What really happens in the world of footballer's wives. Shireen Lolesi, former wife of a high-profile rugby league player, has lifted the lid in a sizzling first novel.

Angel Blakely leads the perfect life. With a handsome husband in the form of a famous rugby league star, a newly decorated million-dollar apartment in Sydney's sought-after Eastern Suburbs, and a gorgeous baby son, she is the envy of many.

But her glamorous life is not all it seems. Beneath the money and the status that go with football at its highest level lies a dark world of alcohol and drug abuse, sexual misbehaviour and violence. As Angel begins to understand the man and the life she's married into, her world begins to unravel around her and soon she herself is contemplating breaking the ultimate football taboo – an affair with one of her husband's teammates.

Wives and Girlfriends is a compulsively readable novel of sheer entertainment that pulsates with coke, bling, groupies and sex. But just how much is fiction, and how much is fact...