Dirty Diana (Dirty Diana #1) by Jen Besser and Shana Feste

 

Summary (from the publisher): 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, 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 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?

Review: Despite a loving marriage, Diana has grown restless in her marriage to Oliver. They haven't had sex in months and they feel increasingly distant. When Diana starts listening to old tapes that she recorded of friends detailing sex escapades for a long-forgotten art project, she is inspired to start the project back up again. And it also makes her think about the nature of desire and how far she has come between her past, sensual self and the sexless wife and mother she has become. 

Although I appreciate the portrait of a marriage in distress and a woman finding and then losing herself, this book was mostly a flop for me personally. This book is exceedingly heavy on random sexual encounters. Dispersed throughout is Diana constantly being a voyeur in the name of art, enjoying listening and hearing about her friends' wildest sexual encounters, all the while she refuses to sleep with her husband. I really didn't like Diana. I appreciate her angst over her desires, artistic ambitions, etc., but she has a loving, sexy husband who tries over and over to connect to her and to whom she just refuses to connect with. Oliver deserves better! And then, when Oliver finally, finally starts to move on from her lack of interest and dismissal, Diana has the audacity to act outraged and betrayed. Diana seemingly wants the passion and excitement of brand new sexual partners (something she spends much of the book thinking about), while still enjoying coming home to her devoted and kind husband. 

It also just ultimately felt like not much happened in this book. The plot is weak! She remembers how she fell in love with her husband, she contemplates a past love affair, she listens to sex stories on tape - but what does Diana actually do? Not much beyond that and slowly drive her husband away. 

This was fairly well written and the audio was well done. But I just could not get past my distaste for Diana's treatment of Oliver. 

Stars: 3.5