Sex can be just gorgeous — and sometimes it is the most beautiful thing that can happen between a man and a woman. But don't you also think that it can be just practical? Like when you're hungry and don't want a three-course meal with wine, music, and ambience; you just want a sandwich. You don't love the sandwich. You don't hate the sandwich. You just want to eat the sandwich and feel satisfied.

Dr. Pepper Schwartz has always encouraged women to embrace their sexual appetites. After three decades of answering people's questions about their emotional, sexual, and romantic lives; after writing several books on sex and relationships; after thirty-five years as a sociology professor at the University of Washington, she has formed firm opinions about sex and relationships. However, when her own situation changes, when she becomes a single woman after twenty-three years of marriage, she has to reevaluate and discover how sex and dating can work for her at this unique time in her life.

Masters and Johnson, the famous sex researchers concluded that you can have sex, and want sex, way into old age, if you never stop doing it. And Pepper is very sure that she never wants to stop doing it. Now, she must make the effort to put herself in the running — getting in shape physically, emotionally, and spiritually — and figure out ways to meet worthy and available men. Ideally, she would like to have a serious relationship, but if that isn't in the cards, she still wants sex and companionship. And while she may feel as sexually alive as she did when she was twenty-five, the number and availability of men has changed.

So, how do you look for a life partner afterfifty and enjoy sexual adventures along the way?

Prime is Dr. Pepper's response to this question. It's her story of exploration — sex, adventure, and romance — spread out like a road map for women of every age, because even as she is telling her own tale, she doesn't forget to exercise her talent for advice. Whether you're looking to wake up a tired sex life, start a new relationship, explore cyber-dating, indulge in a four-hand massage, flirt with gigolos on vacation, or commit to the love of your life, you can find tempting tips and genuinely helpful guidance.

The prime of life has lengthened and as Dr. Pepper's experiences show, it would be wrong not to live every moment to the fullest. Calling for a brave and creative reevaluation of what is possible in the second half of women's lives, Prime invites every woman to relish her sexuality, take risks, and go after what she really wants — whether it's a sandwich or something substantially more satisfying....

"'Schwartz, a sociologist at the University of Washington and sex and relationship adviser (The Great Sex Weekend) starts off with a question she had to ask herself: what should a woman do when she's suddenly single again after 23 years of marriage, hoping for another long-term relationship, or at least sex and companionship? 'I feel as sexually alive as I did when I was 25, but the number and availability of men for me has changed,' Schwartz writes. Her candid and sexy memoir, targeted toward women in their 40s, 50s and 60s, is both a highly entertaining sexual autobiography and an account of her romantic liaisons in the five years after her divorce. The book is an unusual and appealing mixture of realistic dating tips and shrewd relationship advice interspersed with cautionary tales of Schwartz's rocky relationships with a succession of alpha males Despite the continuing thud of her romantic disappointments, Schwartz doesn't regret the risks she took. Ultimately, she learns to savor the pleasure of just being alive in her own body. For someone who admits that she can let her 'hormones create fake intimacy' in her relationships, it's nice to see Schwartz finally enjoying an authentic relationship with herself. (June)' Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)"

From one of the nations leading experts on relationships and sexuality, Dr. Schwartz inspires women to celebrate sexuality at every stage of their lives. She includes first-hand stories of adventures and descriptions of steamy scenarios as well as heartfelt and realistic sex and relationship advice.

Dr. Pepper Schwartz is the industry's leading relationship authority. She has contributed regularly to Glamour and has appeared repeatedly on Oprah, the Today show, and numerous national news shows, and she is currently the relationship expert for PerfectMatch.com. Dr. Pepper is the author of fourteen books, including The Great Sex Weekend and Everything You Know About Love and Sex Is Wrong. A professor of sociology at the University of Washington in Seattle, she holds a B.A. and an M.A. from Washington University in St. Louis, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology from Yale University.