Done Dirt Cheap seemed like something I would love. It was advertised as Sons of Anarchy meets Thelma and Louise which sounds like the perfect recipe for a great story. Unfortunately, I just really couldn’t get into this novel. It’s a shame because based on reviews I’ve seen, it seems as though readers really enjoyed it and I’m disappointed that I didn’t feel the same way.

This was such a pleasant surprise for me! I went in knowing nothing about it apart from the fact that I've had it for review for far too long and I really needed to get round to giving it a go, and I'm so glad I did. I really enjoyed the premise of these two girls who have been brought up in differing dangerous situations coming together and helping each other through the hardest times, not giving up on the other when everyone else had. I don't come across it often in YA novels, but I liked the motorcycle gang element - definitely enhanced the sense of drama and tension and a good old bad boy.The dual narrative of Tourmaline and Virginia was well-done, and expressed each girl's individual insecurities and jeallousies while also presenting how they both viewed their friendhsip with the other. This wasn't a mind-blowing book by any means but it's the first one I've stayed up to finish in a long time!

A fantastic story that was well written and I would recommend to fans of the genre. Great writing and a thoroughly enjoyable read.

So fun story: I picked up a used copy of Done Dirt Cheap at my favorite secondhand bookstore at least a year ago. It was only when I started reading this book two weeks ago that I found out my copy is both signed by the author AND personalized! I don’t know who Lindsay is, but they met Lemon and got their book signed and got rid of it. I love finding surprise signed books! This is also how I got a signed, personalized copy of Malinda Lo’s Ash, but that book was signed to a Whitney. Things I don’t love, however: Done Dirt Cheap.

The positives are a short list. Virginia is ordered by her boss to befriend Tourmaline and find something to frame T’s dad’s motorcycle club for, but the fake becomes real and their friendship is a lovely thing. The actual plot involving small town corruption, messed up justice, and two girls breaking out of the circumstances they grew up in is great too. Virginia and Tourmaline have both had some awful things happen to them, but Virginia has been through quantifiably worse and helps T see what she’s either been ignorant of or in denial about in her life. As much as T would like to believe it, her dad is more than “just” the president of his motorcycle club.

The novel is written in such a choppy, stilted way that you’ll read about a character doing something, be baffled, and have to reread the previous few paragraphs to understand why they’re doing the thing. The jumps between thoughts, logic, and actions is wide enough that you’ll really need to pay attention to not miss anything. In part due to the prose, the book moves very slowly.

I’ve got two distinct problems with the two romances, but the first is the age gaps between the girls and their love interests. Tourmaline is an 18-year-old girl getting ready to go to college and Cash, the Black conscript earning his way into the club, is 23. Virginia is also 18 and her love interest Jason, the sergeant at arms of the club, is 28. TEN ENTIRE YEARS OF DIFFERENCE.

Age gaps aren’t a bad thing in and of themselves, but the age of the people in combination with that gap matters. No matter how many times Tourmaline repeats that “Virginia’s eighteen isn’t my eighteen” because Virginia was sold off like cattle to a corrupt lawyer and forced to sell drugs for him (among other things), it doesn’t make me any less uncomfortable. An 18-year-old and a 28-year-old have completely different life experiences, mindsets, and levels of mental development. Due to what she’s been through, Virginia is ripe for exploitation and manipulation by someone who seems to promise to rescue her from her past and Jason isn’t exactly a standup guy. Tourmaline describes him as someone who screws everything that moves.

Then the dynamic between white Tourmaline and Cash the conscript echoes some old racist ideas about relations between Black men and white women. As a conscript–the first Black conscript, in fact–Cash has to earn his patch by being a servant to the club members (cooking meals, taking care of their dogs, etc.) and he’s held to a strict set of rules like “don’t talk to Tourmaline.” However, the rules aren’t enough to keep them away from one another. The club is mostly white but has a few Black founding members. Though Cash goes through the same gauntlet that any white conscript does, the context is different BECAUSE he is Black. There is no such thing as color blindness, only people who close their eyes to the differences and why they matter.

Maybe there’s a reason Lindsay gave up their signed and personalized book. I don’t think I’ll be keeping it either.

Sarah Nicole Lemon is great. She has a way with language to be beautiful with her words but gut wrenching lyrics real with her emotions - put those together and you’ve got someone who will always write books that should be read.

Read at least half the book, and that was because I forced myself to try to find something worthwhile in it. The blurb I read set me up for girl power and the reviews I did see set this up as a diverse read because of Cash and Tourmaline's relationship. FIRST OF ALL, the age gaps in this book are disturbing. There's a borderline rape scene in the beginning between the MC and her boss/pimp/dad? Cash is treated like absolute dirt. He's constantly fetishized by Tourmaline despite her refusing to call him by his name. He's the only black conscript since the OG black members of the Wardens. He's also not suppose to even talk to Tourmaline, and is threatened if he does. But yet Tourmaline can talk for pages about how sexy his brown skin is???

I had to stop purely because of how Cash was treated and the fact that Tourmaline and Virginia weren't even friends yet. Maybe I'm too sensitive to understand the underlying racism of motorbike gangs but I've known and met too many elders of my tribe who got the shit beat out of them for talking to white women. That's real, real stuff.

1/5 stars

I DNF'd this book so I didn't read too much of it which cause me to be unable to form a good opinion.

Thank you for the ARC. This book isn't my normal go-to genre, but I did enjoy the gritty side of southern bikers and the relationships. Tourmaline is a convincing character- pretty sure I grew up with her. It wasn't my taste but I have recommended it to some folks who I know will adore it.

I wasn't expecting to love this book as much as I did. I really liked the contemporary, yet gritty setting of the south. The relationships between the characters was amazing. Reading this book takes you on a thrilling and sexy ride.

I’ve been waiting and wanting to read this for quite a while. I’ve heard the rave reviews and I had no doubt that I would love this book. When I got to it and started reading it, I’ll admit I was kind of confused, but I did end up enjoying it either way.

Tourmaline’s life is in shambles right now with her mother in prison (thanks to her). She is set to go to UVA in the fall and is spending the summer with the biker club, the Wardens. She’s also the daughter of the president. It doesn’t help that there is a new conscript that she is attracted to, yet it’s against the rules considering who she is.

Virginia is stuck working for Hazard, who wants to crush the Wardens. He sends Virginia to friend Tourmaline and to uncover the secrets.

Details

The book goes back and forth with the POV. We see Virginia’s thoughts and then Tourmaline’s. It’s all third person, too. This novel dealt with the emotional aspect most of the time. However, we did get physical descriptions of the biker club and the surroundings of where the girls lived. Sarah was really authentic with the southern aspect of the setting and I obviously am aware that this is because she is from and lives in the south. I’m from the same parts myself, so it was actually kind of surreal and nice to have this kind of setting as something familiar. Something that bothered me just a little bit is the fact that it was hard for me to understand what was going on through the first half of the book. I don’t know if it was the wording or description. It didn’t stop me from wanting to finish the novel, though. The book still had me hooked and continued through the end as I started to understand more what was going on. It’s just that the first little half was kind of confusing. It might be just me, though.

Tourmaline

Tourmaline isn’t what you’d expect a girl that is around a biker gang to look like. She normally wears nice dresses and appears to try to follow rules, especially when it comes to her father. Underneath it all, she is very broken. She blames herself for her mother being in jail, showing that she has such a strong love for her mother. I admired that part of her character. Her mother has such troubles, but she still loves her deeply.

Her mother’s ex-boyfriend, Wayne, is a sleaze ball. He is out of jail and, allegedly, is out to get Tourmaline for revenge. He doesn’t show up physically too much, but he is still there in spirit to add suspense.

Tourmaline respects her father, but gets put down when he excludes her from what is going on in his life; a new girlfriend, late nights, rules. She meets the new conscript, Cash, and is immediately attracted to him. He is too, obviously. But, Tourmaline is so set on the rules and respecting her father that she pushes Cash away too much. She’s too set in the life she thinks she is supposed to have.

Tourmaline’s friendship with Virginia is actually a sense of relief. She does have a friend, Anna May, but she is all into her boyfriend and doesn’t really connect with her that much. With Virginia, Tourmaline easily opens up to her about almost anything. Their friendship is pretty instant and, though there are some hard spots, it’s pretty solid and I think it’s what Tourmaline needs in her life.

Virginia

Virginia doesn't have much of a family with her mother being drunk all the time and her father dead. She is in debt to Hazard, ironically, thanks to her mother. She deals for him and it is implied that he actually...feels her up every now and then. I can’t say for sure, though. Hazard is a bad guy, but it’s amazing how strong the girl is through it all. She knows, almost from the get go, that playing Tourmaline isn’t going to work out. Tourmaline is too much of a good woman and turns out to be a good friend. Virginia is a good person, too. That part of her character trumps what Hazard needs her to do.

Virginia was a wonderful character. She’s broken and even feels like giving up at times. However, she grows into the biker club family and her friendship with Tourmaline throughout the story. I felt more connected to her character, but I still felt a connection with Tourmaline, too.

The Bottom Line

This story is really about friendship and it’s about true friendship. It’s got the romance in there and the suspense, but it’s a really powerful debut from Sarah. I don’t think I’ve read something like this in a long time.

Unfortunately, I did not finish this book. Both main characters were a little too shallow for my taste and I wasn't sure the alternating chapters made sense. Overall, the plot moved a bit too quickly and everything needed more depth.

~
This is one of those rarities, where the story is so fantastic and interesting and very well-thought, but in all truth, it didn’t work for me. Although, Sarah Nicole Lemon’s, especially as a debut author, is brilliant. She familiarized the reader with it twisted set of the characters, but especially, Virginia and Tourmaline, who were troubled and resilient, but maintained a sense of sisterhood. (A name I absolutely hate, BTW. Tourmaline. It sounds like a sort of candy bar.)

I already shelved Sarah Nicole Lemon’s next book. Because obviously, I’m obsessed with her writing as a whole. I’ve discovered I’m not a fan of this storyline in itself. Running from a problem that can easily be resolved, avoiding police for absolutely zero reason, ala Rebel Bully Geek Pariah. Just turn yourselves in and finish your story.

In the meantime, here's a few of my favorite quotes from the galley, if you needed to be hypnotized by Sarah's writing, just as I was.

-
Tourmaline’s gaze flickered over him – taking in the polished boots, crisp jeans, and black T-shirt wrinkling across his chest as he smoothed down the plastic wrap. His black hair was buzzed close. Dark taupe skin – pulled tight over thick muscle like a matte finish on a bike. A well-trimmed, ducktail-shaped beard. No hint of boy left in the tall, strong-looking body. How old was he? She felt like she needed to know just to orient herself to where she was in life, as if his age were a missing coordinate. “You’re not really supposed to talk to me.” Or touch me, but she didn’t say it. It had been a meaningless, thoughtless touch, she knew – but a conscript couldn’t afford to be any of those things. 
(…)

“For what?”

What did he mean, For what? Hadn’t he been listening?

The conscript crossed his arms and leaned against the counter, looking wholly unapologetic.

“Do you like hanging out with your dad’s friends?” He asked it a little mockingly. A little teasingly. 
Flirting?

I was very excited about this title. Sadly I won't be reading this book because it came to my attention that it's racist and the relationship between one MC and their black love interest fetishizes black men.

I'm conflicted with my rating, and I feel like writing a full review will only confuse people on my thoughts about this book, so I'll make it short.

The story isn't necessarily bad, I was just expecting more of it. I was intrigued by the age-gap relationships, but there wasn't much of it.

I did enjoy seeing the friendship between the 2 ladies develop. I dislike when there's girl on girl hate in books, or when women have to compete, so seeing two 18 year olds with very different life styles become stronger together, really gives the book some meaning. The ladies work together to take down some powerful (and nasty) men, and you can't help but root for them!

I didn't enjoy the fact that the black character is the conscript, and he basically has to do chores and things as if he was pledging to a fraternity...

Overall, the story was enjoyable, but I was expecting more girl power and age-gap romance.

Well, this one is certainly unique! Not going to deny that the writing style was challenging in the beginning. I slogged through the first third of this book. But the unique premise and the little teases kept pulling me along until I was so invested in these characters that I didn't want to stop. Very memorable and ultimately enjoyable.

DONE DIRT CHEAP’s blurb makes it sound like an amazing story of two girls who form a fast and strong friendship despite that Tourmaline’s dad is the President of the Wardens, a motorcycle club, and Virginia’s boss wants to take them down. 30% into the story and the girls are not friends, Virginia has a claustrophobic near-rape scene with her boss (who bought her from her mother), and a plot of jumbled and thin, I wasn’t sure what to think. There was also a huge issue for me with the age gap between the two girls and their love interests. Tourmaline is 18, Cash is 23. Virginia is 18, Jason is 28. While Tourmaline and Cash felt iffy, Virginia and Jason was absolutely horrifying. When you look at what Virginia has gone through, being bought and groomed by a crooked lawyer at a young age, the fact that she is attracted to the man 10 years older than her is more than disturbing.

This is also held up as a diverse book due to the interracial relationship between Tourmaline and Cash. I was deeply, deeply troubled by how Cash was treated in the book. The first 30% of the book (the only part I read before I found spoilers), Cash isn’t named. He is referred to as “the conscript”, the guy who is trying to earn a spot in the Warden’s motorcycle club. What was so upsetting was the fact that while Tourmaline mentions there are a “few black guys” in the club, they are older and are the original members. Cash is the first black conscript and it was hard to read about a bunch of old white rednecks forcing a young black man to cook for them, run their errands, and not talk back without drawing my own conclusions concerning racism. It was also disgusting to see Tourmaline talk about how hot and sexy his dark skin was but still refuse to refer to him by his name. Cash also has “rules” concerning Tourmaline, the main one being that he’s not supposed to talk to her, which he continuously breaks. I’m sure some will think that I am reading too far into this but Black men and other men of color and Native men have been brutally murdered because white women have fantasies that they are so precious and prized that MoC/Native men can’t help but be attracted to them, damn the consequences. That is prime fetishization of MoC and I am not here for that.

I really enjoyed reading this book! Tourmaline and Virginia might seem like they have nothing in common. But underneath, both are trying to find their place in their own world, and on the verge of womanhood. I love their strong friendship, how they compliment and support each other, never let anyone bring them down. Their relationship had a rocky start, used and betrayals. But they keep gravitating towards each other because they know how it feels being in a world dominated by men and trying to change their world. This book also have a dark and gritty tone. When a book is about motorcycle club and drug dealing, you know this one is coming. But the writing really fits well with the tone, and it never once cross the line. The reason I don't give 5 stars is because personal problem, so if you love strong female friendship and curious about motorcycle gang, this book is for you!

This book was overall good but something didn't click for me. The writing was beautiful and it the descriptions were one of my favorite things of it. What I disliked most were the romances, although the two main characters were interesting and compelling, their love interests didn't feel fleshed-out. The relationships felt weird, even that between the two girls, and I couldn't put my finger on how or why they had become friends.

Really unique story, I appreciate the attention to friendship and Appalachia.