Rural Fiction

In the vein of Daniel Woodrell's Winter's Bone and the works of Ron Rash, a novel set in a tough-and-tumble Mississippi town where drugs, whiskey, guns, and the desire for revenge violently intersect.

In this unforgettable work of fiction, Donald Ray Pollock peers into the soul of a tough Midwestern American town to reveal the sad, stunted, but resilient lives of its residents. Spanning a period from the mid-'60s to the late '90s, the linked stories that comprise Knockemstiff feature a cast of recurring characters who are woebegone, baffled, and depraved - but irresistibly, undeniably real. Rendered in the American vernacular with vivid imagery and a wry, dark sense of humor, these thwarted and sometimes violent lives jump at the listener with inexorable force.

When Sheriff Cody Banks’s wife died, he blamed Abby Brennan for the illness he's sure killed Deborah and, in his grief, made sure she knew it. Looking back now, he knows that his behavior was likely the reason Abby left town years ago. So when he sees her—and the child she’s raising—at her great-uncle's funeral, Cody attempts to apologize, ashamed to see the fear he puts in her beautiful eyes and determined to show her he's no longer that same angry man.

I loved him from the beginning. In the middle. But maybe not at the end. His love for me was full of possibilities, hopes, and dreams a girl like me wasn't accustomed to. He was a nightmare that cracked and bled through my hands, and I stood there watching as it seeped into the ground. Until him. He put me back together without even knowing he was doing so. And he wasn't even my husband.

Sean Davidson’s party night in the rural town of Moravian Village, Ohio, takes a shocking turn, spiraling into a living nightmare with an unimaginable outcome. Over a year later, Sean is struggling to put the pieces of his life back together when a stranger named Heather calls, and he learns that his dreadful ordeal was no isolated incident. A sinister presence threatens the village. Sean and Heather team up to hunt down the mysterious force. But when they dredge up Moravian Village’s horrific past, they discover they’re confronting a supernatural power they alone cannot defeat.

RITA Award winner Jodi Thomas continues her Whispering Mountain series with this second installment. Horse breeder Tobin McMurray doesn’t venture too far from his homestead. But when a Texas senator offers Tobin handsome compensation to deliver a horse to his daughter and teach her how to ride, he grudgingly agrees. Soon Tobin finds himself falling in love with the beautiful woman—but their budding romance is headed straight for danger.

Ambitious young attorney Tom Crane is about to become a partner in a high-profile Atlanta law firm. But first he must clear one final matter from his docket: the closing of his deceased father’s law practice in his hometown of Bethel, Georgia. Killed in a mysterious boating accident, John Crane didn’t appear to leave his son anything except the hassle of wrapping up loose ends.

The SideRoad Kids follows a group of boys and girls as they enter the sixth grade in a small town in Michigan's Upper Peninsula during 1957-58. This meandering collection of loosely-connected short stories is often humorous, poignant, and sometimes mysterious. Laugh as the kids argue over Halloween treats handed out in Brimley. Recall Dorothy's Hamburgers in Sault Ste. Marie.

I'm the Gilroy your mother warned you about. I'm a simple creature. I drink. I f*ck. I fight. If you're looking to do any of those things, I'm down, but I never do the same woman twice. So if you're looking for something that'll last longer than the time it takes us both to get off, don't blame me when you get hurt—because you've been warned. I'm not a return to the scene of the crime kind of guy. I like my life. I like my freedom. At least I did. But that was before she came back into my life and ruined it all. Ruined me.

Sometimes home is where you least expect it… Alex has perfected the art of dodging responsibility during her almost 40 years — until an unexpected letter turns her life upside down. She’s inherited a crumbling sheep farm in deepest, wettest Wales. This was not her life plan. Not at all. Now, her closest companion is a grumpy Welsh terrier, she’s speed-reading An Idiot’s Guide to Farming, and her arrival has set the village gossip mill spinning. With the farm near collapse and its community now relying on her, Alex sets out to uncover the truth behind her mysterious inheritance.

Here are FOUR full length novels from New York Times Bestselling Author Kristen Proby, all featuring some of her swooniest single dads!

Take a trip to Blessings, Georgia, where bestselling author Sharon Sala welcomes you with a touching small-town romance. Ruby Butterman and her husband, Peanut, cannot have children, but they're given a second chance at a family when eight-year-old orphan Carlie is left in their care. It's a challenge for Carlie to adapt to a new town, a new school, and a new family, and when she gets bullied at school, Ruby and Peanut discover how to step up as parents, and how to make a forever family for their beloved little girl.

Secrets told in the church ladies' room are supposed to stay in the ladies' room. But that doesn't mean that what Trudy overhears there during her great-aunt Gertrude's funeral won't change the rest of her life. Trudy has a daughter in the middle of a major rebellion, a two-timing husband who has been cheating for their entire married life, and a mother with Alzheimer's residing in the local nursing home.

He’s fallen for a woman…​ Anxious to meet her soon-to-be-husband, Dallas Leigh for the first time, mail-order bride Amelia Carson is en route to Fort Worth, Texas. When she steps off the train and locks eyes with her betrothed, she immediately feels drawn to him. But the cowboy standing before her isn’t Dallas. Instead, Dallas’ brother Houston has been sent to accompany her on the three-week journey to the ranch where she’ll begin her new life.

Nicholas Sparks, best selling author of A Bend in the Road and A Walk to Remember, returns with this touching tale of two vulnerable people who find love in the eye of a storm.

Kalifornien, 1875: Verstoßen von ihrem wohlhabenden Stiefvater, reist Kathryn Walsh in die raue Bergarbeiterstadt Calvada nahe der Sierra Nevada. Dort tritt sie das Erbe eines Onkels an, den sie nie persönlich kennengelernt hat - ein heruntergekommenes Zeitungsbüro, umgeben von Saloons und Bordellen, sowie eine vermeintlich wertlose Mine. Nicht gerade die besten Voraussetzungen für einen Neustart ... Doch Kathryn ist klug, selbstbewusst und mutig. Sie erweckt die Zeitung "The Voice" zu neuem Leben und nimmt hinsichtlich der Zustände vor Ort kein Blatt vor den Mund.

Morgan McKenzie has been on her own since she ran away from a nightmarish foster home at the age of 16. Afraid to put down roots again only to be hurt once more, Morgan prefers to be constantly on the move. Until she is inexplicably pulled to the small Irish town of Grace's Cove. Before she knows it, Morgan is settling in and forming relationships for the first time in her life. Determined to keep her walls up to protect both her heart and the touch of magick she carries, Morgan fights against her growing attraction for the town's golden boy, Patrick Kearney.

Three separate women, living in different locations and eras, are linked by their passion for Virginia Woolf's novel Mrs Dalloway. As they each live through a Tuesday in June, their thoughts and experiences mirror each other and become interwoven. In Richmond in 1923, Virginia Woolf struggles to write a novel whose protagonist is Mrs Dalloway. In Los Angeles in 1949, Laura ignores her chores and small son to sit in bed reading Mrs Dalloway. In 1990s New York, Clarissa goes to buy flowers for a party, mirroring the start of the fictional Mrs Dalloway’s day.

Hotshot attorney Reuben Graham has finally agreed to take a vacation, when his plane suddenly plunges into the Alaskan wilderness. Just his luck. But his frustrations have only begun as he finds himself stranded with the injured, and superhot, pilot, a man who’s endearingly sociable - and much too young for Reuben to be wanting him this badly.

Marina and her sister Kai, entrusted with managing Summer Beach's one-hundred-year celebration, navigate treacherous waters. Age-old grudges and family secrets soon resurface. Their grandmother's hidden past casts a shadow, forcing them to confront dangerous truths. While Marina's daughter Heather grapples with boyfriend troubles, she discovers her new husband Jack is harboring secrets of his own. As tensions rise and love is tested, the bonds of family and friendship will be stretched to their limits.