Cover Image: Dear Delilah

Dear Delilah

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Member Reviews

I really liked the balance that was present between these two characters.

We are given a novel that does not unravel predictably and will keep the reader guessing and enjoying the ride the whole way through. The story itself was engaging and the romance added to that.

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wasn't feeling it, cute cover made me request but it didn't capture me as much as the cover. Was definitely a miss for me.

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This was a bit of a meh book for me. The premise sounded appealing, I've read a similar book before that I really enjoyed, unfortunately this book really did not live to up my expectations. 

There were multiple flashbacks in the book that were way too long. They were supposed to be showing what had happened between Savannah and Nate, however they could have been so much shorter and sweeter. They stopped the flow of the book for me, and didn't make for an enjoyable reading experience. 

In the book, Savannah takes the role as the sex advice columnist, with barely any sexual knowledge. She acts all embarrassed when anyone talks about sex however as we delve deeper into the book what we later find out about her just doesn't match up. 

I enjoyed Sav with her friends, it's something I wanted to see more of in the book. Seeing her with her friends socialising, at work and in class. For me it would have helped develop her character and made that bit more likeable. Nate was the standard NA male lead, handsome and confident. He was a fun character although by no means unique. 

I came away from the book underwhelmed. In my opinion, the book was too short and could have been longer. This really played a role in feelings that elements were underdeveloped. 

Dear Delilah was enjoyable, it was by no means groundbreaking and was somewhat underwhelming. It was fun to read while on holiday and wanting a quick escape, but it's not something I'd highly recommend.

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I gave this book two stars simply because I liked the premise. The execution; however, was a major let down. It was so dull and lackluster I started skimming a third of the way through the book. No. Just no. I felt like it wasted my time. Nothing felt connected or cohesive. It started to feel like the story was chugging along on flat tires. If it was re-released as a more thought out and charming work I would actually give it another look, but this was disappointing especially after the description made it sound so interesting.

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The age old boys and girls can't be just friends kind of book. Pretty cliché - but all in all a fun, quick read.

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This one fell a little flat for me. Let me tell you why. I felt no connection between the characters at all. Savannah and Nathan were kind of dull. There were parts of the story that were supposed to be funny, that weren't. At times, I wondered if parts of my book were missing because it felt like chunks of the story were just not there.....The premise was good, but it didn't follow through.

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DNF @ 10%

I couldn't continue. Every time I think about continuing my mind goes "UGH."

I really love the concept of the story and the reason I picked this one up is because it is set in university. I need more university-set books. Also, I did my undergrad in San Francisco, so the person on the front looked like a typical college student. I was looking forward to reading about her writing the column too, which can always be fun.

The thing is on the first page it says most the people in the office are already gone AND all her colleagues have left for the afternoon. I get that these essentially mean different things, but it still seems redundant. So, right off the bat I was having negative feelings. Unfortunately, this didn't help warm me up to the characters who I feel I've read about in different stories. This is not the author's fault, but these types of characters are ones I usually don't end up liking. -- even though I liked the dude's outfit. Savannah also has a ton of nicknames, goodness.
The other thing is, the dude wants Sav/Van's forgiveness, yet is going behind her back. We all know this will end up being kindling to the fire, but in the end they realize they are perfect for each other and his sister becomes his best friend.

So, I'm not saying NO ONE will like this book, I'm just saying I'm kinda tired of these right now. I'm sure many people will enjoy this book, but those people are not me.

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I really didn't like this as much as I wanted to. I really thought I would love it from the blurb, but I just couldn't like it. I have read books by this author and loved them but I just couldn't like this one. 

I feel like this book was basically just a lesson in feminism wrapped in a bow called a book. 

The beginning captured me, but towards the middle it fell flat. Nothing felt like it got resolved and the main characters felt as if they were just friends with benefits, not like actual two people who loved each other. I couldn't connect to a single character. Nathan was your typical love interest who wants what he didn't want before when it was right in front of his face. I don't even know what to say about Savanah. She's so forgetful. I don't like or dislike her. 

I just couldn't get myself to like this.

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MY RATING: 2/5

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to like dear deliah. It seemed like it was right up my alley because I love new adult and I love the premise of this book.

Well, readers I just want to warn you that this book does not start off the way you expect. Delilah is already in love and in a mess after spending the night with her best friend, Nathan. But of course, we don't know that yet. We just know they're not at the best terms in the beginning so already I'm intrigued. I want these best friends to be lovers and to stay as lovers.

But the pacing of this book was just slow and the events that happened with Delilah were tedious. They didn't even have her answer pieces of advice nor did she end up in tricky situations that usually happen when someone who is inexperienced answers advice column questions.

However, my heart did ache when Nathan confessed why he did what he did after that one special night. Considering it was in the middle of the book and I lost interest by that point, I skimmed the rest and couldn't care less about how Delilah managed her new job or if she experienced trouble in paradise with Nathan.

My recommendation:

Skip it. There is a better version of this book out there and it's called Confessions of a virgin sex columnist by Kay Marie.

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Upon starting this book, I was very interested in the plot summary given in the description, it's what initially grabbed my attention. Also, I'm typically a huge fan of college based N/A books (they're my favorite). As I kept reading this book, I was conflicted about it. Plot was great, there was a lot of potential to make it great, but it fell a little under my expectations if I'm being honest. My rating on this is conflicting because I really enjoyed this book, I thought it had a good ratio of plot and sex, though some of the plot just wasn't interesting enough, too cliche, or unnecessary. Overall, the thought was there and it was executed well, just not great. I loved the character of Nathan and Delilah, and I very much loved the journalism aspect of women being comfortable with their sexuality, which I think is especially important in college. Some areas of the book just felt underdeveloped and, I thought, strayed from the purpose of the book. But this was a good book, I read it fairly quickly, as I normally do N/A books. In my opinion, this is a nice book to read when someone has some down time and wants a nice contemporary romance, but it isn't a book I would prioritize on my list or drop other books to read.

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Thank you to the publisher for allowing to review a copy of the ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This is a new adult romance and is told in Dual POV; from the POV of Savannah who is currently at college and interning at her College’s newspaper whilst she figures out what she wants to major in. And also from the POV of Nathan who is her Best friend, also works at the paper and is supposedly your typical womanising, buff jock-type guy. This starts with Nathan and Savannah not talking and you know that something has happened to make them fall-out but you don’t know what has actually caused it. You find out what made them ‘fall-out’ through flash backs from them both in the first half of the book and follow on from that to see if they can re-build their relationship at all.
I really enjoyed the side-plot of Savannah writing the “Dear Delilah” column for the College newspaper and I felt that it explored some great points to do with feminism and sexual equality for women and putting how you feel first. “Dear Delilah” is the paper’s sex advice column and within the book we see Savannah writing some of the columns for this segment and doing research for the column. It explores topics like the female orgasm, sleeping with someone on the first date, strage sexual injuries and how men can sleep with a load of girls and be a ‘lad’ but if a girl does it she’s a slut. It was great to see these things discussed within the book within the plot itself and I felt like it was actually quite educational and empowering too!
I didn’t feel like there was that much chemistry between Nathan and Savannah but I feel like this may be because they already had an intimate relationship before they fell-out. Whilst we still a few flashback of this intimate relationship, it wasn’t enough to build any chemistry between them as they were just short flashbacks. However, this didn’t take away from the sex scenes and they were still very steamy.
The issue I had with this book was that despite it including a lot of great topic as mentioned above, there was a part in the book where she is doing some research for her column and her roommate Zoe walks in on her googling some, er, interesting things. Savannah obviously tries to cover up what she’s doing and make her roommate not think she’s some porn obsessed girl etc but the way she says it is ridiculous;
“But I also don’t want Zoe thinking I’m some porno freak who gets off on watching other people bumping uglies.” And that is quickly followed by a “Not that there’s anything wrong with people who are into that kind of thing” like that makes what she thought better! It just threw me as the rest of the book was so empowering and covered such great topics and then there was just that totally crappy comment about how watching porn makes you a porno freak. The way it’s said also makes it seem like there’s something wrong with watching porn and getting off from it when it’s actually a totally normal thing and so many people will do it. The way the “Not that there’s anything wrong with people who are into that kind of thing” is chucked on the end like it makes it somehow better really annoyed me too – that doesn’t make what you said ok. Grrrr, that comment really bugged me and has really stuck with me through the book.
The other thing as that Savannah was cast as this shy, innocent girl who was a virgin and completely new to all things sex-wise. Yet she blushes when talking about sex and all things sexual for gods sake, YET she has both her nipples pierced?! That seemed so random and just so unlike and out of character for someone who is shy to have? Maybe that’s just me stereotyping, but the way that Savannah is portrayed in the book and then the pierced nipples just didn’t match for me. Although she also goes on a great rant near the middle of the book about her being a “sexual being” also and it just didn’t tie up with the way she’ portrayed for the rest of the book.
There were a few timeline inconsistencies but I’m going to put this down to being an ARC copy as there were also a few spelling and grammatical errors so hopefully these will be fixed in the final copy.
Overall I really enjoyed this and thought it was a good story-line with an even greater side-plot which was dealt with in a really positive way. I’m interested to see where the next book goes and what other topics are brought up and discussed for Dear Delilah! I really hope that the next book also follows Savannah and Nathan because I want to see how their relationship progresses and again more of the column! I want to know if it causes any more problems or what other research they need to get up to, to help the column! This was such a fun read with an important message or messages put across fantastically.
(PS. I really love the cover! It’s nice to see a pretty girl instead of the abs that we’re used to for the usual new adult books!)

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I did not like this one at all. The characters were flat. Their relationship was stupid and their reunion was ridiculous. This book also tried so hard to be feminist and failed in so many ways.

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This book honestly made me groan so much, and not in a good way.

The main message of the book, I think, was feminist at its core and one that I can wholeheartedly get behind in that boys are celebrated for bedroom conquests - in particular without any semblance of commitment - whereas girls are dragged through the dirt for admitting that sex is a good thing. It tried to be sex positive but it was just so unbelievable throughout and that, along with a few other issues, stopped me from enjoying the read.

(Bulletpoints because lists are good and stop people going off on a tangent!)
Savannah, main character, mentions at one point that the only orgasm she has ever experienced was during the bedroom adventure she had with her best friend that went terribly wrong (it is part of the synopsis but it didn't flow much for me there). Bull. Crap. I don't know anybody of legal age, of any sex, who doesn't know how to bring themselves to orgasm.
Zoey, the most sexually open female character, shames Savannah at one point because she was going to watch porn and we have to go through a massive dialogue where Savannah is adamant that she isn't one of those creeps who watch strangers bump ugliest for their own enjoyment. Again. Bull crap. Own your porn watching.
Genitals kept getting referred to as a persons ‘sex’. No. It is one of my biggest pet peeves and it had me rolling my eyes so hard that I ended up getting a headache. Authors. Please. Stop. Calling. Fun. Places. Your. Sex.
There wasn't any consistency; when Savannah approaches Nathan about the mechanics of using her sex as a lollipop (I'm side eyeing myself so hard) and gets nervous because “girls shouldn't initiate”, he mentions that the reason they haven't done the dirty since the first date is because he wanted her to make a move. Seemingly forgetting that they had bumped uglies in the previous chapter. Which wasn't the first date. Hmm. I haven't experienced sex amnesia myself but seriously?!
The Dear Delilah column isn't a thing until around 45% of the way through the book.

All in all, it isn't one of my favourite books but it is far from the worse that I have ever read.

I did like that in the earlier chapters we got to have ones from Nathan’s point of view so we get to know that he really is feeling rubbish about the big bedroom encounter and how he handled it; I just wish that this had been a regular occurrence through out the book because it was refreshing. We just didn't get it after the big relationship reveal which was a shame. The cover was cute too.

Thank you to the publisher for allowing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Just because it wasn't my favourite book doesn't mean it couldn't be yours - please read and make your own opinions!

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I am actually quite excited to start reading this book since it has the pretty cover and interesting synopsis, but unfortunately, the story is not for me. It is really slow paced and the writing style cringed me.

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I really enjoyed Savannah and Nathan's book it was really well written with good characters,i just loved the banter in this book a super read and i would recommend it this is the first i have read by this author and am looking forward to reading more.

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Dear Delilah was fun! It wasn't quite what I was expecting but the angst and banter with every character was definitely there. It flowed really great, it was funny, it was sexy, sometimes annoying (but I like that) I'd definitely recommend!

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Savannah and Nathan's experiments for the Dear Delilah column keep the reader coming back for more. T. Bester has a great voice and tone as an author.

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The age old boys and girls can't be just friends kind of book. I do love these kind of books (Probably as I am one of those girls who does have more boy 'friends' than girl friends). I also understand though what its like to fall for your best friend and about taking the risk or next step, getting the courage to tell them and the worry of whether it will ruin everything.

Dear Delilah deals with the friendship of Savannah and Nathan. Told from both points of view you really get a good feel for the characters. I admit my opinion of Nathan changed throughout the book (Although for the better in the end). Initially I didn't really like Sav. I found her slightly closed off at the beginning (Like we were supposed too) and it wasn't until the book got further in and her whining was lessened that I found her tolerable. Both I will add the combination of these two and the chemistry worked.

I liked the whole Dear Delilah thing too, a sex advice column by an inexperienced girl was an interesting read and at times made me laugh. There was some great characters in this book and I was left feeling at the end happy which is always great with one of these books. I definitely will be looking into the future Hudson University books. Having read Tamsyn's work before and enjoyed it this book just strengthened my opinion of her writing skills. You may question why the 3 stars. Well as I stated I didn't love Sav as a character (This is a person thing so doesn't really reflect on the story) plus I felt that with the whole NA genre this wasn't anything new. I know its hard to write new and different in a genre flooded with books, but I do like something to stand out for me to get those 4 stars. I still recommend this book and like I said will be following the series. 3 stars.

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When I first read the synopsis of ‘Dear Delilah’, I was excited for this book and was hoping it would be a quick read that would allow me to forget about my everyday stress for a bit. But instead, I ended up having to force myself to even finish this book because I unfortunately didn’t enjoy it at all.

‘Dear Delilah’ is a book about Savannah, a college girl who is interning at the college’s newspaper. One day she is asked to take over the newspaper’s sex advice column and even though she doesn’t have a lot of experience when it comes to sex, she says yes. But why? Because she needs a distraction from an incident with her male best friend that took place a couple of weeks prior to the start of this book.

Like I said, I liked the synopsis and thought it would be one of those new adult reads that you just fly through and that allow you to relax for a bit. But ‘Dear Delilah’ was absolutely boring and if I hadn’t received an ARC of this book, I would’ve definitely DNFd it.

The book starts a couple of weeks after something has happened between Savannah and her (ex) best friend Nathan that made them stop talking to each other. While I’m usually someone who prefers it if the author doesn’t straight out tells you what exactly happened and gives you a chance to figure it out yourself, I would’ve preferred it if the author had just been a little more straightforward this time because it took me the first quarter of the book, to even understand what had caused their falling-out. There were two or three flashbacks that were supposed to tell you how everything had gone down, but I felt like I had no background information that I might’ve needed to even understand how they had suddenly gone from being friends to sleeping with each other, and what Savannah’s problem was.

Another thing that bothered me a little was the female main character herself. While Nathan was your typical new adult male main character that you see in a lot of books similar to this one, Savannah acted like a 14-year-old even though she was already in college. She was embarrassed when anyone even mentioned the word ‘sex’ and could barely even talk about it to anyone. She wasn’t a virgin when the book started and later on you even find out that she has pierced nipples which made her entire behavior seem very unrealistic. It was cringy and made me roll my eyes quite a lot.

Furthermore, I also thought the main subject of this book would be the sex column Savannah took over which was called ‘Dear Delilah’, just like this novel. But instead she didn’t start writing the column until the second half of the book which really disappointed me.

There was one more thing that bothered me, but won’t influence my rating, which were the spelling mistakes in this book. You can always find spelling mistakes and grammatical errors in ARCs because they’re uncorrected proofs which is totally fine. But I genuinely felt like no editor had even looked at this book before. It was not only full of spelling mistakes that could’ve easily been corrected by the spell checker on your computer, but there were also a couple of things regarding the content that just didn’t make sense. Like him saying that they hadn’t had sex since their first date even though they’d just had sex again a couple of pages before he said that which was just one of the textual errors that kind of spoiled the reading experience for me. But like I said, I didn’t let this influence my rating because I really hope this will be different in the finished copy of the book.

All in all, I just absolutely didn’t like this book. It was poorly written and I didn’t feel like I had any connection with the characters which is why I also didn’t really enjoy their ‘love story’. I still think you can enjoy the finished copy of this book if you really like college romances, but it just wasn’t my cup of tea which is why I unfortunately can’t give ‘Dear Delilah’ more than 1 out of 5 stars.

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Savannah is a college girl who is interning at her schools paper even though she's not quite sure working at a paper is what she wants to do. Nathan is her best guy friend who she met working at the paper. Unfortunately sometimes the old saying IS true, boys and girls can't just be friends. When feelings spark between the two of them they don't know how to deal with them, and let's just say they don't do a stellar job at first. This story is about Nathan and Savannah figuring their feels out, and Savannah figuring herself out.

I thought this story was pretty good. I enjoy new adult and college romance though. If you also like angsty college romance where the hero and heroine are suffering from a small lack of communication that fuels the main angst. Then, Dear Delilah is the book for you as well. I also enjoyed the side plot of Savannah's job at the paper. It becomes really interesting what she writes about, and it actually goes well with the actual love story. I don't want to spoil this read so that's all I'll say.

If you're looking for a new adult or college romance, then this is definitely one you should check out!

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