artsy musings of a bibliophile

Review: Dirty Little Secret by Jennifer Echols

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ABOUT THE BOOK
Dirty Little Secret by Jennifer Echols
young adult contemporary published by MTV Books on 16 July 2013

Bailey wasn’t always a wild child and the black sheep of her family. She used to play fiddle and tour the music circuit with her sister, Julie, who sang and played guitar. That ended when country music execs swooped in and signed Julie to a solo deal. Never mind that Julie and Bailey were a duet, or that Bailey was their songwriter. The music scouts wanted only Julie, and their parents were content to sit by and let her fulfill her dreams while Bailey’s were hushed away.

Bailey has tried to numb the pain and disappointment over what could have been. And as Julie’s debut album is set to hit the charts, her parents get fed up with Bailey’s antics and ship her off to granddad’s house in Nashville. Playing fiddle in washed-up tribute groups at the mall, Bailey meets Sam, a handsome and oh-so-persuasive guitarist with his own band. He knows Bailey’s fiddle playing is just the thing his band needs to break into the industry. But this life has broken Bailey’s heart once before. She isn’t sure she’s ready to let Sam take her there again…

THE RATING

THE REVIEW
What I’d like to say to Dirty Little Secret is perfectly worded by Avril Lavigne, “Why do you have to go and make things so complicated?” I struggled with rating this book because frankly, where it lacked in depth in the first half, it definitely more than made up for it before the end. And that wasn’t even an issue when I started reading the book. 
The beginning of Dirty Little Secret was… boring. I honestly didn’t care for Bailey dressing up and playing her fiddle in tribute groups. But then she meets Sam at the mall, plays with him and he zones in on her. Now Bailey has to make a difficult decision, would she risk being seen as the loser sister of a rising star at a gig or cast her eyes down and carry on? This is when I saw life in Bailey and I was finally into the story.
Bailey accepts the gig because let’s face it, spending time at home playing the fiddle endlessly with her grandfather hovering, who wants that? She made a perfect rebel with bold fashion sense, asymmetrical hair, red lips and boots-to-die-for, but she couldn’t go on with it. Same gave her the out and she took it.
But the infamously titled Sam Hardiman’s band is trouble from the start. Oh who am I kidding, Charlotte is hate-worthy. Given that the drummer had a thing for Sam and is still okay with being not okay with whoever Sam dates. Because you see, Sam likes Bailey. But does he like her because she gives the oomph factor to the band or because she is talented?
Sam started out as a pretty normal guy and then he became persuasive as hell and who’d have guessed from that that he was pretty messed up from the inside. So while I was out admiring his ability to make everyone do what he wants to do, I was also in the state where I just wanted to quietly strangle him.
But then Sam said, “I like doing things that make me uncomfortable. I try not to have a comfort zone” and everything was perfectly clear. After going through a hard family life and counselling, you have to admire the guy. And Bailey does. Their conversation is beautiful and where Sam is trying to make up for the lack of channeling his emotions, Bailey is trying to get away from them by writing them down into songs.
I understood Bailey because even though she got treated horribly by her family, she didn’t give up on them. And I understood Sam because he wanted to not be like his father and wind up a loser. So they perform gigs together, discover each other, fight and then it all ends (not necessarily in that order). It was a moment of holding-my-breath-reading where you don’t know what’ll happen and how it’ll all go down. It is a difficult feat to achieve but I was going through it so Echols did achieve it.
Dirty Little Secret more than surprised me and made me feel despite the rocky start. People who like to read music-themed YA must read this. You’ll smile, go argh, get shocked and definitely swoon.
THE QUOTES

“And I was bitter. Bitterness and I were old friends by now, but at the moment bitterness was trying to go down my bra in public.” 

“Deana Carter sings about it. Lady Antebellum sings about it. Eric Church. Gosh, not just country artists. Katy Perry. Everybody has a song about it because everybody’s been through it. You find that person at eighteen and you lose yourself. And the tragedy is, it’s the person who’s completely opposed to everything you’ve ever wanted. You bond with that person, and that person breaks your heart. I’m that tragedy for you, and you’re mine.” 

Thanks to MTV Books and Edelweiss for providing me an eARC of Dirty Little Secret for review.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Originally, I wasn't all that interested in this book (having read some mixed and negative reviews for another of Echol's books), but I must admit, your review has me intrigued. I feel that character development in contemporaries are extremely important, because the author doesn't have to worry about the world building and whatnot, so it's good to know that we saw Bailey grow into something more here! All in all, this sounds like a great read. Hope I'll be able to get my hands on it! Thanks for such a helpful review, Sana. 🙂

  2. I haven't read a single one of Jennifer Echols' books, even though I own a few of them. I'm not sure if this particular one is for me (the premise doesn't really catch my interest), though I do hope I can try her writing one day. I'm glad you ended up liking this book despite the slow start. Great review, Sana!

  3. I love how you set up your reviews! An understandable heroine that is easy to relate to is such an important part of loving a book. I do like Jennifer Echols so I imagine that I will like this one as well. I love music themed books 🙂 Great review!

    Alise @ Readers In Wonderland

  4. I'm glad that you ended up really enjoying this one, despite the rocky start. I love when a book takes a direction you weren't expecting, and leaves you guessing until the final few pages!

  5. So glad this improved for you. I love Jennifer's books but the last one I read was a little slow to start but once I hit 25% I was hooked.

    This one sounds great!

  6. I'm glad this book improved for you! I've only read one of Jennifer's books and thought it would okay. Maybe I'll check this one out. Great review!

  7. I haven't read much about this book really. I got the ARC way back but for some reasons I still haven't gotten to it. It sounds like a very worth-it read, though so I might have to pick this up sometime soon! Great review, Sana! : )

  8. Oh, I've been wanting to read something by Jennifer Echols for ages. I have Such a Rush on my to-buy list, have you read that one? If so, which one would you recommend out of the two? 🙂 x

  9. I love, love, love Echols' GOING TOO FAR (I reread it every year!!), but I haven't found another by her that I love near as much. It makes me a little nervous that this one had a rocky start for you, but I'm hoping it'll be another that I love!