I thought I could handle being married to a pastor … but now I'm not so sure," says Lisa, a character in Desperate Pastors' Wives by Ginger Kolbaba and Christy Scannell (Howard, 2007). The novel tells the story of four pastors' wives in fictitious Red River, Ohio.

"It's a town so small that when you take out your garbage, people already know what's in it," Ginger says. We were first interested in the book because Ginger is a former Leadership staffer and currently editor of our sister publication Marriage Partnership. Our interest was further piqued when the authors appeared on Court TV to comment on a recent trial of a pastor's wife accused of killing her husband.

How has a fun, breezy novel tapped such a deep need?

The characters in our book are all desperate for something: love, faith, peace, fulfillment. They all live in the fishbowl of pastoral ministry. Their husbands don't understand the stress of being a pastor's wife, and they have no one to turn to. So these four women from ...