Man Drought - Rachael Johns
I'm pretty self-indulgent with my reviews. I comment on what interests me about a book, rather than thinking that someone might actually read my reviews! You don't, do you? :)

All of which is my excuse for going off on a bit of a tangent.

Since chick lit burst onto the scene and then kind of faded but never went away, I've been wondering about its fate and I've decided that contemporary romance picked it up and yummed up the fun parts. Most especially, the celebration of girlfriends.

"Man Drought" is a great example. The heart of the book is Imogen, her story. Her romance with Gibson is strong and credible (and I really did like Gibson), but a lot of the love in the story is for friends and her new community, especially Charlie, who is a darling. Okay, Charlie is not a girl, but you get my point - the central romance is firmly grounded in a web of relationships and they actually make the romance stronger.

"Man Drought" is wonderfully Australian, wonderfully country.