The speaker in these poems has what classic romantic comedies once dubbed spunk, moxie, or class. She’s a wise woman/ super babe/ bartendress/ foolish virgin/ small screen starlet. She’s part Lauren Bacall, part Nancy Drew, part Powerpuff girl. Her fantasies and adventures are touching and comic. You’ll want to meet This Blonde, as she wrestles skeptically with received notions of romance, men, the workplace, faith, being trapped in an elevator. She’s wistful/ flirty/ resourceful/ pert/ thirsty/ philosophical…with, yes, a heart of gold.

--Amy Gerstler

With tenderness and panache, Nicole Hardy bares her blonde ambition, from holy roots to platinum dazzle: "In each blue-funk Sabbath possession/I'm the small screen starlet, sand-stranded/beyond the fishnet rescue/of an evening gown." Waitressing, dating, going to church, scripting her made-for-TV movie, her speaker is sweetly carnal, alertly intelligent, tart but compassionate, hungry but patient, "trained to wait as long as it takes/for the secrets." In its rueful bravura, This Blonde is a fresh delight.

-Karen Volkman

One opens this book excited, as if seeing Marilyn Monroe for the first time. Hardy uses popular culture like lipstick and she knows how to kiss. This Blonde is fun reading and very seductive.

- E. Ethelbert Miller