Bows & Bullets Book Blog

This review is also available on my blog, Bows & Bullets Reviews

Delilah Peirce is just an ordinary girl who loves to dance.  She's also a bit of an invisible girl because no guys really look at her.  Why look at her when the more experienced and more beautiful version (AKA her mom) is available for fun times?  Then Dylan Sanderson moves in with his parents next door and suddenly Delilah knows what it's like to be noticed and desired.  Suddenly, she isn't really Delilah anymore, she's Dylan's Red, and there is no place she'd rather be.

This review is exceedingly difficult for me to write.  Delilah is a character I am not comfortable with in this series.  In this particular novel, we get to see her before she becomes a crackwhore, but I can't get that image out of my head.  We finally get to see past the bitchy facade here, to the innocent girl before the sex and drugs fucked her up.  Here we see a girl who genuinely deserves to be Nova's friend and is so worthy of the goodness that girl brings with her.  For anyone who has read any other book in this series, you know the relationship with Dylan isn't going to go well.  He's an abusive asshole who does everything from pressure her to do things she is uncomfortable with to beat her to lead her down to a life of drugs and addiction that she'll never escape.  I can almost empathize with her here, almost.  She's so young and just wants what every sixteen year old girl does, to be noticed by someone she deems worthy.  And I was truly excited for her until things start to go south.  The first time Dylan hit her, she should have run like hell.  Fuck his "heartfelt" apology, fuck his excuses.  There is no excuse, there is no reason, no getting around it.  

This is why I seriously thought about not reviewing this novella, because all I really want to do is rant about how stupid Delilah is and how I cannot tolerate this type of behavior...and how she reminds me of an old close friend.  I get that once you get to the crackwhore level, there is not going back, not without a bunch of people dragging your ass to rehab.  But there were so many opportunities to get out before it got that far.  When Breaking Nova starts, Delilah has been split with Dylan for a while and is just going back to him and that's what really gets me, why the fuck did you go back?  What is so great about that life?  You could have done so much better!  I just don't get it.  Drugs don't hold an appeal for me and neither does abusive druggies, no matter how "hot" they are.  Fuck. You.  It's just not worth it and I don't see how anyone can let themselves get to the level where they are selling themselves for their next hit and I hope like hell I never do.  

Okay, so besides the pointless rant, what I really want to say is that this novel will humanize Delilah's character a bit more to you.  Also, it kinda gives a spoiler for Nova & Quinton: No Regrets, if you read between the lines a bit.  You can tell her fate and that happens in N&Q.  I knew going in that this would never be my favorite novel, that I wouldn't love Delilah, no matter how pitiful her story was and I was absolutely right.  Her story isn't that bad, her past nothing compared to Nova and Quinton and Tristan.  She's just a sad girl looking for attention, which she unfortunately gets.  Her life is a tragic reality for too many people and I absolutely hate that.