After being acquitted of her husband's murder, Lorelei Taylor needs to get away from New York City and the publicity that has surrounded her trial. Even though she was exonerated by a jury, many people refuse to believe that she didn't murder her husband, Ed. She takes back her childhood name, Vivian Harcourt, and retreats to the home she inherited from her grandmother in the small town of Kettle, Wisconsin.

Kettle is a sleepy little village on the surface, but just like most small towns, it has it's share of sins and secrets behind closed doors. Vivian's neighbor, Sarah is a woman living a lie. Her life and marriage seem perfect to outsiders, but Sarah has never experienced the “Big O” with her husband and lusts after her neighbor, widower Mike, whom she plies with fresh-baked cookies, no less. Vivian also reconnects with a childhood friend, Erin, an aspiring artist who's stifled by her abusive husband and domineering mother-in-law.

Vivian gets a rude awakening when she decides to join the Kettle Social Club and bring a touch of her New York society back home. She finds that the women of Kettle are set in their ways and want no part of her big city ideas. On the other hand, the men of Kettle are fascinated with Vivian, especially after witnessing her impromptu strip show at a local bar. The man she wants attention from (neighbor Mike who's still grieving his late wife) doesn't seem interested in her, and that makes her even more determined to win him.

Women on the Edge of a Nervous Breakthrough alternates between the lives of Vivian, Sarah and Erin. Each chapter begins with snippets from their childhoods to show us what makes them tick and why they ended up as they did. As someone who reads mostly romance, the switching back and forth of the story made this book a little hard for me to read. However, I think readers who are fans of Desperate Housewives will enjoy this book, although there's more drama than comedy here.

Sharpe does a good job of fleshing out her characters and bringing to the surface all of the angst and emotional baggage that people—particularly women—hide behind their public faces. In the lives of these three very different women, we're shown how life doles out a fair share of troubles even into the most seemingly perfect life. The outcome depends on how each one chooses to deal with their situation.

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