Amber Quill Press, $6.00, ISBN 978-1-60272-004-6
Contemporary Romance, 2007

Poor Josephine “Joey” Fiorello. The only reason our heroine gets the position as TV actor/sex-maniac Dare Daniels’s new PA is because his manager believes that she is too plain to be Dare’s type. Dare is going to retreat to his Oklahoma hometown to lay low after an embarrassing fiasco with his latest squeeze, so Joey finds herself responsible for ensuring his good behavior during his forced vacation. I’m sure you can guess what happens next.

That’s pretty much the plot of Dirty Shame – bad boy falls for the relatively proper (compared to him) young woman who doesn’t take his crap. It’s a nice fantasy, especially when the main characters are too adorable for words. A cynical part of me doesn’t really buy the happily ever after but the more Pollyanna part of me reminds me of how long Paul Newman remained married to his wife, and there is no bigger horn dog around than Paul Newman allegedly was when he was single. Since Dare is about to star in the remake of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, oh yes, I suspect that Ms March and me are on the same frequency where Paul is concerned.

And oh, Dare and Joey. They are both wounded characters in their own way and I like how they get to hash out their demons to each other before they find their happy ending because it makes their relationship more convincingly real. Dare is a very nice mix of unrepentant naughtiness and angst while Joey is just as nicely balanced as a sensible person who sometimes isn’t as wise as she’d like to be. These two make a great couple – they are sweet together when they are arguing or talking and they are hot when they are bumping uglies.

Dirty Shame is a little too pricey for its length in my opinion but the relationship of Dare and Joey has me thinking that this book is almost worth the $6.00 the publisher is charging for this book. I have a fun time with Dare and Joey and now I’m in the mood to re-watch Paul Newman in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Now where did I put that tape?