Book Review No 19: Hopetoun Wives by Fran Cusworth

The tiny town of Hopetoun in Western Australia has been transformed from a sleepy coastal village to a booming mining town. New housing estates are being built at a rate of knots and families are pouring into the area. Amidst all these new arrivals are three women - Jasmine, Miranda and Brigid. Jasmine is there reluctantly - she cheated on her husband and is now willing to do anything to make it up. Miranda is the mine managers wife and is happy to be back in Australia after living overseas for years. And Brigid has relocated after years of coping with Fly In Fly Out to try and reign in her husband Jack's crippling debts.

While Miranda is used to the mining lifestyle, Jasmine and Brigid are still learning the ropes. They are surprised and a little dismayed to find themselves secondary to their husbands and the jobs they do and are unprepared for how some of the locals feel about the way the mine has changed their town. Forming a friendship the three women buy and overhaul the only cafe in town and transform it into a booming business - although their personal lives are not so successful. Jasmine is dismayed to find herself attracted to another man and Brigid knows that Jack still yearns to spend every cent he earns and more. 

I have never been to a mining town or been involved in the industry at all but given what I've seen and read about it, Hopetoun Wives seems an accurate depiction of how the mining sector operates. Fran Cusworth has experienced it so I have no doubt it will ring very true for anybody who has lived there. I thought the descriptions of the landscape were very vivid, enough so that it prompted me to Google Hopetoun and check it out for myself. It is a beautiful place, a feeling very much conveyed in the storyline.

I thought this book was easy to read and the characters were quite well developed. I thought the story itself was interesting and I cared what happened to the characters. As some other reviewers have also noted I thought it ended a bit up in the air and was left feeling a little frustrated that the story wasn't quite finished off.

Overall a very enjoyable book which gives a realistic insight into the juggernaut that the mining industry in Australia has become.