Things in Delilah Hannaford’s life have a tendency to fall apart.
She used to be a good student, but she can’t seem to keep it together anymore. Her “boyfriend” isn’t much of a boyfriend. And her mother refuses to discuss the fight that divided their family eight years ago. Falling apart, it seems, is a Hannaford tradition.
Over a summer of new friendships, unexpected romance, and moments that test the complex bonds between mothers and daughters, Delilah must face her family’s painful past. Can even her most shattered relationships be pieced together again?
Rich with emotion, Sarah Ockler delivers a powerful story of family, love, and self-discovery.
If you’ve read my review of Ockler’s Twenty Boy Summer, then you know that I loved that book beyond. So I was super excited to get Fixing Delilah for review from the folks at Little Brown and Company.
I really loved this book. It’s one of those reads that left me sighing in contentment when I finished it. I loved the mix of coming of age, mystery and romance. Ockler included just the right amount of each so that the book was well-balanced.
This is a book about family, for sure. Delilah and her mom have such a real and dysfunctional relationship that it was heartbreaking. It wasn’t the dysfuction that broke my heart, though. It was those small moments of connection that neither mother nor daughter felt that they could deepen that makes it an emotional – and believable – relationship. I get tired when there’s issues between kids and parents and it’s all negative. You could see that these two really cared for each other, they had just lost the ability to really show it.
There was a twist towards the end (which I LOVED) but it wasn’t the twist I was expecting (which I loved EVEN MORE). It added a new layer to the story, which was great.
I love Ockler’s writing. She can get sentimental without being too mushy about it and her way of describing relationships and letting us watch them unfold is brilliant. She’s one of my favorite YA contemp authors, for sure.