Hard Lemonade by Darlene DeLuca
"Good friends help you to find important things when you have lost them… your smile, your hope, and your courage." — Doe Zantamata
In Hard Lemonade, Emily Sherridan certainly finds this to be true. After getting married and leaving her home in Chicago to live in Los Angeles, she depends on friends more than she ever expected—more than she wants to. As I’m writing this post, I’m lying on my couch with my legs elevated following knee surgery. And friends are checking in, helping out, offering to bring food, do laundry, run errands, whatever I need while I’m recovering.
Sometimes, no matter how self-sufficient and independent we are, we all need a little help from our friends!
Hard Lemonade, like most of my books, has a strong friendship theme. Even my romances usually have a good friend as a sidekick. My first women’s fiction novel, The Storm Within, became the first in a trilogy because of the main character’s good friends. Readers connected with them, and I couldn’t leave them behind.
The friends are the sounding boards, the ones who the main characters can bare their soul to. They’re the ones who encourage, who step up and lend a hand in troubling times, and the ones who share the laughs and shenanigans in good times. Cheers to all the BFFs out there!
HARD LEMONADE releases Oct. 1, 2026.
There is sadness within Hard Lemonade, but the novel never becomes overwhelmingly bleak. Chloe provides some delightful lighter moments, while the friendships and family relationships bring warmth to the narrative. Deluca handles the more difficult aspects of Emily's story with restraint, allowing their emotional impact to come from characters who feel wonderfully real.
Hard Lemonade is a beautifully written and deeply absorbing novel about marriage, motherhood, ambition, friendship and resilience. Deluca has created a wonderfully believable protagonist in Emily, a young woman whose determination to build the life she imagined takes her on a journey she could never have anticipated. Thoughtful, moving and filled with memorable characters, Hard Lemonade is women's fiction at its finest. A beautifully realised and ultimately uplifting novel that is thoroughly deserving of five stars.
Review by Mary Anne Yarde --Yarde Book Promotions
HARD LEMONADE
Her husband fails. Her marriage fails. Does that make Emily Sherridan a failure?
With high hopes and rose-colored shades, Emily Sherridan leaves her family and friends to build a new life with her screenwriter husband in sunny Los Angeles. There, she learns that love conquers all…until the rent is overdue, the rejections pile up, or the test is positive.
As months, then years, go by and Eric’s career fails to launch, Emily is determined to hold everything together. But when he brings danger into their lives, it’s over. When the cops arrive at her doorstep, anguish mixes with anger. She wonders how low they can go—until one of the officers hands her the number to a women’s shelter.
Broke and broken, her dreams are dashed and her confidence is shaken. With Eric’s taunt about running home pounding in her ears, Emily pushes forward though she’s unsure of her direction. She cannot give up. Her daughter deserves more.
From rosy dreams to real-life roadblocks, Hard Lemonade is a compelling story of friends, family, and fierce sheroes.
EXCERPT
The place could hardly be called furnished or finished. All in all, it was old and shabby, but it was functional. And it was hers. She could upgrade as she went along—and paid down the credit card bills that still loomed over her. She’d charged a few things but was trying to keep the debt to a minimum. Basically, she’d be living paycheck to paycheck. If she could do that for a few months, she could make ends meet.
She saw Sam glance around. And didn’t miss the look that said, "this is it?" The walls had been sloppily re-painted between tenants. There were scuff marks, and the kitchen appliances were old. There was no dishwasher. No built-in microwave. But Sam and Allen gifted her a small countertop microwave. She’d miss these treasured friends.
When Sam cornered her in the kitchen later, Emily held her breath, expecting questions and concerns. She gasped when he took her arm and twirled her around. “Home, sweet home, sweetheart. This’ll be a nice place for you and that darling princess of yours. Just don’t forget you still belong to our little ‘hood. And we want to see you both. Soon. You drop by anytime.”
Her throat tightened, and she nodded. “We will. I promise. Thanks so much, Sam.”
“Now stop. That’s what friends are for.” He planted a soft kiss on her cheek and breezed out the door.
Darlene Deluca writes contemporary romance that feels real and women’s fiction that explores relationships – what brings people together or keeps them apart.
Her intent is to bring to life interesting characters that readers can relate to in real-life situations that combine a little fun, plenty of drama, and big helpings of friendship, love, and self-discovery, and will leave readers either cheering or sighing with a satisfied smile as they turn the final page.
The Kansas City author enjoys getting lost in a good story with a glass of tea, a bit of dark chocolate and a warm, sunny beach.
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