Score: 5/5 Bookmarks

Steam Level: 🍆🍆🍆/5

Thank you to Berkley for gifting me a review copy of Delilah Green Doesn’t Care by Ashley Herring Blake.

First of all, how is this Ashley’s debut novel? It is so, SO good. I know it’s only February but I already know this will be making my top ten list for 2022.

It’s all there in the title, Delilah wears her indifference like a suit of armor. She’s been taught that if you care about people you get hurt, so it’s easier for her to keep everything casual and not get attached. But finding herself back in her hometown, with her evil stepmom and stepsister is dragging up all sorts of feelings. She’s been asked to photograph her step-sister’s wedding, and while she would rather be anywhere else, she needs the cash.

Delilah certainly doesn’t expect to be hit on by one of her step-sister’s recently divorced, mom-to-a-tween, friends on her first night back in town. Maybe she and Claire can just keep it casual?

Claire is finally thinking about dating again, and when she’s dared to get someone’s number on a night out with the girls she approaches the tattooed hotty by the bar. No, she does not recognize Delilah after all these years, but she’s instantly drawn to her. There’s just one problem, Claire doesn’t do casual, and her best friend’s sister is definitely off-limits, right? Right?

We’ve got sunshine versus grump, loads of family baggage to get over, dialogue that made me laugh-out-loud and tear up in equal measure, it’s just gold. Solid gold. Plus, this is only the first in the Bright Falls series, so we’ll be getting more from this delightful little town.

If this one is not on your TBR yet, you absolutely need to change that. You can grab a copy via the button below.

Synopsis:

A clever and steamy queer romantic comedy about taking chances and accepting love—with all its complications—by 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 where she was little more than a burden 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, it’s a different woman 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 a 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…