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Dirty by Megan Hart

Grade: B

Dear Bam,

I promised you a review of Dirty, and now that I’ve had quite a bit of time to think about the book, romance in general, and the genre… well I’m just as confused as ever. I would drop my $0.02 into the “what is romance” debate, but I don’t know what the answer is. I’ve read plenty of mainstream novels that could have been easily categorized as romance. I’ve read plenty of romance novels that could easily have been categorized simply as fiction. Let’s go with Dirty as a romance novel… well… fuck it. Here we go anyway:

I found the cover of this book to be quite titillating; a man and a woman sequestered in one bathroom stall, pink curly script, a simple, sexy title and the tagline “an erotic novel”. Well, I am one of those jackasses that judges a book by its cover. Yep… if the cover of your first publication is butt ugly (DEEP BREATH HERE - FIRST PUBLISHED STORY, YOU CRAZY BITCH!), I’m gonna cry. [Ed. Note: I have no idea what she’s talking about. hee!] But back to Dirty. When I picked it up at my local Borders, I thought “oh, goody! A hot romp of sex between two people that want it!” Well, smack me into next Tuesday for thinking that after looking at the cover. And the publisher should be smacked for doing a serious disservice to Megan Hart. The book was significantly deeper and much more complex that the silly cover led me to believe.

Elle Kavanaugh is an accountant, and a good one. Her way of relaxing, working out tough situations, or simply avoiding is by counting. And I don’t mean taking a deep breath and counting to ten. I mean autistic-savant level counting where she knows how many clear pebbles are in a vase. As you can imagine, Elle is pretty buttoned up… in front of her coworkers. Outside of the work enviornment Elle slips into another persona and engages in one-night stands, refusing to allow anything more than superficial conversation and anonymous sex to occur. Elle lives alone, has a younger brother living on another coast, an older brother that’s dead, a drunken father and a mother that makes Joan Crawford look like Mother Teresa. As you can imagine, Elle’s got serious problems. Purely by chance, Elle meets Dan. Dan… well I can’t tell you a whole lot about Dan because the story is told from Elle’s POV in direct first person. So Dan is pretty close to Mr. Perfect for Elle. He is dominant when she needs him to be, is vulnerable when she has to see it, and unfortunately, I felt that due to the first-person constraint, I didn’t get a great picture of Dan as a real person.

Elle has emotional barriers that would make even the strongest romance hero back off, yet Dan is oddly persistent. While this is wildly out of character for every man I have ever met, it good for me since I had figured out the root of Elle’s problems early on in the book, but I was curious to see how she would overcome them. Which brings me to the problems I had with the book: I told you I didn’t love that it was written in first person, and I continue to think that romance novels (or whatever fiction that has to do with growing relationships that are supposed to occur between two or more people) are severly hampered by this constraint. It is very difficult to show anything other than personal growth when an author writes in the first person, and I think all of the other characters in the book are slighted by this, as is any relationship that is supposed to grow within the context of the story. Second, the book was really slow to get going. For someone that heavily isolated herself, Elle had quite a lot of social activity going on, and other than the first chapter, it didn’t involve Dan for quite a while. Lastly, the book is set in Harrisburg (and I assume that Ms. Hart means Pennsylvania). This, I had a serious and personal problem with. Harrisburg is not a hotbed of urban life, nor is there a “city” center… it’s central PA strip malls with nice neighborhoods and almost no crime to speak of. Please, DO NOT ask how I know all of this, but trust me, I do. Every time that Harrisburg was mentioned I was pulled from the story and had to refocus on the characters and forget about the setting.

Back to what I liked: Elle is complex, interesting and deep. I wanted to know what made her tick, and Ms. Hart didn’t just throw it all out there at once. She gives the reader insights into Elle through her decisions about every aspect of her life, from her desire for anonymity to her inability to decorate her home, all of which are reflections of Elle’s psyche. The sex is seamlessly written into the story and moves the plot along, unlike quite a bit of the romantica/erotica that I’ve read lately in which sex is either the entire focus of the story or comes out of left field screaming WE’RE FUCKING NOW. Finally, I’m still thinking about this book, about Elle and about Dan. The story left a lasting impression on me. Considering I probably read an average of four books a week, that says quite a bit. Dirty gets a B for me.

Love,

Shuz

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 6th, 2007 at 9:27 am and is filed under Books, Grade: B, Shuzluva's Reviews, Plain Ole Erotica. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

13 Responses to “Dirty by Megan Hart”

  1. Annie Dean
    Posted: Feb 6th, 2007 at 10:08 am
    1

    Hm. I can’t get into erotic novels written in the first person. I love first person if it’s done well (love Jim Butcher) and I don’t mind if there’s some sex in the book (all first person-ish) but if the book is supposed to be “erotic” then I want to be able to get into the guy’s head a bit too.

    Failure to offer the hero’s POV was one thing I used to hate about Harlequins, this was LONG ago, we’re talking Violet Winspear days. I stole em from my great-auntie, but I used to wish we could learn more about the hero.

    I tend to think first person works best for urban fantasy and sci-fi, don’t ask me why.

    Good review, though, and if this were my thing, I’d probably check it out.

  2. rhian
    Posted: Feb 6th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
    2

    I consider this one of the very best reads in years due to the originality of the story approach, the integration of sex with the obstacles that the main character must overcome and the fact that Megan digs in and deals brilliantly (IMHO) with a topic that is still taboo in our society. The use of first person forces a the reader into a empathic relationship with Elle. The journey that Elle takes in order to regain her sense of self and her ability to have emotional connections with others is a journey that a frighteningly high number of women have taken. I encourage everyone to read it because i guarantee that someone you know has had to deal with similar issues. Alone and unable to share.

    Ummmm - okay-dokey. Stepping slowly back from the pulpit now. Can you tell the book generated a passionate response in me?

  3. Eva Gale
    Posted: Feb 6th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
    3

    lmao-We’re Fucking Now.

    I was going to pick this one up. Not for the Ja(y)ne hulabaloo-although it was interesting-but because Spice has been putting some good stuff out there. And, I may be wrong, but Spice doesn’t require a HEA. Which I don’t mind. So, thanks. You’ve whetted my appitite more.

  4. Barbara B.
    Posted: Feb 6th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
    4

    I usally don’t like first person but I love Megan Hart so I went for it. I really enjoyed this book. No paranormal bullshit, no fated mates, no trying to make the reader bust a gut laughing. This was a character driven story with some serious sex. Exactly what I like.

    After reading Bam’s Cover Snark for so many months I’m still no good with covers. I just don’t notice them unless they’re truly appalling. I didn’t notice the people in the bathroom stall, didn’t notice the stalls period, until reading this review. Just the name on the cover and that was enough for me.

  5. Eva Gale
    Posted: Feb 6th, 2007 at 12:07 pm
    5

    I cannot write Ja(y)ne without thinking of crotches, Thanks Candy.

  6. Angie
    Posted: Feb 6th, 2007 at 12:36 pm
    6

    Bwahahahaha…I’m laughing at you, Bam. First publication and butt ugly cover? *evil grin*

  7. Flo
    Posted: Feb 6th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
    7

    Can’t… get… thoughts… of… dirty… skanky… bathroom… sexxorz… out of… head!!!!

    AHHHHHH!!!!

    Nothing about bathroom sex flips my bic and or fills my twinkie. In fact that cover scares me. It makes me want to go get the lysol wet wipes and start cleaning.

    SERIOUSLY PEOPLE! THINK OF YOUR PRECIOUS BITS! ALL OVER THAT! EEEWWWWWWWWWW!

  8. bam
    Posted: Feb 6th, 2007 at 12:42 pm
    8

    I’m laughing at you, Bam. First publication and butt ugly cover? *evil grin*

    DAMN it, ANGIE, don’t scare me! I’m already shaking. When I get that cover request form, I’m going to put “please. no excessive man-titty”

    *sobs*

    The sex is seamlessly written into the story and moves the plot along, unlike quite a bit of the romantica/erotica that I’ve read lately in which sex is either the entire focus of the story or comes out of left field screaming WE’RE FUCKING NOW.

    excellent as always, Shuz.

  9. Annie Dean
    Posted: Feb 6th, 2007 at 1:22 pm
    9

    Just imagine the snarking Bam will take when her book comes out.

  10. Wendy
    Posted: Feb 7th, 2007 at 10:19 am
    10

    I’m in the middle of reading this right now, and really, really enjoying it. Pretty much for all the reasons Shuz stated and all the reason other sites have stated for disliking it. But, I’ve got a thing for emotionally dead heroines and first person narrative. I’m wacky like that.

    As much as I’m loving this book right now, it’s also the sort of book that I have no frickin’ clue who I’d recommend it too. I just don’t see a lot of “traditional” romance readers going for it. It also gives me hope because frankly I have been extremely unimpressed with the Spice line thus far (to be fair, I haven’t read the Kayla Perrin or M.J. Rose novels).

  11. May
    Posted: Feb 8th, 2007 at 2:42 am
    11

    I loved this book, but I agree with you, Dan wasn’t an amazing character.

    I read the MJ Rose one, and, well, I don’t know why it’s considered an erotic novel.

  12. Sybil
    Posted: Feb 8th, 2007 at 8:48 am
    12

    Angie! Is the cover done? I wanna see. Can I see before bam? please oh please?

    If it isn’t done… can I help? *eg*

    I have Dirty and plan to read it. Well as soon as that whole omgrantreviewersarefuckingevoldontbemeantothebaby thing gets out of my head.

  13. shuzluva
    Posted: Feb 8th, 2007 at 10:33 am
    13

    Sybil, good luck with that. I recommend bleaching your brain. It’s good to have a clean start.

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