Full Disclosure: This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on August 25, 2026 in exchange for a potential review. I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.
Love Me Like a Rock Song is the second book from queer Jewish author Shelly Jay Shore, after 2024's phenomenal Rules for Ghosting. As a Jewish reader, that book just really felt perfect for me, with its queer Jewish romance steeped in Jewish culture and religion (and queerness) in a way that I often miss in reading Fantastical Romance books, and it was really really well done. Love Me Like a Rock Song is another Jewish Queer Fantasy Romance and although it didn't promise to be as steeped in the practice of Judaism as Rules for Ghosting it was a book I was super eager to try when I got offered an advance copy to review.
And well, I really enjoyed Love Me Like a Rock Star quite a bit. The book features a roadtrip through queer spaces and a queer romance between Delilah, a Jewish singer songwriter left at the alter, and Emmett, a golem created from clay to serve his now deceased father/master. The result may not be steeped in Jewish religious tradition - although golems come from Jewish myth and the book features quotes from Jewish texts - and yet it really still feels Jewish in its own different way from Rules for Ghosting. It's also excellently queer as Emmett is taken by Delilah on a road trip of queer discovery and the romance is again really well done. Overall, this is a really wonderful queer Jewish romance that I can again highly recommend.
Trigger Warning: Discussion of past suicidal ideation and depression is in this book as a plot point. It's treated respectfully and is part of Delilah's past, not present actions on page, but just be forewarned if that's an issue for you.
Plot Summary:
Queer Singer/Songwriter Delilah Cohen had it all planned out: she was going to get married to her more famous musical partner Sam, go on a cross country roadtrip for their honeymoon from Brooklyn to LA to show Sam how her family enjoyed life, and then was supposed to use the experience to write the songs for her solo album debut, which would be recorded 20 days later. It was all going to be perfect...until Sam broke up with her for someone else the day before the wedding, leaving Delilah heartbroken.
Against the advice of her manager, best friend, and mother, Delilah decides the only way to move forward is to go on the honeymoon road trip on her own, visiting queer spaces across America, and somehow finding a way to move on and to still manage to come up with material for her solo album. But when a young cute maybe a little androgynous Orthodox Jewish man named Emmett saves her life by pushing her out of the way of a moving car, Delilah decides to invite Emmett along the journey after she finds out Emmett is also looking to head out to LA himself. And as the two of them journey across America, traveling from and to various spaces of queer history and culture in the US, Delilah finds herself having feelings for Emmett, who is far more charming and open and understanding that she could've imagined a person to be.
Yet Emmett has a secret: Emmett is a golem, brought to life by an orthodox father to replace the father's dead son and Emmett's need to go to LA stems from that father's last command: for Emmett to go to the cave they were made and to destroy themselves. But as Emmett and Delilah grow closer, they realize they wish they could somehow avoid this order to experience a life like one they could never have imagined....
Love Me Like a Rock Song is mostly told from Delilah's point of view, with occasional interludes to moments from Emmett's perspective. And both are fabulous characters who carry the story and pull on your heartstrings tremendously. Delilah is a queer woman who has for years been in a relationship with her bandmate Sam - a woman from a famous background who helped them both get fame and recognition for their work together and who Delilah fell for...such that Delilah ignored many warning sides of controlling behavior and microaggressions by Sam that foreshadowed the devastating end of their relationship. Delilah is naturally impulsive and has often a bit of manic energy which sometimes masks her own struggles with self-worth and rights to enjoy her own things in life, which the break-up with Sam only exacerbated. This issue with valuing herself also means Delilah feels pressure to actually perform and doesn't want to take time off (rather than try to write her solo album debut in 20 days) which only makes her struggles worse.
Thankfully, Delilah's encounter with Emmett and impulsive decision to invite him along on the RV road trip provides her with a distraction and means to do something that helps her realize she can do some good, especially when it comes to inadvertently at first guiding Emmett on their queer enlightenment. Delilah is invested in queer culture - as both a queer American and also as someone with clear interest in the history - and her road trip stops help Emmett to realize that they are someone they could never have considered being (for example, using "they/them" pronouns). And Emmett reciprocates by being the type of understanding caring person Delilah has never really partnered with before, as they listen and try to understand Delilah rather than push her to go somewhere Delilah has no interest in, all the while still being willing to ask questions that Delilah needs to hear to get herself in the direction Delilah wants to go.
Emmett meanwhile has their own struggles with self-worth, largely because they have lived their life as a golem meant to replace their "father" Jacob's dead son - with Jacob giving them strict orders about how to go about their life...not that Emmett hasn't always been able to find loopholes to give themselves some autonomy. For them, while they love their little sister Ruth, there really isn't anything out there with Jacob dead to do other than to try to fulfill Jacob's last fatal command and they at first try to push off anything they care about (Ruth) so that they can fulfill it. But when they encounter Delilah, they encounter a person who shows them things about themselves and about desires they could never have imagined having. And suddenly Emmett does find themselves finding more in life to enjoy even if they think it could all be ephemeral.
The result is a romance between Emmett and Delilah that is utterly delightful as the two work through their issues and make discoveries about themselves and each other. Both characters are extremely easy to care about and the side characters they meet along the journey as well as the experiences they share at places that vary from a queer bookshop to the rock and roll hall of fame to a queer friendly campground really work super well. I'd also add here in a note that will only matter maybe to me that the romance and characters is also very Jewish in a way that I appreciated and not just in its use of the Jewish golem myth. Not Jewish as in religious - neither Delilah nor Emmett are observant Jews, despite Emmett's father being of a heritage of orthodox rabbis - but how both come from Jewish families with Jewish culture even if neither finds it necessary to stop to pray or observe Shabbas or any other holidays during the text (at one point Delilah asks if it's okay to Emmett if they go out on Shabbas because she wants to make sure they're okay with that and Emmett decides that they are). It's hard to describe but it's a different showing of the American Jewish experience from Rules for Ghosting that I very much appreciate.
Overall, a really excellent 2nd novel from Shelly Jay Shore and another winner of a Queer Jewish Fantasy Romance. Very much recommended.
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