joconklin Book Reviews, fantasy, Indie Books, LGBTQ+, Mystery

I’m Reading: Kill Your Darlings by L.E. Harper

Sorry, but I need to gush about this one. Kill Your Darlings by L.E. Harper is an astounding piece of writing craft, as a self-aware story inside a subtly unfolding story, where all is not as we perceive. I received a free digital ARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

But first of all, make sure you read the forward of the book for trigger warnings. The triggers are there in a big way, so take them seriously if you are vulnerable to trauma.

Our MC is a fantasy author. We learn that she is on book 5 of her wildly successful YA fantasy series, and spiraling. Her editor hates her ending. Her revision deadline is days away. She hasn’t even started them. Depression and burnout have her in a chokehold. Her one escape is in her dreams, where she drops into her main character, Kyla, and spends time in the beautiful world of Solera that she’s created. But this time it feels different. This time, as she wakes up in her fictional lover’s arms, it might not be a dream.

When I first started Kill Your Darlings, I was a little meh on the standard fantasy world and creatures, and a few slightly shaky line edits. But I really loved the meta story. I loved how the MC lampshades the fantasy genre and tropes, playing with the meta narrative and fourth wall, and breaking all the rules. It felt like a Rian Johnson film, where the subtext, background, symbolism, and inside jokes took center stage over the actual plot. Then, as the book progressed and we learned all was not as it seemed, we discover the author was pulling off a master class in unreliable narrator. Just breathtakingly well-executed. And when dreams turned reality turned back into metaphor and the darkness falls, that last twist left me completely destroyed, and unable to put the book down.

I can see why Kill Your Darlings struggled in the query trenches. The real story, the thing that makes it unique and phenomenal, is a slow, subtle burn that takes time to develop. Querying, with the pitch plus ten pages approach, is going to bury a gem like this. It’s like trying to pitch a souffle to people looking for a candy bar. But if a slow-burn meta-narrative is your thing and you’re comfortable with darker themes, this is your dessert.

I picked this up excited for queer and Ace rep. I kept reading because it was a fun escapist fantasy. I loved the lampshading and the cleverness of an MC who knows what genre they’re in. But that last dark twist lets this book live rent-free in my head for the foreseeable future. Even now, days after reading, I look back and see how small pieces fit together into that final whole, and how perfectly unexpected yet inevitable the ending turned out to be.

*chef’s kiss*

Kill Your Darlings comes out on May 24, 2023 and is available for pre-order. Connect with this author on their TikTok at
https://www.tiktok.com/@selfpubdragon and make sure you request indie titles at your local library!

joconklin Book Reviews, LGBTQ+, Romance, Romcom

I’m Reading: Delilah Green Doesn’t Care by Ashley Herring Blake

Delilah Green doesn’t care. She’s built a whole life around it. Casual hookups, a soulless New York Apartment, and no contact with the small town of Bright Falls and the stepfamily that never cared about her. The only thing that matters is her photography career. When Delilah is critically behind on her rent and on the verge of stardom, her stepsister makes an offer she can’t refuse: come back to Bright Falls and photograph her society wedding. It would mean the kind of money Delilah hasn’t seen in years. Enough to get her through to her big break. But it also means returning to place where she grew up in painful isolation as a strange, forgotten ghost after her father died.

Delilah decides that while they can strongarm her into coming back to the town she loathes, she can do it on her own terms. That means wearing what she likes. It means moving through the pre-wedding events like a wrecking ball. It means seducing her stepsister’s best friend and bridesmaid, just to prove she can.

But the more time Delilah spends in Bright Falls, the more confusing things become. Her sister may need rescue more than torment, and the bridesmaid fling grows into a deeper connection. Delilah finds it harder and harder to not care. And ghosts from her past make her question for the first time, between her and her stepsister, just who stopped caring first.

Delilah Green Doesn’t Care is one of those books that starts off simple, then starts peeling back layers of complexity as we go. It tackles hard topics like blended families, grief, expectations, and whether people are capable of change. But there is enough lightness to carry the weighty topics. I love the symmetry of each character fighting to throw off a different maladaptive coping mechanism. Despite coming from similar wounds, each character has a different journey toward healing. Some must learn to trust those that let them down. Others must trust themselves enough to set boundaries and say no.

The steam is delicious, and Delilah’s connection with Claire is unmistakably hot and powerful from the first moment they meet. The pacing of their emotional connection balances well with their sexual attraction. Claire’s kid and ex both serve as additional complexities in her relationship with Delilah. She must trust Delilah with her child’s heart, as well as her own. Delilah must trust Claire in return to not fall back into her ex’s arms. After all, Claire is one of her sister’s friends, and Delilah already knows what it’s like to be cast aside and forgotten by these women.

For this and other books, visit the author’s website at http://www.ashleyherringblake.com/. And don’t forget to request at your local public library!

Content notices for Delilah Green Doesn’t Care: Death of parent, childhood bullying and neglect, emotional abuse by parent and spouse, cheating exes.