Set in the fictional North Carolina town of Bright Leaf during the late 1940s, The Tobacco Wives, by novelist Adele Myers, captures the uncertainty of post-World War II America through the eyes of 15-year-old Maddie Sykes. After losing her husband in the war, Maddie’s narcissistic mother becomes obsessed with remarrying. She abandons her daughter to the care of Aunt Etta, Bright Leaf’s premier seamstress and dressmaker for the glamorous wives of the town’s tobacco executives. Everything about Bright Leaf — named for North Carolina’s famous yellow-leaf tobacco variety — revolves around the lucrative industry, and these women sit at the top of a rigid social hierarchy.

When health woes plague Aunt Etta, Maddie must take over the creation of gowns for an end-of-summer gala. Maddie’s innovative designs reflect the emerging power of women and prove to be a big hit with some of the tobacco wives, who recognize a spark of their idealistic selves in her. They champion Maddie as she struggles to reckon with the tragedies that she’s lived through — and begins to notice cracks in the perfect facades of her new clients. Her journey into adulthood is accelerated when she discovers that the town’s namesake tobacco company is hiding a dark secret in an effort to preserve profit, forcing her to make a life-altering decision.

The restlessness of women pushed to give up the independence they enjoyed during World War II creates a powerful backdrop for Maddie’s personal quest for individuality. Relationships among women are at the heart of the book, and the parallel between disparate topics such as high fashion and tobacco farming adds to the novel’s allure. The Tobacco Wives combines the breezy pace of contemporary fiction with the depth of traditional Southern literature in an entertaining, thoughtful tale.