Book Review — Dirty Rowdy Thing by Christina Lauren

From the New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Bastard, Beautiful Stranger, and Beautiful Player, Book Two of the brand-new Wild Seasons series that started with Sweet Filthy Boy—a story of friends, love, and lust.

Despite their rowdy hookups, Harlow and Finn don’t even like each other...which would explain why their marriage lasted only twelve hours. He needs to be in charge and takes whatever he wants. She lives by the Want-something-done? Do-it-yourself mantra. Maybe she’s too similar to the rugged fisherman—or just what he needs.

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Book Review:

Dirty Rowdy Thing was exactly what I was in the mood for.  Finn and Harlow’s chemistry ignited the pages and propelled me to keep reading.  I always love the whole friends-with-benefits storyline. This one came with a bit of a twist. If you’re read Sweet Filthy Boy (My Review), you’ll know that Finn and Harlow aren’t exactly strangers, well almost. They are exes. At twenty-two Harlow Vega is the ex-wife of Finn Roberts, 10 years his senior.

Dirty Rowdy Thing begins a few months after Sweet Filthy Boy concluded and many more months after Finn and Harlow ended their twelve-hour marriage. Aside from a wild night in Vegas and an impromptu sex-fest in Finn’s home in the Canadian wilderness, they’ve not interacted. Cumulatively, they’ve only spent a total of a day together.  Finn is in Harlow’s home town of San Diego, California for “business.” That’s all he really tells anyone, even his closest friends, Ansel and Oliver.

With Finn in town for a couple of weeks, Harlow and Finn are stuck in social situations together quite often. He thinks she’s Malibu Barbie and she thinks he’s a beefcake lumberjack.  They have a lot of opinions about each other and none of them are true.  Finn and Harlow are battling their own personal problems underneath their hard armor.

“He’s hard to read, easy to look at, and no matter how bad an idea it my be, it’s nearly impossible to resist pulling him closer.
Fighting or fucking.
Both of those options are starting to sound pretty good.”

Their intense attraction to each other and desire to run away from the problems of the world give them an idea:  if they have to be around each other, why not use each other to feed their sexual appetites?  Their rules? Just sex. The moment it gets complicated, back away.  The sex scenes in this book are hot.  Christina Lauren amps up the hotness in this book. Sweet Filthy Boy had some kink, but Finn really brought the K-I-N-K in this one.

As you can imagine, their little plan doesn’t go so well when feelings get involved and then neither of them really know what to do with them.  Finn says the least to anyone when he’s mulling over something and Harlow is just as stubborn.

My heart aches a little. I realize while I’m watching him struggle with this that I sincerely just want Finn to be happy.
When have I cared so much about his happiness versus my own orgasms? Lola isn’t the only one who has seamlessly pulled one of these guys into her inner circle. Finn is officially one of My People.”

My favorite moments in this book were when the two of them let down their emotional walls and were 100% themselves with each other.  Finn said everything that was on his mind and Harlow threw caution to the wind and just felt with her heart.

I glance over at him, at his angled, stubbly jaw, his long tan neck and the arms that give man odd sense of safety I never knew I craved.

I really liked Harlow’s character a lot.  She was caring, almost to a fault. As she said in the beginning of the book, she was a fixer. That’s what she did.  When someone she loved was hurting or in trouble, she did everything she could to make what wasn’t okay, okay again.

Finn was admittedly very sexy.  The love scenes were sizzling and seductive, but I wasn’t completely in love with Finn’s character. Just as Harlow was impulsive with her desire to fix things, Finn often acted on his emotions without consulting Harlow, which led to problems. I also really didn’t like Finn’s whole predilection for ropes in the bedroom.  It felt like an unnecessary element and like it was added solely because Finn is a fisherman and likes knots. I just didn’t like it. It reminded me of the random role-playing scenes in Sweet Filthy Boy, which I also didn’t like.

I still liked this book despite my issues. I love friends to lovers type stories and it’s an added bonus when the couple has such great chemistry. I look forward to Dark Wild Night coming next September! I seriously can’t wait for the comic book lovers story!

3 stars

*I received an advance copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.