I've now read all three books in the series, and I liked exactly none of them.

In fact, I hated them.

Why? I'm not sure I can even begin to explain the amount of (irrational, believe me) anger these books bring up in me whenever I think about them, starting with these books being the only sapphic books they sell at literally every bookstore within a 100 mile radius of my home. Everywhere I go, it's only ever Delilah Green to check the lesbians off of their diversity lists, and I'm sick of it.

Delilah Green is annoying. She sucks. I can't stand her, even. But that's okay. Is it even a romance if one character isn't annoying? Most of the time I do actually like annoying characters, but not this time. In fact, out of all 6 major characters in this series, there wasn't one that I liked!

The smut sucks. It's unrealistic, and not in a good way. It's the kind of smut that reminds you of lesbian porn made for and by men, and leaves you wondering how the characters even manage to get off. It's disheartening that even mainstream sapphic books (I can name many more examples) fall back into that pattern that makes so, so many women think something is wrong with them and their bodies. I have a lot more to add about this in particular, but I don't know how much of it is allowed on pagebound, so I'll shut up about that for now.

Then, and this is something I've noticed about a lot of more popular sapphic books, and I know it doesn't bother everyone (I don't blame people who don't care about this, either. Frankly, I admire them) but it does bother me:

Everything is about men. Not in the romance kind of way, thank god, but still in a way that bothers me. I noticed this in Ramona Riley as well. I didn't come here, a sapphic romance, to read about Claire's male ex. Claire's entire story is about her manchild excuse of an ex, in a way that could've been entirely avoided! Claire's character is so much more than that one guy that has been responsible for so much of her anguish. Actually, her character is so much more than Delilah, too, who treated her like absolute shit.

Furthermore, as a lesbian, none of the queer experiences depicted in any of AHB's books are relatable to me, this one included. And that's fine, they don't have to be. Not every queer woman is a lesbian, which is great! I love seeing so many different labels represented! What does bother me is that the representation feels extremely performative. New characters and totally irrelevant characters are first described by their etnicity, then their queer identity. Do they get any dialogue or their own voice? No. And god forbid any of the main characters are anything other than cis and white. This representation doesn't feel real. It feels more like that one mother that wears ally pins and joins the pride march (love that!!) but who still doesn't actually know what lgbtqia+ entails except for g, l and b. It is supposed to be genuine. I don't doubt that it had good intentions at all, but it could've happened so, so differently (and better).

I've always described these books as sapphic books for straight girls, which is a little rude, yes, and I won't explain any further because I've worked myself up while writing this and I might just say something I really don't mean.

Whenever I have a conversation with other book enjoyers about sapphic books, they always tell me they don't read sapphic centered stories because they are 'bland', 'underdeveloped', and 'misogynistic' which is ??? entirely, but I do get what they're saying, when this is the sapphic book most people read as their first, and usually only, sapphic book. It's not the kind of book that makes me, as a lesbian, feel respected or represented, and I loathe that. It also makes me sad.

Lastly, I do want to say that this is obviously a personal opinion. One that has bothered me for quite a while now. I understand why there are people who like this book and I don't judge them, nor do I think any less of them. I'm always happy to have someone tell me why they disagree with me and to have a (gentle and respectful) conversation about that, or why they agree with me, of course. As someone who mostly reads sapphic books, which has basically become part of my identity, I struggle with being told sapphic romances are bad when this is the book that basically represents all sapphic books, when I don't think that's its deserved position.

(No hate to AHB either, I have a lot of respect for her as an author, which is also why I've read most of her books despite my complaints. I think she's a great person!!)