Done Dirt Cheap was a fascinating look into a world I don't visit much in reading.

Thank you Sarah Nicole Lemon for giving us the answer to 2017's feminist battle cry. This book is seriously empowering. It's a book all about bad ass chicks sticking together and dominating life.

We're friends because when girls - women - are alone in the world, they're easier to pick off. 

When I read this description I thought "female sons of anarchy? ya, pass." If it hadn't been for the vivid cover and the gushing reviews I would have totally skipped over this one. But this book is so much more than a story about bikers. It is one of the best female friendship stories I have ever read. The writing is fantastic, jam packed with sucker-punch quotes. The characters are fleshed out and multi-dimensional. The love stories aren't problematic and they also don't steal the show from the friendship story line. It's been a long time since I felt so emotionally connected to a book and I need everyone I know to read it so we can talk about how fantastic it is.

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

Unfortunately, this was a DNF for me. I am disappointed because it was billed as Thelma & Louise meets Sons of Anarchy. 

I found the narrative to be confusing. I literally had no idea what I was reading most of the time. So the writing style was definitely strike one. 

Add to that the lack of connection with any characters and you have strike two.

The third strike was when I felt the story was going nowhere and I realized I wasn't absorbing anything I'd been reading. I'd have to go back and reread several paragraphs and still... nothing.

It's a shame because so many people seemed to have loved it. Apparently, this one just wasn't for me.

Tourmaline Harris is the daughter of the leader of the town’s infamous biker club known as the Wardens. She’s got a good home life, a good relationship with her father. But at 15 she unintentionally sent her mother to prison. Virginia Campbell was ‘sold’ into the service of Hazard – a sleazy but powerful (&criminal) attorney. Virginia is sent to infiltrate the Wardens under the orders of Hazard because he wants them gone. Virginia has every intention of going through with her orders, but after meeting Tourmaline, she starts to have second thoughts. The two girls friendship blossoms, each gaining strength and confidence from each other. 

Done Dirt Cheap is a novel about friendship and the girl’s defying the expectations placed upon them. Done Dirt Cheap is a refreshing read in the sense that it offers something a lot of books don’t really offer – an authentic and complex female friendship. Both Tourmaline and Virginia are fully formed, messy, and contradictory female characters. They would seem like unlikely friends, complete polar opposites, but they make it work and while they don’t always get along, they know they need each other and they help each other navigate the complicated and dangerous landscape of their lives.

“We’re friends because when girls – women – are alone in this world, they’re easier to pick off.” …“When girls stick together in this world, they’re harder to pick off.”

One thing I loved about Tourmaline and Virginia is that they subverted the typical female character tropes that we often see in YA. The ‘good girl’ and the ‘bad girl’. Tourmaline has always tried to be likeable and good, but that isn’t who she really is. Tourmaline was placed into her dangerous drug dealing life, it wasn’t one she chose. But each girl wants something different, and they help each other to get it. So there was some really great character development.

I absolutely adored the romance. If you love age-gap romances I do highly recommend this. (Don’t worry, both Tourmaline and Virginia are 18). Tourmaline’s relationship with Cash was my favourite – it was a forbidden romance and fantastically written. Virginia’s relationship with Jason felt a little rushed and insta-lovey but I loved it nonetheless.

If you are looking for a feminist and female empowered book, with a complex and central female friendship where they always try to uplift each other and not tear each other down, then I do highly recommend Done Dirt Cheap.

Also, Biker Girls, need I say more?

RATING: ★★★★★

This book is a television show waiting to happen.  I swear, the writing was so lyrical, but cinematic at the same time that I vividly imagined the entire story as I read.  Now, I know that sounds kind of like the definition of reading in general, being able to picture the story.  But this was something beyond picturing it, Done Dirt Cheap was to the point of me already having cast actors and actresses and it was playing out on the page, dancing around the words.
As a woman who was born and raised in the South, it was such a wonderful and brilliant story of two girls overcoming their circumstances and not only owning them, but bending them to their will.  By no means are Tourmaline and Virginia weak willed, they are by far two of the most fully realized characters I’ve read in a long time.  I find myself torn to try and decide which character I identify with more on a personality level.  I think every reader will find a little of themselves in both T and V, and this is such a compliment to Lemon and her narrative capabilities.
I think that their friendship is almost like those slow burn romances that come on in in books where the characters almost hate one another at first, only to realize they have more in common than they thought. That’s how I view Virginia and Tourmaline, two souls who reluctantly came together but ended up becoming friends against all odds. I love a book that celebrates female friendship in that way, and readers, this has it.
Speaking of slow burn romances, I’m here to tell you that *spoiler alert* Virginia and Jason equate to Deadpool’s Vanessa and Wade.  To not give any MORE spoilers from Done Dirt Cheap, here’s an exchange from Deadpool that can pretty much sum up this pairing (in a good way):
Wade: Well, your crazy matches my crazy, big time. And, uh, we’re like two jigsaw pieces, you know, and we have curvy edges.
Vanessa: But you fit them together and you see the picture on top.
Along more obvious romance lines, I loved the way Lemon kept readers on their toes concerning Cash and Tourmaline and how she made the reader feel the turmoil that Tourmaline did while trying to figure out her feelings and what exactly she was going to do in such an interesting situation.
Overall, I found this book to be really easy to read in that it kept my focus and it is one I wish I could have read in one sitting.  I blame the real world for getting in the way of my reading time, but nonetheless my reading experience was amazing.
 
4.5 Bards for Done Dirt Cheap!

I'm not quite sure what to think. OK, on the one hand, I liked seeing these two women who were very much opposites follow the same path and become friends. On the other hand, I spent a lot of time really confused and feeling distant from the characters rather than in invested in their lives. I feel the same way about the writing. I both of bed the writing style, it was wonderfully written and almost philosophical in tone at times. Yet, I also felt very confused and had to reread parts of the book because the phrasing of a sentence made me think I'd missed something which in fact hadn't been mentioned. I even felt the same about the story and plot. I liked the story and what happened it was interesting. Yet, I also didn't like it as it was confusing and seemingly unnecessarily complicated.


I will say it was a wonderfully written book which had me thinking on it often and the story and friendship of Virginia and Tourmaline was a good one. I mean, sure I felt their friendship progressed slowly and then all at once but the way they were both opposites and yet very much the same was really interesting. The pair were the driving force of the book up against everyone trying to block their way. This is not an easy book to form an opinion on but it is a book which stays with you long after you've finished it.

Here I am again, DNFing a book at 65%.... Done Dirt Cheap started out well, I liked the characters a lot, though the bike gang thing did take some adjusting to (I'm rather clueless when it comes to that stuff), and I was intrigued by the premise. The story really started picking up around the 30% mark, and things were looking good, but then, around the 60% mark, I found myself losing interest. This is definitely a case of "it's me not you," Done Dirt Cheap is beautifully written and has two well-developed, kickass narrators, but it just wasn't for me.

I was hesitant about this book when I first started reading it but I ended up really enjoying it.

The plot was complex. We follow Tourmaline who’s been haunted by a choice she made at 15 which sent her Mom to jail. In her efforts to make up for it, she meets Virginia and their lives intertwine in crazy ways. The beginning of this book took me off guard, I wasn’t really sure what to expect and it threw me off a bit. The writing style took me a little bit to get used to as well because while it was easy to read, it was much more lyrical and poetic than I was expecting. I began to appreciate it as the story went on and there are a lot of beautiful lines that were impactful. There’s no real linear plot in my opinion, there are various situations going on that somehow merge together but the most important thing about this book is the characters. The development that the main characters go through is one of the main focal points of the story and it’s intensive. Each protagonist grows by leaps and bounds from the first page to the last. I found it really interesting to see how each girl had different things to learn and how they managed to support each other in ways that were really genuine and real. This book also focuses a lot on feminism, on girls fighting for what they want and on them saving themselves and on looking out for each other and sticking together. Honestly, I just loved the friendship that built between these girls. It’s absolutely stellar and the most important part of the book (yeah, I’ve said this already but I don’t really care). It reminded me a lot of the relationships I feel I have with my girlfriends and the kind of relationship that I feel needs to be represented a lot more in the Young Adult genre. There’s also a lot of focus on family relationships and how they shift the way you view the world. Both characters have a coming of age journey where they decide the way they want to see the world and what their “fate” or “destiny” really is. I think it’s so important that these kinds of relationships are explored in Young Adult books and I think it’s the reason why I ended up enjoying this book much more than I originally thought I would. To be quite honest, every time I think about this book, I feel like I love it more and more. The author just did so many amazing things in such a powerful way and looking back it’s much more intense.

Tourmaline kind of annoyed me in the very, very beginning, specially because of the first scene. She’s really naive and doesn’t really grasp the way the real world works. As the story goes on, you definitely see why she is the way she is and how her pseudo-family has fostered this sheltered life for her. For some reason I find her development to be the most compelling of the two because I love to see quiet girls become their own bosses and to see them take the reins of their life unapologetically. I really enjoyed her determination and her devotion to her family even when she learned things that made her question her relationship with them. She’s definitely my favorite character in this book.

Virginia burst into the page and blew through the book with no regard for what she was doing. I don’t know if that makes any sense but that’s the way I feel her personality is. She’s rough and tough and she’s used to pushing through life and surviving basically. There was also a very vulnerable side to her, that was what was developed throughout the story and it was so beautiful. Honestly, her development and progression is just endearing. She’s always had fake confidence outside but a very soft, scared inside and to see her grow and become as fierce as she’s always portrayed herself to be was amazing.

Last thing I wanted to mention was the romance. It plays a small part of the entire story but there are two separate romances for each of the main characters. I feel like they were both developed slowly and with care. One of them is interracial and the other includes an age gap. Both of these had the delicate manner that I would want when they were being developed. They were sweet and respectful and they both had me swooning a little bit. One of the things I really enjoyed is how the author made it a point to talk about the affects of not only the interracial relationship but also the life of the black male love interest in where they are living which is Virginia. It felt genuine and important to read about even though he was a side character and it was only a little part of the story.

Overall, I was surprised with how much I ended up enjoying this book. The plot revolves around the character development and while it took me awhile to get into, the writing style was beautiful. I am a now a fan of this author and of these characters and the more I think about this book, the more I love it.

I tried getting into this book on more than a handful of occasions and each time I was met with the same thought. There is simply too much going on for me to understand. From the very beginning we are bombarded with way too much information. The biker gang thing was really interesting but there was so many characters and side plots and information I felt you already needed to know to figure out how it all fit together. I DNF (did not finish) this at about 35% the farthest I got trying to get into it.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me the chance to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I have to admit, I first saw this book when author Zoraida Cordova took a picture of this book on her IG account. After seeing this amazing cover, I dashed to NetGalley to get my hands on this book quickly! I’m so glad I got book jealous, because it lead me into the arms of Sarah Nicole Lemon!

First and foremost I just to say sorry for this ARC review being so late. That being said I didn’t know anything about this book except the fact that this book cover is seriously the most bad ass thing I have ever seen. Just looking at the book cover of Done Dirt Cheap made me want to get velvet lipstick and a vegan leather jacket. I also know that this author is a debuting author, which meant there was no frame references of the author style. My only idea that I had about the author style was the fact that both Zoraida Cordova author from The Labyrinth Lost, and Laura Eve author of The Graces, both authors gave debuting author Sarah Nicole Lemon 5 star reviews. I gave Done Dirt Cheap by Sarah Nicole Lemon 3.5 stars, even though both authors gave the novel 5 stars I felt that after reading some extreme dramatic books in the past but that doesn’t take away the unique qualities of this debuting author amazing book. Honestly, I feel that after re-reading Don Dirt Cheap I’ll probably love it more and more the more I read it, but let’s get into the book itself.

First off this book is about these two incredible strong female protagonist which are extremely bad ass characters with all their beautiful flaws. There’s one character named  Tourmaline who is the daughter of the president of a bicker gang called the Wardens, meanwhile she’s also struggling with her mother whose currently in prison. Virginia had the misfortune of being tangled with a  skeevy lawyer who manipulated the situation of her debt by using his money to creating a large scheme to investigate the Wardens so he can dismantle them. This situation then connects Tourmaline and Virginia together as they attempt to infiltrate the gang.



Honestly if you’re not in love with this book right now, then what is wrong with you. I am sucker for a strong bad ass women, let alone two of them in a novel that involves a biker gang! Just from the setting of this novel you can already tell that this is not the conventional friendship or an instant friendship though school, this is the type of friendship that is built from trust and slowly develops through the course of the book. Each characters are hugely flawed, which makes them more realistic, as well as seeing the effect of the each events on their building friendship. Both characters  are very strong, both come from a diverse background while each offer a different methods, that truly brings them together. In a world that is dominated by men, they found each other in a foundation of their solidarity. Debuting author Lemon uses the two female protagonist to speak about a topic in America Literature since the 19th century by authors by Charlotte Perkins Gliman author of The Yellow Wallpaper, and Kate Chopin of The Awakening, the message being being a woman is a hard task in a society ruled by men, and the struggle of being a woman should not nor never limit you to you’re ability of owning you’re life! Now that is some serious girl power for you!



I love this book, but if you are a descendant of a long line of biker gang, I’m sure you’re thoughts about this book are going to be extremely different from me since I have absolutely no idea about the lifestyle of a biker gang. That being said I do love how the novel intertwines the information about a biker gang within the the core and story line of the book itself. It felt like the world of the protagonist was being explained to me in an interesting way that not only informed me but also educated me on what the protagonist world involved. Lemon has a great contemporary writing style that focuses on different members of the gang, races, and gender. Have no fear people, Lemon has diversity in her novel, there’s a black character in this book and there are various points in the novel where the characters comments and the hierarchies of the rituals amongst the club and how the implicated in the black person in a very predominantly white group of people. Lemon also has no fear identifying the fact that her character Tourmaline being of a different color skin is allowed be called out for the ability to have white privilege even in a biker gang. Also beware there is the element of a “forbidden” romance within the novel which I am kinda of tired of reading in romance and young adults novels alike but, there it is, predictable and none overwhelming at all.

Done Dirt Cheap by Sarah Nicole Lemon is an amazing novel that I’m extremely happy to have read as an ARC and also to give this wonderful review for this debuting author. I enjoyed reading about these amazing strong female characters! Honestly how can you not fall in love with a srong female who’ve built the type of friendship that not only ratle the stras but also rattle the opinion of what women can do in a male dominated society. I am super excited to see what its in store in more in Lemon’s future in writing.

I almost don’t want to rate this because I appreciate the story, but this book wasn’t for me. I thought I could get past a few things (primarily the motorcycle gang stuff I don’t care to read about) but I wasn’t ever able to settle into this book. The first 30% or so was confusing; I couldn’t figure out the motorcycle gang stuff, needed more background, and it just never clicked into place. This continued in various scenes throughout the book too.

I liked the characters a lot. Virginia and Tourmaline had an interesting friendship built on mutual -but somewhat different - need. They were able to come out of a male-dominated environment and take control.

There were some pretty crazy reveals during the story that I really didn’t see coming. I liked watching everything play out and wondering what was going to come up next. It was a slow read for me, but there was a decent amount of action and revelations. I forced myself to keep reading because I was vaguely curious about how it’d all end. I liked the girl gang vibes and the strong friendship that developed. If the premise intrigues you, I’m SURE you’ll love it. Even if the premise doesn’t intrigue you that much and you love strong friendships and solid romance, you’ll probably also like it. I don’t know why but I just couldn’t connect with the story and the writing, while also appreciating it so much.

Unfortunately this book was not what the reviewer expected. This book had previously appeared on a list of 2017 YA fiction with LGBTQ+ characters, and the blurb seemed to support this, but the reviewer said it did not have any LGBTQ+ characters after all. Returning this review copy unfinished, apologies.

Done Dirt Cheap was one of those books I had heard so many great things about from fellow reviewers, that I was determined to read it from the start. But somewhere and somehow, things didn't go as planned.

I kept mixing up characters. I kept forgetting about certain minor characters. I was confused about what exactly was going on. I somehow even managed to mix up te 2 main characters.

However, I am still determined to fall in love with this book, just like everyone else. So, I'm going to try again. In the near future, I am going to pick this book up again, read it from the start, and fall in love with it. And you'll get a new review from me then.

Done Dirt Cheap was a wild ride from start to finish.  It is a story of desperation, friendship, hopelessness, and change.  I loved every minute of it, from the complicated lady friendships to the hot hot motorcycle riding men they love.  If you like your ladies of the badass variety, your lawyers and police officers corrupt, and your pasts coming back to haunt you, pick up Done Dirt Cheap.  You won't be sorry!

Not only does Done Dirt Cheap have one of the most unique book covers I've ever seen, the phenomenal writing alone makes it a novel worth picking up.

Tourmaline has an unconventional home life, her father is the president of the Wardens, a local biker club and her mother is currently in prison, and Tourmaline blames herself. Virginia, on the other hand, is indebted to Hazard, a lawyer who goes outside the law to make a small fortune. Virginia's assignment is to investigate the Wardens for Hazard. As Tourmaline and Virginia's lives get increasingly tangled, their outside circumstances seem to not matter as much as their friendship. This powerful debut novel is a true masterpiece.

I really loved the friendship between Tourmaline and Virginia. While the novel did not start out with their friendship, I think seeing Tourmaline and Virginia's friendship develop really added to the novel in a unique way. The setting also played a huge role in the novel and the descriptions of it were just extraordinary. As I mentioned above, the writing is phenomenal. Despite the 3rd person POV, readers can easily relate to the main characters and picture all the settings vividly.

Overall, Done Dirt Cheap is a great novel rooted in friendship and excellent writing. I highly recommend it.

DNF @ 45%

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.

I couldn’t connect with any of the characters and I spent a good chunk of the beginning of this novel just feeling confused about what I was reading. The story wasn’t going anywhere and I found myself starting to skim read which is never a good sign for me.

Unfortunately this book just wasn’t for me personally. Hopefully I can come back to it one day with a different mindset. Part of my New Years Resolutions for 2017 was to be able to accept the fact that DNFing books is okay. It’s better to just stop instead of force yourself to continue reading. It’s a shame, but I’m just going to have to DNF this one.

As always, thank you to the publishers for letting me read this book in advance for an honest review. I’m trying to reign myself in right now in order to give you said review, but I must admit that Done Dirt Cheap has very quickly become one of my favourite books. Tourmaline and Virginia are the badass female characters I didn’t know I so badly wanted (and needed) until I started reading. 

I don’t think I’ve ever said “Damn!” so much in my entire life as when I was reading Done Dirt Cheap. Almost every time at something badass Tourmaline or Virginia said and/or did. I wanted to try to remain objective for the purpose of this review, but I don’t think that’s possible based on just how much I loved this book. I loved it so much that I went ahead and preordered a physical copy on amazon, because the cover is beautiful and this is a book I can see myself reading over and over, and I want to force all my friends to read it.

I’m not sure if I’ve made this clear or not, but just in case; I loved Done Dirt Cheap. The only thing I will say for it is that I’m not totally sure why I loved it as much as I do. Sure, Tourmaline and Virginia are indomitable and I love them and want them to be my friends, but other than that I can’t quite put my finger on exactly what it is about Done Dirt Cheap that captivated me so much. The writing itself was definitely well done and the storyline felt entirely new and original to me. Lemon has a way of keeping things relatively vague while also being beautifully descriptive. Her writing let you come to your own (often wrong) conclusions while only slightly nudging you in the right direction. You start off completely oblivious, suspicions arise and then all of a sudden you realise what was being shown to you all along.

Tourmaline and Virginia are amazing main characters, flawed, complicated and compelling. And truly badass. They’re smart and strong. They feel real, which isn’t always the case with a lot of YA books. I loved Lemon’s portrayal of female friendship; ride or die, or not so much. It all felt extremely genuine. It was refreshing to me to read about characters who are so inherently feminine while also possessing more traditionally considered masculine traits. All too often it seems to be one or the other with no middle ground, but not in Done Dirt Cheap.

The other characters are also well written and complex, particularly the love interests for Tourmaline and Virginia, Cash and Jason. Tourmaline’s parents are also equally interesting characters and the main antagonist, Hazard (his name says it all, really), makes a great villain. You’re never quite sure what his game is, but it’s clear that it’s unlikely to be anything good.

I thought Done Dirt Cheap had a great ending, everything was wrapped up in a satisfying way that also made sense and felt realistic. I found myself trying to ration the book after reading the first half, because I didn’t want to finish too quickly, but at the same time I needed to know what was going to happen next. I truly loved Done Dirt Cheap and I will definitely be keeping an eye out for any future releases from Sarah Nicole Lemon.