Girlfriends on Demand — Mickey J. Corrigan

Three women: I broke one's spirit, I broke another's neck, I married the third. This is how a mysterious narrator begins his story of three women in their 20s living in a contemporary tropical city. He shares with readers the intimate details about Maire, Esme, and Niki, who are using their bodies and their wits to pay and play their way to a better life. Maire O'Rourke works for a multimillionaire in Coconut City. But Maire has bigger plans: she's about to launch an international business to help others seeking to trade sex for funding. Southern gal Esme Grant came to Coconut City in order to find herself a rich man willing to fund her—as well as her hometown boyfriend and their Mayberry-gone-bad dreams. Niki Stephanopoulos is a grad student and multicultural artist who struggles with anxiety/depression fueled by her economic woes. Maire and Esme befriend the younger woman and try to help, but she seems more troubled than ever. Niki, Esme, and Maire want what every woman wants: romance, safe shelter, a diamond-studded Rolex and a two-bedroom condo with an ocean view. On the first day of the month, they need to pay the rent—unless they've found a man to do that for them. In Coconut City, one becomes lost, another faces desperate odds, while the third falls in love with the wrong man. Over and over again.