When Carina announced their new Dirty Bits line, I was skeptical, to say the least. How would this line be different than their usual novellas? Were they simply rebranding erotic romance? Would it be full of problematic tropes and questionable HEAs?
The answer is yes... and no.
About The Dirty Bits
These books are short and inexpensive. The ones I've read have been between 50 and 80 pages, and priced at $1.99.
Here's the initial announcement from Carina:
A new line that’s meant to be fun, sassy and, well, dirty. Although these romances are shorter in length, we are definitely not compromising on that high heat level we’re known for.
The Dirty Bits from Carina Press are “micro-romances”, designed to be read in an hour or two. Quick and dirty, just the way we like it. For those times when size does matter. These sex-filled stories are guaranteed to pack a punch and deliver a happily ever.
What’s our motto? The Dirty Bits from Carina Press gives you what you want, when you want it.
So get your eReaders ready! Our first release is coming soon!
- Seducing His Student by London Hale
- The last thing a newly hired dean should be doing is one of his students…
- Available September 18th
Look out for this and more as we grow this fun and exciting new brand!
As a reader, I draw a line between erotica and erotic romance. Here's how I define the two:
Erotic Romance - A romance with lots of sex and/or sex drives the plot.
Erotica - A story told through sex, with the intent of titillating the reader. (Note that this does not require an HEA.)
The Dirty Bits line is supposed to be erotic romance, with a guaranteed HEA. The fact that the first book they announced was a college dean-student story turned me off. (Yes, I've read the blurb and I know they don't know about that until after they're in too deep yadda yadda yadda.)
Then there was/is the book by an author made famous on Twitter for an incest "romance" with dubcon and other ick. That book has the tagline "I liked Caleb. I like his dad more." Her books have been so upsetting that Carina added a line to the bottom of her DB books that clarifies that everyone in the book is over 18 and their interactions are consensual.
To be very clear, I don't care what's out there labeled as erotica, until it's labeled romance. A lot of it is rapey garbage, but it can be rapey garbage that gets your engine going and that's TOTALLY COOL. I just don't like it when rapey garbage is put forth as a path to Happily Ever After. This is 100% my own definition, you do you.
So, here I am, reading about these books and re-enacting that GIF where the badger is running away.
So Why Are We Talking About This?
By now, you're wondering why I'm writing this post and/or why I read some of the books. The answer is that the line seems to have changed.
Those first several books, which I will not be linking to, rely on some problematic tropes and I had absolutely no faith that they'd be handled in a way that would make me want or believe the HEA.
This new crop, however, has been less like erotica and more like erotic romance, which means I have a much easier time buying the Happily Ever After. I've read a bunch, just to see if my impression was correct.
The answer is a hesitant "yes." I still don't trust the line entirely, and I purposely picked the books I found most appealing, which means they're probably the least problematic of the bunch. Like the rest of Carina's books, I think you have to judge each one individually and wait for reviewer feedback or samples to see if the book is going to be racist and/or full of triggers and other not-so-fun things.
Before we get into the books, one more note:
The author roster so far has been (from what I could see on the internet) all white.
The Ash Brothers Series
Hard Wood, by Jenika Snow
This book is exactly what it says it is. A quick, dirty read that jumps right into the insta-lust and ends with a HEA. It makes sense that, to have a complete story, the author does a couple of time jumps, most notably an epilogue. They're not awkward, but the book doesn't follow a traditional novel arc and, while I liked the characters, I wasn't particularly invested in them.
One thing I'll be watching for as Carina continues this line of books is use of stereotypes and exoticizing people for the sake of narrative shortcuts. This one mostly avoids that, though I don't know any lumberjacks who actually split wood with an ax. ;)
Knock on Wood
This is the second in Jennika Snow's Ash Brothers series, and it wasn't as successful as the first. The book still delivered on all of the promises: short, sexy read with an HEA, but the writing was repetitive and sort of clunky at times.
For example, the main characters have been in love with each other (secretly, of course) for something like 8 years, saving themselves for each other, even when the female MC went off to college. I got that after the first time it was mentioned, but the phrase "since I even knew what love was" was repeated about a half dozen times in different scenes and from both of them. The male MC's concerns about being older than her were repeated a bunch of times in his POV as well. It's the sort of thing that's really irritating in a book that is intentionally written to be consumed in one 1-2 hour sitting.
As for the sex, it's pretty much one scene, with a bit of a sexy epilogue. They're both virgins, but of course they're really good together and he miraculously doesn't have any early-release problems. (Can we not use the term p*ssy-hole? Like... over and over?)
As much as this isn't a recommended read from me, I'll give the third one a read, since I think it'll be fun based on the enemies-to-lovers setup hinted at in this one.
Turned On: Take Me Private, by Emma Bryson
The main characters in this book are a cam girl and her best friend's brother in a forced proximity set-up that ratchets up the sexual tension. It's hot and quick, with a limited emotional scope. This is my third Dirty Bits and the first one that I felt really fit the premise of the "brand." The first two I read (Hard Wood and the second Ash Brothers) read like a romance novella with one sex scene. This one reads more like erotic romance with sex driving the plot. Like the other Dirty Bits books, this is tagged on NetGalley as erotica, but does deliver the promised HEA.
Heat Wave, by Ceri Grenelle
HEAT WAVE is a super-sexy novella in Carina's Dirty Bits series... and it's about apartment neighbors! The two MCs have been friends for months, walking to the BART (public transpo) together every morning, getting coffee, etc. They seem to be good friends with a lot in common, which is helpful since the plot of this story is pretty heavy on the sex. (That's why you're reading this book, this isn't a criticism.)
As you might expect, there's a pretty epic heat wave in SF, and Faye doesn't have AC. Then the power goes out and she gathers her courage and goes to talk to Ben. She's been fantasizing about him for months and then there as a scene where she's in her shower and he's in his and they can hear everything through the wall... Anyway, they haven't spoken for a week, but that's all about to change.
This is the hottest of the DBs that I've read so far. Ben is a dirty talker, and it's really well done. There are a couple of awkward word choices at times that didn't make sense as dialogue (I have never heard a person use the word "wrought" in conversation), but overall it really came together well.
I was initially worried when I saw that the male MC is black and the female MC is white, but the story (to this white woman's mind) stayed away from the stereotypes and fetishization. Since they're in their apartments, there's literally no one else in the story for them to interact with and I don't know much about their backgrounds, so I can't speak to how this does or does not fall into the "exceptional PoC" trap.
All in all, a short hot read with a believable HEA.
Real Man, A.S. Green
This was um... not for me. The main characters meet when the heroine's car breaks down and she calls for a tow. There's a whole thing about her needing a "Real Man" (thus the title) and she ends up masturbating in the seat of his tow truck while he's getting her car hitched up. I'm willing to believe this as erotica, but as a romance? The whole thing takes place over the course of about 6 hours and they go from making terrible assumptions about each other to breaking a public bathroom sink in about 4 of those hours. There's a lot of sex, but otherwise... Anyway, he has a handlebar mustache, which is a big nope for me but I know a lot of women dig the mustache these days. He also calls her "Princess" throughout, which is one of the nicknames that makes me see red. (Little girls are called "Princess" because they're precious and need protecting, then they hit puberty and "Princess" suddenly morphs into a derogatory word that implies they're snobby bitches.)
Anyway, I'm sure it's going to hit the buttons for some people, just not for me.
Books I didn't read, because I knew they weren't for me and I'm not willing to take this many for the team:
- Breeder - Yes, it's what you think it is.
- Summer Fire - The heroine goes to Istanbul and finds the brown doctor of her dreams. This felt too close to a problematic sheikh story for me to want to try it, even though the author was born in Istanbul and may have done a fabulous job with the book. (See below for what I mean about not "trusting" the line.)
- The two I mentioned earlier by an author I'll never buy.
- The student-Dean book they launched the series with.
- A few others that don't sound problematic but I don't have the time for, like a wedding menage and a "whoops we're in the same cabin and it's snowing" story.
In the end, what do I have to say about The Dirty Bits from Carina Press?
Hit or miss.
It feels like a line that's trying to figure out what it is and how to be that. Like Harlequin's DARE line, it's clear that they're trying to give voracious eReaders tropey, quick, satisfying reads, but that also means they're relying on some stereotypes, cliches, and problematic storylines to get there.
Is there built-in tension with a student-teacher plot? Of course, but that doesn't mean it can be resolved to an HEA in 17,000 words.
If you're going to write about something that pushes the boundaries, is a novella the right format in which to do so? If they're publishing authors that are known for non-con incest romance, is that a publisher you trust?
I'll be watching this line for the rest of the year because, as I said, it does seem that they've changed in tone and content. Time will tell.
Have you read any of these? What are your thoughts?
