Includes reading group guide.

Jessie Tucker is beloved throughout Lexington, Alabama, for her kind heart and endless generosity. But the widow feels it's past time she rewarded herself-- especially when upstanding Hubert Wiggins tragically loses his wife and son. Discouraged by Hubert's lack of romantic interest, she cooks up a deception she knows will make pious Hubert do right by her. She doesn't know Hubert has a new, much-riskier secret love. When he is not the ardent lover Jessie always dreamed he was, she turns her desires to handsome younger man Conway. Jessie's longtime rival, Blondeen, is watching. Now has the perfect opportunity to destroy Jessie's reputation, drive her out of town-- and become the real wife Hubert should have had all along. -- adapted from jacket