Rural Town Fiction

Richard is a middle-aged Englishman who runs a B&B in the fictional Val de Follet in the Loire Valley. Nothing ever happens to Richard, and really that’s the way he likes it. One day, however, one of his older guests disappears, leaving behind a bloody handprint on the wallpaper. Another guest, the exotic Valérie, persuades a reluctant Richard to join her in investigating the disappearance. Richard remains a dazed passenger in the case until things become really serious and someone murders Ava Gardner, one of his beloved hen...and you don’t mess with a fellow’s hens!

When Jenny inherits her estranged grandmother’s cottage in Sherwood Forest, she has nothing to lose - no money, no job, no friends, no family to speak of, and zero self-respect. Things can only get better.... Her grumpy but decidedly handsome new neighbour, Mack, has a habit of bestowing unsolicited good deeds on her. And when Jenny is welcomed into a rather unusual book club, life seems to finally be getting more interesting. Instead of reading, the members pledge to complete individual challenges before Christmas.

The first time I met the grumpy lumberjack next door, I almost burnt down his cabin. The second time, I was throwing tampons at a moose (don't ask). The third time, I was naked. Henri Gagnon is not just my neighbor and landlord but a pain in my optimistic, plus-sized ass. He's got a protective streak under his grumpy exterior, and he's convinced I won't make it through the Maine winter.

Alison Hartmann is a woman with secrets no one wants her to keep. Gold Hill, with its idyllic setting, is the perfect place to hide. Light-hearted Hope Sullivan doesn't see it that way. What else is a small town for if it isn't about strong bonds and a close community? On a gloomy day by the lake, their lives collide, leading both women to question: Is Gold Hill a haven or a bolthole? Can you ever really be safe?

After her mother is sent to prison for art forgery, Edie Brown returns to Northern Vermont to rebuild her family’s fine art and antiques business. She’s certain she can do it now that her mother is gone. After all, butting heads with her mom over bad business practices was what drove Edie away three years ago, including a screw-up that landed Edie on probation for selling stolen property. When Edie scores a job appraising a waterfowl decoy collection at a hoarder’s farmhouse, she’s determined to take advantage of the situation to rebuild the business’s tarnished reputation.

When Lacey's friend is haunted by a nighttime prowler only she can hear, it's up to Lacey to decide if the prowler is imaginary or not - a life-altering decision.

Working the land and raising my boys as a single mom is the only life I’ve ever known. But between managing a struggling farm in small town Whispers and nurturing a growing side hustle, I dream of a life beyond poverty, a chance to turn our hopes into reality. I’m done living on handouts. Then Sawyer shows up on my doorstep, the new local lawyer. A billionaire from the city, polished and privileged, he’s clueless about small-town struggles. He says he wants to help, but I’m not some damsel in distress. He’s polished perfection, and I’m pure chaos. Total opposites.

Josie Hayes is always on the run. From bad decisions. From heartbreak. From cowboys. Her latest escape was supposed to be a quiet reset at her family's cabin in Tennessee—not a reckless detour at a smoky backwoods bar and definitely not a collision with Lincoln Carter. Rugged and magnetic, he's temptation in a cowboy hat, and his slow smile makes forgetting her rules far too easy. Their connection is instant, electric, and impossible to ignore. What starts with teasing glances and lingering touches spirals into a series of nights that feel like more—too much more.

Lennox Hayes has always been a spitfire. She's got a stubborn streak a mile wide and big dreams of getting back on the pro rodeo circuit. Until then, she's stuck working the family ranch under the watchful eye of Bishop Bryant—the grumpy, no-nonsense foreman who's made it clear he doesn't have time for her wild ways. Bishop has spent his life proving himself at Black Springs Ranch. The Hayes family took him in when he had nothing, and he owes them everything, including occasionally keeping an eye on their reckless youngest daughter.

Open the door for her. Lend her your coat in the cold. And flowers. Always flowers. It was the reason he started MaineStems, his flower delivery service—to help more men be gentlemen. And one of those men is his best friend on his wedding day—even if the bride is the woman of Max’s dreams.

Set in the 1980s, the Jennifer Pierce mystery series features a prototypical small town in Maine going through the transition from a self-reliant semi-rural mill town to distant suburb of the information age. In Barnburner, secretary turned reporter Jennifer Pierce finds the incendiary mix of a fundamentalist preacher and an unabashedly pagan back-to-the-earth couple could be worth a story - and someone's life. When a new computer BBS pops up in town around the same time, there are complications that reach far beyond Maine, and as close as her own front door.

In the ruggedness of the beautiful Kentucky mountains, Honey Lovett has always known that the old ways can make a hard life harder. As the daughter of the famed blue-skinned Troublesome Creek packhorse librarian, Honey and her family have been hiding from the law all her life. But when her mother and father are imprisoned, Honey realizes she must fight to stay free, or risk being sent away for good.

Kayla has the perfect strategy for a broken heart: work, work, and more work. Then a storm sends her car skidding off the road, stranding her in Mount Pleasant. Fortunately, rescue comes in the form of the incredibly handsome but gruff Brent Masterson. Brent Masterson swore he would never give into the fierce attraction that's been sizzling between him and Kayla since they first met. He has his own demons, and he won't risk his heart again. Not even for someone as gorgeous and amazing as Kayla. So...how exactly did he end up in Kayla's bed last night?

When a movie crew abandoned thirty-seven crab-eating macaques in the Florida Everglades decades ago, the local residents of Cypress Grove thought they’d gained harmless tourist attractions. They were wrong. Dr. McKenna Dubrow, the town’s veterinarian, discovers the horrifying truth when the macaques begin exhibiting unprecedented intelligence—using tools, coordinating attacks, and leaving behind cryptic symbols that suggest something far more sinister than natural evolution.

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.

Jane Bancroft has returned to Lovett, Tasmania after 20 years away, minus one ex-husband but plus one outraged teenage daughter. Life in the city – life in general – hasn’t quite panned out as she would have liked. With her mother unwell, now seems as good a time as any to come back to where it all began, and perhaps even start a new life here in the heart of Tasmanian apple country. But the legacy of Jane's wild apple youth has not been forgotten by small-town Lovett and her homecoming is haunted by past tragedy.

Lottery winner and ex-journalist Donal Fitzgerald joins forces with his girlfriend, DNR conservation officer Mercy Virdon, to solve the mysterious death of a beloved angler, Charlie, who was murdered in his tent in a state campground and who was known by all - and who may have known too much. Set in the engaging small town of Ossning on the Borchard River in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula - an angler’s dream, filled with eccentric, believable, sympathetic, and unforgettable characters - Riverwatcher is a classic whodunit.

N'attendez plus : le phénomène TikTok planétaire arrive enfin en France ! Lorsque la tante de Jeanie lui confie le Pumpkin Spice Café, lieu de rencontre bien-aimé de la petite ville de Dream Harbor, la jeune femme saute sur l'occasion pour prendre un nouveau départ, loin de son travail de bureau déprimant. Logan, un agriculteur local, a beau se tenir à l'écart de la communauté et de ses ragots, l'arrivée de Jeanie vient le perturber dans sa routine. Lui qui ne veut rien savoir de cette fille à l'optimisme agaçant est pourtant inexplicablement attiré par elle.

I'm Aria Delgado, and this is my story. Ten years ago, my fiancé betrayed me in the worst way—he chose my sister. I swore I'd never set foot on Longhorn Ranch again. But now, I don't have a choice. My father is gone, the family ranch is on the verge of collapse, and half of it belongs to me, the other half to my sister, and she can't sell it fast enough. I won't let that happen. My ancestral home is more than dirt and fences—it's my legacy. But the odds are stacked against me. The debts are too high, and someone is trying to drive me out of my land.

Welcome to Travers Corners, a dusty Montana town, where nothing much has happened since Herbert Hoover stopped for gas. Travers Corners, like most small towns, has no newspaper, no radio station; but here, large trout - no better than large trout, fictitious trout - await the angler. And apart from spreading gossip outside the McCraken’s General Store, the residents of Travers Corners love nothing more than fly fishing. Scott Waldie’s delightful cast of characters breathes life into this tiny, out-of-the-way town.