I received this book for free from Netgalley in order to prepare an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Dirty (Dive Bar, #1) by Kylie Scott
Series: Dive Bar #1
on April 19th 2016
Genres: Contemporary
Pages: 288
Goodreads

Warm, Emotional Romance with Humor and a Great Cast of Characters

“We’d both had dreams go lopsided.”

FINAL DECISION:  Funny and emotional kick off to Scott’s new series centered around a location — Dive Bar – with characters who come together at a crossroads in their lives and unexpectedly find a new path forward together.

THE STORY:  Lydia Green is having a terrible day.  It is her wedding day and she gets a video of her groom making out with his best friend — and best man.  Fleeing from her wedding, Lydia ends up crying and soaked in her wedding dress in the shower of Vaughan Hewson.  This encounter is complicated by the fact that they have never met before, Lydia has broken into his house, and Vaughan is naked.  Vaughan and Lydia begin a friendship that day as both has been shaken up by life.  Vaughan is a musician whose group has just broken up, he is broke and confronting the death of his parents.  As Lydia and Vaughan put the pieces back together, they may find out that they are building something together they didn’t expect.

OPINION:  I’ve read all of Kylie Scott’s books and I think this one may have the most romantic hero ever.  Vaughan has lines that just made me sigh with adoration.  There is a scene where the Vaughan and Lydia are lying together in bed with their pinkies linked together.  This scene is so incredibly moving and so quiet and gentle.  I normally like the intensely emotional books with large dramatic scenes. This scene and others in the book were so gently beautiful that it stuck with me.  I read the book a week ago, have read several books in between and yet that scene sticks with me.

The main characters in this book are really likeable.  (There are secondary characters that I didn’t like as much, but I look forward to seeing their development). Vaughan is sweet and definitely sexy (oh la la, the opening meeting between Lydia and Vaughan).  He is also a good man who never plays games with Lydia.  Caring and protective but no wimp, Vaughan helps Lydia without taking over her life.  I simply adored him.

Lydia is a woman who wants to belong.  Her disaster with her fiance forces her to confront this need and push past it.  A plus sized woman, she has a poor self-image of herself.  Through her work at Dive Bar and her relationship with Vaughan, Lydia finds a strength and resilience that she always had but didn’t see in herself.  After the hysterical flight from her marriage, Lydia shows maturity and strength. I liked her in all her quirky nature.

This book also sets up conflicts and storylines that I expect will be explored in future books in the series.  Lydia and Vaughan’s relationship is straightforward compared to what is coming up — I can’t wait!

WORTH MENTIONING: Kylie Scott has a marvelous ability to create a whole community of characters who have complicated relationships, difficult lives, real affection for one another, and sometimes great pain between them.  The characters in and surround Dive Bar (who hopefully will be getting stories of their own in this series) are a group worth cheering for.  BTW: Stage Door fans get a little treat in this book.

CONNECTED BOOKS:  DIRTY is the first book in the Dive Bar series.  This series is a very lightly connected spin-off of the Stage Door series, but you don’t need to read that series to enjoy this one.

STAR RATING:  I give this book 4.5 stars.