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Dirty Diana by Jen Besser and Shana Feste

Literary fiction

Dirty Diana

Debut

We love supporting debut authors. Congrats, Jen Besser and Shana Feste, on your first book!

by Jen Besser and Shana Feste

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Quick take

An intimate, provocative look at desire, art, and unfulfilled fantasy through the lens of one woman’s waning marriage.

Good to know

  • Illustrated icon, Feminist

    Feminist

  • Illustrated icon, Nonlinear_Timeline

    Nonlinear timeline

  • Illustrated icon, Marriage_Issues

    Marriage issues

  • Illustrated icon, Very_Spicy

    Extra spicy

Synopsis

Diana Wood has a job she likes and a husband, Oliver, she loves. Together, they have a daughter they adore. She and Oliver spend so much time together that they even carpool to work in the same office. They’re in married love, which isn’t exactly the same as love love, but it’s fine.

Or is it? Is fine good enough?

Diana and Oliver haven’t had sex in months, and their intimacy seems more like a memory than a reality. The cozy trappings of Diana’s life in Dallas, Texas, have become ever-more confining. She is restless, growing more distant from Oliver by the day.

A trip to see an old friend in Santa Fe prompts Diana to remember the woman she used to be: an aspiring artist; someone devoted to creativity, spontaneity, sensuality. In her past—especially with Jasper, the dashing photographer with whom she once had an unforgettable love affair—Diana let herself fantasize, she let her body lead the way. She was wholly…alive.

Returning to Dallas, Diana decides to rediscover the deeply feeling woman she once was. She begins interviewing other women, painting their portraits as they speak. She encourages them to give voice to their secret desires as she captures their deepest, innermost fantasies. But is it possible for Diana to reclaim her more sensual self and maintain the marriage she committed to? What if connecting to her own desires means dissolving the safe life she’s so carefully cultivated?

Free sample

Get an early look from the first pages of Dirty Diana.

Dirty Diana

Prologue

Outside our tent, the night is dark, deep, and absolutely clear. Inside, I close my eyes and try to sleep.

But the ground is cold and so hard beneath my back. I press my lips together to keep my teeth from chattering.

It must be warmer in your sleeping bag.

I shift onto my side so I can see you. It’s a new moon and only the stars give off light. They paint you in a dreamy tint—­your skin is smooth except where the stubble of three days in the desert has grown in. Your eyes are closed, your face turned up toward the tent’s mesh opening and your lips, full and perfect, are arranged in a relaxed smile, as if you’re stargazing in your sleep. You must not be cold because your arms are outside your sleeping bag, resting triumphantly by your sides. Your chest, naked and muscular, rises and falls in a steady rhythm.

We haven’t had sex in hours, but it feels like years.

I was prepared for the desert days to be hot and the nights to be cold—­or at least, I listened and nodded as you warned me, which I know now is different from being prepared. I underestimated the weather the same way that, earlier today, we had both underestimated the craggy hills surrounding us. “The peak isn’t so high,” we’d said. “Let’s hike to the top.” You climbed like the sun didn’t bother you, and if I hadn’t been with you, you would have moved much faster.

Near the top, we passed the entrance to a cave. I wondered aloud what lived inside. “Maybe a bobcat,” you said and shrugged. So I shrugged, too, said, “Cool,” and backed away.

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Why I love it

I’ve always thought invisibility would be the best superpower to have, purely for the eavesdropping potential. Reading Dirty Diana feels like standing with your ear pressed up against the door while people on the other side spill their secrets and fantasies: a little unsettling, definitely forbidden, and very addictive.

Dirty Diana is, at its core, a story about the age-old dilemma: play it safe or risk it all? Diana is stuck in a comfortable but sexless marriage with Oliver. On paper they are the perfect couple, but the spark is long gone. Enter Jasper, Diana’s old flame, who reminds her of what her marriage is lacking. As she tries to untangle where her true desire lies, Diana seeks answers through her art. As part of her painting project, she interviews other women about their sex lives, trying to find inspiration and learn from the experiences of the women around her.

As a fan of TV’s Couples Therapy, and a snoop in general, I loved being a fly on the wall of Diana and Oliver’s counseling sessions and the secret interview sessions between Diana and her subjects. Dirty Diana raises questions about desire, the private vs. public selves, and what it means to seek the spark even if it means jeopardizing the everyday fabric of your world. Spicy, deep, and challenging, Dirty Diana left me wanting more in the best possible way.

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View all
Dirty Diana
The Stone Witch of Florence
The Seventh Veil of Salome
Hera
The Lion Women of Tehran
The Return of Ellie Black
Annie Bot
More
Bright Young Women
The First Ladies
Lady Tan’s Circle of Women
Weyward
Queen of Thieves
Hester
Love on the Brain
Bronze Drum
The Bodyguard
The Change
Lessons in Chemistry
Kaikeyi
My Body
Half Sick of Shadows
The Girl with Stars in Her Eyes
Outlawed
More Myself
Practical Magic
A Rogue of One's Own
True Story
Fleishman Is in Trouble
The Book of Longings
Untamed
The Kingdom of Back
The Girl with the Louding Voice
Throw Like a Girl
Trick Mirror
Bringing Down the Duke
Three Women
Shout
Thick
Still Lives
The Rules of Magic
The Nightingale