Rural Fiction

The town of Marshall, Texas, is the epicenter of intellectual property law in the US—renowned for its speedy trials and massive payouts. One of its best lawyers is James Euchre. His newest client, Amir Zawar, is a CEO forced to defend his life’s work against a patent infringement claim. But when a beloved hometown hero is murdered, all signs point to Zawar, an outsider with no alibi. With the help of a former federal prosecutor and a local PI, Euchre hopes to uncover the truth. In his first criminal case, the stakes couldn’t be higher.

Samantha Parker is picking up the pieces of her life—and a pen to sign divorce papers—after she finds out her husband has been cheating on her and the other woman is expecting his child. While the idea of leaving town and starting over is appealing, Sam's only option is to head back to her childhood home of Cocoa Beach, Florida, to help her recently widowed mother run their family inn. Can she go home and start her whole life over at forty-three?

Until Camryn Neff can return to her “real” life in Chicago, she’s in Wishing Tree to care for her twin sisters. She’s not looking for forever love, not here. But handsome hotelier Jake Crane is a temptation she can’t resist, so she suggests they pair up for the season. No golden rings, no broken hearts. At his side, she sees her hometown through Christmas-colored eyes. The cheer is cheerier, the joy more joyful. She thought she had put her future on hold…but maybe her real life was here all along, waiting for her to come home.

Sisters Jessica and Rachel Clayton once only had each other to rely on, but years of pain have carved a wide chasm between them. But seeing Rachel's family struggles reaching a breaking point, Jessica—whose career has made her an expert in downsizing and cutting the nonessential out of life—must learn how to let family and love back in, starting with her still-beloved, if reluctant, sibling.

Ellie and Eric Nyland have moved their two sons back to Eric’s childhood farmhouse, hoping for a fresh start. But there’s no denying it, their family is falling apart, each one of them isolated by private sorrows, stresses, and missed signals. When Eric finds Hannah Finch, the girl across the road, wandering alone in the bitter cold, his rusty police instincts kick in, and he soon discovers there are bad things happening in the girl’s house. With nowhere else to send her, the Nylands reluctantly agree to let Hannah stay with them until after the Christmas holidays.

When Jim Qwilleran's friend Polly decides to spend two weeks on vacation with an old girlfriend in Oregon, he finds himself at a loose end—but not for long. A visit from Nick Bamba brings news of a hotbed of mystery.

I know Tuck Monroe is trouble the second I walk in to interview for the nanny position. Six-four and covered in tattoos, he's distractingly hot. He's also grumpy as hell. But I need to pay for school, so I take a job as his daughter's live-in caretaker and move into the apartment above his garage. I fall hard for Katie, his adorable four-year-old. But I never expected to fall for my new boss, who's a decade older than I am. Turns out there's a heart of gold beneath Tuck's broody exterior, one I work to reveal bit by bit.

For more than fifty years, Wendell Berry has been telling us stories about Port William, a mythical town on the banks of the Kentucky River, populated over the years by a cast of unforgettable characters living in a single place over a long time. In A Place in Time, the stories dates range from 1864, when Rebecca Dawe finds herself in her own reflection at the end of the Civil War, to one from 1991 when Grover Gibbs's widow, Beulah, attends the auction as her home place is offered for sale.

I waited eight years to marry the father of my children. I worked on our relationship. I was patient. I forgave—the thoughtless remarks, the disappointments, the test results when I was expecting our youngest that proved he hadn't been "working late." Then, when we finally made it to the altar, he looked deep into my eyes, smiled, and cracked a fat joke. That wasn't the worst of it. His vows weren't a promise to love. They were a final test of exactly what I'd do to get his ring on my finger—what I'd take—in front of our family, friends, and their cell phones.

A warm June evening, a local tradition: The students of Nantucket High have gathered for a bonfire on the beach. But what begins as a graduation night celebration ends in tragedy after a horrible car crash leaves the driver of the car, Penny Alistair, dead and her twin brother in a coma. The other passengers - Penny's boyfriend Jake and her friend Demeter - are physically unhurt, but the emotional damage is overwhelming, and questions linger about what happened before Penny took the wheel.

A mysterious virus has infiltrated the good people of Lake Wobegon, transmitted via unpasteurized cheese made by a Norwegian bachelor farmer, the effect of which is episodic loss of social inhibition. Mayor Alice, Father Wilmer, Pastor Liz, the Bunsens and Krebsbachs, formerly taciturn elders, burst into political rants, inappropriate confessions, and rhapsodic proclamations, while their teenagers watch in amazement. Meanwhile, a wealthy outsider is buying up farmland for a Keep America Truckin' motorway and amusement park.

For outsiders, Painted Canyon, Montana might simply be a picturesque western town, but for rancher and horse trainer Cord Hollister, it's meant salvation. That's why he recognizes in newcomer Shallie Fletcher another lost soul looking for a fresh start. But can he convince her that Painted Canyon is the perfect place to put down roots-and that love awaits if she'll just take a chance?

Katie Benard reluctantly returns home to Grady Lake two decades after her older sister Malorie disappeared without a trace, a story that has captivated the nation since the day she was reported missing in 2003. After leaving home years ago, Katie is overjoyed to reunite with her childhood best friend and cousin while working at her family's lakeside resort at the end of tourist season in northern Michigan. Just when life begins to feel normal again, a teenage girl goes missing from the resort. She has vanished without a trace, just like Malorie.

Twelve years ago, I married the man of my dreams. Or so I thought. Now a single mom of twin boys, I'm doing my best to rebuild after everything fell apart. I juggle work and therapy and try not to burden those around me. My life is too complicated for love, right? Colton Hayes and Sammy Harlow don't seem to think so.

The population of Falls Creek, North Carolina, is a collective menace to society. Layla thought the first line of her orientation packet was a joke, but she soon realized it was all facts. After only a few hours on the job, the whip-smart flight nurse found herself flying headfirst into small-town drama.

Return to America’s most beloved fictional hometown! Lake Wobegon is having a boom year thanks to millennial entrepreneurship—AuntMildred’s.com Gourmet Meatloaf, for example, or Universal Fire, makers of artisanal firewood seasoned with sea salt. Meanwhile, the author flies in to give eulogies at the funerals of five classmates, including a couple whom he disliked, and he finds a wave of narcissism crashing on the rocks of Lutheran stoicism.

Part human comedy and part mystery, Lies the Mushroom Pickers Told is an enthralling, masterful story about what holds a village together and what keeps people apart. When journalist Patrick Bracken returns to Gohen, the Irish village where he was born, he knows the eyes of the townspeople are on him. He has come home to investigate two deaths that happened decades earlier when he was a child, deaths that were ruled accidental.

At 38, garden shop owner Jessie McBride thinks her chances for romance are years behind her, and after her failed marriage, she’s fine with that. She lives contentedly with her fiery mother and her quiet, headstrong daughter. But the unexpected arrival of two men on Glory Road make her question if she’s really happy with the status quo. Handsome, wealthy Sumner Tate asks her to arrange flowers for his daughter’s wedding, and Jessie finds herself drawn to his continued attention. And Ben Bradley, her lingering what-could-have-been, moves back to the red dirt road.

Librarian Chloe Sampson has been struggling: to take care of her three younger siblings, to find herself, to make ends meet. She’s just about at the end of her rope when she stumbles across a rare edition of a book from the 1960s at the local flea market. Deciding it’s a sign of her luck turning, she takes it home with her—only to be shocked when her cranky hermit of a neighbor swoops in and offers to buy it for an exorbitant price. Intrigued, Chloe takes a closer look at the book only to find notes scribbled in the margins between two young lovers back when the book was new.

Zavion never knew what love was. His mother abandoned him at two, leaving him in the hands of his father, to deal with situations no child should ever have to face. Forced to grow up sooner than he should've, Zavion's heart became cold and his emotions void. Now, he's an owner of a popular tattoo shop and he's still battling scars from his childhood. Unable to deal with his past trauma or allow himself to open up to anyone, Zavion throws himself headfirst into his work and uses women as objects rather than partners...until he meets Samara.