BOOK REVIEW: Getting Dirty by Mia Storm

16 May 2015

Getting Dirty (Jail Bait #1)
by Mia Storm (Goodreads, Twitter)
Self Published on March 19th, 2015
Genres: New Adult, Erotic Romance, Contemporary, Taboo, College
Format: eARC (268 pages)
Source: Author via Inkslinger PR
Amazon | Barnes & Noble

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Dirty
A poem by Blaire Leon

If sex is dirty, why would I do it with someone I love?
If sex is dirty, then didn’t we all come from the dirt?
What if I like the dirt?
What if I want to get dirty?
What if I want to roll in the mud until I’m so fucking filthy that I’ll never be clean again?

When twenty-five-year-old graduate assistant Caiden Brenner asked Blaire Leon how old she was, she said she was a senior. He chose to believe she meant in college. They connect over Lord Byron’s Don Juan and, as their conversations become increasingly thicker with sexual innuendo, Caiden finds himself obsessing over a totally off-limits undergrad who’s bold, beautiful, brilliant, and one of the most passionate poets he’s ever met.

But it turns out Blaire hasn't been totally honest. She's the seventeen-year-old valedictorian of her high school class, taking courses at Sierra State while awaiting her acceptance to Stanford.

Will Caiden get too deeply into Blaire to back away before he finds out the truth? Or will their connection be enough to seduce him into risking his entire future on Jail Bait?


Forbidden romance isn't exactly a trope that I have explored wholly, as there are a lot of books about taboo romances out there, but I'm not exactly irked by the idea of an underage person in a relationship with an older man; although depending on the circumstances, I may be bothered.

In Getting Dirty, our heroine, Blaire, is a minor—sixteen years old, to be exact, turning seventeen in a few weeks—meanwhile her love interest, Caiden, is a twenty five year old. Not much of an age difference, I might say, so this doesn't really bother me. I wouldn't consider it a big deal, unless a member of the party is definitely of bad influence, then I would be bothered. However, still in regards to age appropriation, say Blaire was below the age of fifteen, or had Caiden been way older than her, old enough to be her father or grandparent; now that is something that would greatly bother the heck out of me.

Told in interchanging POV's, Getting Dirty explores both sides of the story, Blaire and Caiden's, and is a perfect balance. Reading about their romance is exasperating and does pack a punch, I was met with a mixture of feelings regarding the characters, especially with the first half of the story.

Caiden wasn't exactly a character who stood out for me. He was the typical male love interest, albeit broken and has an interesting back story, although, there were a lot of parts that made me feel sorry for him. However, Blaire's character was a different story.

Blaire is portrayed as a mature teenager, as she had grown up with pretty much absentee parents. She's intellectual, perhaps way more for her age, but of course, still displays the naivety of a lovelorn teenager. At times, especially at the first half of the book, her character frustrated me to the point that I wanted to DNF this book, however, there were also moments which made me read more. Blaire is a poet—a slam poet, to be exact, and as I am a huge fan of poetry, be it traditional or modernized, her love for poetry hooked me, and the lay down of words as Blaire recites her pieces at a slam poetry contest blew me away.

Although Mia Storm's writing isn't exactly fantastic, as there were a couple of cringe worthy moments, particularly the part in Blaire's POV where she greatly examines her soon-to-be lover's forehead and the number of his freckles, and so on and so forth, however, as mentioned, it was her poetry that kept me going. I'm unsure if the pieces were originally crafted by the author herself, but I was stupefied.

"When they say it's a man's world, they must be talking about the bedroom. Glass ceilings are shattering. We'll have a female president someday. But only if she's never slept around. Because a male president can get head in the Oval Office, but no goddamn dirty whore is ever going to be good enough to run our country."

Another thing I love about this book, is the highlight of various "societal taboos" and issues; women who love to have sex even at a young age, age appropriate relationships, statutory rape, feminism, and what not. Although these topics are in various novels with taboo stories, I haven't read much books that tackled quite a number of such issues and even portrayed such as realistically as possible. What's even amusing, is the author's note implies this book to be a fictionalized autobiography, as she had been in a similar relationship with an older man at the age of seventeen.

"If we both want this, why should it matter how old we are?"
"Because I'm twenty fucking five, Blaire! Guys my age go to jail for doing what we've been doing."

I honestly want to kick myself for almost not giving this book the benefit of the doubt because certain parts of this book caught me off guard and had me reading thoroughly. It's very different from the usual New Adult contemporaries out there that I normally read, but I devoured this book in a single day. Although a few may be irked by the instalove between the characters—which I began to wary of the moment I came across it—I was still hooked.

Getting Dirty may not be for everyone, as the topics aren't exactly people friendly, but this book blew me away. If you're willing to step out of your comfort zone, I suggest you give this book a try, but I warn you, this book is intense, and passionate, and exasperating.

If you want to get dirty, this book should be your next read.

*I received a review copy courtesy of the author/publisher. This does not affect my opinion or views regarding the book whatsoever.

Comments (22)

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I love forbidden romances but this is an iffy topic for me, I think because I do have daughters and I'm not sure how I would feel about this if it were them, probably not good LOL!
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1 reply · active 520 weeks ago
Oh, I get you. If I was probably your age and in your position, I wouldn't want this to happen to any of my daughters either, lol. Somebody sue me for the double standard. xD
Oh, hello! I'm definitely grabbing this one. Re the comments above - I'm totally with you. I wouldn't want my daughter/goddaughter/etc. in that position, but it's something I can connect with having experienced that. So yeah, total double standard from me - lol.
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1 reply · active 520 weeks ago
Same here, Christy! Haha! Hope you enjoy it when you get to pick it up! :D
Ohhh I'm curious. I like the older guy aspect, but 16 years old? That's really cutting it close. Hmm.
My recent post Hoarders, Books Edition: Episode 148
1 reply · active 520 weeks ago
Now that you mentioned it, sixteen is a tad young. But some sixteen year olds do look way mature for their age, meanwhile, us Filipinos looked like freaking tweens at sixteen, Hahahaha!
Age gaps aren't that cringeworthy for me haha my forbidden romance motto is something like "as long as it's all consensual, I don't see why not". I'm interested on seeing how statutory rape comes into this because if the main character is in America then she'll have to wait 2 years to get out of this dilemma but I'm guessing that's not what happens 0_o
My recent post Ju Recommends: 7 Books to Read When You're Sick
1 reply · active 520 weeks ago
My thoughts exactly, Ju. If it's consensual, why not? Well, she kind of just had to wait for a year, because she was already turning seventeen anyway. :D
I don't actively seek out taboo books, but when I do find them I end up being just a tad curious. :) The synopsis for this one is definitely intriguing. I'm so glad that the protagonist, despite being insanely young, has a lot of positive and mature views on various subjects. And I'm definitely not a poet myself, but I'd like to check out her poetry. Hopefully her naivety won't bother me too much. Just added this to my TBR. Fantastic review, Blessie!
My recent post Review + Giveaway: The Wicked Will Rise by Danielle Paige
1 reply · active 520 weeks ago
Same here. I just manage to stumble across them, and they're often very intriguing. Yay!! I'm glad you want to give this a try. The heroine starts off as really annoying, and hopefully you'll get past that because there's so much more to come after that. :D Thanks, Aimee! :)
Okay, okay... OKAY I HEAR YOU I NEED TO TRY TO READ THIS BOOK AGAIN. GAH.. I already want to kick myself for jumping the gun and DNFing, but now.... *sigh* I love a teacher-student romance, but there was some serious disconnect with me and this book and the first couple of chapters. But I will try to read it again! Soon. I love that this story draws attention to the glaring double standards and social issues that are swamping modern day America.:)
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1 reply · active 520 weeks ago
YES GIRL, KICK YOURSELF FOR DNFING!!! It's not a student-teacher romance though, he just works in the same college where Blaire takes her extra classes. :D And yassssss, a lot of stuff in this book was just so on point. You gotta try to pick it up again! :D
This actually reminds me of Colleen Hoover's Slammed series, but more mature and sexually based. The older guy, the slightly underage and mature girl. I think if their relationship wasn't sexual, I wouldn't have an issue with it, but I probably couldn't help thinking why he isn't pursuing a woman his own age. In number terms, it's not that great. But I think authors need to tread carefully when one of the characters isn't of age. I must admit, I'm curious though. Great review Blessie. If anyone is looking for a hot read recommendation, this is certainly the blog to find them <3
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1 reply · active 520 weeks ago
Ooh, I kind of figured, but I haven't read Slammed, but I did figure out that this may be quite similar to Slammed in terms of the slam poetry, lol. But I never knew they had a huge age gap. I most definitely agree with you, but in Getting Dirty, he never knew she was underage until one of the professors mentioned that she was just in high school, lol.

Aw, thanks so much, Kelly! :D I do love me hot reads, lol.
Well, your review has convinced me to add this novel to my TBR :) I like forbidden romance, and although she's underage - according to the law she's still a child, but I don't really believe seventeen year olds are clueless children though, it's a controversial topic o.O
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1 reply · active 520 weeks ago
My thoughts exactly. She's close to being an adult, anyway, lol. Thanks, Benish! I hope you do enjoy this book as well! :)
This would bother me, but only because of the age difference because she is a minor. I actually love the forbidden romance trope but draw the line at incest and minors.
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1 reply · active 519 weeks ago
I agree with you on the incest part. Step siblings are okay with me but real biological siblings, nope.
As much as I don't like the instalove thing, sometimes I can oversee it if the story is good enough. I might give this one a try, but I'll save it for when I want something to read out of my comfort zone. Great review, Blessie!
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1 reply · active 519 weeks ago
The instalove will surely annoy you. The only reason why I liked this was because of the poetry and some angles in the story. :D Thanks, Grace!
I'm so conflicted with this book because you seemed to like it but Tika seemed to really dislike it. EEK!
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1 reply · active 519 weeks ago
Hahaha, like I said, this book isn't for everyone! :D But to be fair, I didn't really like the characters either. I just liked the poetry and some angles in the story. :D

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