***4 Stars***
My brain hurts.
Not in a bad way...though saying it hurts in a good way may not be the correct thing to say either.
It’s more that it’s still in overdrive mode even as I’m clawing my way out of this chaotic, yet fascinating, psychological rabbit hole called The Dirty Ones and this review will be all kinds of vague and verbal vomity, so reader beware.
So, what can I say about this story without giving anything away?
I was drawn in from the first page and even with all the mind bending twists and turns, which I couldn’t help but attempt to figure out, and I was absolutely fascinated by the story. The characters were all perfectly imperfect and intrigued me, though I did waffle quite a bit on how much I liked each of them...I never disliked any of them, but they all had their moments, which actually served to keep me turning the pages to see what would happen next.
As for the romance aspect of the story. It’s there. It’s something that evolves even as the crazy evolves and I have to say that I liked how all of that worked out with the characters involved. Is it dark romance? Well, when it comes to my own definition of dark romance, not really, but I can see how some would feel that it is.
But the real meat of the story for me is the mystery surrounding all that had happened between this group of characters in the past and how it affects them in their present. It was a psychological mind fuck. Plain and simple and where most of the “dark” theme came into play, at least for me. As I stated earlier, I tried to put the pieces together as I read, though I failed more often than not, so when the final twist was revealed it had me pausing to take in the enormity of it as all the pieces FINALLY came together and letting out a half hysterical laugh at how well everything had been thought out and executed.
This was my first read by the author, and what a way to be introduced to her mind. It has me wanting to snatch up more of her books even as I’m a tinsy bit wary since I’m not sure my brain can handle any more twisty and turny story lines any time soon. But, if you like a good mind bender of a story touched with some steamy smexy moments, then this one is definitely for you!
~ Copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley & voluntarily reviewed ~
They say write what you know.
So that’s all I did.
I wrote dirty. I wrote erotic. I wrote… the truth.
And then they called me a liar.
But it’s not me who’s lying.
It’s them.
Release Date: December 4th, 2018
J.A. Huss never wanted to be a writer and she still dreams of that elusive career as an astronaut. She originally went to school to become an equine veterinarian but soon figured out they keep horrible hours and decided to go to grad school instead. That Ph.D wasn’t all it was cracked up to be (and she really sucked at the whole scientist thing), so she dropped out and got a M.S. in forensic toxicology just to get the whole thing over with as soon as possible.
After graduation she got a job with the state of Colorado as their one and only hog farm inspector and spent her days wandering the Eastern Plains shooting the shit with farmers. After a few years of that, she got bored. And since she was a homeschool mom and actually does love science, she decided to write science textbooks and make online classes for other homeschool moms. She wrote more than two hundred of those workbooks and was the number one publisher at the online homeschool store many times, but eventually she covered every science topic she could think of and ran out of shit to say.
So in 2012 she decided to write fiction instead. That year she released her first three books and started a career that would make her a New York Times bestseller and land her on the USA Today Bestseller’s List eighteen times in the next three years. Her books have sold millions of copies all over the world, the audio version of her semi-autobiographical book, Eighteen, was nominated for a Voice Arts Award and an Audie award in 2016 and 2017 respectively, her audiobook Mr. Perfect was nominated for a Voice Arts Award in 2017, and her book, Taking Turns, was nominated for an Audie Award in 2018. Johnathan McClain is her first (and only) writing partner and even though they are worlds apart in just about every way imaginable, it works.
She lives on a ranch in Central Colorado with her family.
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