Birds of a Feather is the fourteenth novel by Australian author, Tricia Stringer. Eve, Julia and Lucy: they are probably the least likely trio to gather by intention, but life and circumstances have thrown them together in Wallaby Bay, and they need to make the best of it.

Evelyn Monk has hit seventy without depending on anyone, so she’s most displeased that a (surely minor?) shoulder injury needs surgery and homecare thereafter. While her self-imposed exile has already cut down on many of her community activities, not being able to drive, to be independent, is unthinkable!

While research work is always dependent on funding, to lose her job at forty-five has Julia Paterson reassessing her priorities, and the best place to do that is back home in Wallaby Bay, where she can catch up with her brother on the family farm and stay with her godmother, Eve. A break from Glen Walker, the man she has kept at arm’s length for three years, won’t hurt either.

Registered nurse and mother of two, Lucy Ryan has had an extended break from nursing after a scare during the previous year. While her de-facto, Alec is often away doing FIFO work, the move to Wallaby Bay has allowed their children to better get to know his ageing parents. At her mother-in-law’s suggestion, she warily agrees to provide in-home care for the rather cranky prawn-fishing matriarch of Wallaby Bay, Evelyn Monk.

While their first few encounters are a little prickly, Lucy and Eve soon come to an understanding and get on rather well. When Julia and Lucy meet, though, they seem to instantly rub each other the wrong way and barely do more than tolerate each other. Their grudging but necessary cooperation for Eve’s sake gradually morphs into friendship, surprising them both.

Stringer’s setting in a small town on the Spencer Gulf in South Australia is well-rendered, and no wonder, as she is very familiar with the area. Her depiction of the community, with its gossip and loyalties and petty jealousies, is convincing, as are the townspeople who inhabit it.

The challenges that Stringer throws her protagonists highlight various topical issues including feeling relevant after retirement and the unique problems faced by FIFO workers and their families. Her characters are appealing for all their faults and foibles, and it is heartening to watch them triumph over the adversities that life poses, and help each other doing it.

The story starts in June 2021, and it’s certainly tricky to set a novel in the undefined landscape that is the aftermath of a pandemic: who could predict a Delta variant that throws states back into lockdown? Nonetheless, the pandemic aspects of the story are handled realistically without being overwhelming. A thought-provoking and heart-warming read.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Harlequin Australia.