Rural Small Town Fiction

On the eve of a new year, Catherine Glick is expecting her bu of five years to propose. Instead, the unexpected arrival of an old boyfriend, Elijah, sends her life spiraling out of control. When a rash decision damages her current relationship, Catherine leaves for Florida to work in her cousin's bakery - anything to flee the source of her shame. Elijah Graber knows he hurt Catherine when he left their Amish district six years ago. He's determined to explain his actions, even if it means following her to Florida.

Less than a year after her mother's death, Laura Riehl finds herself burying another loved one: her best friend, Savilla, who has died after a brief and sudden illness. Laura feels heartbroken and alone, but her pain is nothing compared to that of Allen, the husband Savilla has left behind. As Laura and Allen face hardships together, their friendship takes a surprising yet comforting turn, and she discovers an attraction she's never felt with her boyfriend, Rudy. Would falling for Allen betray the people she cares about most, or would denying those feelings betray her heart?

Maren Walker told herself she wouldn’t need to sell pills for long, that it was only means to an end. But that end seems to be stretching as far away as the other side of Blackdamp County, Kentucky. There’s always another bill for Granny’s doctor, another problem with the car, another reason she’s getting nowhere. She dreams of walking through her little door to leave it all behind. The doors have appeared to the people in her mountain town for as long as anyone can remember, though no one knows where they lead. All anyone knows is that if you go, you’ll never come back.

After years apart, Mick and Megan O’Brien are finally ready to make it official...again. Most of their grown children couldn’t be happier about their rekindled love and impending marriage this holiday season. Only Connor is a holdout. Driven to become a divorce attorney after what he views as his mother’s abandonment of their family, Connor’s not about to give his blessing to this reunion romance. The last thing Megan wants to do is hurt her family again. After all, is she really sure she and Mick can make it this time around?

Even being her boss couldn't keep him away. After her world is upended, Oakley Rae leaves behind everything she knows to find herself and ends up in the small town of Bell Buckle. With the clothes on her back and a few dollars to her name, she finds herself working at a feed store where the employees are welcoming, the customers are nice, and the boss is, well, bossy.

Best-selling author Martin Walker’s previous two novels starring Chief of Police Bruno Courrèges became hits with fans and critics around the globe. In this thrilling third mystery, Bruno has his hands full with trouble in the truffle trade in St. Denis’ marketplace. And when a friend is murdered, things really start heating up.

I came here to hide from heartbreak. Not fall straight into it again, times three. One cheating ex, a million shattered promises, and a heat that decided to crash down weeks early. So yeah, I'm not exactly thriving. My only plan? Hide out in a remote cabin, write my next book, and avoid Alphas forever. Instead… Boom. Fire. Cabin gone. No explanation. No warning. Just smoke, ash, and the sinking feeling that maybe it wasn't an accident. Enter three local firefighters who are way too hot, way too kind, and way too Alpha. Atlas. River. Levi.

I lose myself in my artwork, and for a few hours each day, I can forget about how trapped I feel in the merkingdom as the unwanted and inconvenient niece of an angry, bitter king. If I could find a way to support myself, I could leave the lake—and Uncle Caralorn—and start fresh somewhere else. The fates must have a sense of humor, because Ever's newest resident, an ancient vampire, offers to hire me to redo the town's welcome packet. Betmal is over-the-top charming one minute and possessively dominant the next, and it's far too easy to get lost in those flashing crimson eyes.

I was not supposed to fall for my sister's hot guitarist, Jareth Grayson. I wasn't supposed to kiss him, either. But mistakes were made. Asking my gay best friend to pose as my boyfriend at my sister's wedding is an act of desperation meant to keep me out of Jareth's arms. Until it fails spectacularly. My bestie is MIA as soon as we land, and I'm pretty sure Jareth is stalking me. It's the only explanation for why I keep ending up in his arms.

"You don't know me yet, but in a few hours that's going to change. You see, I'm inviting you to my home and my town of Cedar Cove, because I want you to meet my family, friends, and neighbors. Come and hear their stories - maybe even their secrets!"

Struggling to cope with urban life - and life in general - Frankie, a 20-something artist, retreats to her family's rural house on "turbine hill", vacant since her grandmother's death three years earlier. It is in this space, surrounded by countryside and wild creatures, that she can finally grapple with the chain of events that led her here - her shaky mental health, her difficult time in art school - and maybe, just maybe, regain her footing in art and life.

Grady Dalton is in a rut. He’s 38, without a boyfriend, and has yet to find the place that feels like home. The closest he ever got was his best friend, Nathan. But it’s been seven years since he passed, and life isn’t getting easier. That’s how he ends up in Briar County, hoping to grow roots in the place Nathan had loved. Deacon Sharpe spends his days serving homemade ice cream and his nights alone, pretending he’s getting by after his wife’s death better than he is. His world is rocked when a man shows up who claims to have been his brother-in-law’s best friend.

When Pippa finds herself in Fairhaven Falls with empty pockets and a brand new baby, she's thrilled when a sweet—and slightly scary—old lady offers her a job and a place to live. Their new home isn't much, but it offers a desperately needed shelter. Then, her grumpy orc neighbor comes charging into their lives. She should be wary of the huge male, but when she watches him handling his hammer, fear is the last thing she feels. And when he cradles her daughter so tenderly against that big muscular chest? Her heart isn't the only thing melting!

Every storm they've weathered... has led them to each other. Dan Amos lost his wife and son years ago, when they inadvertently got in the way of a death threat meant for him. He's never had eyes for anyone since, and he doesn't want to. But fellow Blessings resident Alice Conroy sparks something inside him...

Midwestern movie house owner Virgil Wander is "cruising along at medium altitude" when his car flies off the road into icy Lake Superior. Virgil survives, but his language and memory are altered, and he emerges into a world no longer familiar to him. Awakening in this new life, Virgil begins to piece together his personal history and the lore of his broken town, with the help of a cast of affable and curious locals. Into this community returns a shimmering prodigal son who may hold the key to reviving their town.

This complete collection includes all of the published stories of Eudora Welty. There are 41 stories in all, including those in the earlier collections A Curtain of Green, The Wide Net, The Golden Apples, and The Bride of the Innisfallen, as well as previously uncollected stories.

In the quiet, sunrise-side town of Hampstead, Michigan, Rachel Roberts descends the stairs in her beach house, ready to sit on the back deck, have a glass of wine, and feel the Huron breezes come in from the water as the stars start to glow in the night sky above. But everything changes when she sees headlights coming down her driveway. As the vehicle approaches, she becomes both excited and puzzled. Excited, because the vehicle belongs to her friend, retired Hampstead P.I. Obadiah Ben-David. Puzzled, because she has no idea why he is paying her an evening visit.

As long as Carmel stays in London, nothing can happen to shatter her perfect life. She has a wonderful marriage, a rewarding career and a great bunch of friends. As far as she's concerned, the sadness of her past can stay back in Ireland, where it belongs. For Carmel, Ireland only means misery, loneliness and fear and she never wants to return. The new, confident and happy Carmel only exists on the cosmopolitan streets of Britain's capital. If she ever was forced to return, she fears she would revert to the mousey downtrodden woman she once was.

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.

Jacqueline thought she already had her happy-ever-after—until her husband left her for a woman who could give him a child (and already had). Now she's divorced and working herself to the bone to pay off the mortgage on a house that will never be full of the children she dreamed of. Jacqueline doesn't know what to expect when she responds to an emergency call-out during a storm, but it's nothing like this: three lost children who can turn into seals, and a ruggedly handsome man who makes her blood run hotter than it ever has before.