Dirty: A Dive Bar Novel

3.5 Stars | Hot Steam

As sad as I was for Kylie Scott’s wonderful Stage Dive series to come to an end, I was so excited to try her brand new spin-off series. In DIRTY, the first of the Dive Bar novels, Scott graciously provides us with a familiar and blazing-hot rockstar-on-hiatus to salivate over as well as a strong and spirited heroine to adore. We’re also treated (*throws confetti*) to an entirely new crop of diverse, delicious, tatted-up, sometimes bearded—and all beautiful—males to obsess about and eagerly anticipate future torrid HEAs for. Oh, the wicked possibilities…

When we first meet her, jilted, unsteady, and discouraged, Lydia is a hilarious mess. However, with Vaughn’s unwavering support and friendship, she finds show more her footing, acceptance, and her libido brightly awakened. I admired her fortitude and adaptability despite all of the negativity surrounding her. I also loved how she swiftly dismissed her lingering self consciousness, embraced her curves, and pounced on her attraction to Vaughn.

One of Scott’s finest heroes to date, Vaughn is simply magnificent! Zero ego, loyal, kind, loving, talented, and compassionate all day long. At night, he’s a carnal fantasy—passionate, focused, hungry, insatiable, and thoroughly thorough in the bedroom. Not an inch of Lydia’s envious body is left untasted or unexplored. Their incendiary encounters are page-turning perfection and, unsurprisingly, my favorite scenes from the book.

Engaging, playful, and wildly sensual, DIRTY is a seductive start to a promising new series. I can hardly wait for TWIST, Alex and Joe’s story, to release in November. I predict another up-all-night read!

Complimentary copy provided in exchange for an honest review. show less

4.5 "Runaway Bride" Stars!

Having fallen in love with Kylie Scott's writing in the Stage Drive Series, I just knew I had to read Dirty the moment I read the blurb. Once again, Ms. Scott pulls off an engaging, deliciously seductive romance with, in this case, even a decent dose of comedy to keep you entertained along the way.

In a quasi-spin-off of the Stage Dive Series, Ms. Scott's debut of the Dive Bar Series even features a cameo by one of my favorite Stage Dive characters (Mal). The hero of Dirty, Vaughan, is a member of a group that used to open for Stage Dive. Now on a respite from his musical career, after his band broke-up, and back home in his hometown for short stint in between, Vaughan lands head first into quite the drama of show more the town when he finds a runaway bride, Lydia Green, in the shower of his home.

Instead of shooing her away though, Vaughan proves to be quite the friend to Lydia, who is new to town and feels all alone after learning a devastating truth about the man she thought she wanted to marry ... literally minutes before walking down the aisle. Vaughan, moreover, has a way of making Lydia finally feel desired, even though she is somewhat self-cautious about her appearance, given the way she describes herself as generously sized. Moreover, pretty soon Vaughan is introducing Lydia to his sister and friends, and Lydia finds herself intertwined with the small town and its people.

However, when friendship starts to turn into passion, Lydia must decide whether she is willing to lay her heart out on the line again, especially to a man like Vaughan, who has made it abundantly clear that as soon as he can settle his business at home, he is going back on the road for his musical career. Can there possibly be a HEA under the circumstances?

If you love rooting for vindication and the underdog, and love a little heat and spice along with your romantic comedy, then you will definitely want to give Dirty a read!

Source: Review copy provided in exchange for an honest review. show less

I’m gonna take a moment to talk about Dirty by Kylie Scott. I just finished it last night and I originally gave it 5/5 stars. I woke up this morning and decided to knock it back down to 4. And surprisingly, it’s not for the reason I was scared it would be.

See, I started this book with some real feelings of trepidation. Lydia, our heroine, is a runaway bride. She finds out moments before walking down the aisle that her husband-to-be is having an affair with his best man. Yes! A secret gay! A secret gay who betrays the heroine. I was really hesitant about his book because I was so afraid of encountering a Depraved Homosexual or Sissy Villain kind of trope. And even if Kylie Scott managed to avoid these harmful stereotypes, just the show more presence of an Evil Gay in the story would be enough to ruin things for me.

Consider the rest of this spoiler territory.

Thankfully, Scott doesn’t spend that much time on the ex-fiancee. He is a piece of shit, but not in a harmful, stereotypical kind of way. More because of the fact that he lied to and betrayed Lydia, which is true. Now, a more nuanced novel might have picked up on the fact that as a closeted gay man in a small-ish town in Idaho, the ex was also lying to himself and betraying his own partner… This is sort of touched on in the story, but not explored to any depth. But overall I thought Scott handled the character well. He isn’t redeemed on any level in the story, but he’s also mostly an off-page kind of villain. His gayness isn’t his villainy, it’s his lying and manipulating of Lydia that makes him bad.

What knocked the book down to four stars was actually the lack of nuance or development in Vaughan, our hero’s, character. He’s kind of flat for most of the book. Oh, ridiculously charming and incredibly hot, yes. But we’re mostly told about his hang ups and insecurities and not really shown them.

Lydia, however, is a real delight. Funny, witty, self-deprecating. And she’s a plus-sized heroine! Yeah, she has some body-issues to deal with in the story, but again, I thought Scott presented these with finesse and empathy.

Overall, I really enjoyed the novel, much to my delight. show less

I wanted a sexy fun audiobook as I had a lot of driving to do, and I got my sexy fun audiobook in spades. Loved it! Given the title and the cover photo I expected real smut, and it was not that. It's a proper whirlwind romance. There is semi-graphic sex, spicy but free of fetish. I would not classify it as erotica since it is never really about sex -- rather the physical relationship flows with the story. It is sweet and amusing and authentic (no 28 year old billionaires, but 28 year old semi-failed musicians with money problems and emotional baggage of the sort we all have.) The funny and sexy leads are people you would want to hang out with and there are really good secondary characters as well. The reader was lively and fun and a show more great fit for the material. I am completely onboard, and will be reading more Kylie Scott soon. show less

I read this last summer when I was book binging and it is one of the books that stands out to me. I am a sucker for a rock romance, but this is more about the characters than the musician fettish. The developed characters, and witty, fast pace sucked me in to this entertaining book that I couldn't put down.

Quite a fun contemporary romance, reminded me of Before Jamaica Lane by Samantha Young, which I read a few weeks ago. The beginning is alive! when Vaughn finds a runaway bride in his bathtub. Lydia is a wise arse, funny and good hearted gal. She finds Mr Right in the heavily tattoo-ed rock star and tattoo artist, Vaughn.

While I found this a pleasant, easy read, it lacked some oomph that would have earned it 4 stars. But it was more than oomph...

I didn't listen to it continuously, but "dived" into it multiple times over my 3 week loan - partly because I found the relationship between Lydia and Vaughn tense, and it gave me anxiety, waiting for the next misunderstanding or fallout between them.

I think I came across this book because I was show more researching Australian romance writers. I'd never heard of Kylie Scott except that I'd read Lick - but didn't know till my research that she is Australian and lives in Queensland! my home state!

WINNER OF THE 2016 AUSTRALIAN ROMANCE READERS AWARD FOR FAVOURITE CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE From New York Times bestselling author Kylie Scott comes the first novel in the Dive Bar series.

I liked this quote on Google: "There's a Lydia inside each and every female heart. Filled with knowing. Confusion. Understanding. Above all, love. Dirty is a remarkable book." Abbi Glines, New York Times bestselling author. Unfortunately, the quote is all too accurate, which is why I found myself a little beleaguered by dread reading this.

Unfortunately, I missed the HEA because my library loan expired when I was about 45 mins from the end. So I must go back and savour it one day and it might make me feel better!

I don't think I've confessed this before in my commentary, but a thing that disconcerted me about this book was the male lead being called Vaughn - pronounced 'Von' of course. I've never know a fictional character where his name so didn't match his depiction! It was like a splinter under one's fingernail, it was that bad. - a personal reaction of course, and I can say I've never known any Vaughns, so I don't know why I had such a visceral reaction. show less

This one pains me because I LOVED all the Stage Dive books! I felt this moved along too slowly and I really didn't feel the "love" between Lydia and Vaughn. The biggest problem was Lydia's self image issues and the description of her plus size in the book. It kept coming up so much that I finally had a mental picture of a very obese ugly woman! It just somehow took over the story! I loved the visit from Mal and his insane/funny self! Most of the dialogue between Vaughn & Lydia was so detached and without any real emotion.