ARC Review: Dirty Little Secret by Jennifer Echols

Dirty Little Secret by Jennifer Echols
Publisher: MTV Books
Release Date: July 16, 2013
Book Format: ARC
Number of Pages: 288
My Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Synopsis: From the author of the “real page-turner” (Seventeen) Such a Rush comes an unforgettable new drama that follows friends-turned-lovers as they navigate the passions, heartbreaks, and intrigue of country music fame.

Bailey wasn’t always a wild child and the black sheep of her family. She used to play fiddle and tour the music circuit with her sister, Julie, who sang and played guitar. That ended when country music execs swooped in and signed Julie to a solo deal. Never mind that Julie and Bailey were a duet, or that Bailey was their songwriter. The music scouts wanted only Julie, and their parents were content to sit by and let her fulfill her dreams while Bailey’s were hushed away.

Bailey has tried to numb the pain and disappointment over what could have been. And as Julie’s debut album is set to hit the charts, her parents get fed up with Bailey’s antics and ship her off to granddad’s house in Nashville. Playing fiddle in washed-up tribute groups at the mall, Bailey meets Sam, a handsome and oh-so-persuasive guitarist with his own band. He knows Bailey’s fiddle playing is just the thing his band needs to break into the industry. But this life has broken Bailey’s heart once before. She isn’t sure she’s ready to let Sam take her there again…
My Review:
I received an ARC of Dirty Little Secret by Jennifer Echols, from Around the World ARC Tours and this is my honest review.

Dirty Little Secret is about an 18 year old named Bailey who has had a tough year. She started of playing fiddle along side of her sister until her sister was signed by a record company and she was basically forgotten about. Now by way of her parents she’s living with her grandfather and trying to stay under the radar so she does not get in her sisters spotlight.

The story started off with Bailey playing in little band things in the mall which was a little boring at first because I had no clue what was going on. We quickly found out some background on it like where she was living, why, and how she wasn’t supposed to have a job like this but she did anyways. Even with the small amount of info in the beginning I was still confused as to what exactly happened between her parents, her sister and her so for me the beginning was not very enjoyable .

This is the first book I’ve read by Echols so I obviously was not sure what I should expect, but I enjoyed the way she built her characters. Sam for instance when we first meet him he seems like a sweet guy but the father we get into the book and the more we get to know him he changes and not necessarily for the better. The reason I enjoyed this trait well half of me enjoyed it half of me hated it because when she first introduced Sam she made him lovable which drew us in then suddenly his character changed into someone you weren’t expecting and although you wanted to hate him you could not because you keep remembering what he was like in the beginning! 

Another thing I really enjoyed was how Echols did such a great job with the little snippets of romance between Bailey and Sam. Every time they were together everything was just so sweet and gentle like how it was described made you almost feel like you were there witnessing it and I loved every second of it. 

Even though I’m not much of a country music kind of person the author did a pretty good job with making the book enjoyable for everyone so I’m going to go ahead and give it a 3.5 out of 5 only because all though it was enjoyable I struggled with some parts of the book. But I am definitely willing to give Jennifer Echols another shot!