Rural Life

He’s watching. She’s waiting.The unmissable new thriller from Darren O’Sullivan, author of Our Little Secret and Close Your Eyes. Having barely escaped the clutches of a serial killer, Claire Moore has struggled to rebuild her life. After her terrifying encounter with the man the media dubbed The Black-Out Killer, she became an overnight celebrity: a symbol of hope and survival in the face of pure evil. And then the killings stopped....

Emma Laurent has always preferred helping others to asking for help. But now, she’s the one in need. Her stepmother is selling her late father’s candy shop, her grandmother’s assisted-living facility has become a financial burden, and the anniversary of her fiancé’s death is quickly approaching. Rather than face her problems, Emma does what she does best - finds someone else to help by offering a mother and son with nowhere to go somewhere to stay.

Michael is a rising OB/GYN at a prominent private practice in Albany, New York; he also moonlights at a local women’s health clinic. But Annie, his wife, has become tired of her workaholic husband’s absences, and the soccer-mom lifestyle has worn thin. She begins a passionate love affair with bad-boy, fading celebrity painter Simon Haas—an affair that quickly goes awry when Simon’s wife, Lydia, who is also the model upon whom he built his career, discovers the truth.

Angela can feel the clock ticking. She is single in New York City, stuck in a job she doesn't want and a life that seems to have somehow just happened. She inherited a flair for Italian cooking from her grandmother, but she never seems to have the time for it - these days, her oven holds only sweaters. Tacked to her office bulletin board is a photo from a magazine of a tidy cottage on the coast of Maine - a charming reminder of a life that could be hers if she could only muster the courage to go after it.

Crystal Malloy owns the beauty salon in Mystic Creek, Oregon. It took years of work to stand on her own after a difficult upbringing and to turn her fledgling enterprise into a successful business. There's never been much time for romance, but when a handsome, friendly man stops in to her salon - he's traveling through town on business - she's immediately taken with him.

Bonny Blankenship's most treasured memories are of idyllic summers spent in Watersend, South Carolina, with her best friend, Lainey McKay. Now in her early 50s, Bonny is desperate to clear her head after a tragic mistake threatens her career as an emergency room doctor, and her marriage crumbles around her. With her troubled teenage daughter, Piper, in tow, she goes back to the beloved river house, where she is soon joined by Lainey and her two young children.

Polly Penhalligan is outraged at the suggestion that since getting married to Nick and settling into their beautiful manor farmhouse in Cornwall, she has let herself go. But watching a lot of telly and gorging on biscuits, not getting dressed until lunchtime, and waiting for pregnancy to strike are not the signs of someone living an active and fulfilled life. So Polly does something rash.

This audio edition is read by the author and was recorded in a remote studio in Shetland. 'Storm Pegs perfectly captures the knotting of language and landscape. I was transported.' - Katherine May, Sunday Times bestselling author of Wintering From the winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize and the...

In the small town of Celeste, Texas, Mitzi Taylor has never quite fit inside the lines. Nearly six feet tall, flame-haired, and with a plus-size spirit to match every curve, she’s found her niche: a custom wedding-dress boutique catering to big brides-to-be with big dreams. Taking the plunge alongside her two best friends, she’s proud they’ve turned The Perfect Dress into a perfect success. Just when Mitzi has it all pulled together, Graham Harrison walks back into her life, looking for bridesmaid dresses for his twin daughters.

"It's your job now," Anna says as she hands Caleb her journals, asking him to continue writing the family story. But Sarah, Jacob, Anna, Caleb, and their new little sister, Cassie, have already formed a family, and Caleb fears there will be nothing left to write about. That is, before Cassie discovers a mysterious old man in the barn, and everything changes. Everyone is excited about the arrival of a new family member—except for Jacob, who holds a bitter grudge. Only the special love of Caleb, and the gift he offers, can help to mend the pain of the past.

Zoë Colville spent years in a fancy hair salon with a long list of clients, living on cigarettes, croissants, and a shoestring. It was everything she'd ever wanted. But when an unexpected and overwhelming loss caused her life to shift unexpectedly, she found herself on a different path. One where the only use for a hairdryer is warming new-born lambs; where the cycle of life on a farm gives new meaning on purpose, and where nature is both a strict teacher and a balm to soothe the pressures of everyday life.

In nine interlinking stories, the town of Abbot Falls reacts as Ernie Whitten, a pipefitter, builds a giant ark in his backyard. Ernie was weeks away from a pension-secured retirement when the union went on strike. Now his wife Marie is ill. Struck with sudden inspiration, Ernie builds the ark as a work of art for his wife to see from the window; a vessel to carry them both away; or a plea for God to spare Marie, come hell or high water.

The story of Flem Snopes' ruthless struggle to take over the town of Jefferson, Mississippi, this is the second volume of Faulkner's trilogy about the Snopes family, his symbol for the grasping, destructive element in the post-bellum South.

When Dr. Will Cooke, an idealistic young physician just out of medical training, set up practice in the small rural community of Austin, Indiana, he had no idea that much of the town was being torn apart by poverty, addiction, and life-threatening illnesses. But he soon found himself at the crossroads of two unprecedented health-care disasters: a national opioid epidemic and the worst drug-fueled HIV outbreak ever seen in rural America. Confronted with Austin’s hidden secrets, Dr. Cooke decided he had to do something about them.

Liz Weston’s life has reached rock bottom. Her husband dumped her, her life savings are gone, and her apartment is being turned into condos that she can’t afford. Maybe she shouldn’t have taken early retirement last year? In her late 40s, she has limited possibilities for employment. When her elderly father passes away, she heads to her hometown to clean out the family home. Staying at the beachside inn is a blessing because there’s no way she’ll sleep in her childhood home. But when she befriends Jane Miller, the owner of Tides, her life slowly starts to change.

Truth: Sherri Griffin and her daughter, Katie, recently moved to the idyllic beach town of Newburyport, Massachusetts. They’ve been welcomed by Rebecca Coleman, unofficial former leader of the Newburyport Mom Squad, and her teenage daughter Alexa, Katie’s new babysitter. Truth: Alexa has time on her hands after a falling-out with her friends involving her popular YouTube channel.

In this number one New York Times best-selling novel of first love and second chances, former high school sweethearts confront the painful truths of their past to build a promising future - together. "Everyone wanted to believe that endless love was possible. She'd believed in it once, too, back when she was 18". In the spring of 1984, high school students Amanda Collier and Dawson Cole fell deeply, irrevocably in love. Though they were from opposite sides of the tracks, their love for one another seemed to defy the realities of life in their small town in North Carolina.

In the peaceful Wiltshire valley of Essington St Mary, architect Corin Drayton stumbles upon a ghastly new building development that is set to destroy the tranquil atmosphere and Edwardian features of this quiet neighbourhood. He is horrified. For only recently has he inherited - and spent his life savings on renovating - a home for himself and his newly pregnant wife Lucia in Larch Tree Lane. From the cottages and farms to the local shop, pub and old manor house, residents' lives are set to intertwine, relationships bloom, and both romance and heartache lie ahead.

Was verbindet uns mit denen, die vor uns kamen? Alles beginnt mit einem heimlich geschlachteten Schaf in einem Dorf an der Nordsee. Hier rührt die Urgroßmutter das Blut für die Würste, der Großonkel schläft 15 Jahre lang und die Großmutter fürchtet die Heuriesen auf dem Feld. Am Ende steht Urenkelin Alma und fügt die Einzelteile ihrer Familiengeschichte zusammen: vom kargen bäuerlichen Alltag in der Kaiserzeit über den Neuanfang nach den Kriegen bis in die Gegenwart.

Eleanor Sharpley has been living a lie. Needing to escape her London life quickly, Eleanor throws her things into the back of her car, and heads to her erstwhile best friend Charlie’s family farm. But Charlie isn’t there. Instead she finds Charlie’s grieving brother, Daniel, her eight-month-old daughter, Hope (a daughter Eleanor had known nothing about) and a crumbling and unloved Damson Farm.