Rural Small Town Fiction

When Lilliana Swope’s beloved mother dies, Lilliana gathers her last ounce of courage and flees her abusive husband for the home of her only living relative in the foothills of No Creek, North Carolina. Though Hyacinth Belvidere hasn’t seen Lilliana since she was five, she offers her cherished great-niece a safe harbor. Their joyful reunion inspires plans to revive Aunt Hyacinth’s estate and open a public library where everyone is welcome, no matter the color of their skin.

Love is in the air in the little village of Barton-in-the-Dale. Anyone can see that Ashley Underwood and Emmet O'Malley are made for each other. They've just got to admit it to themselves. But as the saying goes, the course of true love never did run smooth. While romance blossoms on one side of the village, an angry young boy struggles to believe in love. But when tragedy strikes, he learns that comfort and care can come from the most unexpected of places.

The Speed of Mercy captures the unbearable cost of childhood betrayal and what happens when history is suppressed, our past is forgotten - yet finding the truth can change the future. Christy Ann Conlin rips into the myths and stereotypes about older women and those on the edge of conventional society to reveal the timeless gift of mercy in this feminist tour de force.

They say the Fates weave our destinies, but mine must’ve been drunk when they picked up the thread. From the beginning, my heart was never mine alone, but tangled in a web spun by three unforgettable men. Jayson Jameson and Ryder Cutton—my childhood best friends and my first tastes of love. And then there was Fallon Montgomery, the man I once believed was the villain in my story. These three men marked me in ways I can’t erase and painted my heart in colors I never could have imagined. Loving them wasn’t a choice. It was a beautiful, tragic destiny carved into my soul.

New Mexico Undersheriff Bill Gastner is presented with a case that appears to have brought big-time crime, including drug gangs, into Posadas County.

One crumbling cottage. One broken heart. A chance to start over? When Annie returns to Thorndale, a village in the English countryside where she spent much of her childhood, she’s looking for a new start. All she wants to do is fix up the cottage her godmother left her, and fix up her broken heart. When she clashes with local hero, Jon, Annie can't help but wonder if coming back to Thorndale was a mistake. The village has clearly changed, and the last thing she needs is more drama.

A group of entrepreneurs brings roaring back to life a defunct turbine factory and the town around it, promising a return to the days of dignity, jobs and the good life and bright future that a manufacturing center can dispense to a small town. But is a return to the days of plenty possible? And what of the changed relationships between lovers, and within families, that have transpired in the years since that earlier time? Perišić takes us there, into the past and into the future, and watches with a bemused sad smile as the inevitable wreaks havoc with the possible.

Tucked away amongst the winding, cobbled streets of Pengelly, the old stone cottage on Memory Lane is full of secrets. Brimming with trinkets and treasures, there are thousands of stories hidden within its walls. Fifty-four-year-old Grace Clarke arrives in Pengelly determined to uncover the secrets of her past. Standing outside the little cottage, she feels sure that the answers she craves lie inside. The truth about her mysterious long-lost mother and the even more mysterious gifts she was born with....

Fifty-five-year-old Charles Howard has lost his long-time journalism job and has been swindled out of his life savings. Standing by the edge of Halifax Harbour on a foggy morning, contemplating his dismal future, his ritual of self-pity is interrupted with the appearance of the mysterious and beguiling Ramona Danforth. And so begins a most interesting relationship.

Born in the workhouse and adopted by a former suffragette, Frances Brakespeare was encouraged from an early age to be strong, independent and to pursue a career as a doctor. The tragic loss of the love of her life in the Great War propels Frances to commit to her one true vocation. Rebelling against the unfair treatment of female doctors Frances is dismissed from her London post and things continue to take a turn for the worse when Izzy, her benefactress dies and Frances finds herself homeless.

Set in small-town Georgia in the present, this story paints a picture of the best and worst in us, of love and forgiveness doing battle with hatred and intolerance. If you've ever struggled to reconcile your religious faith with contemporary views of sexuality, this story is for you. If your family or your church has been painfully divided over homosexuality or gay marriage, consider It Came Even to Me as an inspiring case study, a deeply moving account of one family's struggle and reconciliation.

As Ivy is trying to adjust to a new marriage, she also has to welcome spa guests and deal with more secrets her old beach house reveals—this time, from the Roaring Twenties. Added to that, her sister Shelly is nervous about having her first baby. Will Ivy manage to pull off the first spa week and juggle her new life in Summer Beach? Along the shores, more surprising discoveries fill the gossipy local residents with fresh speculation. In the charming town of Summer Beach, news travels fast.

I met Colt Malene when I was fourteen years old...and I never recovered. He became the headstrong star quarterback in a town that idolized high school football titles. Meanwhile, I was the coach’s dutiful perfectionist daughter, never daring to step out of line. We should have stayed far away from each other, but we didn’t, and the volatile fallout was unbearable. More than a decade has passed and my father is now dying. He wants to make amends. He wants to be forgiven for the role he played in Colt’s ruinous downfall. To give a dying man some peace, Colt and I agree to a plan.

The latest in this enchanting and fast-selling series, featuring the beloved ghost Aunt Dimity, opens in a picturesque English cottage where the lovable Lori Shepherd is up to her elbows in pureed carrots and formula bottles, striving to be the perfect mother to twins! Luckily, a beautiful Italian nanny arrives just in time - so Lori can help settle the local civil war stirred up by a visiting archaeologist's excavation. With Reginald, the stuffed pink rabbit, and Edmond Terrance, the stuffed tiger in tow, Lori hunts down a missing document.

“What’s after Armageddon? No government, no laws, no infrastructure, no oil, no industry…and sometimes a sense of relief. In Kunstler’s richly imagined World Made by Hand, the bone-weary denizens of Union Grove…manage to plant a few seeds of human decency that bear fruit.”...

Vor 25 Jahren durfte Joseph beim FC Seneca den Elfmeter schießen – und traf direkt in die Arme des gegnerischen Torwarts. Von da an gewinnt sein Heimatverein nie wieder. Panenka, wie er seit dem Vorfall spöttisch genannt wird, ist zum Außenseiter im lokalen Pub, sogar zum Sündenbock der ganzen Stadt geworden, was ihm unerträgliche Kopfschmerzen bereit – nicht nur im übertragenen Sinne. Einzig die Beziehung zu seiner Tochter, die nach einer Trennung bei ihm eingezogen ist, und seinem 8-jährigen Enkel Arthur geben ihm Trost. Dann trifft Panenka die sanftmütige Esther.

Asle is an aging painter and widower who lives alone on the west coast of Norway. His only friends are his neighbor, Åsleik, a traditional fisherman-farmer, and Beyer, a gallerist who lives in the city. There, in Bjørgvin, lives another Asle, also a painter but lonely and consumed by alcohol. Asle and Asle are doppelgängers—two versions of the same person, two versions of the same life. Written in melodious and hypnotic "slow prose," A New Name is the final installment of Jon Fosse's Septology.

When Ellie's good friend Ruth appears on her doorstep, clutching a packet of mysterious old letters, Ellie knows she must help. Ruth has stumbled upon hidden diaries in her attic—diaries written by the person she trusted most in the world. The shocking revelations within turn Ruth's life upside down, making her question everything she thought she knew. Determined to uncover the truth, Ellie and Ruth embark on a journey to right past wrongs. Racing against time, they delve into secrets that could change Ruth's future forever. Will they discover the key to Ruth's second chance at happiness?

One summer evening, Lib Hanson is confronted by her painful past when Matt Marlow, the forty-year-old son she abandoned as an infant, shows up on her porch. Fiercely independent, Lib has never revealed her son's existence—or her previous marriage—to her husband, Jack. Married nearly three decades but living in separate houses (to the confusion but acceptance of their neighbors), they enjoy an ease and comfort together in small-town Anthem, Wisconsin. But Jack is a stickler for honesty, and Lib's long-dormant secret threatens to unravel their lives.

On October 28, 1940, Mussolini provides Greek Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas with an ultimatum - either allow Axis forces to occupy their country or face war - and Greece’s response is swift: “Oxi!” they say. “No!” In a small village nestled against the radiant waters of the Aegean Sea, Alexei, the son of a local fisherman, and his best friend Costa - who were both born on the same night eighteen years earlier and have been like brothers ever since - leave their homes, like all the other young men in their village and throughout Greece, to bravely fight for their country.