The First Cut Is The Deepest

Dirty by Megan Hart: A Review

I picked up Dirty out of desperation. I was in a terrible book funk, the sort that happens when you've been reading a series for exactly 10 years, and the conclusion leaves you wondering whether you're even reading something written by the same author. I didn't feel like starting a new series. I just wanted ONE book that would make me forget. 

Having read Broken by Megan Hart a long time ago, after Wench Donna's intriguing review, I figured, why not. If nothing else, erotica can distract you. So I got Dirty on my Kindle. 

Click through to see what I thought of it and whether it did the trick!





Let me say this, I think I had forgotten just how good Ms.Hart's writing is. And just HOW good the sexual tension, the chemistry, the SMOLDERING hotness is in her stories. 

Elle, our protagonist, is an accountant. She loves numbers. Uses them as a sort of coping mechanism, perhaps preferable to the other coping mechanism she has experimented with in the past. For what, we'll find out soon enough. The first chapter of the book is short, sweet. And almost romantic comedy cliche:

This is what happened.

I met him at the candy store. He turned around and smiled at me. I was surprised enough to smile back.

Such a simple beginning, to such an intense emotional ride. 

His name is Dan. And their connection and chemistry is undeniable from the very start. And so is the fact that Elle has more than her share of issues. She is haunted by the thoughts of her family home, her past. Her mother, a woman who grates on my nerves, quite honestly, is no more than a nagging voice from her past for the most part. Her father, a never-present entity. She has real love and a connection with her brother Chad, perhaps because they share a lot of their broken past.

From the beginning, we see how she holds most people at arms length. Marcy, her coworker, Gavin, her 15 year old neighbor, Dan... these are some of the people who manage to worm their way into Elle's self-protective fortress. One she has built with good reason. 

I don't want to say too much about this book. It was well paced and well written, the characters well fleshed out. The sex scenes were unbelievably hot. Cold showers will definitely be needed. Who knew I would find sex in public that hot? And bathroom stall sex.... holy hell... My favorite would probably be the menage with Jack. (I would SO read a separate book on this pierced hottie!) 

One of those guys needs nipple piercings!
and then this would be perfect!

Despite all the extremely hot sex scenes. I wish Amazon, Goodreads, and other booksellers would find a more appropriate genre for Megan Hart's books. Calling Broken and Dirty erotica is like calling the Mona Lisa just another painting. It just doesn't do her books justice. The heartache, the sympathy, the frustration you feel with/for the characters is not something found in generic erotica. I vote we call it "Erotica with a Large Dose of Emotion that Leaves You Crying, Smiling, Crying Again, and Unable to Put Down the Book 'til You're Done". Or would that be too long?

While a few of the relationships, and some of the decisions made by some of the characters, might have frustrated me, or I found myself unable to approve of them, I UNDERSTOOD them. I think one thing this author does brilliantly is make us understand what the characters are going through. Why they do the things they do, even while it breaks your heart. Why they say the things they say that make you cringe. And that is an irreplaceable quality in her writing. 

This is a must read for the folks who have read and loved Broken. I would even suggest it to people who haven't. It completely got me out of my book funk. It made me *feel* so much. And those are the best books: ones that don't leave you feeling hollow. Ones that reveal a sliver of hope in even the bleakest of lives. Ones that put you through an emotional hurricane, but land you back safely on your feet in the end.

This Wench rated it: