Delilah Green Doesn’t Care

• Author: Ashley Herring Blake
• Genre: LGBTQ Romance
• Publication Date: February 22, 2022
• Publisher: Berkley
• Series: Bright Falls #1

CONTENT WARNING: mention of death of a parent, grief, infidelity

A clever and steamy queer romantic comedy about taking chances and accepting love—with all its complications—buy debut author Ashley Herring Blake.

Delilah Green swore she would never go back to Bright Falls—nothing is there for her but memories of a lonely childhood in which she was little more than a burger to her cold and distant stepfamily. Her life is in New York, with her photography career finally gaining steam and her bed never empty. Sure, there’s a different woman in it every night, but that’s just fine with her.

When Delilah’s estranged stepsister, Astrid, pressures her into photographing her wedding with a guilt trip and a five-figure check, Delilah finds herself back in the godforsaken town that she used to call home. She plans to breeze in and out, but then she sees Claire Sutherland, one of Astrid’s stuck-up besties, and decides that maybe there’s some fun (and a little retribution) to be had in Bright Falls after all.

Having raised her eleven-year-old daughter mostly on her own while dealing with her unreliable ex and running a bookstore, Claire Sutherland depends upon a life without surprises. And Delilah Green is an unwelcome surprise…at first. Though they’ve known each other for years, they don’t really know each other, so Claire is unsettled when Delilah figures out exactly what buttons to push. When they’re forced together during the gauntlet of wedding preparations—including a plot to save Astrid from her horrible fiancé—Claire isn’t sure she has the strength to resist Delilah’s charms. Even worse, she’s starting to think she doesn’t want to…

I’ve had this book checked out of the library for embarrassingly long, and what better time to finally read it than during Pride Month? I’m actually glad that I did get around to reading it, because it was so good! As a fast reader, I know that i’m seriously enjoying a book I have to force myself to stop reading to slow down and prolong the experience to savor it, when all I want to do is race through it and not stop reading for anything. That’s what happened with this one.

I loved Delilah’s character right off the bat. Her backstory is relatively tragic—her mother died when she was fairly young, and her father remarried, then died suddenly, leaving her alone in a house with a stepmother and stepsister who were both lost in their own grief and expressing their feelings in their own ways, but left each person feeling unsupported. And while Delilah was definitely a misfit, like many of us are growing up, she also felt like a misfit at home. Her natural tendency towards introversion became even more pronounced, and she left home as soon as she could, heading to Manhattan.  However, her formative years had a major effect on all of her future relationships. It explores the way that we take on a persona to protect ourselves, and how it affects who we become, and can negatively impact our future by limiting ourselves and how others view us.

“By the time the four of them had showered and gathered again for dinner on the veranda overlooking the vineyard, Delilah was exhausted. Being around other people all day long, even if they hadn’t talked all that much, was completely draining. She felt constantly on, and right now, all she wanted was a glass of wine the size of her head and a quiet room of her own.”

I also couldn’t help but love the other MC, Claire. She’s a sweet and sensitive single mom, stuck in an unhealthy dynamic with her unreliable ex-boyfriend and the father of her pre-teen daughter, and I don’t understand how you couldn’t love her. She also plays the motherly role in the group of friends, often maintaining the peace between all the friends, especially between snarky Iris, prickly and seemingly cold Astrid, and Delilah, who can be deliberately antagonistic at times. 

“She heard Claire’s quiet intake of breath and knew she should shut up—she was on thin ice with Isabel already—but something about this guy felt like sandpaper rubbed over a sunburn. No one could ever accuse Delilah of feeling affection for her stepsister, but she felt even less for assholes who so obviously wielded their dicks like swords.”

The dynamic between the three women—Claire, Iris, and Delilah—grew into what felt more and more like a genuine friendship as they worked to bring down Spencer, who came across as subversively misogynistic, even though he was never openly so. He was just gross and annoying, and the pranks were definitely funny, as was the banter between all the women, even when Astrid was involved. Perhaps especially when Astrid was involved, because she was so uptight. 

I can’t possibly talk about this book without discussing the spicy scenes. Because DAMN WERE THESE SPICY. And I was definitely here for it. Blake did a great job with this, and built the tension up throughout the early parts of the book, maintaining it at a high level and keeping me at the edge of my seat until Claire and Delilah finally got it on and whoo boy was it hot. It was well worth the wait, and I loved the connection that these two women had. The fact that Claire was a bigger girl and her body confidence issues when naked came up, and were dealt with sensitively came up during a sex scene made me incredibly happy to see as well. 

This book is one of a string of fabulous reads that I’ve had this month, and is definitely going to be one of the books that I’m going to be recommending to a lot of people. So check this one out. It’s worth it.