Cirrus@Austlit

''Marriage isn’t always a bed of roses. And there are many ways to be a wife,' the vicar informs the town …

'It’s 1930, and as the Depression overtakes rural New South Wales, what it means to be a wife tests the four respectable ladies of Prospect to their very limit.

'Louisa Worthington fled to the city ten years ago, pregnant, poor and under a cloud of scandal. Now she’s back - blonde and brazen - with her heart set on the married son of the town’s mayor.

'Adelaide Nightingale, newly widowed and starved of romance, yearns for adoration, security and a version of herself defined by beauty not business.

'Maggie Albright dreams of empire building, but is hamstrung by her over-cautious husband, who grows less handsome by the day.

'Then there’s Pearl Fletcher, happily married to Joe, the district’s most successful sheep farmer, but protecting a secret that could tear their family apart.

'And hovering in the town’s shadows is a ghost from their past. A man newly released from jail ruthlessly bent on exploiting the ladies’ hopes and fears to get what he wants. And what he wants is Louisa ...'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'It's September 1919. The war is over, and everyone who was going to die from the flu has done so. But there's a shortage of husbands and women in strife will flounder without a male to act on their behalf.

'And in the southern NSW town of Prospect, four ladies bereft of men have problems that threaten to overwhelm them.

'Beautiful Louisa Worthington, whose dashing husband died for King and Country, is being ruined by the debts he left behind.

'Young Maggie O'Connell, who lost her mother in childbirth and her father to a redhead, is raising her two wayward brothers and fighting for land she can't prove is hers.

'Adelaide Nightingale has a husband, but he's returned from the war in a rage and is refusing to tackle the thieving manager of their famous family store.

'Pearl McLeary, Adelaide's new housekeeper, must find her missing fiance before it's too late and someone dies.

'Thank God these desperate ladies have a solution -- a part-time husband who will rescue them all. To find him, they'll advertise. To afford him, they'll share . . .' (Publication summary)