It could have been a little shorter, but it was still a pure, feel-good delight. This will definitely be in my top romances this year. You should give it a read!

💁🏼‍♀️VERDICT: 4.5 STARS ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

🎶SONG REC: “L.O.V.E.” - Ashlee Simpson

Thank you to @berkleypub @berkleyromance and @netgalley for a copy of this one. It’s out now!

While cute, it didn’t have enough character development or plot to hold my interest for long, and I was disappointed at the lack of diversity within Blake’s story. There was not a identifiable POC character with lines in this whole book, and that lack of representation spoke volumes for me.

I was left also disappointed with Claire and Delilahs chemistry, it absolutely could have been more developed then what was delivered, and honestly I only became a fan of Delilah during the last two chapters. I get the grumpy lesbian archetype, but she needed a depth of character that just was not given enough time to develop. That being said I understand that this book was marketed as a fun romance and on that front I did enjoy the premise of Wedding pranks and female friendships.

Cute! Lovely lesbian romance between an aspiring photographer estranged from her adopted family and a single mum who hasn't been able to put herself first due to an unreliable ex and a preteen daughter. I really enjoyed how this book dealt with the different ways people deal with shared trauma and different kinds of parental failings, and the way it made the queer experience a focus of the plot. The spice is really well written as well, and doesn't get repetitive or unbelievable.

<i>Thank you to Netgalley and Berkley publishing group for the ARC!</i>

I want more sapphic contemporary romances! I appreciated a lot about this one, though I did find myself more compelled by the relationship between Delilah and her sister Astrid than the romance itself. It's bold to start with a one night stand that is not with the love interest, and I really liked that about it, it's a really sexually charged book! That said, I think the book took a little longer for me to read than most; for whatever reason I did not find myself fully swept up in the storytelling.

It was cute romance. Loved the representation in it. Especially it's rare to find good romances LGBTQ themes. So I this was really cute and one a lot of people are going to want to read.

We all have our purposes in life.

There are people who come into this world solely to do things like save people's lives through the miracle of modern medicine, or to fight against inequality via nonprofit work, or to single-handedly defeat sadness (this applies only to whoever invented cake).

I'm similar, except my purpose is to be a hater.

I don't know what that really "does for others," really, beyond making them mad on Twitter, but fighting fate is a futile fixation.

And I didn't just say that for the alliteration. I said it's because it's true.

And also because alliteration.

It's not an easy life, being built on the act of detesting. It angers my loved ones. It ruins my enjoyment of perfectly fine things, like citrus fruit or two and a half hour torture sessions superhero movies.

But it does help me in one way, and that is in writing book reviews. Have you ever tried writing a five star review?? Yeesh. Awkward stuff. Very vulnerable and earnest. Not a fan.

Complaining about a disappointing read, on the other hand...that's fun. That's the good life.

Even when it's a universally beloved new release you really wanted to enjoy and instead just felt kind of meh about, like now.

It's like a reward for a blah reading experience.

So let's get into it.

This is a romance novel, but I don't care for the romance very much.

I have said many times that I'm not a romance reader who likes when the smut carries the love story. I'm here for the banter, luvs. Unfortch, both love interests in this repeatedly say their relationship is "just sex," which means the romance only comes from smut.

Also means that it seems to come out of nowhere that they suddenly Love Each Other, but whatevs!

That's all okay anyway, because my secret is that I don't actually read romance for the romance - I read it for the sweet kind nice characters finding and liking THEMSELVES.

But also that's not okay, because I don't care for those guys either.

Our main character, Delilah, is a tattooed hottie who is cold and uncaring. This sounds good to me, as an aspiring tattooed hottie who is cold and uncaring. However, Delilah's internal monologue involves a lot of "everyone is mean to me!!!" when she is, in fact, a b*tch to everyone, so that's kind of a lose/lose.

If you're going to be rude constantly, be unapologetic. That's what I do.

In this book, Delilah is going to her estranged stepsister Astrid's wedding to be the photographer in exchange for a lot of money and a bad time. Astrid thinks that Delilah is a b*tch and she has a troubled life, when in fact she herself is quite spoiled and Delilah has spent her life alone.

Astrid has two friends, Claire and Iris. Iris thinks Delilah is weird and has since childhood, when in fact Iris is a bully and it's weird we are supposed to like her, when she tortured Delilah as an adolescent and still talks to her in the exact same way and generally does not appear to have changed very much.

Claire, the other friend, is also the love interest, and she pulls double duty both on that and on thinking Delilah is mistreating her while she is actively hiding their relationship, continually asking Delilah to keep it secret, and generally acting like being with Delilah is something shameful.

Sheesh! What a barrel of monkeys these people are. (I don't think that's an expression in this context but I do think it is cute.)

This is a whipsmart, sexy, messy romcom about lovable characters who can't seem to stop themselves from making mistakes. I loved Delilah and Claire, and their chemistry was breathtaking. This story has all the compassion I expect from Ashley Herring Blake, but it's for a decidedly mature audience.

My only complaint is that alcohol is ever present and it made me uncomfortable (and would stop me from recommending it without a content warning!). I can count on one hand the number of scenes that didn't have a character longing for or consuming alcohol. Although it was briefly addressed, I don't think one sentence that feels kind of like a throwaway is enough to actually deal with the normalization of heavy drinking.