Publication Date: July 1, 2025
Heat rises and sparks fly when a surf-town author and an intimacy coordinator are thrown together to write new, steamy sex scenes for a TV series based on her hit novel in this deliciously fun debut romance.
Tash was thrilled when the dramatic rights to her surprise-hit feminist novel were snapped up by an indie film studio. But no one warned her that a Hollywood shuffle could land her smart, literary epic in the hands of a huge action-movie franchise director more famous for his machismo than his artistry.
And now this big shot director wants “the dirty version” of her book, demanding Tash transform the strong, complex female warriors she created into eye candy. Despite her best efforts to stall, the studio assigns Tash to its golden-boy intimacy coordinator to help her add spice to the script. Tash resents Caleb from the first word of the first sentence they write together, certain he’s the enemy and too handsome to be trusted. But the longer they collaborate on her characters, the more she’s attracted to his firm grasp of emotional (and fine, physical) nudity. Soon they’re burning up the bedsheets along with their new pages, blurring romantic storylines.
But just when Tash feels it’s all coming together, the whole plot falls apart. Can she find a narrative that saves her show and her own love story, or are both lost forever?
When an author sells her dramatic rights for her feminist, dystopian novel, The Colony, sparks fly when an intimacy coordinator is tasked with helping the author spice up the screenplay in The Dirty Version by Turner Gable Kahn.
Tash, the author of the book, Tash is having a hard time letting her vision go. When push comes to shove, and she has to give the producer an answer about whether she wants to do the rewrites, things don’t look promising, especially when she’s assigned a male intimacy coordinator to work with her on the script!
Paired with Caleb, Tash is told Caleb is there to assist in taking her words from the page to the small screen. Caleb bends over backward to let her voice be heard the way she intended while adding the sensuality needed for it to become a television show.
Watching the two almost come to blows at times was challenging to watch. Tash tends to speak first and then realizes the trouble she’s gotten herself into. She and Caleb mostly get along, but she does tend to push him away, especially if she doesn’t think he’s on her side. Her friend Janelle is always there for her, as is one of her brothers and his partner. There’s a romance brewing between Tash and Caleb, even if they are working together, and that should be the last thing on their minds.
Set in Florida, the author provides vivid descriptions, but I wanted more. Tash had several meltdowns, which isn’t a professional look. Unfortunately, she often tries to reign herself in, but it’s usually too late. She has difficulty with relationships—from her parents to a sibling and especially with her ex-boyfriends. She just doesn’t seem to know how to pick a love interest well.
While most of the story focuses on the difficulty of writing the script, a few other stories are also told. Tash and Caleb eventually find a way to work together, but when romance is sparked, will that be their downfall? There is closure with the epilogue, but I wish it went on just a little longer.
The Dirty Version details what it takes to get the written word from book to screen and how things can go haywire fast.
Turner Gable Kahn grew up in the extra-hold-hairspray ribbon of sunshine between the Everglades and the Atlantic’s best beach. Her higher education took place along the banks of the Schuylkill, and then the Hudson. She commuted endlessly across the East River in the blood, sweat and tears of a design career, before leaving her heart on Victoria Harbor’s dance floors and the South China Sea’s cliff hikes. She now writes in the bright heat near the Singapore Strait during the school year; in the summer she greets the sunset with her family, on a back deck overlooking the Puget Sound.
