Small States

How far would you go to protect a loved one? Would you tamper with evidence? Commit arson? Allow a prime suspect to remain at large? Pegasus Quincy and her former partner, Shepherd Malone, have some difficult choices ahead when Shep’s daughter is caught with a murder weapon in her hand. It doesn’t help when the detective on the case has problems of his own. When he applies to the sheriff’s department, he conveniently forgets to mention that he was terminated from his previous position under a cloud of fraud.

It is a busy weekend in the town of Perfect, WA. A fan convention is being held. A serial killing is uncovered. Then a second distinctly different set of killings. And a third. Police Officer Brad Graham, along with FBI Special Agent Kyle Smart, tries to figure out why three different serial killers have descended on the small Pacific Northwest town. Welcome to Perfect, WA.

Trouble hasn’t left the quiet town of Revival Cove, and the Mayer family faces their greatest challenges yet as life, loss, and love collide in unexpected ways. Huck Mayer is battling more than his past—he’s fighting for his future. Haunted by regrets and still wrestling with his dependence on alcohol, Huck dreams of rebuilding his life, seeing his daughter more, and maybe even finding love again. However, embracing a new path could drive a wedge between him and his father, further straining the already-tenuous family ties. Johnny Mayer has found purpose as a preacher in the ...

Meredith Ventner knows a wounded creature when she sees one. Though her temporary new neighbor may be - on the surface at least - a successful, drop-dead gorgeous doctor, she recognizes the deep hurt Ryan Sorensen is carrying, and it’s catnip to her soul. But even though Meredith is the youngest, scrappiest and single-est of Magnolia’s most famous sisters, she’s committed to expanding the animal shelter on her newly inherited farm. She can’t waste her energy on a man who’s only passing through town.

Janie Treeborne lives on an orchard at the edge of Elberta, Alabama, and in time she has become its keeper. A place where conquistadors once walked and where the peaches they left behind now grow. Elberta has seen fierce battles, violent storms, and frantic change - and when the town is once again threatened from without, Janie realizes it won’t withstand much more.

It's the 1790s, and the circus has arrived in Durham, Maine. Before weaver Will Rees is able to take in its spectacle, he spots Magistrate Hanson - the man he blames for his family's having to flee Dugard two years earlier. On his journey home he encounters Shaker brothers searching for a girl from their Zion community. Despite women not being allowed inside the circus, Leah had snuck out to visit it. They quickly come across her lifeless body beaten and thrown into a farmer's field on the road leading to the circus.

In the fifteen masterful stories that make up this collection, Jai Chakrabarti crosses continents and cultures to explore what it means to cultivate a family today, across borders, religions, and race.

Black Jack Hollis was a daring outlaw before he was shot down. In the wake of his death, it's discovered that Hollis left behind an infant son. Elizabeth Cornish, coowner of the Cornish Ranch alongside her brother, Vance, takes it upon herself to raise the child as her own. Elizabeth names the boy Terry Colby and gives Terry a fictitious aristocratic background, believing the way the boy is raised will determine the man he will become. But Vance is convinced that Terry is destined to become an outlaw himself.

On the evening of the eighteenth of May, a young woman walks alone into the small village of Chimney Rock, North Carolina, with the intention of staying for exactly one year. As she sets about to find lodging and work, she quickly meets two precocious children, a caring and generous business owner, and the neighboring town's Chief of Police. Family and loss make up many of their stories, and while these people and others attempt to get to know and help the stranger, the history and troubled memories of what led her to this place begin to gradually unfold. As the date of her planned ...

După ce a petrecut zece ani în Anglia, Bill Bryson vrea să-şi rememoreze copilăria, aşa că pleacă din locul în care s-a născut, Des Moines, Iowa, într-o călătorie prin 38 dintre statele americane, pe care o documentează cu mult umor. Autorul speră să se reîntîlnească cu peisajele idilice ale copilăriei sale, însă găseşte lanuri nesfîrşite de porumb, benzinării, moteluri şi localuri care arată peste tot aproape la fel şi sunt populate de oameni care seamănă uimitor de mult unul cu altul.

In a town famous for healing waters, one sip could mean murder. Mineral Wells, Texas, 1924 Lady Anne Worthington, an English countess and brilliant inventor, has been shipped to America to find a wealthy oilman husband. But the independent Lady Anne has other plans—and they don’t include marriage. While on a U.S. tour to showcase her Sherlock Holmes-themed murder machine, she’s poised to make quite the splash. When the tour’s promoter, washed-up actor Baxter Knight, dies after drinking the famed mineral water, Lady Anne suspects foul play. As small-town secrets bubble to the surface...

A thirty-something single woman, the untried colt she inherits, a horse-crazy little girl, and their band of misfits and has-beens stick it to the establishment in the cutthroat world of horse racing.

In a dry Kansas riverbed, a troop of young girls finds a human hand. This discovery leads Billy Spire, the tough and broken sheriff of Ewing County, to investigate and confront the depths of his community and of himself: the racism, the dying economy, the lies and truths of friendship, grievances of the past and present, and even his own injured marriage. To flyover folks, Ewing County appears nothing more than a handful of empty streets amid crop circles and the meandering, depleted Arkansas River. The truth of this place—the interwoven lives and stories—is anything but simple.

It has been twenty years since Philip McBride's body was found along the riverbank in the dark woods known as Happy Hollow. His death was ruled a suicide. But three people have carried the truth ever since—Philip didn't kill himself that day. He was murdered. Each of the three have wilted in the shadow of their sins. Yet what cannot be laid to rest is bound to rise again, and these three will be drawn together for a final confrontation between life and death . . . between truth and lies.

Eat Like a Local: Illinois by author Elaine Joy Nicholson Small offers the inside scoop on food in Illinois, USA.

Cyrus Brandt’s life is falling apart. Amid a disintegrating marriage and a failing career, he returns to his childhood home on an Illinois farm to make a new start. Adapting to the slow pace of his new environs, Cyrus quickly finds himself in a burgeoning romance with Annie, who owns a diner in the nearby town. But when a spring tornado deposits the body of a murdered man on a nearby rural roadside, Cyrus’ quiet new life is turned upside down. Annie’s brother, Sheriff Thomas Bales, is now caught up in a manhunt, and Cyrus volunteers to assist the sheriff’s under-staffed department ...

Welcome to Stargaze, home to a secret community of friendly zombies—or are they? The Fall Gala is the crown jewel of the festival season in Stargaze, and Addie can hardly wait to help Aunt Kate host a charity tea and attend a fancy dinner with her not-quite-boyfriend, Bennett. But when the MC of the Gala turns up dead, Addie begins to uncover a plot to expose the secret supernatural community that includes her aunt and new friend Marvin. If that happens, the special local magic that gives Addie her psychic abilities and keeps her aunt alive will disappear forever. Now the race is on to ...

From the author of the million-copy global best seller Lilac Girls, comes a captivating new historical novel, set during the American Civil War. It's a sweeping story of women caught in a country on the brink of collapse, in a society grappling with nationalism and unthinkable racial cruelty.

The "Last Best Class" of Fish River Community School had lost one of its members every year since the second grade. Waffle Houses were popping up throughout small-town Alabama with one corporate rule: "Good Food Fast." Struggling to cope with the tragedy that shadowed him most of his life, Dr. Jimmy Ryan dedicated himself to bringing people back from the brink, driven by his own guiding principle "Ain't Dead Yet." Not until Jimmy's own death did the folks at the Waffle House in Penelope, Alabama, learn the full extent of the secrets buried with the dead.

The Right Man: 15 Bite-Sized Contemporary Romance Stories Served with Love in Small Doses. Fall in love fifteen times over with The Right Man, a charming collection of short, contemporary romance stories perfect for a cozy afternoon or bedtime escape. Each story is a quick read—just enough to tug at your heart, spark a smile, or leave you breathless. Heartbreak. Hope. And the moment you finally meet the right one. The Right Man & More Romantic Short Stories delivers touching, tender tales of love found in unexpected places. From second chances to serendipitous meetings, each story offers ...