The Work Wives is the twenty-sixth novel by Australian author, Rachael Johns. While it’s not her dream career, being payroll officer at The Energy Co keeps the bills paid and a tiny bit extra for single mother Debra Fast and her fifteen-year-old daughter. But now, thanks to a scholarship, a new exclusive eastern suburbs school, and the influence of new friends, Ramona seems to be transforming from sweet and compliant to rebellious and demanding.

What really worries Debra is Ramona’s foray into social media, necessary, she claims, to connect with her new friends. Debra has always been wary, worried that Ramona’s psycho father might track them down. Ramona is blissfully unaware, believing the donor-sperm story her mother told her, although she has wondered. A classmate’s suggestion of a DNA website is irresistible.

Due to numerous moves, Debra and Ramona have a close relationship which the girl is now finding a bit claustrophobic. Deb’s only real friend, apart from her daughter, is the woman she dubs her “work wife”, Quinn Paladino, whose addiction to dating apps does initially make her come across as a bit shallow, immature and flakey, although it’s soon clear her intentions are good.

In an unexpected turn-about, an old magazine prompts Quinn to take a break from the apps and try to find The One by more traditional methods; meanwhile, Deb is convinced, very reluctantly, to try her luck with a dating app, much to Ramona and Quinn’s enthusiastic approval and support. How will her first date with Tristan the vet turn out?

And then lives are turned upside down when a new Sales Manager starts at The Energy Co: someone Quinn, after an earlier chance encounter, would like very much to know better; someone Deb never wants to see again.

The Work Wives is an effective illustration of how the best-intentioned secrets may require lies and deception when there is a lack of trust; when the lies are exposed, is the relationship strong enough to withstand the sense of betrayal? Maybe honesty really is the best policy?

Johns populates her novel with quite a large cast, many of whose behaviour may see them appealing to under forties readers rather than those older. Ramona’s teenaged friends, Elijah and Lucy often showed more maturity that the “adults”.

She challenges the main protagonists with quite a number of issues: social isolation, peer group pressure, bullying, trust, domestic violence and coercive control, single parenting, online dating, and sexual discrimination. The story is, perhaps, longer than it needs to be, and the resolution relies heavily on a rather too well used trope. Johns can usually be relied on for an excellent read, but this is not her best work.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Harlequin Australia.