Delilah Green Doesn't Care (Bright Falls #1) by Ashley Herring Blake

Stephany recommended Delilah Green Doesn't Care by Ashley Herring Blake so enthusiastically on her blog that I immediately put in on hold at the library. Let's see if I share her enthusiasm, shall we?

In this book, Delilah returns to the small town of Bright Falls where she grew up to photograph her stepsister's wedding. She doesn't really want to return to the place that brought her a lot of anguish after he father died and she was cared for by a distant stepmother, but she needs the money. On the first night she's back, one of her stepsister's best friends, Claire, hits on her while she's at the local bar. Claire's got her own set of issues, including a tween daughter and an ex who isn't as reliable a co-parent as she'd like. What's going to happen with these two?

Before we go any further, I'd like to just point out that I adore the artwork on the cover. The pretty purple, the perfect font, and, most importantly to me, the fact that the couple looks exactly like I had pictured them and the polka dot dress matches one the character is wearing in the book.  I rarely mention the physical nature of books because it doesn't matter if I'm reading an ebook and it's not like I'm picking up books based on their covers (do you do that? if so, let me know what your criteria for good covers are!), but I just thought this cover was so well done. (Okay, I lied. It looks like just a couple of months ago, I wrote about about a confusing book cover. Apparently I do notice covers.)

Interesting characters: Oh, these two. Delilah is prickly as hell and too into her own head. Claire is a control freak.  They're pretty great. I also really like how Blake wrote their back stories in so that readers understood where each of their motivations came from, but she did so in a seamless way, not in a ham-handed, backstory dump.  

Believable conflict: For sure. Delilah remembers Claire as a teenager who was cruel to her. Claire sees Delilah as an unreliable sister to her friend. They each make incorrect assumptions about the other one, but it makes sense that these assumptions from years ago still remain since Delilah hasn't been in Bright Falls much since then. There is a tiny bit of "this could all be solved with a simple conversation" in this book, but it didn't diminish my enjoyment at all.

Emotional tension: Oh, sure. Will Delilah give up her burgeoning art career in New York for Bright Falls? Will she forgive Claire for being a jerk in high school? Will Claire let Delilah into her child's life?  These are not small issues, my friends, and it was great to see the tension increase and increase.  

Happily ever after: Yes! Delilah moved back to Bright Falls and has her own apartment and this couple is putting in the work that a relationship takes.

This is just a delightful romance novel.  Huge thumbs up from me.

5/5 stars