“You are going to meet the real flesh-and-blood Shirley Jones, not just the movie star or Mrs. Partridge,” says the beloved film, television, and stage actress and singer of her long-awaited memoir, an account as shockingly direct, deliciously juicy, and delightfully frank as the performer herself.

Sharing the “candid” (Los Angeles Times) and “revealing” (Associated Press) details of her life in Hollywood’s inner circle and beyond, Shirley Jones blows past the wholesome, squeaky-clean image that first brought fame, and gives us a woman who only gets hotter with time.

If the story of a rebellious, gifted small-town girl being discovered by Rodgers and Hammerstein isn’t thrilling enough, go deeper behind the scenes, where Shirley Jones portrays her tumultuous marriage to Jack Cassidy, the dashing and charismatic but deeply troubled actor who unlocked her highly charged sexuality and captured her heart forever. She talks openly about their passion-fueled relationship; the infidelities, the costar crushes, and sexual experimentation. She reflects on her relationship with stepson David Cassidy; her cult status as coolest-ever TV mom Shirley Partridge; her second marriage to wacky TV comedian and producer Marty Ingels; and much more in this “saucy” (Entertainment Weekly) self-portrait.

Shirley Jones is an American singer and actress of stage, film, and television. In her six decades of show business, she has starred as wholesome characters in a number of well-known musical films, such as Oklahoma! (1955), Carousel (1956), and The Music Man (1962). She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for playing a vengeful prostitute in Elmer Gantry (1960). She played Shirley Partridge, the widowed mother of five children in the situation comedy television series The Partridge Family (1970–1974), co-starring her real-life stepson David Cassidy.