4.5 stars.

Talk Dirty to Me, Dakota Cassidy's first installment in her Plum Orchard series, is sweet, sassy and sexy! This fun read is also poignant and just a little heartbreaking but overall, it is a wonderful story of second chances and redemption for heroine, Dixie Davis. Dixie is a reforming mean girl whose efforts to make amends for her past misdeeds are hampered by her reputation, the long memories of the townspeople and good old-fashioned jealousy.

Dixie has a long history of manipulating, lying and cheating to get her way and ten years ago, this behavior blew up in her face and eventually led to the end of her engagement to Caine Donovan. She and Caine left town after their break-up but they both maintained their close friendship with Landon Wells. Returning to Plum Orchard for Landon's funeral, they are stunned to learn of his bequest to them-a thriving phone sex company, Call Girls. Insanely competitive, Dixie and Caine are soon locked in a fierce battle to win full ownership of Call Girls. Their court-appointed mediator keeps the peace between them during business hours, but who is going to keep them from acting on their scorching hot passion?

Surprisingly, Dixie is a very likable and sympathetic character. She is genuinely remorseful for her long ago actions and she never cuts herself any slack when it comes to owning her mistakes. Her tentative friendship with Emmeline "Em" Amos is a minefield of hurt feelings on Em's part and it takes a while for Dixie to earn Em's trust. Although her resolve is challenged when her protective instincts for Em are provoked, Dixie remains determined to become a better person.

There is never any doubt that Caine was deeply hurt by Dixie's actions and in fact, he still harbors a lot of anger toward her. He is highly skeptical that she has really changed and he is very conflicted by the differences in her behavior. Caine is unwilling to trust her again, but he gradually begins to believe that her transformation is legitimate but he remains reluctant to risk his heart.

The sparks fly between Caine and Dixie from their very first scene together. Their scenes are full of witty repartee and an incredible amount of sexual tension. Caine and Dixie's sex scenes are explicitly detailed and incredibly hot. It is also very obvious that they are still deeply in love, but mistakes from the past make it very difficult for them to commit to a future together.

Fully rounding out this marvelous novel is an outstanding cast of secondary characters. Although he has passed away, Landon's presence is always keenly felt and his love for Dixie and Caine transcends death. Frenemy Louella Palmer continually tries to undercut Dixie's efforts and she provides a lot of the external conflict to the storyline. Em is kind hearted and loyal, but her friendship with Dixie is tested throughout the story.

A romance with depth and substance, Talk Dirty to Me is a fast-paced and entertaining novel with a cast of characters that are incredibly appealing. The plotline is realistic and easy to relate to, and Dakota Cassidy's writing style is quite engaging. Plum Orchard is an immensely charming series and I cannot wait to dive into Something to Talk About, Em's romance with delicious newcomer Jax Hawthorne! ( )

Review: This book took me an extraordinarily long time to read. The reason? The heroine was very difficult to like. She was a mean girl while in high school. Once out of high school she still bullied her way through life. Although this book started a decade after high school it was hard to see her as anything other than mean when every encounter or self musings was a reminder of her past. I find it hard to believe that someone can change so drastically from a horrible person to a kind one. At one point she had already claimed she had a change of heart in her early 20s but ended up the same horrible girl she was as a child. It wasn't until the last 1/4 of the book where I really jumped on the Dixie bandwagon and found I actually grew to like her.

In addition to the hard to like heroine the book has so many pop culture references that it will not stand the test of time and the hero's "talent" for voices got to be annoying. Sure Jean-Luc Picard's voice may be identifiable as is Sean Connery's but talking like Darryl in The Walking Dead? Um ok.

What helped the book from being only average were the interesting secondary characters and the lovely message from the H/h's deceased best friend (via a DVD made prior to his death.) I found the last 1/4 of the book tied the book up very nicely and whetted my appetite for the next book in the series, which I had decided against reading during the first half but found by the end I changed my mind. ( )

Talk Dirty to me
This book is like a sweet glass of tea on a hot summer day. A warm kitten to cuddle on a cool fall eve. A hot chocolate on a winter night. A warm peach pie with ice cream in the spring. This is comfort reading, good warm and fuzzy for the heart. No matter what the title may suggest, LOL.
Three friends from small town America are driven apart by life, work and drama-rajas are reconnected when one of the trio dies, Landon. He sets up his estate to tie his other two estranged friends together to get them to work out their issues and more. The work he dangles before them is a phone sex business that requires them to participate and live under the same roof for a certain amount of time. This job leads to many laugh out loud moments 
Dixie our female member of the friend group was a mean girl back in high school and the town she has returned too has not forgotten it one bit. They don’t plan on letting her forget it either. She is coming back to town with her tail between her legs and is ready to face the truth but it might be harder than she realizes. Then there is her jilted ex Caine to deal with
Caine, ex fiancé’ to Dixie is back and he’s looking forward to confronting Dixie about what happened 10 years ago when she left him. He is returning to his home town a successful man and doesn’t need the business left to him but can’t ever turn down a good competition. He also has a great voice and does impersonations that will rock the sex phone lines, like his Sam Elliot, and Daryl from Walking Dead. Yum. “Can’t win a contest if you aren’t playing”
Things get rocky, the town folk get ugly towards their new town residents of phone operators. The bashing between ex’s gets nasty and heated. But Dixie is all for giving up her ghost and starting new, she groveling at the bottom of the barrel and has changed bit will anybody ever believe her ? There are also the uplifting snarky texts from the died Landon that are hilarious and well timed.
I really enjoyed this nice cozy read. There was just the perfect amount of angst, romance and humor. I enjoy this authors style and plan on reading more from her. ( )

An entertaining book to listen to. Need to approach with a suspense of disbelief, as premise of story is more fantastical than achievable. First book I've read by this author, and am willing to try the next in this series. Ms. Chase does a decent job in her reading of the book. ( )

Read for Review (NetGalley)
Overall Rating: 4.25
Story Rating: 4.00
Character Rating: 4.50

First Thought when Finished: Talk Dirty to Me by Dakota Cassidy made me cry, laugh, and cheer! It was really enjoyable!

Story Thoughts: This was such a unique setting for a contemporary romance but it really worked. I thought the phone sex setting was perfect way for these two characters to work things out. Plus, it lead to some downright hilarious moments. I could just imagine how much I would have blushed being in a room while those ladies were working. I know that I laughed out loud several times while reading. However, this also packed an emotional punch! One I didn't see coming and that made it that much sweeter!

Character Thoughts:I should start with Dixie or Caine but to me Landon was the heart of the story. It is one of those times when a 3rd person was just as significant to the love story as the two people involved in the relationship. Without Landon, neither Dixie or Caine would have gotten out of their own way. Dixie was a wonderful example of mean girl gone good and Caine was still sporting a bruised ego but he was "oh-so-hot" doing it. These 3 characters played brilliantly off of each other. I also enjoyed the whole cast of characters and can't wait to revisit Plum Orchard.

Final Thoughts: I just adored this book! ( )