Reviewed by Jess

TITLE: Dirty Laundry

SERIES: Tucker Springs #3

AUTHOR: Heidi Cullinan

PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press

LENGTH: 206 pages

RELEASE DATE:  March 29, 2019

BLURB:

Sometimes you have to get dirty to come clean.

When muscle-bound Denver Rogers effortlessly dispatches the frat boys harassing grad student Adam Ellery at the Tucker Springs laundromat, Adam’s thank-you turns into impromptu sex over the laundry table. The problem comes when they exchange numbers. What if Adam wants to meet again and discovers Denver is a high-school dropout with a learning disability who works as a bouncer at a local gay bar? Or what if Denver calls Adam only to learn while he might be brilliant in the lab, outside of it he has crippling social anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder?

Either way, neither of them can shake the memory of their laundromat encounter. Despite their fears of what the other might think, they can only remember how good the other one feels. The more they get together, the kinkier things become. They’re both a little bent, but in just the right ways.

Maybe the secret to staying together isn’t to keep things clean and proper. Maybe it’s best to keep their laundry just a little bit dirty.

REVIEW:

I’m trying to go into this review unbiased, as I am already a huge fan of Cullinan’s writing. She always goes the extra mile, digs a little deeper, making her characters so much brighter and realer than those of her contemporaries. This book is no different. Denver and Adam are both excellent characters who have such satisfying arcs, and their chemistry is off the charts.

Adam, a grad student, finds himself swept off his feet after a run-in at the laundromat with Denver, a burly bouncer who has no problem taking control. The two men are instantly infatuated with each other, but they both keep secrets that they think will destroy the rosy image they have of each other.

Writing real, believable characters with mental illnesses and disabilities in romance can be hard. Many of us deal with depression, anxiety, and other mental disorders, and sometimes seeing ourselves in fictional characters can be disheartening. But Adam, who has anxiety and OCD, is so lifelike that he’s the type of mirror we want to see more of in books. He breaks down, cries, and has bad days. He also tries to help himself, he tries really hard, and sometimes, despite his best efforts, he still breaks down. I think this is something we need more of with mentally ill characters—failure. Failure to heal, to cope, to stick to a timeline. Without failure, there’s no conflict, and there’s no growth.

I was a little apprehensive about Adam’s using sex as a coping mechanism, especially hardcore BDSM, but the story really digs into this topic and picks it apart, piece by piece. It ends up making a lot of sense. I kept thinking of my friend, who deals with OCD and paranoia, who was always afraid to leave her apartment because she thought she kept her aromatherapy candle burning. Instead of trying to get her to stop using the candle or get over her fear, her therapist suggested she just take the candle with her when she left the house. Why not? It’s a little unorthodox, but it certainly helped. It removed the problem right where it stood. When Adam lets Denver take control, he’s removing the problem, which is overthinking. It doesn’t exist when he’s tied up or being spanked. And for the time being, that’s healing. Of course, he also sees a therapist, seeks out positive friendships, and lets himself go slowly—all important things when dealing with mental illness.

But let’s just talk about the sex scenes for a second. Even as a veteran reader of both erotica and Heidi Cullinan, I’m still shocked at how absolutely filthy her sex scenes can be—and that is a high compliment! Denver has been in the BDSM scene for a long time, so he has no problem showing Adam the literal ropes. Their first scene together involves having sex in a public laundry room, so naturally, things get hot and heavy pretty quickly. But if you’re not into hardcore BDSM, you may want to skip this one. There are graphic scenes of spanking, impact play, slight breath-play, ropework, gagging, and use of toys. But since Cullinan is such a good romance writer, she never strays from the characters’ growth, even as they are getting as dirty as possible. Sex is a healing mechanism for both men (though I would’ve liked to explore Denver’s side of things a little better), and their roles as dominant and submissive allow them both a freedom they don’t have in other aspects of their lives.

This book, along with the first two standalone stories in this series, originally came out a few years ago, but they have been reprinted through Dreamspinner. I think the first two books are a little heavier on plot and explain the world of Tucker Springs in greater detail. This one is all about the characters, which totally works.

RATING: 

BUY LINKS: 

Dreamspinner Press

Amazon