Rural Life

This Christmas Eve, I had one simple plan: close up the family café and face another quiet night alone. But fate had other ideas when Trystan—the boy who was once my best friend and first love—walked back into my life, dusted with snow and wearing a Marine uniform that made my heart skip a beat. I never expected to see him again, let alone offer him a place to stay when a canceled flight leaves him stranded. Under the glow of twinkling Christmas lights and over cups of hot cocoa, old memories resurface and the sparks between us reignite. But letting him in means risking the walls I've ...

In the 1980s Jimmy Rabbitte formed the Commitments, a ragtag, blue-collar collective of Irish youths determined to bring the soul music stylings of James Brown and Percy Sledge to Dublin. Time proves a great equalizer for Jimmy as he’s now approaching 50 with a loving wife, four kids, and a recent cancer diagnosis that leaves him feeling shattered and frightened. Jimmy still loves his music, and he still loves to hustle - his new thing is finding old bands and then finding the people who loved them enough to pay for their resurrected albums.

Joy made her way from Houston back to Orchard County to prepare for the passing of her father. How will Anthony, her childhood sweetheart, be able to tame his unbridled attraction for her during this difficult time? The Fruits of Orchard County is a Christian Romance Series predicated on the Fruits of the Spirit verses found in Galatians 5:22-23. The setting is a rural Michigan county where there is an abundance of orchards and fields of vegetables. Life in Orchard County is laid back and full of rich traditions and family values. This clean romance series will give you a heartwarming ...

It should be the most wonderful time of the year for Samantha and Josh as they prepare for the arrival of their first baby. But life at Hedgehog Hollow rarely goes to plan and the pair are faced with adversaries, old and new, and unexpected challenges to overcome. Fizz's job at the heart of the rescue centre is a dream come true but her personal life is more like a nightmare. With her love life a disaster and her past about to dramatically catch up with her, she needs the love and support of her Hedgehog Hollow family more than ever.

Chocolate melts exactly at body temperature, as Maisey has discovered… Maisey has talked her brother’s best mate and local GP, Joss, into having his photo taken eating chocolate truffles for her new advertising campaign. Joss is wary. Being so close to Maisey means he’s going to struggle with his attraction to her, and her brother will kill him if he so much as kisses her. But sexy Maisey is very persuasive. When the chocolate melts on Joss’s warm body, it seems only polite for Maisey to offer to lick it off… And that’s where the problems start.

Growing Up Greene is about a city boy that moves to a farm at the age of 4. The move to Greene Township was the beginning of a very special childhood for this pre-school aged Boy. It was there that he began a friendship that spanned a short lifetime. This book is a series of related stories about this youngster growing up on a small farm in the 50’s. His adventures are far from average, including cow rides, tractors, outhouses, circuses, 4h fairs, race cars,hunting, motor scooters, and motorcycle hill climbs. A big brother provides both guidence and humor as life takes it turns. From the ...

When Danni Carter moves to Cornwall from London, she hopes it will be the fresh start she so desperately needs. She’s nervous, but hopefully the change of scene will help her to finally forget her feelings for Lucas Newman, a man she can never be with, because he’s already engaged to Danni’s best friend, Esther. But when Lucas and Esther decide to follow Danni to Cornwall, and both announce they will be working with her at the new St Piran’s hospital, Danni is thrown into turmoil again.

How far will a mother go to turn Christmas joy into back-to-school readiness? And what happens when her solution risks taking away the very thing that makes her child feel special? Kemunto is no stranger to tough decisions. As a hardworking mother in a rural African village, she’s mastered the art of stretching every coin just to get by. But when her son Mogaka’s beloved gray Christmas shoes—his pride, his confidence, his magic—don’t meet the school’s strict uniform rules, Kemunto is faced with a new kind of dilemma. To Mogaka, those shoes help him run faster, dream bigger, and ...

Books bring them together - but friendship will transform all of their lives. Five very different women come together in the Northern Territory of the 1970s, by an exceptional new Australian author. In 1978 the Northern Territory has begun to self-govern. Cyclone Tracy is a recent memory and telephones not yet a fixture on the cattle stations dominating the rugged outback. Life is hard, and people are isolated. But they find ways to connect.

Grace first met Mimi when she blew into their sons’ toddler playgroup like a warm bay breeze that loosened Grace’s tight spaces. Despite differing approaches to life and parenting, the fast friends raised their kids together while cementing a sisterlike bond that neither believed could be broken. But when a string of ill-fated decisions results in a teen party with a tragic outcome for Grace’s son, the friendship is ripped apart and an already-splintered community explodes.

Journalist Sadie is home for the first time in fifteen years, staying in her small childhood bedroom as she deals with her estranged father’s death and her surprising inheritance. When Sadie meets Rebecca, the reclusive new owner of the solitary cottage at the edge of nearby Whisper Lake, she’s taken aback by the older woman’s request for help: ‘I need to find my family. Will you help me?’. She’s even more surprised when afterwards, Rebecca acts as if she never made the plea.

This is a second collection of short stories by Steven Cornelius. These stories revolve around life in Alcorn County Mississippi, near the city of Corinth, in the fifties and sixties, before the time of instant, on demand entertainment. When night fell and chores for the day were complete, he and his family read until bedtime. He often sat in the heat of long summer afternoons listening to his father and other kin relate highly embellished accounts of mostly mundane daily affairs. When he wasn’t helping at his dad’s shop, or sweating in the family garden, he worked as a carhop and short...

Once Elle lets the tiger out of the cage, it’s impossible to get him back in… Elle Baker’s had enough of men telling her how to live her life. She loves her job at the Treats to Tempt You shop in Doubtless Bay, New Zealand. But repeated issues with her overbearing father and arrogant ex have persuaded her it’s time for a fresh start, and she’s planning to move away to Wellington at the end of the month. When Stuart Casey’s childhood sweetheart lay dying, she made him swear to her that he’d never love another girl as long as he lived. So far, he’s kept his promise, even ...

Willow Montgomery is determined to turn her new horse ranch around, no matter how many times she has to fall out of the saddle to make it happen! Lovers Creek horse ranch is all that's left of her father's legacy. She'll do anything it takes to make it flourish again. Unfortunately she knows little to nothing in the way of running a ranch. That's where Luke Harrison comes in. As the best (and sexiest) cowboy on the ranch, he knows everything there is to know about horses. Most days, he likes them more than people. He's also the grumpiest man Willow's ever met. So when sparks fly after he ...

This is the story of the trials that beset the McKinnons, the first family of Mattagash, Maine, when they try to arrange a funeral for the family matriarch. Bubbling with quirky humor, this marks a dazzling debut for a gifted and richly talented young writer.

Siblings Bert, Willet, and Pansy know better than to go swimming at the old rock quarry. According to their father, it's the Devil's place, a place that's been cursed and forgotten. But Mississippi Delta summer days are scorching hot, and they can't resist cooling off in the dark, bottomless water - until the day six-year-old Pansy vanishes...not drowned, not lost, simply gone. When their father disappears as well, Bert and Willet leave their childhoods behind to try and hold their broken family together.

You may leave home. But home will never leave you. Uri Dolev is a shy young man brought up in a strict, spartan educational system. Born in Germany, his parents, who managed to save themselves from the horrors of the Holocaust, are cold individuals who display few emotions. A moment before being drafted into the military, Uri’s heart is in for a huge disappointment, when Nurit, his great love since adolescence, leaves unexpectedly and moves to Sweden. Uri tries to leave everything behind when he joins the army, rising to become a valued combat officer. However, a major case of espionage ...

Welcome back to Willow Heights! After the fright that Michael gave everyone in the last book, he and Ruby find themselves in Willow Heights together. Will Michael finally see Ruby as a woman and not just his little sister’s best friend? Will his failed engagement stop him from allowing his heart to love again? Will Ruby forgive Michael for never appreciating her before? Will this turn to be just a friendship or the love story they always dreamed of? Who else will reconnect in book seven of the Willow Heights series?

Marriage in Japan I went out for lunch with my partner at a cafe the other day that stood across the train station in a Japanese desolate rural town where I live. To call it a cafe is a bit too fancy. It’s not the likes of Starbucks but rather a small old mom-and-pop diner that was built well over 30 years ago and remained as it was, which perfectly matched this old town itself. We sat at the table and overheard a conversation from the table next to us. Three old women in their eighties sat around the table by the window. “She has passed away, too.” “This could be the last time we ...

Michael is a rising OB/GYN at a prominent private practice in Albany, New York; he also moonlights at a local women’s health clinic. But Annie, his wife, has become tired of her workaholic husband’s absences, and the soccer-mom lifestyle has worn thin. She begins a passionate love affair with bad-boy, fading celebrity painter Simon Haas—an affair that quickly goes awry when Simon’s wife, Lydia, who is also the model upon whom he built his career, discovers the truth.