Rural Small Town Fiction

Peculiar weather settles over a bustling Texas sea port, a city made prosperous off the cotton trade and thick with racial inequality. The sky above Galveston, Texas, darkens to the sickly green of a healing bruise, the sea turns black, and the inhabitants of the city have no idea the force of the hammer about to drop on them. On September 8, 1900, a hurricane ripped apart Galveston, Texas, killing nearly 8,000 people and nearly obliterating the town. Lansdale's story brings dimension to many who lost their lives that day, and a few who survived.

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. After helping herself to Naomi’s car and cash, Tina leaves her with a niece she didn’t know she had. Now, she’s stuck in town with no car, no job, no home - and an 11-year-old to take care of. Since Naomi’s life imploded right in front of him, the least Knox can do is help her out. And just as soon as she's out of trouble, he can get back to his peaceful, solitary life. That’s the plan, until the trouble turns to real danger.

Anna Cooper and Jake Reynolds both live at a luxury London building. The only difference is that Jake lives in the penthouse, and Anna lives in a tent on the roof. When Jake finds out, he offers Anna a chance of a new life in his grandmother's childhood home in Pepper Bay, and she decides to take the opportunity to see if she really can make a fresh start somewhere else. The beauty of Pepper Bay, with its quaint shops, chocolate box cottages and all of Jake's closest friends, immediately fills Anna's heart with nothing but love.

1970s, Southern Alabama. Sixty-two-year-old Jeremiah Lewis Taylor, or “Nub,” has spent his whole life listening to those he loves tell him he’s no good—first his ex-wife, now his always-disapproving daughter. Sure, his escapades have made him, along with his cousin and perennial sidekick, Benny, just a smidge too familiar with small-town law enforcement, but he’s never harmed anyone—except perhaps himself.

Tess “Mac” McPhail is one of country music's brightest lights, a millionaire many times over, accustomed to public adoration and a life lived on her own terms. Now, eighteen years after she left her hometown, Mac's sisters insist she return to help care for their widowed mother. There Mac faces several rude awakenings—an insulting older sister, an intractable parent, and worst of all, the apparent total indifference of Kenny, the neighbor she taunted through high school and who is now a handsome divorcee.

Every storm they've weathered... has led them to each other. Dan Amos lost his wife and son years ago, when they inadvertently got in the way of a death threat meant for him. He's never had eyes for anyone since, and he doesn't want to. But fellow Blessings resident Alice Conroy sparks something inside him...

Tinsel and lights and cocoa and...murder?! The islanders welcome the first big boat full of visitors to their new dock, and with them, a murder mystery weekend that involves Santa, Mrs. Claus, and an elf with legs like a Rockette. Mayor Holly Baxter is juggling her growing feelings for the island’s newest resident, a letter that arrives in the mail with news she isn’t even sure she wants, and Bonnie’s sudden interest in yet another man who threatens to draw her away from Christmas Key. Will the magic of the season be lost as the body count rises and the mystery builds? Or will the ...

George Holloway has spent his life alone, exploring the treacherous beauty of the Colorado Rockies. He's the best survival expert Search and Rescue has, which makes him the obvious choice to lead Ellie Price through deadly terrain to find her missing father. There's just one problem - Ellie's everything George isn't. She's a city girl, charming, gregarious, delicate, small. And when she looks up at him with those big, dark eyes, he swears he would tear the world apart to keep her safe.

Chief of Police Ed Kapenash is about to retire. Blond Sharon is going through a divorce. But when a 22-million-dollar summer home is purchased by the mysterious Richardsons—how did they make their money, exactly?—Ed, Sharon, and everyone in the community are swept up in high drama. The Richardsons throw lavish parties, flirt with multiple locals, flaunt their wealth with not one but two yachts, and raise impossible hopes of everyone they meet. When their house burns to the ground and their most essential employee goes missing, the entire island is up in arms.

Someone is shooting horses, and Sadie is determined to find out who it is. That is until she begins to suspect that Mark, her boyfriend, may be involved. Will Sadie discover the truth? Will it be too hard to bear?

After the blockbuster international success of From Here to Eternity, James Jones retreated from public life, making his home at the Handy Writers’ Colony in Illinois. His goal was to write something larger than a war novel, and the result, six years in the making, was Some Came Running, a stirring portrait of small-town life in the American Midwest at a time when our country and its people were striving to find their place in the new postwar world. Five decades later, it has been revised and reedited under the direction of the Jones estate.

Annie McIntyre has a love/hate relationship with Garnett, Texas. Recently graduated from college and home waitressing, lacking not in ambition but certainly in direction, Annie is lured into the family business—a private investigation firm—by her supposed-to-be-retired grandfather, Leroy, despite the rest of the clan's misgivings.

When life comes knocking, can they go from nothing to something? After a lifetime of having each other's backs, meddling in their brother's lives, and keeping their families going, Nate and Xavi don't know what to do with all this… freedom. For the first time ever, they have no one to watch out for. Love and dreams come next on their big agenda, and they soon learn the connection they share goes far deeper than any normal friendship. But with a lifelong bestie bond on the line, flipping their dynamic comes with big risks… and big rewards.

Joe Winston has a routine with women: He exists; they swoon; roll credits. With his smoldering looks, macho style, and irrepressible charm, Joe can have any woman - except the one he really wants. Secretly, Luna Clark may lust after Joe, but she's made it clear that she's too smart to fall for him. He can just keep holding his breath, thank you very much. But now, Luna's inherited two kids who need more than she alone can give in a small town that seems hell-bent on driving them away. She needs someone to help out...someone who can't be intimidated...someone just like Joe.

The arrival of Thomas Campbell and his elder brother has the small village of Beauford astir. Not only is Thomas tall, dark, and handsome, he is also rumored to be a most notorious rake. Miss Claire Gardner is young, innocent, and completely infuriating. Yet given an opportunity, Thomas can't help teaching the headstrong beauty a lesson in desire.

After everything that the citizens of Beartown have gone through, they are struck yet another blow when they learn that their beloved local hockey team will soon be disbanded. What makes it worse is the obvious satisfaction that all the former Beartown players, who now play for a rival team in Hed, take in that fact. Amidst the mounting tension between the two rivals, a surprising newcomer is handpicked to be Beartown's new hockey coach. Soon a new team starts to take shape around Amat, the fastest player you'll ever see; Benji, the crazed lone wolf; and Vidar, a born-to-be-bad troublemaker.

Big secrets run deep. Former FBI agent Jack McBride took the job as chief of police for Stillwater, Texas, to start a new life with his teenage son, Ethan, away from the suspicions that surrounded his wife's disappearance a year earlier. With a low crime rate and a five-man police force, he expected it to be a nice, easy gig; hot checks, traffic violations, some drugs, occasional domestic disturbances, and petty theft. Instead, within a week he is investigating a staged murder-suicide.

Life’s hard enough being a cop and a single mom, but who needs a new love interest to complicate things? Especially when he’s a charming basketball coach with a megawatt smile. Throw in some robbery drama and flirtation, and life is spinning faster than a basketball at center court. My daughter Alice treats teenage rebellion like an Olympic sport. Ever since Cade Waverly, the irresistible basketball coach, walked into my investigation and kept lingering in my thoughts, I've been balancing on the edge of my own emotional foul line. He's sunshine and laughter, I’m all work and no play...

ALONE INJURED AFRAID Mary Kate Lapp wakes up covered in blood, a gun beside her, and two of her best friends are dead. Since she is the only survivor and her injuries have left her with amnesia of the event, the chief of police arrests her for murder. Caleb Beiler, a friend and neighbor, is shocked, confused and trying his best to believe in Mary Kate’s innocence but with no other suspects, mounting evidence of her guilt, and her inability to tell anyone what happened, he is finding it increasingly difficult. When danger starts to impact the community, the bond between Mary Kate and Caleb...

Lara Bennett is world-famous in Ribbonwood, population 907. She's the woman you don't trust your husband with: a real-life femme fatale. If there's a scandal in town, she's at the center of it, ruining businesses, marriages, and egos everywhere she goes, with her sharp tongue and that body that makes you look twice. Besides… didn't she more or less kill a man?