From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Clique series comes a novel about the importance of friendship, and, of course, the pleasure of a dirty book.
M.J. Stark’s life is picture-perfect—she has her dream job as a magazine editor, a sexy doctor boyfriend, and a glamorous life in New York City. But behind her success, there is a debilitating sense of loneliness. So when her boss betrays her and her boyfriend offers her a completely new life in California, she trades her cashmere for caftans and gives it a try. Once there, M.J. is left to fend for herself in a small beach town, with only the company of her elderly neighbor, Gloria, and an ocean that won’t shut up.
One afternoon, M.J. discovers that Gloria has suddenly moved to Paris with her friends to honor a fifty-year-old pact. And in lieu of a goodbye, she’s left a mysterious invitation to a secret club—one that only reads erotic books. Curious, M.J. accepts and meets the three other hand-selected club members. As they bond over naughty bestsellers and the shocking letters they inherited from the original club members, the four strangers start to divulge the intimate details of their own lives… and as they open up, they learn that friendship might just be the key to rewriting their own stories: all they needed was to find each other first.
M.J. Stark’s life is picture-perfect—she has her dream job as a magazine editor, a sexy doctor boyfriend, and a glamorous life in New York City. But behind her success, there is a debilitating sense of loneliness. So when her boss betrays her and her boyfriend offers her a completely new life in California, she trades her cashmere for caftans and gives it a try. Once there, M.J. is left to fend for herself in a small beach town, with only the company of her elderly neighbor, Gloria, and an ocean that won’t shut up.
One afternoon, M.J. discovers that Gloria has suddenly moved to Paris with her friends to honor a fifty-year-old pact. And in lieu of a goodbye, she’s left a mysterious invitation to a secret club—one that only reads erotic books. Curious, M.J. accepts and meets the three other hand-selected club members. As they bond over naughty bestsellers and the shocking letters they inherited from the original club members, the four strangers start to divulge the intimate details of their own lives… and as they open up, they learn that friendship might just be the key to rewriting their own stories: all they needed was to find each other first.
The Dirty Book Club is set to release on October 10th and is available for pre-order at the following links.
Momma Says: 2 out of 5 stars ⭐⭐
When I read the blurb for The Dirty Book Club, I was intrigued by the premise, and when I started reading, I found the beginning both engaging and promising. Sadly, that fizzled quickly as I found less and less to like about main character, MJ.
Let me add that each of the characters have their flaws and that's okay. I didn't expect them to be perfect and several times, I've found the flawed characters in a story the most endearing. That was the case with the 1960's book club. Not so much with the modern day club.
MJ is rather disconnected from living life and that's understandable considering the the loss she's suffered. She throws herself into her career to keep from dwelling on that loss, which is also something the reader can empathize with and understand. As time goes on, MJ's long distance love interest, Dan, tries to convince her to move across the country so they can be together. This is where my problem with this character began. Things don't go as she's planned in her career, so she heads to California and to Dan. She then spends most of the story waffling between wanting to be with Dan and wanting to run back to New York and her job. Indecision, I can understand. She's spent considerable time on her career, but it came across like Dan was nothing more than a backup plan, the second choice. More than once, she asserts that she gave up her career and sacrificed for Dan, when that isn't the case. She gave up her career because things didn't go her way. She didn't get what she wanted, so she fell back on the second choice. Basically, I found her whiny and petulant, and I spent most of her story wishing Dan would wake up and send her packing.
The other characters in the modern day book club weren't exactly likable, but at least they did have some wit and even some charm about them.
By the end of this journey, I found the letters from the 1960's book club to be the most interesting parts of the story and the only modern day character that I really liked or rooted for was the good and giving doctor, Dan.
I will say the the author is talented and writes well, but this one completely missed the mark for this reader.
**Advanced reader copy provided by NetGalley and Gallery Books
Momma😘
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