Small Town & Rural

It's Holy Week in the small town of Las Penas, New Mexico, and 33-year-old unemployed Amadeo Padilla has been given the part of Jesus in the Good Friday procession. He is preparing feverishly for this role when his 15-year-old daughter, Angel, shows up pregnant on his doorstep....

Naomi wasn’t just running away from her wedding. She was riding to the rescue of her twin. Too bad for Naomi, her evil twin hasn’t changed at all. Now, she’s stuck in town with no car, no job, no home - and an 11-year-old to take care of....

The year 1996 was the one that changed everything for Maggie Dawes. Sent away at 16 to live with an aunt she barely knew in Ocracoke, a remote village on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, she could think only of the friends and family she left behind - until she met Bryce Trickett....

In one second, my life disappeared. My past. My memories. My future. The only certainty I have from the last three years is that my older brother is dead and that I am the only eyewitness. In order to protect the case, the lawyers demand that no one give me any information about my life....

Revisit the packhorse librarians of Kentucky with this stunning companion to the New York Times best seller The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek....

The hardscrabble folks of Troublesome Creek have to scrap for everything - everything except books, that is. Troublesome's got its very own traveling librarian, Cussy Mary Carter. She's also the last of her kind, her skin a shade of blue unlike most anyone else....

It’s spring in the tiny town of Damariscotta, a tourist haven on the coast of Maine known for its oysters and antiques. Andrew, a high school English teacher recently returned to the area, has brought his family to Ed and Steph Thatch’s sprawling riverside estate....

The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven is the story of one man who banishes himself to a solitary life in the Arctic Circle and is saved by good friends, a loyal dog, and a surprise visit that changes everything....

Leland Gaunt opens a new shop in Castle Rock called Needful Things. Anyone who enters his store finds the object of his or her lifelong dreams and desires....

Celebrating its 75th anniversary, John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men remains one of America's most widely read and beloved novels. Here is Steinbeck’s dramatic adaptation of his novel-as-play, which received the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play in 1937-1938....

Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step....

People say Beartown is finished. A tiny community nestled deep in the forest, it is slowly losing ground to the ever encroaching trees. But down by the lake stands an old ice rink....

Number-one New York Times best-selling author Nicholas Sparks returns with a story about a chance encounter that becomes a touchstone for two vastly different individuals - transcending decades and continents....

In the waning days of the Civil War, brothers Prentiss and Landry—freed by the Emancipation Proclamation—seek refuge on the homestead of George Walker and his wife, Isabelle. The Walkers, wracked by the loss of their only son to the war, hire the brothers to work their farm....

Louisa has come to her parents’ house in Maine this summer with all three of her kids, a barely-written book, and a trunkful of resentment. Left behind in Brooklyn is her husband, who has promised he will once again pick up his share of the household responsibilities....

Heather Webber's Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe is a captivating blend of magical realism, heartwarming romance, and small-town Southern charm....

From New York Times and USA Today best-selling author A.L. Jackson come three unforgettable full-length, steamy, suspenseful small-town romance novels....

Zavion never knew what love was. His mother abandoned him at two, leaving him in the hands of his father, to deal with situations no child should ever have to face. Forced to grow up sooner than he should've, Zavion's heart became cold and his emotions void....

From a beguiling voice in Mexican fiction comes an astonishing novel - her first to be translated into English - about a mysterious child with the power to change a family’s history in a country on the verge of revolution....

Cormac McCarthy, best-selling author of National Book Award winner All the Pretty Horses, delivers his first new novel in seven years....

Two years after his wife’s death, rock star Garrett Hayes hasn’t moved on. But he has moved out of L.A. Where better to escape his past than a small town in the northern California mountains? If only he could get the townsfolk of Wildwood to leave him the hell alone....

It begins on the shaded town square in a sleepy Southern town. A spirited seven-year-old has a brisk business at her lemonade stand. But the little girl’s pretty yellow dress can’t quite hide the ugly scar on her chest....

When Kate Bowman temporarily moves to her grandmother’s Missouri farm with her husband and baby son, she learns that the lessons that most enrich our lives often come unexpectedly. The family has given Kate the job of convincing Grandma Rose....

Blue Bishop has a knack for finding lost things. No one is more surprised than Blue, however, when she comes across an abandoned newborn baby in the woods, just south of a very special buttonwood tree....

The long-awaited conclusion to the beloved New York Times bestselling and “engrossing” (People) Beartown series - which inspired an HBO series of the same name - follows the small hockey town’s residents as they grapple with change, pain, hope, and redemption....

Tony has decided to donate the proceeds from the video game he developed with his friend Shaggy to the White Eagle Animal Shelter. Tess and Brady plan to use the generous donation to expand the facility. Permanent housing for elderly, sick, and other hard-to-place animals is their main focus, but then Brady decides to go all in on the new service dog and search and rescue training facility. Meanwhile, Tess has her feelings hurt when her dad contacts Tony to ask for help tracking down someone from his past, but as they dig deeper, they begin to wonder if the email even is from her dad.

Riley was living the dream. Running her own business, being her own boss, and finally moving into her own place. Things couldn’t be any better, well, with the exception of catching Carter Miller’s attention. If only the sexy man next door would ever make his move. Maybe she’ll just have to nudge him along? Carter was in deep. Holding in his feelings for Riley was becoming too difficult. Especially when his brother’s wedding was less than a month away and he was forced to work one-on-one with the woman who made his body, mind, and heart betray his better judgment. 

When 12-year-old Esther Bianchi disappears on her way home from school in the small town of Durton in rural Australia, the local community is thrown into a state of grief and suspicion. As Detective Sergeant Sarah Michaels begins her investigation, she questions those who knew the girl, attempting to unpick the secrets which bind them together. The girl’s mother, Constance, believes that her daughter going missing is the worst thing that can happen to her. But as the search for Esther develops, she learns that things can always get worse.

Forced to reassess her future, IT nerd and country girl Addie Kendall returns to her family's Wimmera farm. When she contacts her former school friend Harry Chandler with alarming news, they're compelled to unite to solve a criminal injustice. In pursuit of answers, they stumble upon a shocking find in the district's iconic Banyandah homestead, deserted since a family tragedy ten years ago.

In the resort town of Tramore, County Waterford, visitors arrive in waves with the tourist season, reliving the best days of their childhoods at the seaside amusements. Local teenager Helen Grant is indifferent to the charm of her surroundings; infatuated with her glamorous classmate Stella Swaine, she yearns to escape with her to art college, and from there, the world. But leaving Tramore is easier said than done. With an alcoholic father and an unsympathetic mother, Helen's family life may shatter her dream, just when it seems to be within reach.

It is the summer of 1994. In a small town on the Irish border, Maeve and her two friends have just secured summer jobs in the local shirt factory. They plan to make as much money as they can while waiting for their A Level results before getting out of town and away to the UK. As the summer progresses and the marching season begins, tensions in the factory start to rise between the Catholic and Protestant workforce and events escalate putting Maeve's chance of escape in jeopardy. 

Cornelia, a shy, eccentric country girl in rural 1950s Virginia, is an unlikely operatic prodigy who shares a passion for music and much more with Jay, a struggling, young composer, anxious to escape his aristocratic background and the demands of his overbearing father. As their romance grows, Jay and Cornelia inspire each other to overcome obstacles in their paths to turn their respective dreams into reality. Can their love for one another survive the efforts of their very different families—including threats and bribery—to keep them apart?

On the little Scottish island of Mure—halfway between Scotland and Norway—Flora MacKenzie and her fiancé Joel are planning the smallest of "sweetheart weddings," a high summer celebration surrounded only by those very dearest to them. Not everyone on the island is happy about being excluded, though. The temperature rises even further when beautiful Olivia MacDonald—who left Mure ten years ago for bigger and brighter things—returns with a wedding planner in tow. Olivia is determined to throw the most Instagrammable wedding possible. And she wants to do it the same weekend.

Zavion never knew what love was. His mother abandoned him at two, leaving him in the hands of his father, to deal with situations no child should ever have to face. Forced to grow up sooner than he should've, Zavion's heart became cold and his emotions void. Now, he's an owner of a popular tattoo shop and he's still battling scars from his childhood. Unable to deal with his past trauma or allow himself to open up to anyone, Zavion throws himself headfirst into his work and uses women as objects rather than partners...until he meets Samara.

Holt Davidson, a Kansas firefighter, hasn’t been back to his hometown of Thompsonville, Colorado, for more than two decades, but when he learns that his estranged mother has taken her own life, he returns for the funeral, hoping to make peace with her memory. He spends the night at his childhood home, rummaging through each room, exploring the past. But instead of nostalgic souvenirs, he discovers a gun, a love letter, and a Polaroid photograph of a man lying in his own blood. Who is the dead man? Was his mother the one who killed him, and, if so, why? Who sent the love letter? 

McKenzie Shaw would do anything for her hometown of Haven Point. It may be small, but it’s never let her down...unlike gorgeous, infuriating Ben Kilpatrick. He was her childhood hero until he closed his family’s factory, leaving the town’s economy in shambles. Now his tech firm is considering opening a local facility. For Haven Point’s sake, McKenzie has to grit her teeth and play nice.

When Colin Barrett’s debut Young Skins published, it swept up several major literary awards, and, in both its linguistic originality and sharply drawn portraits of working-class Ireland, earned Barrett comparisons to Faulkner, Hardy, and Musil. Now, in a blistering follow-up collection, Barrett brings together eight character-driven stories, each showcasing his inimitably observant eye and darkly funny style.  

“I live in a holler, and I’ve heard some folks talk that holler bunch won’t amount to a hill of beans, and I’ve heard others say that the sun never shines in those hollers.” “My mother let me know I was as good as anyone. ‘Ralph, don’t walk with your head down. There’s nothing shameful about running out of taters.’” “My daddy said, ‘Ralph, don’t quit. Quitting follows you to the grave.’” The philosophy in these words was with Ralph from the time of his childhood. He heard them from relatives and witnessed the people around him live them.

Years ago, I left Clarkstown with a sourpuss on my face and better hopes for the future. But what I ended up with was extra baggage, in more ways than one, and even more reasons to leave. Now that I’m home, I’m not sure if Austin Walters looks at me with pity, hatred…or something else, as most of the townsfolk do. But when he figures out the real reason why I left, he looks at me in a different light. Even more importantly, he realizes more of what I need now that I’m back. And now I seem to look at him and everyone else differently, thanks to him. 

After losing his leg, former Army Ranger Holt Steele is building a new life and a new business with his friends. Sure, he never expected to put small-town baker on his resume, but he finds he likes the quiet, simple life. If only he didn't like the single mom who works across the street—or her kid—quite so much. After escaping a controlling husband, Cayla Black has one focus—growing her business and maintaining a safe home for her daughter. She has no time or interest in a man. Not even one who charms her child with Disney songs and keeps turning up to help without being asked.