I read dirty books
A romantic comedy about sex, shame, self-worth—and the books that blow it all wide open.
SERIES OVERVIEW
The Essence
I Read Dirty Books is a female-led romantic comedy series that explores the messy, funny, and deeply human relationship women have with desire, identity, and self-permission. Told through the lens of two women’s unexpected journey into erotica, the series peels back the layers of shame, humor, and vulnerability that surround how women are taught to think about sex—and how they learn to reclaim it.
Part self-discovery, part slow-burn romance, part ode to paperback smut, I Read Dirty Books is a smart, character-driven series that’s both cheeky and sincere. It’s about the difference between being looked at and being seen. Between performing pleasure and feeling it.
At its heart, it’s a story about finding your voice—in bed, on the page, and in life.
Logline
The time in your life when your friends are your family and no one knows what the fu*k is going on!
Rosie and Hazel, present day, gen-Z, twenty-somethings, are trying to navigate the realities of their newfound adulthoods, but when things aren't perfect they escape into the world of their “Dirty Books”. Will Romance, be it real or imaginary, lead to a new path or will it take the girls too far from the one reality they’ve always known?
Tone
Smart, playful, and female-driven—with a blend of wit, warmth, and emotional honesty. A modern romantic comedy that balances real-world struggles with steamy escapism and self-discovery.
Pilot - Chapter One
We meet Rosie, a soft-spoken barista with big dreams of landing a job in marketing. In the meantime, she’s brewing lattes, sending out résumés, and trying to stay hopeful in the face of rejection. A lifelong bookworm, she decides to inject a little joy into her life by committing to one rule this month: only read romance novels.
Enter Hazel—Rosie’s best friend and complete opposite. She’s diving into a new semester of law school, laser-focused and unapologetically Type A. Her idea of balance? A carefully curated schedule of studying, hobbies, quality time with friends, and the occasional no-strings-attached Tinder date.
When Rosie finds herself overwhelmed by life’s uncertainty, Hazel and their mutual friend Will nudge her toward something new: starting a BookTok account to document her smutty reading challenge. What begins as a playful distraction quickly goes viral. Suddenly, Rosie is swept into a thriving online community obsessed with her honest, hilarious takes on romance novels—and her unexpected knack for translating fantasy into reality.
Just as her BookTok presence explodes, Rosie lands an interview with her dream marketing firm. But the question lingers: is this still the dream? Or has she stumbled into something better?
By the end of the episode, Rosie and Hazel both find themselves standing at the edge of something wildly unexpected—where real life starts to blur with fantasy, and desire takes center stage.
Themes
- Desire & Self-Permission
Learning to want—unapologetically—and to own that desire without shame. - Fantasy vs. Reality
Navigating the tension between what we imagine and what we actually need or experience. - Female Friendship
The grounding force of honest, supportive, and sometimes messy relationships between women. - Identity & Reinvention
Discovering who you are outside of expectation—through books, through love, through failure. - Sexuality & Shame
Deconstructing how women are taught to view pleasure, and rewriting that narrative on their own terms. - Power of Storytelling
How fiction (especially romance) shapes perception, opens possibilities, and helps women reclaim their narratives.
Season One Breakdown
- Rosie pivots her career dreams when she starts a successful BookTalk account and finds strength in the new community that she becomes a part of. She becomes comfortable with the unknown of this newfound path.
- Hazel, currently in her second year of Law School, gets tangled in a provocative relationship with her professor and learns that love is in fact real.
- A group of college friends show that they stand hand in hand through the celebrations and devastations of their early twenties. The two leaders of the group, Sophie and Jake, get engaged causing the group to celebrate their friends’ love and simultaneously evaluate their own relationships.
- Rosie and Hazel go on a journey of sexual empowerment from their wildest fantasies to real life scenarios.
Target Audience
The Romance Novel Resurgence: People are reading again! And our characters are reading some steamy, dirty books. The world of BookTok plays a huge role in the show aswell as the books themselves. The books offer the character’s their fantasies, their careers, and so much more!
The show is also a love letter for the book community. From readers, BookTokers, authors, to publishers, this story celebrates them and their books!
Why This Show?
- The Real vs Fantasies: The characters start to go into their imaginations at random times and play out sexy fantasies. The audience sees them, but none of the other characters. We get a peek inside everyone’s (dirty) minds!
- The Apps that Rule Our Lives: Texting, Hinge, TikTok, Instagram, Bumble, Tinder, Snapchat, dare I say more? These are the apps that the character’s use and explore. Messages will appear on the screen for the audience to see and read. The characters will talk about these apps frequesntly. We will see the positive and negative effects.
- The Romance Novel Resurgence: People are reading again! And our characters are reading some steamy, dirty books. The world of BookTok plays a huge role in the show aswell as the books themselves. The books offer the character’s their fantasies, their careers, and so much more!