Book Review: Dirty Little Secret by Jennifer Echols

DIRTY LITTLE SECRET by Jennifer Echols (web | twitter)
Genre: Contemporary YA
Amazon || Goodreads
Publisher: MTV Books
Release date: July 16, 2013
Source: ARC from the Publisher via Edelweiss (Thanks, MTV Books!)

Summary: 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…

Friends, I am forever and always a HUGE Jennifer Echols fangirl. Huge. I’ve read all of her books–except, I think for MAJOR CRUSH and THE EX-GAMES (because her older, younger books aren’t as much my speed, but still cute)–and I just love the way she creates drama and characters and relationships and sexytimes. DIRTY LITTLE SECRET has these things, with the added bonus of taking place in Nashville among some up-and-coming musicians. Great, different environment. I very much enjoyed DIRTY LITTLE SECRET, friends. More of the good stuff from Jennifer Echols.

Here’s the details in a nutshell: Bailey is a fiddler. Like, a super good one. She used to tour the bluegrass circuit with her younger sister, Julie, before they were discovered by record people, who decided that they only wanted to make the younger sister famous. Since then, their family has been doing everything they can to keep baby sister’s closet clean of skeletons that might tarnish her image. Like, say, a newly goth older sister who breaks rules, looks like death, and maybe, just maybe, is a better musician than her sister. Which is why, when the parents take Julie out on the road, Bailey is ordered to live with her grandfather, stay out of trouble, and under no circumstances whatsoever is she to play music ANYWHERE AT ANY TIME EVER. Enter Sam, the hot guitar player Bailey meets on her slightly rule-bending job of music impersonators who perform around Nashville. One thing leads to another, and Bailey finds herself getting drawn not only into Sam’s band, but to Sam himself. Of course, this close proximity to music and a hot guy means trouble all around.

If I’m going to compare DIRTY LITTLE SECRET to the other Jennifer Echols dramas I’ve read, I’d say that it ranks somewhere in the middle–behind GOING TOO FAR and SUCH A RUSH, on par with FORGET YOU, and ahead of LOVE STORY. Nothing to sneeze at, friends. That’s decent company. There were things about DIRTY LITTLE SECRET that I really liked, and some things that maybe didn’t make me do little happy dances of joy like most Jennifer Echols books do, but on the whole, I’m a fan.

The things that I flat-out LOVED about DIRTY LITTLE SECRET were the setting, the music, and Bailey. I’m a huge fan of the show Nashville, so this book is hitting my country buttons at a time when there aren’t any new episodes to hit them for me. I just love the vibe of Nashville: the music, the southern charm/sass, the way it seems to feel so much larger than it is. I thought Jennifer Echols really got that magic across. And the country music was great, too. I mean, obviously Sam’s band isn’t writing songs that we can download from iTunes, but I loved that Bailey was a fiddler because I love fiddles, and I loved that she got started in bluegrass, because that’s just plain awesome.

Bailey herself was not any different, really, from most Echols ladies: she was sassy, confident, a little broken, sarcastic, and in a tough spot with her family. She’s definitely got a chip on her shoulder. Like, a big one. The issues with Bailey’s parents and the way they seem to vastly prefer her younger sister and her potential success at the expense of Bailey in almost every way was a little extreme, but still sad and difficult to imagine. There’s some major drama going on between Bailey and her family that leads them, in this particular moment in Bailey’s life, to withdraw from her, and Julie isn’t speaking to her either. Bailey is pretty much on her own–even though her grandfather seems kind of awesome sometimes–until she meets Sam.

Now. To the meat and potatoes. Sam–whether Jennifer Echols meant to do this intentionally or not–reminded me VERY MUCH of Gunnar from Nashville. And I LOVE Gunnar. DIRTY LITTLE SECRET’s Sam was still pretty great, most of the time. He’s incredibly passionate about his music and about his band. Like, INTENSELY focused. Sam has a little issue with serial monogamy, though, and it becomes a THING. His relationship with Bailey was flirty and great, and the sexytimes were, as always, legit. But occasionally Sam would do or say something to Bailey that bothered me, and he’s not so great at the end. I shall explain (spoiler-free, of course).

So, I mentioned that Sam is all about his band. He’s definitely the General: lead singer, books all their gigs, makes whatever contact they have with music industry people, puts together all the playlists, and basically seems to make some unilateral decisions that don’t always sit well with the drummer (an ex-gf of his) and the bassist (his bff). Namely, recruiting Bailey to join their band. I also mentioned that Bailey has an…interesting wardrobe/look in DIRTY LITTLE SECRET. Her hair’s all chopped off and dyed black and she wears kind of funky things sometimes. I appreciated her uniqueness. Anyway, Sam would do this thing where he would tell her what to wear so that she would look a certain way in case industry people were at their gigs. I HATE THAT. Like, no. She can dress herself.

This unfortunate habit of his wasn’t helped along by the way he reacts to a certain piece of news that Bailey keeps from him for the entire book, either. I kind of understood where he was coming from when he found out the truth, but mostly it made me not like him very much. In general I liked Sam–he’s not made out to be a saint, and he has some bad things in his life that make him easy to empathize with–but he’s not my favorite Jennifer Echols love interest (HELLO, JOHN AFTER IN YOUR COP UNIFORM. *swoons*).

All of that being said, if you’re a fan of Jennifer Echols, this book won’t disappoint. If you’re a fan of Nashville like I am, this book will satisfy your cravings for all the drama from that world. If you’re looking for a really solid summer contemp with a great setting, complicated relationships, and a little music, DIRTY LITTLE SECRET has your name all over it. Well, yours and Jennifer Echols‘.

Check out some other reviews of Dirty Little Secret by Jennifer Echols! 

Heather @ The Flyleaf Review: “I think that most people would agree that Echol’s has a knack for crafting memorable characters and she has done it again in Dirty Little Secret.”

Molli @ Once Upon a Prologue: “Though there were things and characters I liked, ultimately I felt really let down after finishing Dirty Little Secret, and it left me in search of something to take away the bad taste in my mouth, so to speak.”