Reviews with content warning for Abandonment - Delilah Green Doesn't Care

Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Delilah Green Doesn't Care by Ashley Herring Blake

170 reviews

hexedmaiden's review against another edition

lighthearted medium-paced

3.75

This was the sweet little slice of romance I needed after reading so many horror books back to back. It was a classic trope of a character moving away from their hometown only to be brought back by some event and falling in love with someone from their childhood. In this case Delilah, returns for her estranged stepsister’s wedding and falls in love with her stepsister’s childhood best friend, Claire.

I’m a little bit of a sucker for a miscommunication trope, but executed well. & I was a little frustrated by it in this one just because I felt if Claire just talked to Delilah instead of assuming shit things might have gotten resolved quicker-ish. But it wasn’t the worst.

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dielesemotte's review against another edition

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funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Super süß! Neben der Romance fand ich vor allem das komplexe Schwestern-Verhältnis zwischen Delilah und Astrid sehr interessant, und bin deswegen schon gespannt darauf, den zweiten Band zu lesen.

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komiification's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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takarakei's review against another edition

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lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

everyone is bi
sapphic
childhood hometown, small town romance
group of girl friends

I expected more connection to the characters, but kinda couldn't keep some of the friends straight. The whole plotline of breaking up their friend's wedding was like... "yall really let her get all the way this far before stepping in? are y'all actually friends?" The relationship between Delilah and Claire didn't really hit either, it felt very like insta-lovey. I think there was actually just not enough focus on their relationship to make it seem more believable.

3.5/5🌶️

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lexnicole's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

4.0

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scarroll178's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful lighthearted sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I thought the concept of the book was really interesting, but I didn’t always love the execution. The sex scenes were enjoyable enough at first, but I think the author added one too many or just didn’t know how to keep them interesting because by the end I was BORED of reading it. One character felt pretty cartoonish and one-sided, which was disappointing because I expected this particular character to be more complex. Not enough happened either, like most of the plans that the main characters had didn’t even come to fruition, or they just did really small things that were supposed to be funny but weren’t tbh and didn’t add anything to the story. And I wish the love interest had more personality aside from just being “sweet.”

But I did really love Delilah’s character. I ended up really appreciating her relationship with Astrid and how it was handled, though I think the two of them should’ve had more pages together. I like how all of Delilah’s, Astrid’s, and Claire’s insecurities came together and played off of each other to add more conflict to the story. And I liked Iris’s boyfriend lol, he was funny

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hello_lovely13's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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bzliz's review against another edition

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funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Edit: I came back to bump this rating a smidge higher after doing so for Astrid’s book also. I was too harsh the first time around and this deserves 4 stars because I did really like it.

Original review:
Delilah and Claire are at opposite ends of their lives- Delilah is a photographer trying to find success in New York after a pretty lonely, loveless childhood following her father’s death. Claire had a child young and she never got to experience her wild 20s, which is part of why she finds the courage to go hit on Delilah in the bar, completely unaware that the subject of her flirtation is her best friend’s sister.

This book has a bunch of great romance tropes, like the classic only one bed and the characters seem plucked right out of a TV movie script. The villains are very villainy and nobody seems inclined to stop their bad behavior. Isabel is super controlling of Astrid and downright neglectful of Delilah and Spencer spends every scene he’s in ordering Astrid around like she’s his servant. It’s pretty Cinderella-y, but if the two sisters were both Cinderella at the same time.

Now for the negative: The characters in this spend a LOT of time drinking, it’s practically a personality trait. It feels like an excuse to have Claire and Delilah act on their attraction to each other when they’re both too afraid of getting too attached otherwise. And the villains are- as I mentioned- very villainy. Isabel I can maybe squint at and understand her motivations but I can’t figure out why Spencer acts the way he does. He’s just there to be generally terrible and to give Delilah a reason to feel bad for Astrid.

My favorite character development came near the end as

Astrid and Delilah realize they’ve both hurt each other while blaming the other the whole time. I loved seeing their baby steps to fixing their shattered relationship.

I would love to see a book more about repairing that relationship.

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infjkiki's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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hrtlss_grl's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

OK. So I liked this one more than I thought I would for about the first 40% of the book. At one point I almost DNF'd it, but kept going because it was so well written. For most of the book Astrid comes off as this mean girl, and her friends her little clique. Which makes sense, but it just made me want to pull my hair out because I can't stand books where it is a bully-romance. But eventually it gets better, fleshes out the characters more and actually makes it feel like it works. Next one is a sort of Taming of the Shrew sort of thing, so hopefully it can redeem Astrid for me!

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