cover image Delilah Green Doesn’t Care

Delilah Green Doesn’t Care

Ashley Herring Blake. Berkley, $16 trade paper (400p) ISBN 978-0-593-33640-3

Blake (Girl Made of Stars) makes her adult debut with a broad queer rom-com. Stepsisters Astrid Parker and Delilah Green shared a household for a decade and resented every minute of it. Now Delilah’s an artist hustling in New York, but she comes home to Oregon when her stepmother promises to pay her $15,000 to be Astrid’s wedding photographer. Astrid still runs with her high school crew, Claire and Iris, whom Delilah thinks of as mean girls. That’s accurate, but Claire and Iris both loathe Astrid’s fiancé and they’re willing to make an unholy alliance with devil-may-care Delilah if it will rescue Astrid from the match. Meanwhile, Delilah has a not-quite-bet with Astrid that Delilah will wrangle shy Claire, her former high school crush, into bed. The resulting escapades are mostly alcohol-fueled pratfalls laced with bitterness. It’s Sex in the City with a Breakfast Club edge as four women with old grudges manipulate one another through the two-week run-up to Astrid’s wedding. The result is heavier on slapstick humor than feelings and will appeal more to chick lit fans than romance aficionados. Agent: Rebecca Podos, Rees Literary. (Feb.)