Customer Reviews

Dirty

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Accountant Elle prefers to engage in anonymous sex and one night stands. It's been over three years since she has slept with a man, and finds herself intrigued with lawyer Dan Stewart, whom she met at a candy store and thought would accompany her home, but merely received a chaste kiss. But when they meet again, she doesn't leave anything to chance. She gets more than he bargained for with Dan, as he agrees to her no dating policy (they have "appointments" instead) and claims that he won't get serious. But soon the relationship is appearing to be pretty exclusive.

But Elle is scarred from a childhood rife with guilt, pain and grief, and a family that doesn't know how to connect anymore. With a mother who could apparently not love more than one child, and an openly gay brother who is shunned from the family, it is no wonder Elle harbors resentment at her mother's constant requests to meet. Can a woman so damaged open her very closed off heart to a man who appears to have staying power?

Hart has done an incredible job of crafting an erotic story with an actual storyline, rather than lots of "wham, bam, thank you man" sex. There is plenty of sex, including a threesome, and most of it graphically realistic (no flowery euphemisms here). A recommended read for those looking for something sensual yet deeper.

Elle Kavanagh lives a successful, primarily solitary life in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. She's cordial enough with her neighbors and co-workers but has very few real bonds of friendship with any of them. Even her sexual relationships are just encounters here and there with very few of the men who know her real name. Elle isn't ashamed of who she is or what she's done in or out of bed. She's been perfectly content with life as it is - until now. No one could have guessed that she'd meet a man in a candy store who would change her life.

From the moment Dan Stewart meets Elle he knows there's something special about her. He's got nothing against getting down and DIRTY but he isn't interested in a one night stand either. Dan understands that Elle is uncomfortable with dating. Rather than push to put a label on their relationship he agrees not to date . . . instead they'll do whatever Elle wants. Surely she'll see how good they are together and want more than a sexual relationship with him.

Megan Hart exceeded my expectations when I picked up DIRTY, her newest release. I knew there would be smoldering sex scenes, after all this is an erotic novel, but I didn't expect to become emotionally involved with the characters' lives and want to befriend each of them. Ms. Hart treats us to Elle's personal journey as she struggles with the events of her past and how they've affected her beliefs and attitude in her adult life. I loved Dan's easygoing attitude and the way he's able to accept all of Elle's quirks while making her comfortable just being herself. While the central focus of this book is on Dan and Elle there are a couple of awesome subplots which kept me on the edge of my seat waiting to find out what would happen next. Wonderfully written Ms. Hart.

Chrissy Dionne (courtesy of Romance Junkies)

In various places I've seen this book listed as Erotica or as Erotic romance. Interestingly, I have found it neither erotic nor romantic.

The basic storyline is very simple. Elle Kavanaugh is an accountant with a very simple lifestyle. She lives alone, has no friends, has an extremely dysfunctional family and, when she does have sex, it is usually with men she picks up to have one night encounters with. She doesn't like intimacy and doesn't date. The reasons for Elle's very stark existence and refusal to allow herself to connect on a romantic level is pretty obvious even from the beginning of the book.

Then one day she meets Dan in a candy store and he intrigues her. A lot. The two begin a --- I don't want to call it a relationship because that involves a level of engagement that is absent here --- series of encounters. Elle likes to have sex with Dan but pulls away from him when he tries to make it more than the simple "appointments" as they euphemistically call them. In the end, Elle manages to confront her demons and she and Dan get together in a real relationship.

The only reason I gave this book even 3 stars is because the level of the writing was very high. It wasn't a slam-bam erotic novel all sex and no plot. There were some heavy issues in the story that were handled quite realistically. The level of self awareness of the main character was also a strong point in the book. It was written in first person and the "voice" of the character was very vivid and alive and unremittingly cynical.

I feel like I should have liked this book more than I did. It took me a bit to process and I think I am not glowing with praise as much as I should because I simply could not like Elle. Now, I am a cynic myself. I can do 'Bitch, Please..." like nobody's business. And I don't believe that main female protagonists in supposedly romantic novels needs to be Mary Sunshines (I actually prefer them not to be). But I still need to find a kernel of something that makes them likable to me. I didn't find that in Elle.

I could admire her self awareness. I could admire the way she chose to survive her circumstances. I could even admire her unapologetic way she went about her life. But I still couldn't like her. I actually think this is where the first person narration is a big disadvantage. The entire time you're in the head and in the viewpoint of a person who is really in the throes of some major self loathing. How could that loathing not affect you?

The first person narrative also had the effect of making the other characters kinda blind to me. I would have loved to have been inside Dan's or Marcie's (Elle's co-worker and friend from her office)heads to figure out what they saw in Elle that made them think she was worthy of their attention and consideration. It just seemed so one-sided with Dan and Marcie always reaching out, always giving and Elle always taking never reaching back. Even in the end after Elle faces her demons she still can't be the one to take the first step to reach out to Dan. He is the one who comes to her. It was just the final straw for me with this character. I just found her very selfish and couldn't forgive it on the basis of her issues.

I do recommend the book, though, because I do think the writing was very strong. I just couldn't stand the main character

**I made this comment on a review blog and thought that since I felt so moved as to write a response, I should also post my feelings about the book here.**

Okay, I read this the night I got it. I loved it. I couldn't put it down. In fact, I stayed up way, way too late.

I was caught up in the language of it and I thought it was both highly emotional and erotic. It always seemed to me that although there was so much about Elle that was hidden, mostly by choice, there was so much that we could see about her. The pain, the intense feelings she constantly submerged and I liked her inner thoughts. I enjoyed Dan (quite the alpha man while not exactly typical hero material)-I thought perhaps there was a pinch too much of him always doing the right thing but I liked that he wasn't instantly in love with her or she with him. And the back story/conflict that was woven throughout was well-written and intense.

It was important to me that it wasn't a cheap ending and that they had to work for it. In fact, you could tell that they were still going to have to work on it even though I would describe it as a HEA. There was a lot of emotion and struggle and give and take-much closer to real life than a fairy tale. Only with lots and lots of hot sex. You gotta love that.

A repressed heroine with no color in her wardrobe, no joy in her life. A typical background for such a woman. A hero destined to drag her out of her bleak existence. You've seen it all before, right?

Not even close.

Elle is one of the most complex, real characters I've ever read. She diverges from stereotype in unique ways, and resolution is not only difficult to find, it's as complex as the character. At the end of the book you know she still has a lot of work to do...but the most important element of any book for me, hope, is there in spades.

This book isn't a romance, per se, because the focus is on more than the male/female relationship. But it's also the epitome of romance because it's about falling in love and doing the hard work such a fall requires.

From what I've seen, Hart's next book is going to be even better. I can't wait!

This was a good book, and although there were, undeniably, a lot of sex scenes, I did not find it hot. The characters are real & tangible. The writing was great and had a great emotional plot. This is the yes factor in this book. I do recommend it for a good read- a keeper.

Dirty tells the story of Elle and Dan. It's told from Elle's point of view and she initially appears quite a cold and hard person. She doesn't want a relationship, she doesn't want to date. She has sex and then leaves. But then she meets Dan and things begin to change.

Sometimes you read erotic fiction subconsciously aware it feels like the author had a checklist of various sexual activities to complete. Now there's nothing wrong with this, sometimes it's nice to have a break from emotional intensity. But it's also great to read an erotic novel that has a plot and characters you care about.

Dirty follows the development of a relationship, not a romance. Things don't go perfectly smoothly, mistakes are made, words are said that can't be taken back. Even though Dirty is told in first person, there are things that Elle doesn't think about, things that we as readers find out about gradually, things that we piece together. Through the course of the story we find out why Elle is the way she is. Why she has that scar on her wrist, why she has to use counting as a way of coping with stress, why she prefers anonymous sex to dating.

Dan looks at Elle and SEES her. Her, not the person she pretends to be, not the person she wants people to think she is. And through this relationship she slowly begins to open up, because of her circumstances it's slightly two steps forward one step back, but she makes progress.

In places Dirty is not an easy tale to read, it deals with a difficult subject matter. But Megan Hart's characters come alive on the page, and the ending whilst maybe not a traditional happy ever after, is hopeful and full of possibility.

Dirty not only weaves a complex character and story line but pulls it all off while putting into print some of your steamiest fantasies. Elle's character is deep, emotional, and hardcore. She is able to detach herself at times in her mental narration from her actual being and evaluate herself with a strict sense of her flaws and her perfections. You can't figure out if you admire her or pity her and in the end you realize its both. She's the very persona of the "naughty librarian" type brought to life through words. The complicated relationship she has with Dan is something any commitment fearing woman can relate to. This is a captivating read, that'll make you blush and at the same time discover the fact that we all have secrets and a past, we can't let those control our lives. A really nice guilty pleasure.

I have read just about everything Megan Hart has written, from her fantasy to her erotica and have been impressed with how Megan can write it all and very well. In fact, I haven't read anything Megan's written that I didn't enjoy. Even the short erotica stories have a plot in them.

Here's a woman, Elle Kavanaugh, who has a good job, her own house she's fixing up herself, a brother living on the other side of the US and a mother she loves but can't stand to be around or talk to. However, this woman has no relationships with anyone other than her brother. She refuses to get close to anyone and has sex with more men than I could name.

Talk about a plot! DIRTY has that and more. You see, Elle's life slowly changes once she meets Dan Stewart, who little by little, begins to break down Elle's walls by simply being there for her and accepting her on her own terms. Little by little, we learn exactly what happened in Elle's past to make her into the woman she has become. And we watch, as brick by brick, her walls slowly come down. First, she begins a friendship with a coworker; then the relationship with Dan and that's followed by Elle spending time with a neighbor, an older woman living alone. We watch as Elle finally starts to deal with her past and let it go.

This is a wonderful story and one you don't want to pass up.

This book was disappointing. The plot focuses heavily on the main character's experience with incest, and a large sub-plot deals with a neighbor's self-mutilation. The sex scenes fell flat in the face of the too heavy plot line. All in all, a disappointing use of $10. For those of you who want steamy erotica with a plot that won't make you sick to your stomach, check out Joey Hill, Lacey Alexander or Shayla Black.