Dirty Talk

I was delighted to be given a copy of this book to review, and boy I wasn't disappointed. When 50 Shades came out the market seemed to be flooded and I was left waiting for a good book in this genre and with this one, well I was not disappointed at all. I loved it!!! I highly recommend it! I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review and really thank the publishers!

I enjoyed this friends-to-lovers story. It somehow manages to be short and sweet, but also--as promised--super, super dirty.

The story is about Amy and Phil, who are good friends. They're both friends with Jules and Dave, who are an on-again, off-again couple. Amy and Jules used to be very close, but since Jules got together with Dave (who's quite a jerk), Jules hasn't treated Amy very well.

Amy is incredibly shy and passive. She prefers losing herself in novels (specifically, erotic fiction) to interacting with actual people. When Dave the jerk bets Amy that he can write a better dirty story than she can, at first she doesn't want to take up his offer. But Phil encourages her to do it, so she agrees.

From there, the interaction between Amy and Phil escalates pretty quickly. Phil begins serving as Amy's muse: the two of them become sexually involved, which inspires Amy's writing. The more that the story progresses, the more Amy starts to realize that she wants more with Phil. Together, they have to figure out what they're going to do now that their relationship has changed completely.

For the most part, I liked Amy as a character. At first, she's insecure and not very sexually confident. But with Phil's encouragement and understanding, she begins exploring her desires more boldly and becomes more comfortable with herself as a sexual person.

I strongly disliked both Jules and Dave. I didn't find any redeeming qualities for either of them. It wasn't clear to me how old their characters are, but they come across as incredibly immature.

There's a plot twist toward the end that I didn't see coming--it involves a separate bet that Phil had foolishly agreed to with Dave. At first, Amy is hugely hurt by this, but rather than avoid Phil, she confronts him about it. That shows growth on her part because I'm not sure she would have done that so readily if it had happened earlier in the book.

The initial start of Amy and Phil's physical relationship, along with the resolution, both felt a bit rushed for me. However, I enjoyed the book overall. Jane O'Reilly writes in such a way that makes it easy to get into her characters' heads. And the content of the story certainly lived up to the title. I look forward to reading more from O'Reilly in the future.