This week we are discussing Delilah Green Doesn't Care by Ashley Herring Blake, Ch. 12-23.
Content Warning!!! This book contains situations and subjects related to: sexual content, death of a parent, alcohol, abandonment trauma, emotional abuse, and bullying.
Spoiler Warning!!! This post is full of spoilers for Delilah Green Doesn't Care by Ashley Herring Blake.
Discussion:
Michaela: Hello friends! Welcome to our second discussion of Delilah Green Doesn’t Care. The spice has definitely picked up in this second section! But so has the emotional stuff. I love seeing Delilah open up to Claire and for Claire to receive her so openly and acknowledge their complicated past. Even when Delilah told her about capturing her moment of pain and that moment making Claire a muse for Delilah’s photography, Claire was still so accepting of that. I think a lot of people would have been mad about a private moment like that being witness and photographed. However, sometimes I do think Claire reverts to her childhood version of Delilah and forgets that she’s a real person. I feel like Claire is often surprised that Delilah has feelings about certain things, especially how Delilah described her childhood as being lonely. I think Claire being a third party to the family situation was coached into viewing Delilah in one way.
Jacilyn: I think the tarot reading that Delilah had with Claire was accurate - one of the cards meant perspective, and I think that’s really what this all comes down to. Claire only saw things from Astrid’s perspective, so of course she - like Astrid - never realized what was really going on with Delilah. And, honestly, Delilah didn’t really see what was really going on with Astrid, either. I agree about Claire reverting back to her childhood version of Delilah. There’s one point where I wrote “seriously?” in my notes, when it said “Claire knew this from Astrid, just like she knew Delilah didn’t care about anyone but herself and never had.” I rolled my eyes so hard at that. But, out of the three of them, Claire is definitely the best one to open up about this first.
I might have said this in the last discussion, I can’t remember for sure, but it is immeasurably sad to me that Delilah and Astrid both grew up wanting the other’s affection so badly, but didn’t know how to communicate that to each other. I really, really loved the little snippet we got about Anne of Green Gables, and how sometimes, Astrid would leave books on Delilah’s bed for her to read. It was such a sweet gesture. It’s clear that Delilah really does care about Astrid, otherwise she wouldn’t care so much about her marrying Spencer. Even without being close during their childhood, Delilah knows Astrid’s cues. She recognizes every time Astrid’s body language changes when Spencer is discussed. The smile slipping, the tenseness. She notices it all.
I also appreciate that Iris and Delilah are building a friendship. They’re both kind of abrasive sometimes, kinda bitchy, but that’s what makes them get along like they do. And, truly, they do! Delilah spent a whole ass dinner with Claire and Iris, enjoying herself and feeling relaxed, and has even gotten into this habit of banter with Iris. Over all, I really appreciate how nuanced and fleshed out these characters are. Besides Spencer, none of them feel flat or forced. They are all multidimensional, with their own baggage and personalities that impact the way they’ve perceived their lives. This is the first book in a series, which I think changes protagonists with each book, and I will definitely be reading the rest.
Michaela: I have a couple things in my notes like that. At one point I wrote, in response to Claire’s surprise, “Delilah has feelings about being treated like shit as a child, crazy?!”. How ridiculous is it that they all were like oh ya she enjoys having no friends, no close family, and never being involved in anything. Like seriously!
Astrid leaving books for Delilah and then Delilah actually reading them was one of the single most lovely things I have ever read. They were trying so hard when they did not know how to be closer, breaks my heart. I think Delilah wishes she felt indifference to Astrid but she can’t help it, even in their messed up family they were still sisters for most of their lives.
I’m so glad that Iris has chilled out a little and Delilah is willing to accept a friendship forming even if it is all subconscious. I really enjoy their bitchy banter, I am also a bitchy banter person and I think they could be pretty good friends by the end of this if they would let it happen. I believe the next book in the series is about Astrid which is a little spoilery to what happens by the end of this book but we’re all here for it because fuck Spencer, honestly.
This ‘man’ shows up to a camping trip in the rainy woods of the pacific northwest in leather tennis shoes? Like if we didn’t already know he was a douchenozzle we do now. I can’t imagine Astrid actually invited him because she wanted him there either, I think he must have invited himself or done the even worse thing, manipulated Astrid into inviting him. Seemingly Astrid is beginning to see what he’s like, her reaction to that photograph was pretty intense, she froze for an uncomfortable amount of time. The fact that she still hasn’t told her best friends how he proposed, that is so weird to me, clearly there’s something wrong if you don’t want to share something that’s supposed to be special. Now, thanks to Delilah, we have an idea of what Astrid type is from her love of ‘Anne of Green Gables’, and none of those personality traits can be applied to Spencer. He’s so smarmy, I hate him so much.
Josh is still on my shit list too. While he is a nice guy, he is still not respecting that Claire is Ruby’s primary parent and the one who makes decisions. While biologically Josh is Ruby’s father, he noped out of that job multiple times at this point. He’s not getting that he has to earn Claire’s (and Ruby’s) trust back before Claire is going to be okay with him being responsible for Ruby. Just because he has good intentions in coming back “for good this time” doesn’t erase his actions from the past. I feel like he’ll improve by the end of the story but Claire also needs to communicate with him about how she’s feeling. Communication! Should be our slogan for every romance book we read.
We got quite a bit of spice in this section and I appreciated how Blake wrote these scenes. It was a good combo of sexy activities and also the emotion behind it. It felt very realistic to me and it was written in a way that it never felt silly to me like a lot of other spicy writing does. A lot of the time the language used or just in general impersonal sex scenes really throws me out of the story and isn’t an enjoyable read for me.
Jacilyn: I can’t quite tell yet if Astrid has always kind of known deep down that this is a bad relationship and just goes along with it because she knows it’s what Isabel wants for her, or if she’s only just now kind of starting to realize. The scene where she saw the photo…. My gods, that was heartbreaking.
I agree that Josh needs to be more understanding of Claire’s concerns, but I also think that her fear of Ruby no longer “needing” her in the way she does due to Josh’s absences is getting in the way of her seeing and recognizing that Josh really is making an effort this time. I would never expect her to just outright trust him and believe he won’t up and disappear again, but I do think his frustration at the beginning of the camping trip was totally valid. If it was just Claire wanting to come with, that would be one thing, but for that whole group of people to come and interrupt what he wanted to be a bonding time with his daughter isn’t cool. How can Claire ever expect Josh and Ruby to have a healthy, close relationship if they aren’t given these opportunities. Basically, I think they both need to be better about openly and vulnerably communicating their feelings and fears. That’s necessary in a truly successful co-parenting relationship.
Speaking of Ruby, I think the most touching moment of this section for me was when Ruby hugged Delilah after Delilah taught her some photography basics. The reaction Delilah had to it was beautiful, and yet again my heart broke for her. I can’t blame her for being a loner after the pain and loss she’s experienced, both from childhood and from her relationship with Jax.
I am the queen of spice, so I thoroughly enjoyed chapter 18. I’m not too picky when it comes to the writing, personally, as long as it’s being written with an actual understanding of sex and anatomy and, like Michaela said, doesn’t use weird euphemisms for body parts. We’ll skip the galloping abs here, thank you very much.
I know I speak for both of us when I say we cannot wait to discover what kind of shenanigans Delilah and Claire get up to to further Operation Shit Boot. Until next time, friends!
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