The Dirty Book Club by Lisi Harrison

The Dirty Book Club by Lisi Harrison
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

**Read an ARC provided via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review**

Summary (from Goodreads):

M. J. Stark seems to have it all—her dream job as a magazine editor, a sexy doctor boyfriend, and an exciting life in Manhattan—only it’s just an illusion. In reality, she’s still reeling from loneliness after losing her parents and sister. So when a promotion doesn’t go her way and her boyfriend suggests moving out to Pearl Beach, California, to be with him, she jumps at the chance: only to discover that life in California isn’t all beaches and sunshine.


When M.J. finds a mysterious envelope from her elderly neighbor, Gloria, with an invitation to inherit a “dirty book club” started by Gloria and her friends in the 1960s, she and three other women chosen by the original members may just have found a lifeline. As M.J. and the other women bond, each is challenged to rethink her life. Inspired by the women who recruited them, the women in the present-day Dirty Book Club find courage through the power of their burgeoning friendship.

This is your standard women's fiction novel, and that isn't meant as a criticism. Sometimes you want a book that is light and breezy and doesn't particularly break new ground. There isn't anything particularly surprising in the plot. One group of women becomes friends while learning about the lives of another group of lifelong friends who pushed them together. Some of the women go through pretty serious trials, but since they are already long past at the time the novel is set, the book still manages to maintain a fun tone. The book has the pacing of a TV show, so I wasn't surprised to learn that Lisi Harrison worked in development for MTV Networks for many years.

As I suspected, there isn't as much sexual content in this book as the title suggests. There are offhand references to vibrators and orgasms and such, but very little in the way of actual sex scenes, especially in comparison to most contemporary romance novels. Still, based on my highly subjective Auntie Test, this book would be better for your jet-setting flight attendant aunt rather than your more sheltered maiden aunt.

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