Rural Town

Eve has just graduated from high school, but she doesn't know what's next aside from working at the local motel, spying on Kyle, her neighbor, and stealing apples from his orchard. If she doesn't figure things out soon, she'll be stuck at home and treated like a child forever.

Gabriella Jacobson has one goal for her freshman year of college: get Matthew Cory to fall in love with her. Luckily for Gabby, her best friend Ben attends the same college on a music scholarship. He is the perfect resource—girls love him, and he's more experienced with relationships than she is, since she's never had a boyfriend. When Gabby panics before her first date with Matt, she begs Ben to show her how to kiss. But Ben has a secret, one he's been keeping from Gabby for years. He's in love with her.

Michigan's Upper Peninsula is blessed with a treasure trove of storytellers, poets, and historians, all seeking to capture a sense of Yooper Life from settler's days to the far-flung future. Since 2017, the U.P. Reader has offered a rich collection of their voices that embraces the U.P.'s natural beauty and way of life, along with a few surprises. The sixty-plus short works in this 8th annual volume take listeners on U.P. road and boat trips from the Keweenaw to the Soo and from St. Ignace to Escanaba.

While Barney loves his life at Bumblebee Barn - a farm that has been in his family for generations - he's struggling to find someone to share it with. The early mornings quad biking through muddy fields and the long hours looking after the crops and animals are proving to be a deterrent to finding love. So when his sister, Fizz - desperate for Barney to find his soulmate - sees an advert for Love on the Farm, a new reality TV show to help farmers find love, he has nothing to lose by applying.

Since I'm not going to fall for Dylan Stafford, it shouldn't matter that he shovels my driveway or looks at me like he could devour me. One kiss later—I, Marlow Taylor, am completely screwed.

I'm not a ho-ho-ho kind of guy. My brother and I were raised in foster care, and the closest thing we had to a father was a career criminal who'd sooner steal Christmas than save it. I followed in his footsteps, I'm ashamed to say, and did things for him that I regret. Like taking a priceless Christmas ornament from a Colonial Williamsburg inn. I'm trying to be a better man, and the first step is returning that ornament. Except I'm too late. The owner passed away and left the inn to her granddaughter, Anabelle—a high-strung, Christmas-obsessed loner whose cat takes an immediate dislike to me.

Every night at precisely 7:19 p.m., Tina L. Jones turns on her porch light. To her quiet Georgia neighborhood, it’s just a lonely woman’s strange habit—maybe she’s waiting for a lost love, a child, or simply clinging to routine. But Tina knows the truth is much deeper… and much darker. When a mysterious letter appears at her door, scrawled with the words “You were right. It’s still here.” Tina is thrust back into a haunting mystery she tried to forget—the disappearance of a gifted student named Miles Carter and the secrets surrounding a beloved teacher who may not be who he seems.

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?

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.

Lucy Parsons wants absolutely nothing to do with the Westmoore family or the maple syrup they produce. When Sierra Westmoore blows back into town after her father's death and tries to rent a room at Lucy's family's bed-and-breakfast, The Maple Inn, Lucy kicks her out on the spot. It doesn't matter that Sierra hasn't set foot in Maple Run in fifteen years—the Westmoores are not allowed. But small towns don't leave a lot of room to hide, and Sierra and her brother, Drake, have set their sights on improving the town's opinion of them now that their father is gone.

A Nebraska native, Claude Wheeler wants to attend the State University but instead lives a typical college life as a Temple College student. However, when his successful father decides to expand the family farm, Claude's reality is changed forever as he's forced to drop out to help realize his father's dream. Later, as war wages on in Europe, he enlists, hoping to escape his dreary fate and find purpose.

Long-time residents of Promise Lodge welcome a wave of newcomers that includes a pretty potter who's come to help an expectant couple, and a hard-working dairy expert ready to manage the herds on the expanding Burkholder farm. Then there's Isaac Chupp, the handsome, charming son of a notoriously unyielding Bishop from nearby Coldstream. Isaac has recklessly rebelled against his dat, and his bad boy reputation precedes him. Now he seeks a fresh start, applying for work at Dale Kraybill's bulk store.

Trisha’s bestselling Christmas book will have you hooked from start to finish – the perfect read as those cold winter nights draw in. Christmas has always been a sad time for young widow Holly Brown. So when she's asked to look after a remote house on the Lancashire moors, the opportunity to...

In the mid-nineteenth century, Ciarán McCrohan moves to the small remote island of Inishean to take over the position of lighthouse keeper. But there is one catch: he needs a wife. On the edge of Europe, shielded from the potato blight and ensuing famine that rages in Ireland, two young people find refuge both in their small community and in each other. Almost two centuries later, Josh O’Brien’s happy life in Ireland is threatened, despite the efforts of his new family. But there is someone who will stand above the others to secure his future.

Mara Davies learned early to keep her heart on ice. Abandoned by her mother, she raised herself while her father drowned his grief in alcohol. Everything changed when she met Fayth Havens, the one person who truly sees her and accepts everything that makes Mara different: her overstimulated mind, wandering thoughts, even her comfort in a pair of worn-out Family Guy pajamas, holes in the ass and all.

In the tiny village of Sandy Cove in Ireland, Ella Caron is trying to recover. When she moved to a beautiful coastguard cottage on the sea, she wanted quiet and the space to grieve after her mother’s death. She never imagined that her mother’s best friend, Lucille, would insist on moving in to keep her company. With Lucille by her side, it soon becomes clear that Lucille has her own reasons for coming to Sandy Cove. But then Lucille’s son, Rory, comes to town and her dream is under threat: he wants her in Tipperary, where she can safely grow old in their family home.

Dr. Antonio Rinalto has lived abroad in Brazil for over a decade. A promising young surgeon, he has been serving as a medical missionary. But there are other reasons he left his Tuscan home... Among the vines of Viti del Fiume, family secrets linger. Ten years later, Antonio is called home to Italy, where he will learn the power of forgiveness and the importance of family bonds. Sophie Bellamy is searching for a way out of England. As a graduating viticulturist, interning at a vineyard in Tuscany seems like the perfect escape. But old ghosts have a way of tracking their prey.

The last person I expected to see at the funeral was Jake Blackwood—my best friend's older brother, my first love turned bearded mountain god. He brought backup. Two ex-SEALs who share his cabin in the woods. Noah is the calm in the storm. Eli's the storm itself. He blames me for the past. I blame him for that kiss in the woodshed. Then the threats started. Jake insists I stay with them. I should've said no. But I didn't. Being snowed in with a mountain man is a bad idea... Let alone three. And falling for all of them? Disastrous.

After years of hard work and saving all my pennies while working as Balsam Ridge’s librarian, my dream of opening a combination book store and cafe is finally coming to fruition. Everything is on track until my old high school flame, Nashville’s trouble-making superstar Garrett Tuttle, comes back to town. His wild ways and out-of-control behavior caused his label to send him home while the chatter dies down. Garrett doesn’t know how to lay low, and his arrival turns my world upside down.

Single mom Heather Donovan’s dreams of home and family are tantalizingly within reach when she settles in Chesapeake Shores. The welcoming arms of the boisterous, loving O’Brien clan embrace her and her son. But accepting their support seems to further alienate her son’s father, Connor O’Brien. His parents’ divorce and his career as a high-powered divorce attorney have left him jaded about marriage. Then everything changes. Will the possibility of a future without Heather make Connor look at love and his career differently?