I loved this book. Sarah Nicole Lemon created a fantastic world with strong women who lean on each other in the absence of other support. I will definitely be recommending this book, and I am also going to preorder it for myself.

This book is not perfect, however, and could use some editing of unnecessary/repetitive lines here and there. But given that this is Lemon's first book, I expect that those issues will be improved upon in the future and I look forward to reading her next title.

Actual Rating: 3.75

I was kind of disappointed with Done Dirt Cheap. It wasn't at all what I expected. I expected a love story with two girls (I don't know why I thought this but I did), and I couldn't help but be disappointed the whole book because it wasn't. I think this book had really great feminist themes and had some great female characters, but I just found it hard to follow. I felt like there were whole chapters and passages missing from the book. Sometimes it just didn't make sense or the text didn't flow. That being said the girls were really great characters, and I enjoyed their arcs and the love interests. I wish Cash and Jason had some more development. It also felt like the girls very quickly fell in love, which I didn't like.

All in all, I liked this book, but I think it could have been a lot better.

This story was billed as Sons of Anarchy (which I've never seen) meets Thelma & Louise (also not obsessed with). However, I was intrigued.

I couldn't put this book down. Set in Virginia, we follow 2 teen girls, Tourmaline and Virginia, who both just graduated high school. Their stories become intertwined outside of a prison, where Tourmaline was visiting her mother. Tourmaline's father is the president of a motorcycle club and Virginia works for a corrupt lawyer, who sends her in to gather intel about the Wardens. I think readers who loved the rural setting in Jeff Zentner's The Serpent King will enjoy this story as well. Lemon's writing is descriptive and beautiful. She has created a cast of memorable characters whose pasts collide in the most unexpected ways.

A story of friendship, the bonds of family, and how far we will go to protect the people we love.

Wow. I loved the story, the complicated friendship between the main characters, and the romances, but what really left me in awe was the prose. Lemon is the kind of lyrical writer you just don't see that often. I often found myself reading the same sentence over and over again, not because it was difficult to understand, but because it was just so damn beautiful. Lemon is a writer that will be on my automatic read list from here on out.

Man. How often do you get to read a book about a deeply imperfect 18-year-old girl trying to figure out how to take control of her own life, let alone two of them? For this reason alone, <i>Done Dirt Cheap</i> is something special. Tourmaline and Virginia are wildly different and, by rights, shouldn't be friends at all, but weird circumstances bring them together and their shared, awkward questing for control keeps them there, warring against the people and society who try to tell them what to be and demand that they hit certain markers and meet certain expectations. It's glorious to watch the girls struggle and regroup and try again, both together and alone, and gratifying that their endings aren't wrapped up too cleanly with little pink bows.

That said, the wonderful individuality of each girl and the way Lemon allows them their own struggles are so striking and precious that the book's overwhelming heteronormativity is even more disappointing than it would normally be in a YA novel. More specifically, each girl falls in deep, meaningful, lasting love literally the moment she spots the object of her affections, a turn of events which is so unconvincing that it really stands out in a novel as gritty and individualize as this one. I have no problem with romantic or sexual encounters in my YA novels, but the speed and intensity of these felt as if they had been dropped in from another, much more conventional story.

[This full review will be posted at my GoodReads -- link below -- a month before publication.]

When Tourmaline meets Virginia all she knows is that she can trust Virginia as far as she could throw her, which isn't very far. As their friendship grows, Virginia will begin to doubt the real reasons behind befriending this surprisingly strong girl. Tourmaline is determined to help her mother; while trying to do this she will fall in love with someone she shouldn't and uncover hidden secrets about her father and his motorcycle club. Great read, absolutely loved the relationship between the two girls!

Where do I start with this book? I genuinely have no words for how much I loved this book. It's only January, but I'm calling it now - this is possibly one of the best books I'm going to read this year.

The writing in this is just amazing. It's so so gorgeous and lyrical and it flows so well. There was never a point where I stopped and thought "hold up, that sounds forced", because it never does sound that way. It all works so perfectly and I just have no words. It is so! good!!

What's also amazing is that the whole plot centres around a friendship between two girls. And it's such a beautiful friendship. The author does such a good job of writing its development and the growing trust between them. And they never tear each other down or try to (which, I know, is a low standard to hold books to, but I'm just so happy that never happens here), although there is annoyingly some slut-shaming going on with regard to another character. That aside, this is one of the best girl friendships I've ever read.

Then there were the scenes which had me close to tears, mostly involving Jason and Virginia, though Jason and Tourmaline also had a scene which wrecked me. I loved pretty much every single dynamic in this book (besides, obviously, the ones I wasn't intended to like). It's all just so amazing and I don't! have!! the!! words!!! I loved every aspect of this book and I already know it's going to have left me with the worst book hangover, and I can't even be pissed off at that.

I wanted it to be more exciting than it was, ultimately.

This book is just so great I was expecting something grand from the moment I saw the spectacular cover, and I'm so happy that it exceeded my expectations. The writing is wonderful it's a very strong depute one of the most standout ones I've read it was nearly impossible to put down there was always something interesting happening.

I think this is technically a new adult novel the two main characters are both eighteen and the love interests are even older. And while there's nothing explicit I would still say it's more sexy than most ya and recommend it to older teens. It was refreshing to read about characters that were older than the normal ya protagonists. I will never understood why YA doesn't have more characters older then seventeen twenty year olds are young adults. Anyway back to the book, the whole thing was refreshing cause it was different then anything I've read before.

There is some glorious romance in this, and yeah it was great, but the heart of the story is Tourmaline and Virginia and their friendship. It's the female driven, friendship focused thrill ride that I've been wanting. This is definitely a book you need on your radar, if you're a fan of fast paced stories about badass heroines and motorcycles then you need this book. So basically everyone needs it cause who isn't a fan of it least one of those things?