Get It Together, Delilah!

By Erin Gough

This LBGTQ+ teen romance is “engaging and genuine. . . . A quiet and authentic coming of age story from Down Under” (Kirkus Reviews).
 
Seventeen-year-old Delilah Green wouldn’t have chosen to do her last year of school this way, but she figures it’s working fine. While her dad goes on a trip to fix his broken heart after her mom left him for another man, Del manages the family cafe. Easy, she thinks. But what about homework? Or the nasty posse of mean girls making her life hell? Or her best friend who won't stop guilt-tripping her? Or her other best friend who might go to jail for love if Del doesn't do something? But really, who cares about any of that when all Del can think about is beautiful Rosa who dances every night across the street. . . . Until one day Rosa comes in the cafe door. And if Rosa starts thinking about Del, too, then how in the name of caramel milkshakes will Del get the rest of it together?
 
“Delilah’s interactions and conflicts with her family and friends feel deeply real.” —Publishers Weekly
 
“A solid, slice-of-life book. authentic and are well written.” —VOYA: Voice of Youth Advocates
 
“Romance fans will find the up and down relationship of Rosa and Delilah dreamy.” —Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
 
“Will leave readers cheering for Delilah.” —Booklist

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Apr 4, 2017
• ISBN: 9781452152271

Book preview

1. Flamenco Hour

When life throws up in your lap, my father is fond of saying, find yourself a distraction from the smell. For him, this means watching Horse Feathers on a loop in a darkened room in his pajamas. It’s how he spent a whole month after my mother, June, ran out on us the January before last.

Not that the Marx Brothers ultimately did him much good. Dad’s still a ball of quivering mush. That mother of mine really stomped on his heart. I’m hoping the overseas trip I’ve made him take—his first in the twenty years he’s spent running our family cafe—will knock the misery out of him once and for all.

As for me? In the past month, I’ve had insults about me scrawled on school desks, and I’ve been called too many names to remember. But with the Flywheel to run, a recuperative vacation is out of the question, and some ’30s slapstick flick isn’t going to cut it.

Lucky, then, that I’ve found my own diversion from the reek of proverbial vomit.

I call it Flamenco Hour.

Six nights a week my schedule is more or less like this:

The tall girl with the red skirt is Angeline. Ramon, all in black, is her brother. The other girl, her dark hair parted down the middle and fixed with a tortoiseshell comb, is their cousin. Her name is Rosa Barea, and she is the reason I stand here watching: watching and imagining, as she dances, her arms around my waist, and my hands on her hips.

The music stops and for a moment I am still there with her, still charged with the rhythm of the dance and the warmth of her body. For a moment it doesn’t matter that I’m the butt of a hundred hallway jokes while she is an elegant goddess with the greenest eyes in the Southern Hemisphere. For a moment Rosa Barea loves me despite all of it, with all her heart.

While the fantasy lasts, I forget about the misery of the last four weeks. I’m in the arms of a beautiful woman, and we’re dancing.

Then I catch my reflection in the window. An ordinary girl in a dirty cafe apron looks back. It brings me down to earth.

Who are you kidding, Delilah? I sigh, my breath hot against the glass.

2. A Sudden Goodbye

In the real world, I spend too many hours stuck indoors at the Flywheel with Hamish Creel, Laziest Person on the Planet.

It’s four o’clock on Saturday and one of his neglected customers is waving a hand in front of my face. I ordered a coffee half an hour ago. From that man. I follow the inevitable direction of his finger past the uni students on the couches playing poker. Past the cake counter. All the way to the coffee machine, where Hamish is chatting away to one of his mates.

Sorry, I apologize. Leave it to me.

I march across the cafe floor to the kitchen and put the plates I’ve been carrying into a sink of dirty dishwater Hamish should have emptied an hour ago. I walk back past the uni students. One is doing a victory lap around the tables. The others have thrown their cards down in disgust.

When I reach him, Hamish is still talking to his friend. "This place is okay, but it could be great, he’s saying. If you knocked down that wall and got rid of the storeroom you’d have nearly twice as much space." He flicks one of his massive dreadlocks nonchalantly over his shoulder.

Charlie and I have our theories about what Hamish keeps in his nest of unwashed hair. Spare change, perhaps? A family of mice?

I clear my throat loudly. Hamish and his friend turn and stare at me, as if I have interrupted a very important conversation, not just Hamish’s latest scheming about what he’d do with the Flywheel if he was in charge.

Can I have a word?

What is it, sweetheart? Hamish asks in the patronizing tone he always uses with me.

You forgot the order for table nine.

Oh. He turns around again.

It’s the third time today, I say, raising my voice.

Take a chill pill. I’m on it. He flicks a switch on the coffee machine with a casual finger.

When I finally convinced Dad to take a break from the Flywheel, it was not my idea to run the place while he was gone, believe me—there was year eleven to consider. Dominic, our full-time manager, said he was happy to take care of things during the week as long as I could help him out on weekends, and with the assistance of a couple of part-time kitchen hands, I figured we could handle it. We had to: Dad’s broken heart was proving bad for business. The regulars had started calling him Groucho, and not just because he loves the Marx Brothers. Take six weeks, I told him. Take eight. We’ll be fine! And I truly believed that—until a month ago, when Dominic ran a red light on Parramatta Road in the Flywheel delivery truck.

This would have been okay in any ordinary circumstance: for example, if Dominic had a driver’s license and an Australian working visa. Trust my father to hire a guy without checking his credentials.

So Dominic got sent home to Dublin and I stepped into the manager role and hired Hamish to help out.

Clearly my recruitment skills need some honing. The good thing about Hamish is that he makes a damn fine coffee. It’s a pity he’s lazy, can’t cook, and has his attitude dial set permanently to Sneering Contempt. Ever since he asked if he could DJ for the Sunday lunch crowd and I knocked him back, he has transformed into one long Frontier of Sneer. I’m pretty sure Hamish’s unpleasantness is beginning to affect our daily profits as well.

I’m counting the days until Dad is home. Just fourteen to go now. I sometimes wish it wasn’t school holidays so I’d only have to work with Hamish on weekends, and that’s really saying something after the hideousness of school last term.

In the kitchen, I cut two slices of sourdough and hurriedly prepare the Flywheel’s famous HAT sandwich (haloumi cheese, artichoke, and sun-dried tomato). My favorite band, Rushmore, is playing on the cafe’s speakers as usual, so I turn it up and start dancing while I wait for the sandwich to grill. I love nothing more than dancing to Rushmore. Unfortunately my limbs don’t really coordinate and my hair, which is messy at the best of times, flies in every possible direction. But none of this matters in the privacy of your own cafe kitchen.

When the grill light turns green, I extract the sandwich and deliver it with a strained smile to our patiently waiting regular, Mandy, who runs the physiotherapy practice down the road.

Hang in there, Del, she says, raising her fist in solidarity and giving me a cheerful grin.

I mime strangling Hamish with my tea towel and she laughs. I make my way back to the coffee machine.

One cappuccino, Hamish says.

I grab the coffee from him and wind my way past a group of backpackers whose collective body odor wafts unpleasantly into my path (the plumbing at the youth hostel must be on the blink again). Finally I place the cappuccino onto table nine, carefully wiping away the small drips that have landed in the saucer.

Mr. Table Nine looks down at the cup and frowns. I ordered a flat white, he says darkly.

I should have guessed. Hamish has made the wrong coffee on purpose, as revenge for me telling him off. To calm myself, I spend a few seconds picturing him lying dead under the front wheels of a semitrailer.

I’m so sorry, I say.

That’s not good enough. This isn’t the first time. Mr. Table Nine’s frown deepens. I’d like to speak to the manager.

Oh, no. Here we go.

You’re speaking to her, I tell him, straightening my apron.

What? he says, just as I knew he would. How old are you? Fifteen?

Seventeen, I say, unable to keep the defensiveness out of my voice. I’m short for my age.

Mr. Table Nine laughs, but it’s the kind of laugh that has no humor in it, only disbelief at the sorry state of the world. I can see him wondering if there’s some government agency he can phone to report this latest instance of child exploitation. I can already see the headline: CHILD SLAVERY RACKET AT INNER WEST CAFE.

You know what? He glances down at the unwanted cappuccino and back again. I’ve changed my mind. I don’t feel like coffee today after all.

Wait! I really don’t want him spreading this around. That’s the last thing we need right now. I’ll make it up to you!

But Mr. Table Nine is already getting to his feet. The Tibetan cowbell Dad sent me clunks dully above the door as he strides out into the cold street air.

That’s it. Hamish is done for.

I march back to the coffee machine.

Not there.

I untie my apron straps and burst into the kitchen.

Not there, either.

It’s only as I’m heading back through the kitchen doorway that I spy him. He’s standing at the other end of the cafe near the open cash register, presumably getting change for a customer.

Except there are no customers nearby.

I watch his shadow move beside the stencil on the wall behind him: Chico, Groucho, and Harpo Marx in a silhouette of slapstick. The outline of his protruding dreads makes his shadow-hair look as clownlike as theirs. When Hamish moves to the left, and then to the right, the outline of his hair swoops across the wall. It is so distracting that I almost miss him slipping the fifty into his back pocket.

He shoves it down, but when he moves his hand away it slips back up, one pineapple-colored corner protruding like a flag.

Breathe, Del. But all I can think about is how poor our daily take has been since he started.

I consider my options. Grievous bodily harm—that’s one.

Fortunately for Hamish there are too many witnesses. I walk cautiously forward along the stenciled wall until I’m standing behind him. Why are you taking money from the till? I ask stonily.

Hamish jumps. He turns around, smiles a placating smile. Come on, babe, he says in a reasonable tone. He seriously barely skips a beat. "You can’t expect me to make the coffee and run the kitchen for what you’re paying me."

Why not?

Why not, she asks. Hamish laughs, turning his head to an imaginary audience, dreads slapping against his shoulders.

I’m paying you more than most cafe workers get, I continue, reciting Dad’s usual spiel to rubbish workers. And you know why? Because investing in good people is the key to success in the hospitality industry. Good people who understand the importance of trust.

He looks surprised. He didn’t expect a schoolkid in her dad’s cafe to lecture him like this. He probably thought he’d get an easy ride, being hired by someone as young as me.

You can’t be serious, he says, laughing still, but I can tell he’s beginning to feel uneasy. You don’t even know how to manage a business. This place is going down the gurgler. If you knew a thing or two you’d be jumping at my DJ idea. With a couple of music sets a week the Flywheel would rake it in.

So you’d have more cash to pinch?

I consider my options. Two weeks isn’t such a long time to run the Flywheel by myself. Not during school holidays.

Hamish narrows his eyes at me disdainfully. From the mild flicker of panic behind them I can tell he’s trying to come up with a way out. Either that, or a clever retort.

He fails to find either. You’re crazy, he says.

I smile sweetly. You’re fired.

3. The Lure of Mongolia

I have a confession to make. I’ve been lying to my father for weeks. He phones from overseas pretty much daily, and ever since Dominic got deported I’ve been telling him the following:

Dom’s still running the Flywheel (Lie #1);

we’re packing in the customers (Lie #2); and

we’re killing the opposition (Lie #3).

What choice do I have? If I gave Dad even a hint that something was wrong he’d be on the next plane home, and home is the last place he needs to be right now.

There’s just one other tiny fib I’m spinning:

School’s going well, no problems there, Dad, honestly everything is absolutely fine (Lie #4).

Giving him some time off from it all—fathering as well as the cafe—is the least I can do after everything he’s done for me. For seventeen years Dad’s been my rock: the steady, reliable parent who packed my lunch every day, made me brush my teeth, and helped me with my homework. Sure, June can be a lot of fun. She’s the queen of dress-ups and midnight feasts. She’s called him a stick-in-the-mud for years and I’ve always agreed with her. Turns out when it adds up, I’d rather have a stick-in-the-mud who sticks around than a volatile whirlwind who, after twenty years of marriage, abandons her husband and only child to run off with some new guy to Melbourne.

But it was time to give Dad a chance to step out of the mud, rinse off his feet, and take a little wander.

So when he called from Hanoi a fortnight ago, I lied. And then I lied last week when he e-mailed from Colombo, and yesterday when he Skyped from Ulaanbaatar. The customers are banging down the doors, I said. Things could not be more awesome.

The problem is, he’s home in two weeks. I’ve been getting Charlie to do Dom-like background noises when Dad calls (That screeching? Oh, that’s just Dom making coffee/blending a smoothie/strangling a customer, etc.), but I don’t think the sound effects will be quite as convincing when Dad is actually standing in the room. So now that Hamish is out of the picture and not likely to be replaced in the next fourteen days, I think it’s time to finally tell my father about the whole Dom deportation situation.

I open my laptop. The screen lights up, a bright square in the darkness. I log on and, as I wait for the page to load, crawl into bed. It’s almost midnight. I can hear the hum and whirr of the industrial dishwasher downstairs and the murmur of cars on Parramatta Road.

Five new e-mails. The first one is from Charlie wanting to make plans for the weekend. I write back to tell him I’ve fired Hamish—he will definitely high-five me for that. There’s also a message from Lauren, with study notes attached. It’s typical for Lauren to be studying over the holidays. If the entire Eastern Seaboard blew up, you’d find her floating among the debris, thumbing through a critical essay on the gothic elements of Frankenstein.

And of course, between a Viagra ad and a Nigerian scam, there’s a message from Eugene Green himself.

Dearest child o’ mine,

How were tricks at the Flywheel today? Was the lunchtime crowd as big as yesterday’s? Things really seem to be going from strength to strength. I almost wonder if it would be better for the Flywheel if I stayed away longer!

I know you’ll say I’m wrong about that, but you have got me thinking. You and Dom are handling things so beautifully, and a great opportunity has just landed in my lap. I’ve met some wonderful people who have offered to take me through the desert in Mongolia!

You keep saying I should make the most of this trip and, well, maybe you’re right. The guys I’d be going with are very experienced—they know the area and the people well.

If I do accept their offer, though, I won’t be back in a fortnight like I intended. In fact, it could be as late as mid-September. That’s why I’m e-mailing you. Darl, if you have any doubts at all, I’ll get on that plane and head in your direction at once. You are what I care about most. You have a big year at school and if Dom can’t cut you some slack on the weekends to study then it’s a no-go.

Think about it. As I’ve said, one word from you and I’m home.

Love, Dad. xx

September! Sure, if Dom really was here that might be fine. But he’s not. And running the Flywheel by myself for two weeks during school holidays is one thing, but for over two months of the semester?

Then again, I have told Dad he should make the most of this trip. It’s obvious he really wants to do the desert trek, and who am I to stop him? He deserves a shot at happiness.

Maybe I can use the extra time to get the Flywheel back on track.

First things first. I need to find a new full-timer, and fast.

4. No Sudden Movements

In a life of uncertainty there is one thing I can rely on. No matter what the occasion, I will always arrive later than Lauren.

As I round the corner on our first day back at school, dread emanating from my every pore, I see she’s waiting for me at our usual meeting place, jogging impatiently on the spot to keep warm. My oldest friend is the only person I know who would get to school early if she could. We’re told they lock the gates until eight-thirty for security reasons, but I know it’s really to stop Lauren Crawley from stalking the teachers before roll call.

Sorry. Flywheel emergency.

Mr. Kosnik is going to kill us, she moans, picking up her bag from the footpath. What kind of emergency?

I’m down a full-timer and can’t find a new one.

Lauren frowns. Wasn’t your dad due back on Saturday?

He extended his trip.

Does he know you’re short-staffed?

He doesn’t need to know. I can handle it. This might even be true. Since firing Hamish two weeks ago, I’ve kept the cafe under control. Just. I’m trying to pretend that this won’t change now that school’s on again.

God, Del, she says.

As always, I practically have to run to keep up with her. We’ve walked to school together ever since year

Reviews for Get It Together, Delilah!

[kbranfield-837433 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Get It Together, Delilah! by Erin Gough is a charming lesbian young adult romance with a strong lead character who is self-assured but, more often than not, is her own worst enemy.

After her mother leaves them, Delilah Green encourages her father to take an extended vacation while she takes care of running the family owned diner, The Flywheel. When the situation at The Flywheel become more serious due to her lack of reliable employees and dwindling sales, Delilah decides to take time off from school in an effort to save the diner. Her choice to ditch school is an act of self-preservation since she has been the target of unrelenting bullies due to her sexuality. Delilah is, in many ways, a resilient and likable young woman but she stubbornly refuses to ask for help as the situation at the cafe worsens. Nor is she willing to give a concerned teacher/counselor the opportunity to help deal with the harassment from her classmates.

With her best friends busy with school, Delilah's friendship with her best guy pal Charlie McFarlane turns out to be the most reliable support during her trials and tribulations. While he is rather fickle when it comes to matters of the heart, he is unfailingly loyal and his irreverent charm and good nature is the perfect foil for Delilah's troubles. Charlie is also exceptionally skilled in the kitchen but he finds himself in a bit of trouble when he impulsively decides to pursue his latest love interest.

As if Delilah does enough problems in her life, she is the midst of a huge crush on flamenco dancer and uni student Rosa Barea. While she adores Rosa from afar for a good part of the novel, there are a few cringe worthy scenes where Delilah finds herself tongue-tied and clumsy when she has the opportunity to talk to the girl of her dreams. Although they do eventually make progress with their relationship, Delilah's impatience once again causes problems with her fledgling romance.

Get It Together, Delilah! is a light-hearted and entertaining young adult romance with a great cast of adorable characters. Although some parts of the plot are a tad bit unbelievable, Erin Gough does a wonderful job balancing the true to life issues such as bullying and homophobia with plenty of humor. Although the romance between Delilah and Rosa is just in the beginning stages by the novel's conclusion, it is easy to root for them as a couple. This part of the storyline could have been fleshed out just a little more and while Rosa's hesitance to go public with their romance is realistic, Delilah's reaction is completely understandable.

An imperfect but completely darling debut that fans of contemporary young adult novels will enjoy.

[aloyacano · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I keep an LGBTQ+ Lending Library in my classroom and this was a welcome addition. I know that my students experience discovering, understanding, and sharting their sexuality diffierently, but I felt as though this book relied heavily on the negative.

[edgoldberg · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

An improbably story. Teenage Delilah sends her dad on an extended vacation...because he needs it. Dominic who is supposed to run the family cafe in dad's absence, runs a red light, is discovered to be an illegal alien and is deported. It falls on Delilah to run the cafe, despite her lack of any sort of ability to do so.Outed at her school by a willing kissing partner, Delilah is a pariah at school. Meanwhile she has a crush on Rosa Borea, who dances at the restaurant across the street. Every night at 8 PM sharp, Delilah is staring out her bedroom window watching Rosa dance and dreaming of being with her.Meanwhile the cafe is going to pot...failing miserably.Get it Together Delilah is an OK story with OK characters. Nothing monumental here.

[eggsnhm · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I found this to be a delightful and enchanting novel and a quick read. I thoroughly enjoyed spending time in Del's world as she tried to keep her father's coffee shop, The Flywheel, afloat while he was off on an adventurous vacation, all while also finishing high school. I completely related to the fact that she tried to manage the pitfalls of a small retail business with stiff competition largely on her own.I found Del and her friends to be relatable and enjoyable companions and the first person narrative voice rang completely true. I was also pleased to see a gay teen at the center of the story, and that the fact that she was gay was simply a small part of who she was. While kids in school gave her grief about it, it wasn't the center of the story.All-in-all, this was a great read.

[lizdugan · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Read it in two days! It was a quick, easy read that kept my attention. I found myself feeling for Delilah as she tried to organize her life. I felt for her at each heartbreak and near screamed with joy when she got her first kiss with Rosa. It was also heartwarming to see a parent immediately support their child without question.

[mehgangriffin · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

 I am writing this review as part of the Early Reviewers for Library Thing.This book was a moderately interesting read about a teenage girl trying to save her father's coffee shop. The characters were likeable, but I felt like the storyline dragged on a bit. It took me a month to read the book because I felt like I kept having to put it down and read other books before I could finish. I felt like the storyline was a bit off the wall. Delilah is helping at her father's struggling coffee shop, The Flywheel, while he goes off on an adventure. Delilah and her father are coping with her mum leaving them, so she encourages her father to take the holiday. Throughout the book Delilah is trying to single handedly keep The Flywheel running. She doesn't reach out to her father or any family to help. The author brings in a bit of teenage drama, love, and friendship. If you are looking for a book that you can slowly read when you have the spare 20-30 minutes, this is a book to check out.

[sszkutak_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a wonderful book. It was a quick read and I really liked the characters and how they find themselves throughout the book. I really loved that the book showcases a gay female lead and her being so sure of herself. I think that is refreshing for a book/character in the diverse reads realm. Del is strong, determined, and does not take no for an answer, but she is also sensitive, to the point and realistic when she absolutely needs to be. Her friends in the book are there to push her and help her on her journey - in this case helping her fathers cafe survive. So all this love and appreciation, why only 4 stars? Well lets start with the first shocker... I am a thirty year old who reads YA, not a big deal, there are a lot of us. But I felt a bit put out by the author at the beginning of the book- there is a quote about thirty somethings being old, I was so upset I had to show my husband (who laughed at me) but I was saddened by it. Second thing, the missing parent plot - dad is away gallivanting after a bad divorce, teenage kid is left alone but also to run the family cafe too... I was not very keen on that aspect.Overall though the book was enjoyable. The love story is slow moving and I liked that and like I mentioned the characters are realistic and easy to follow. And if you are looking for a diverse book, this one falls in that category.

[harleyqgrayson02 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a review for Get it Together, Delilah by: Erin Gough. I received this book through Librarything.com Early Bird Review. I received an ARC copy of the book. I found this book to be amazing and funny. I fell in love with the characters right off the bat. I love this book!!!!!

[chickey1981 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Get It Together, Delilah! by Erin Gough focuses on the main character Delilah who is trying to handle keeping her dad's little diner afloat, get past bullying at school because she is a lesbian, and falling in love with a beautiful girl who she keeps making herself an idiot in front of. Can she get it all together before everything falls apart?OK here's the thing with this book. There are a lot of great things about it. First, I love the fact that we have a lesbian as the main character. This promotes awareness to LGBTIQA issues and there's a realness to the character. She's strong, feisty, grumpy, but totally likeable and someone I could really visualize meeting (and want to meet). You really want to root for her. I think the mere relatability of the character is reason to read this book. Rosa is gorgeous and amazing, and her best friend Charlie is rather a mess and Lauren, her other friend, grounds the group. That said, the pacing did not quite work for me, and I'm not sure what it was exactly. There were a lot of messages that wanted to come out, and I got confused as to what the focus was-- in fact, some of the side characters seemed to have a bigger character arc than Delilah did. Rosa hasn't come out to her family but is starting to realize she has to. Charlie is a trainwreck and basically falls in love at a drop in a hat but realizes that maybe love doesn't have to be such a dramatic ordeal after all. I think the biggest beef I had with the book is that her father leaves her in this awful position and she FREAKING KEEPS IT TOGETHER somehow. I was so proud of her and yet don't expect any sort of pay off or scene between her and her dad. There isn't one. I felt so completely let down by this ending because of it. Overall, I think there was some wonderful things about it, a feisty heroine worth reading about, but in the end I was disappointed by feeling that the plot was rather aimless and without the emotional payoff I was expecting at the end.

[upinthestacks · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I was given a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review though LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program.I really was expecting a lot more from this book. I am in my late 20s and I read and enjoy a lot of Young Adult books but this one wasn't my favorite. I think a younger audience might enjoy it more (teens- early 20s). Pros:-I liked that this book had a lesbian protagonist who was so up-front about her sexuality from the very beginning of the book. -This book was an easy, fast, somewhat light read. Cons: - This book suffers from a severe case of Disappearing Parent Syndrome... Not only are her parents completely gone from the entire book (her mother has left her father and moved away, and her father has gone on a months-long trip to mend his broken heart), But she is a seventeen year old high school student completely in charge of running her father's cafe while he is away and completely unreachable. This causes a lot of problems for the main character through-out the novel.- There was not enough romance. The main character has a crush on Rosa, a girl who's family runs a restaurant across the street from the cafe. Rosa was probably my favorite part of this book but she was overshadowed by all the cafe problems and friend-drama that the main character has to deal with.- The lack of importance of education seems problematic to me. It is unusual for multiple characters in the same young adult novel to show a complete disregard for school. School seems to be portrayed as somewhat of a nuisance as she's trying to deal with everything else. Obviously in the real world high school isn't most teens' favorite thing but I just didn't like how it was handled in this novel.I probably wouldn't recommend this book, but there are a lot of good reviews for it, so you might still want to give it a try.

[keristars_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Get It Together, Delilah! is the kind of queer-protagonist novel I wanted as a teen. Delilah lives in Sydney, Australia with her dad above the cafe they own. Her mom has just run off to Melbourne with a new boyfriend, and dad is heartbroken. So Del sends her dad off on his first vacation since opening the Flywheel, their cafe, and promises to help the manager keep everything in order while he's gone.Naturally, things don't go as well as expected. The cafe manager gets deported and Del is left to run the business herself - she doesn't want to burden her dad by telling him the truth, so she lies that everything is fine and he should take his time to heal from his heartbreak. Del is only 17 and not exactly equipped for the job. Besides, she's got her own personal problems: in addition to being the family breadwinner, she's dealing with bullying (tinged with homophobia), her own broken heart and hopeless crush, and maybe she helped one of her friends commit a crime.Everything seems to be falling down around Del. Really, I wanted to send her to a therapist to talk through her problems the entire book. She's very much 17: as honest as she is about herself and willing to take responsibility, she's also stubborn, self-centered, and rebellious. She reacts to her problems and setbacks with sarcasm and anger. I don't think any of these traits are bad on their own, just so typical of teenagers, and they make everything more difficult for Delilah. She isn't able to "get it together" until she realizes these things about herself.I love that while Delilah's queer identity is central to who she is and contributes to the plot motivations, it is more of a secondary element. The reasons for Del's bullying, her relationships - none of that requires her to be a lesbian. It normalizes being queer as just another thing people are, and the real problem is bullying or having to run an entire cafe (bookkeeping included) before even graduating high school. But at the same time, this is definitely a book about a gay experience: Delilah is comfortable with this aspect of her identity and doesn't hide it.There are a few things about the book that I didn't enjoy so much or that felt off. The most off-putting part is an attempt at straight sex midway through. In context, I could sort of see it as a goofy aside that also shuts down an unrequited crush in a time when both characters needed comfort, but there wasn't any follow-up about the ramifications. It ended up feeling useless to the plot and characterization, and only present to "prove" that Delilah really is gay. (She even says something like "I don't need to have straight sex to know that I'm not straight" before it happens!)The other odd little things are the nearly complete lack of any adult guidance or supervision for the teenage characters and the convenient villains. I was able to go along with both of these for the plot's sake and focus on how those tropes allowed the rest of the story to move along, but it stood out to me towards the end how convenient it all was and how little the consequences were addressed - one of the villains definitely got away easy, if only because Del is too young to have much power over him. I can see other readers disliking the book a lot more because of those things.Overall, I loved reading Get It Together, Delilah! and would definitely hand a copy to my teenage self if I could - the writing is engaging and it was fun to read an Australian book with actual Australian English and culture.

[justacatandabook · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Delilah is seventeen and in her last year of high school in Australia. She's also stuck working endless hours in her father's cafe, the Flywheel, as he goes on a whirlwind world trip: hopefully to mend his broken heart. You see, Delilah's mother, June, left him for another man and moved away, leaving Delilah and her father (and the cafe) all alone. But suddenly Delilah finds herself seventeen and running the Flywheel solo. She has no time for school, homework, or even her friends. She barely even finds time to sneak glances across the street at the beautiful Rosa, whose family runs a nearby business. Delilah thinks Rosa is amazing, but she doesn't know how to tell her (and besides, the last time she fell for a girl, she was bullied endlessly at school). What can she do to get her life on track?This novel has all the makings of a lovely little lesbian YA book. And, truly, many aspects of it are simply delightful. My biggest problem is that I could never get past the fact that Delilah's father left his seventeen-year-old daughter alone to oversee his business (supposedly it was left in the charge of Delilah and another employee, who is quickly removed via a car accident and visa issues). So much of the novel focuses on Delilah's plight of having to save the cafe: ordering the supplies and food, oversight of its finances, and even making major legal decisions in her father's stead. I just couldn't buy it. And she missed so much school; I get that the legal age for that choice is different in Australia than America, but it was very odd. Basically every parent in the novel was completely absent: it seemed really far-fetched. So did asking a "friend" to run the place day-after-day, or to look at the accounts, or make extensive determinations regarding the Flywheel's fate. Or perhaps I'm just a literalist who is no fun.On the plus side, beyond the cafe aspects, Delilah is a sweet character, and it's always refreshing to see a lesbian protagonist in YA fiction. The portions of the novel where she is attempting to work out her sexuality are far more realistic. She is bullied at school (oh how I wish this didn't have to be a staple of teen fiction, because it no longer existed), which does contribute to her unwillingness to attend, and that I can understand. But she's a plucky heroine, and she definitely grows on you. Her cast of supporting characters is actually pretty slight, with a focus on her best friends Charlie and Lauren and her crush, Rosa. None of these are as fully developed as Delilah, but they are fairly interesting.I would have enjoyed this novel more if its focus had been more on Delilah working through her sexuality and relationships versus so much of the Flywheel drama. Some of the scenes with Delilah and Rosa, or her other friends, are very poignant and spot on, and I quite enjoyed them. Unfortunately, the rest of the novel was a bit unrealistic and melodramatic and kept me from enjoying it fully. Still, it picked up at the end, and I did find myself rooting for these characters (and even the darn Flywheel). I also seem to be in the minority with my review, so don't let my feelings stop you from picking up the book.I received a copy of this novel from the publisher and LibraryThing (thank you!) in return for an unbiased review.

[courtneygiraldo · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

When 17 year old Delilah's dad goes off on a months long trip to ease his broken heart, she thinks she will be fine, keeping an eye on things at the family cafe and going to school. It doesn't take long for things to quickly unravel as the cafe manager gets deported, she catches (and subsequently fires) the full time employee for stealing, throw in some good ol mean girl style drama at school, and Delilah finds herself quitting school to take over the running of the cafe. As if that isn't enough for one headstrong 17 year old girl to deal with there is Rosa. The beautiful flamenco dancer from the restaurant across the street who Delilah can't seem to stop swooning over. Can Delilah keep herself (and the cafe) above water or will she (and everything else in her life) sink.Overall, I really enjoyed this book! It was refreshing to read a more diverse YA contemporary novel than the ones that I typically pick up. In fact, I don't think I have read one at all where the main character was gay. I will say, I was becoming slightly disappointed that there really wasn't much of a plot line about Delilah/Rosa until it picked up more about halfway through. Once I really stopped to think about it though, this wasn't a "love" story, it was more about Delilahs journey as she figured herself out; her relationships (peers, familial, past crushes), her goals, and how she relates to and interacts with the world as a whole. Although rough around the edges at times, Delilah was a likable character and her struggles were honest and relatable (no matter what end of the spectrum you are on as far as your sexuality). Being that the book was based in Sydney, Australia, I was stumped more than a couple times when local vernacular and colloquialisms were used (thank you Google!), but I wouldn't say that deterred any from the books likability for me. I think (especially in today's time) the world needs more diverse books, as much for the people who see themselves reflected in the characters, as for those of us who need to see things from a different perspective, one that we may have not considered before. Definitely add this one to your TBR.

[janeslist · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I received this book as part of the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program. Set in Australia, it tells the story of Delilah as she navigates friendship, school bullies, pining after the cute girl across the street, and trying to run the family cafe while her Dad is on a round-the-world trip. That's a lot for a 17 year old to handle. There are some unlikely turns of event, but altogether it was an entertaining story with engaging characters, and I would definitely share it.

[taylorsarris · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I received this as an Advanced readers copy a few days ago.I very much enjoyed this book. In my opinion it was a coming of age Novel because Del (the main character) had to face some pretty strange things for a girl her age but in the end her friends helped her thought it. She had to make decision and fight thought what she thought was right all while liking somebody. I would recommend this book to anybody that wants a fun and light read.

[jen505 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I received this book as an advance reader's copy from the early reviewers group.This is a modern day YA novel. I enjoyed the relationship that Del and Rosa shared. Young adult life is filled with stress, uncertainty, and joy and this book doesn't disappoint. I would recommend to high school readers and YA fans.