3.5 Stars
That was a pretty cute YA contemporary. I liked Delilah as a character quite a bit, especially as she had some bad qualities/traits and it wasn't glazed over or ignored by her friends/other characters and (eventually) even by herself. I liked that her friends all had foibles of their own but that they were all like a family in that they might get annoyed with one another or have rows every once in a while, but they'll stick it out together in the end. Charlie was especially fun to get to know, even if he did have massive lapses of judgment; he did really care about Delilah as a friend and it was nice to see their friendship dynamic and how much they cared for each other without it being romantic <spoiler>they did have that one drunken exploratory hookup but it pretty much just cemented for both of them that Delilah is definitely gay and they are definitely not interested in each other</spoiler>. Delilah could be hard on the other people in her life, which was frustrating as a reader, but it also showed some of her imperfections and gave her a place to grow from which was good to see. All in all this was a fun contemporary YA book with lots of humour and dashes of romance of the not always traditional variety.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I truly tried to enjoy this, but the main character isn't all that one-dimensional. The story falls to the wayside in the wake of a character who doesn't hold much interest. Not only that, but her best friend Charlie veers a bit too close to misogyny on a page-by-page basis. His insistence on chasing after women twice his age who have expressed no interest in him is grating and hard to read. I tried to push through for the sweet, coffee shop f/f romance but there wasn't enough here to keep me reading!

"Get It Together, Delilah!" has everything one expects from this genre: parents who are not present, an amazing supportive cast of friends, and the traditional love story plot line: people like each other, they get together, life gets in the way, they are no longer together, they find their way back. All of this happens alongside a variety of subplots that make this a very satisfying read!

GET IT TOGETHER, DELILAH was the second book I DNFed this week. I honestly didn’t get too far in with it (maybe 30%, around chapter 12). The writing was good even if the plot was unrealistic (what adult leaves their business and teenager to traipse across the world to get over a broken heart?) and I thought Delilah was a generally likable character. However. HOWEVER.

Her best friend Charlie, who is 18, is supposedly in love with his 30 year old tutor and after she turns him down, he stalks around her neighborhood, Delilah in tow, until he finds her house. After knocking on her door and getting her dad, Charlie becomes so outraged that the man won’t let him in to see the woman that he punches his tutors Dad in the face. This is after he tries to force his way in. Not only does Delilah help Charlie escape, she also allows him to hide out at her house because he’s paranoid the cops were looking for him. Delilah condones his behavior by saying this is what he’s like with women. Fifteen different women in the last year, to be exact. So, what we have here is a teenage boy who doesn’t understand no and harasses women until he finds someone new to stalk, I mean, love. I’m sorry, at no point should the author have been like “Yes, this is a good character to give to teens.”

Overall 2.5 Stars
I was a quite disappointed. I expected a fun girl romance. Delilah is dealing with bullies because of her sexuality. I know bullying is a serious issue, but with today's youth, it is more socially accepted. I truly felt it was overdramatized. In typical YA fashion, there are no parental figures present. I can understand the dad being gone for a week or something, but to be gone for 2 months to leave your teen home alone AND to run your business?? Come on now.
There was something lacking in the emotion of Delilah as well. It was very hard to relate to her or feel compassion.

Ah! What a book! I absolutely loved it. What is it with Australian authors of contemp fiction? I loved the voice, the realness of the characters, the friendship! I loved the f/f romance, which was sweet and thought provoking.

I wanted to like Delilah so much and just couldn't - and I wanted to like this book so much and just couldn't. 17-year-old Delilah has been basically abandoned by both her (divorced) parents - though neither of them would see it that way - and left to manage her dad's cafe by herself. Actually, he didn't mean for her to manage it by herself, but his illegal alien manager got caught running a stop sign and that ended that. Delilah is left managing the cafe, which is short-staffed (she caught her cook robbing the till and fired him) and losing money to the extent that the accountant wants to shut it down. She's skipping school to run the cafe and ends up dropping out - all this in addition to all the other stressors in her life, which include a crush on the girl across the street, one best friend who wants her to lie for him in court, and another that, while well-meaning, is just adding to the stress by continually scolding Del for leaving school. All the while, mum is oblivious in Melbourne and dad is galivanting around Mongolia. Delilah really should be a sympathetic character - but she's so unpleasant, that I just couldn't feel it. It made the book a chore to finish, and that was disappointing because it was so promising.

Get It Together, Delilah!, originally published in Australia as The Flywheel, was a short and sweet YA contemporary. It was kinda fun, I guess, if a bit frivolous. The story follows our protagonist, Delilah, when her father goes out of the country for two months and leaves her to run her family’s cafe in his absence. That being said, I had some major problems with certain language used in the book.

I’ll start by saying that I loved reading an Aussie YA novel. I wish more were published in the US! It was fun to get a glimpse of life as a teenager on the other side of the world. It really took me a while to get over the sheer improbability of Delilah’s situation, though– not only did her father leave her to fend for herself for months (Del has no siblings and an absent mother), but also rarely contacted her to check in on her or the cafe. I mean, she ended up unofficially dropping out of school to manage the Flywheel! There is passing mention of her teacher being worried about Delilah and trying to get her to come back to school, but somehow Del manages to keep up this charade and no law enforcement gets involved, despite the fact that she is a minor and so much of her situation is probably hella illegal. And on top of all the cafe stuff, one of Del’s friends is living with her while hiding from law enforcement. I just… what even? I would have enjoyed this book much more if the premise didn’t feel so incredulous, and as a result, so lazy on the author’s part.

With that gripe out of the way, I will say that I enjoyed Del’s growth over the course of the novel. It took a while for her to realize how selfish and stubborn she was being towards the people around her, but she did eventually realize the error of her ways. I feel like she learned to view situations through lenses other than her own, which is an important lesson many of us learn as teenagers. I did really like Del’s love interest, Rosa, as well. I enjoyed seeing their relationship develop, and of course, yay for more f/f rep in YA! I kinda feel like Delilah didn’t deserve Rosa, though. She basically tries to pressure Rosa into coming out to her family so that the two of them could be in a public relationship because Del is tired of hiding. Of course, Rosa’s safety comes second to Del’s desires. *eye roll* This eventually gets resolved and Del sees the error of her ways, but I’m upset it even happened in the first place. Homophobia is also addressed in the novel– both from Rosa’s parents, and from the mean girls who bully Del at school. I did appreciate this, but the amount of homophobia/lesbophobia is pretty heavy, so a definite trigger warning for those things.

However, this brings me to my next point: there were definitely some problematic stereotypes and language at play, mostly dealing with mental illness. *Trigger warning for anorexia, eating disorders, depression, and suicidal ideation* Firstly, there is a scene where one of Delilah’s friends, Misch, wonders why “guys always go for preppy anorexics.” Um, no. Anorexia is a serious disease, not an insult to throw around lightly– ESPECIALLY in the context of girl hate (this statement is also a classic example of *~not like other girls~*). Another of Del’s friends, Lucas, continues this harmful discussion, remarking that one of their other friends, Lauren, “is preppy and anorexic, and [a particular guy] hasn’t gone for her.” THEN, Misch responds by saying that Lauren “only looks anorexic because she’s too tall.” NO. You can’t “look anorexic.” Eating disorders manifest in vastly different ways for different people. UGH. If all of this wasn’t already enough, there’s also quite a vivid scene of suicidal ideation from Delilah, whose POV the story is told from. It was shockingly jarring and, honestly, I found it pretty triggering, as I’ve been in quite a dark place recently. I hate that this scene comes out of nowhere with no warning. Later in the book, one of Delilah’s friends approaches asking Del what’s wrong by remarking that she “has her depressed face on.” CRINGE. Again, you can’t “look like” any given mental illness. These are invisible illnesses. And, of course, they shouldn’t be tossed around casually or in a joking manner. The words “crazy” and “insane” are thrown around casually throughout the book, too. I’ll be honest, as a person who suffers from multiple mental illnesses, this hurt. Badly. All of this ableist language is most of the reason why I’m giving Get It Together, Delilah! such a low rating. Language matters. Situations like these only serve to reinforce damaging popular misconceptions about mental health and mentally ill people. I can only hope that some of this harmful language was changed in the finished copy of this book.

Also, another horrible stereotype: the “villain” of the book has dreadlocks that are described as a “nest of unwashed hair,” perhaps containing “spare change” or “a family of mice.” None of these remarks are challenged later in the text. His race is never specified, but if this character, Hamish, is white, him having dreadlocks is a blatant example of cultural appropriation. If he is black, these remarks about his hair are simply wildly racist. Just a big “nope” all around, basically.

In terms of other characters, Delilah employs a large cast of side characters, but hardly any of them are fully fleshed-out or three-dimensional. They all felt very much like the author threw them in to further the plot and to challenge Delilah’s character growth in weirdly specific ways. Also, her friends are kinda the worst (obviously, there are some examples of this in the above paragraph). One of them asks her to lie under oath in court for him after he gets into a ridiculous, easily preventable altercation with a stranger that results in the person taking legal action against him. EW.

Overall, Get It Together, Delilah! fell flat for me. Though I appreciated the f/f representation, it was problematic on a few different levels, and the entire premise is just a bit too far-fetched. I cannot in good conscience recommend this book to others due to its harmful perpetuation of stereotypes about various mental illnesses.

Have you read Get It Together, Delilah!? If so, what are your thoughts? Have you ever read a book with blatantly harmful stereotypes about a marginalized community you are part of?

3.5 stars. This little novel had heart and spunk! What I enjoyed the most was the fact that Delilah, the main character, was far from perfect. Like in reality, she was blind to her shortcomings. Secondly, I thoroughly enjoyed reading a book set in Australia. I need to pick up more of those. My only critique of this well-written novel is that it wrapped up a little too nicely for me, unlike real life, but it definitely left me smiling.

What's It About: Seventeen-year-old Delilah Green's life is falling apart. Her mother has recently left her family and their small struggling cafe to move to the big city with a man best described as an academic. Delilah has encouraged her father to take a trip to clear his mind leaving their business in the hands of his assistant manager...an assistant manager who gets deported right after her father becomes unreachable. Now, Delilah is trying to keep her family's business open, get up the nerve to speak to the girl that she has a crush on and try to finish high school.

The Good: There were so many great aspects of this book. Delilah was scrappy and trying to take on the world in a way you don't always see with female main characters. She knows she has witnessed her family fall apart and she is desperately trying to prevent a repeat with her family's business. This is not a character sitting around to be saved instead she will work to do the saving herself. However, Delilah does have several wonderful characters surrounding her to lend a hand. Her slowly developing romantic relationship with the girl of her fantasies, Rosa, was sweet and felt very true to life. Gough uses this relationship to not only touch on Rosa's insecurities but she show that the world is not as accepting as we hope as the pair deals with Rosa's family's disapproval over their beloved niece having a girlfriend. Plus, I loved Delilah's best friend, Charlie who is both a simple goofy rich teen and a complex boy with surprising culinary skills and a large capacity to love.

The Bad: This is another one of those books where the antagonist, this time the owner of an evil corporate coffee shop franchise, felt a little to villianish for my taste. They were one evil scheme away from twirling their mustaches.

Bottom Line: This is a good story about growing up and learning your place in the world. This book is about accepting your family and friends for their shortcomings while discovering who you are and how you fit into the world. It is about life's lessons and life's disappointments and will appeal to fans of Sarah Dessen and Elizabeth Scott.

Final Rating: 3 out of 5

I received an arc of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This was a really good book, despite how long it took me to read it. School really does a number on how long it takes to read things. This book is about Delilah, a gay teen with no internal conflict with who she is. She’s very proud of who she is as a person and it was really refreshing to read a book with a gay character who wasn’t struggling with their identity. I loved her as a character. The side characters were real and very fleshed out. Charlie was a particularly great character and you really got to see him grow as a character alongside Del.

The romance was okay. It wasn’t the greatest part of the story but it did feel pretty real. Rosa was a well-defined character and I enjoyed how she developed throughout the story. I also adored the backstory with Georgina and I would love a spin-off or companion novel around her. I think that that could be a really interesting story.

Thank you Netgalley, Chronicle Books, and Erin Gough for this eGalley in exchange for an honest opinion.

As much as I was looking forward to reading & reviewing this book from an Australian author (don't get too much of those), I honestly couldn't bring myself to finishing it & DNF'd. Something I rarely if ever do since I am very much a believer of seeing a book start to finish. However, I was very uncomfortable with the representation of same sex relationships. I consider myself a diverse reader & have made it my goal to scout diverse reads across all of the genres I read. That being said, I don't think I've ever taken offense to anything I've read in a book seeing as I do my research before requesting. I did however, take offense to the description of Hamish' dreadlocks within the first few pages, "Charlie and I have our theories about what Hamish keeps in his nest of unwashed hair. Spare change, perhaps? A family of mice?" yet I continued to read until I couldn't honestly say there were any redeeming qualities. I have not rated this book on Goodreads or written a review since I don't make it a habit to write negative reviews. If a book has some negative qualities but the good outweigh the bad, then I review & list the likes/dislikes. I could not do that this time but I appreciate the opportunity nonetheless. Thank you & enjoy the rest of your day.

This was a neat book to read because it's one of the few that takes place in Australia. It's sad that so few do because the ones I've read have been so much fun (including The Rosie Project).

Delilah is a strong character that, admittedly, has her flaws. She's trying to do too much for the adults in her life, either ignoring the mother that abandoned her or the father who's heart was broken in the process and caring for his cafe while he heals on a trip abroad. Doing so makes her school work suffer, her main passion being geography, though with the way the teachers and the students were treating her as a lesbian, I don't blame her for wanting to not attend anymore.

Rosa was a cool character that I got to like not only because she was Delilah's crush, but because she was trying to save the local library, an action sure to win over my heart. The supporting characters in this novel as well, the patrons of the Flywheel, were fun, though not especially fleshed out. They were present but not so much so that they too away from the people we were really meant to care about i.e. Delilah and those closest to her.

I liked how, though the book is written like a traditional novel, there were parts where it felt like Delilah was speaking directly to me as the reader. It was like having a one-sided conversation, but it never felt awkward. I was hearing her tell her story, anything from the meanness of Georgina to the weirdness of a night spent drinking with Charlie to a moment enamored with Rosa.

The story was an easy read in the sense of style, though there were some moments that upset me, such as how Georgina and Ella treated Delilah at school. This book doesn't gloss over the elements of homophobia that Delilah had to face, from her fellow classmates or from her guidance counselor. These events didn't encompass her, though. Her attitude may have been brusque, understandably so considering everything, but Delilah was still an admirable girl for not only dealing with those bullies, but also for supporting her family, such as it was in it's non-traditional state.

I'll start with this being on Barnes and Noble's "23 of Our Most Anticipated LGBTQA YA Books of 2017" list. Then I'll add in that it was originally published (titled "The Flywheel") in Australia in 2014 to much acclaim. This already sets it up as one to look for! This is an intensely readable book, one that you will just fly through, although that would be my only issue with the book as well - it's a little shorter than I would have liked. Although the characters were well-developed, I wouldn't have minded MORE of them. More backstory, more information about Delilah's discovery of her sexuality from a younger age, more on her parents' marriage earlier on. All the events of the book are laid out well, and the account of the bullying in school and her counselor's reaction just made my heart break. The bullying depicted in this story make it so apparent why a student in Delilah's situation might in fact drop out of school. The romance between Delilah and Rosa is as sweet and tender as any YA romance I have read. Highly recommend for all school library collections. Stated as Grades 9 and up, but I would be okay with younger - only some minor sexual content.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley for an honest review.

Rounded up from 2.5 stars, while this was a fun, quirky book, the main character felt much younger to me than the age she is portrayed. There were a lot of decisions that Delilah made that annoyed me greatly throughout. Her friends weren't much better and I didn't really connect with anyone.

The plot, even with unbelievable absence of Delilah's father, was fast and an easy read.

I really enjoyed this! The main character was struggling to take care of her family's cafe while also dealing with high school and personal issues. Delilah was an endearing character and I rooted for her the whole time. The issues she faced at school really brought me back to my own time in high school and how overwhelming everything can feel. She dealt with the cards she was handed with a grace that many wouldn't have. Also, it was refreshing to see a conversation about whether or not to come out in a YA novel.

Full of feeling, well-written and interesting throughout, a good read.

DNF at 38%

I was ridiculously excited about this. I loved the synopsis and couldn't wait to get to it. Sadly, it fell flat for me.

Delilah's inner monologue is okay, I guess. I found her a bit bland for the most part. She's got a group of mean girls that bully her and when a teacher catches it happening and gets involved, Delilah gets angry and ditches school. That really irked me.

The main plot line of her running the family business to let her dad go on an extended vacation was so so so odd. Seems legit when it's a week while she doesn't have school, but he's gone for 2 months? And then when she notices that business is severely declining and decides dad rest is more important than the business...yeah. No.

To top it off, there were several references to same sex relationships that felt mean and hurtful to me. Perhaps it's partially due to the author being from Australia?

I was here for a sweet and fluffy girl romance and got instead found it severely lacking.

**Huge thanks to Chronicle Books and NetGalley for providing the arc free of charge**

I really wanted to love this book, solely because it was a diverse book and the world can never have too many of those. However, I really did not like this book. The plot was good, but the details and characters were awful.

Storyline:
First off, the writing was confusing... Explanation of where her father was in beginning was unclear. Was he home or was he abroad? And why would he willingly leave his 17 year old daughter alone for months at a time? That literally would never happen with any parent who actually cares for their child.

The background of her mother was just left alone. We got no information for why she really left, when she left, or why she is just so damn rude. They make it seem like her father is “all of the sudden” depressed, but it seems like Delilah’s mother has been gone for a WHILE.

Also. What lawyer gives legal documents to a 17 year old and trusts an entire business in their hands? This is so implausible! It drove me mad!

The entire “cast” of characters acted as if they were all adults completely capable of taking care of themselves, even though they were still in high school. I’m sorry, but i’m 23 and still trying to figure out how to take care of myself without my parents help. Come on.

Then there was this quote: "He could always break the lease if he really wanted to. Or start a cafe somewhere else. You're the kid! You need to think about what you want as well."

Wait, what? No. You’re the child. You can’t freaking rent away your father’s cafe without telling him anything! And don’t freaking encourage someone to break a legal document. Seriously? Delilah wasn’t even on the lease, and I doubt even in Australia that’s legal to have a 17 year old sell away her father’s property. Come on.

Characters:
I really, really disliked Delilah.

She's literally going on a destructive spree...Ruining everything she has in her life. And now it just seems like it's on purpose and it's driving me mad.

Delilah's thought process towards Rosa is so incredibly naive and selfish. Like I get that rejection sucks but she also should understand that some people are not comfortable yet with their sexuality. She's upset with Rosa because she isn't comfortable with her family knowing that she is gay and that's perfectly okay because this is not a subject to be handled gently. I wish that it was easy for people to be open about but the fact of the matter is is that it's not even with increasing acceptance across the globe.