I thought the story of her brother and what happened was intense, not expected in any piece of literature but that’s what makes MH unique. Oh and loved the introduction of Jack and Dan’s attitude towards the whole experience. Well done again MH!

BTW, does anyone know if Robin has a blog or website? I've been reading her comments at various sites and I really like the way she thinks!

Thanks, Barbara! I really appreciate your kind comment. As Janine said, you can find my posts on Access Romance’s Reader’s Gab once a month and god knows I comment everywhere else and review here and there (especially here these days as Janet). And because I’m finishing up my last semester of law school and am starting bar exam prep, I’m ALWAYS on the computer these days, so I tend to take a ton of breaks by surfing and commenting. So much easier than studying, let me tell you! And no degrees required to talk about Romance, which is a boon for me right now.

This book totally captured my attention, and I immediatley read it twice. I’d never heard of Megan Hart before, but now her next book is on my tbb list. Oh how I long to find more books that grab me like this one did.

By the way, can you email me? Jane has my addy, or you should be able to snag it through WordPress. Or should I go through the contact form?

love,

da poppa

I was already a huge fan of Megan Hart’s before, but Dirty really solidified her place on my short auto-buy list. Another thing that I liked about Dirty was that it was a contemporary. No paranormal, suspense, or fantasy gimmicks, just two people with realistic problems. Sometimes I just want a romance that’s just about the romance yet still has some real life complexity to it. It was also pretty cool that the story used a lot of the elements from one of Hart’s short stories, Everything Counts. I thought that was pretty brilliant.

BTW, does anyone know if Robin has a blog or website? I’ve been reading her comments at various sites and I really like the way she thinks!

Initially, yes, but as things get more involved, and he’s the one pushing for commitment, I think it’s fair to wonder why he is so adamant about staying with her and pushing the intimacy issue. I think Alison Kent’s review on PBR mentioned this, and I’ve seen it elsewhere. I could fill in the blanks for myself there, but IMO it would have been nice to get *something* more on Dan, even though I agree with Rosie that the reader is sort of being seduced by Elle right along with Dan, and so our affection for her becomes a mirror for Dan’s; i.e. if we can want to get deeper into her world and her heart as readers, we can understand why Dan would be equally captivated, even though the nature of the relationship is different.

Phyl, I’m glad you enjoyed the book too.

Rosie, great point that if we knew more of Dan’s motivations it might change our investment level in Elle. Still, I couldn’t help but want to know more about Dan. But like Robin, I let it slide because so much else in this book was so satisfying.

I also really liked this one, for many of the reasons you state, Janine. Unlike some readers, I understood why a woman like Elle would appeal to Dan, even as I wanted MORE of his character revealed.

I didn’t remember that some readers had trouble understanding this. I think Elle would be alluring to a lot of men — a beautiful, intelligent and mysterious woman who is game to try a lot of different things in bed? The reader response you are talking about sounds more like a woman’s response to Elle than a man’s.

All the small details you pointed out, plus the way Elle so clearly understands herself helped me not lose patience with her and know that if she gave in fully too early, it would spell disaster for the budding relationship.

It’s good that you bring up Elle’s self-awareness. I liked that very much about Elle and about the book, too. It was one of the ways Hart showed Elle’s intelligence rather than just describing Elle as smart.

Although I agree with the poster who thought the cover to Hart's next book, Broken, featured a woman who looks like a child, I'm very much looking forward to the book itself.

I just got the ARC for Broken, and I do plan to review it, though I don’t know how soon. It may take me a while to pick up Broken, since Dirty was such an intense read.

This person, my apologies for not remembering who you are, said that we are discovering/uncovering Elle just as Dan is. She’s being revealed to us bit by bit. If we knew Dan’s motivations then we might not be as invested in Elle and hoping for his acceptance and understanding of her. In retrospect I think this is so true.

I leave you with a quote that I can remember who to credit. Super Librarian Wendy sums up how I’ve come to feel about DIRTY:

Romance gives me something that no other genre can – when it’s done right, it emotionally invests me. It speaks to me on a deeper emotional level. It has a lingering effect. Let us call it what it is – Reading Afterglow. With a good romance, I have total recall. I can tell you how I felt when I was reading it, and the emotional effect it had on me.

I think this is the reason why some romance readers avoid first person books. They are not always my favorites, either, but in this case, Elle and her relationship with Dan were so interesting that, even though I would have liked to have Dan’s POV, I felt that ultimately Hart made the right choice to tell Elle’s story in Elle’s own voice.

Yes, it's true, as Jane said, that Elle's narration is a bit monotone, but though there were times I wanted just a bit more variety of tone, I also felt that this delivery showed Elle's numbness, her emotional armor, in a way that a different tone would not have.

I thought this in particular was what made this book a brilliant piece of writing. On the surface, you’d think it would make it a boring book, but instead I found it captivating. I didn’t just know about Elle’s armor, I felt it. I liked the way we were given clues to Elle’s story, so that we weren’t totally surprised when she tells Dan. I agree with the comments that this definitely is a romance. When I was done I was convinced that these two would be able to build a good life together.

It’s funny that despite Jane’s C- she still “sold” it to me. I remember rushing right over to Fictionwise to buy it after her review.