Small States

After spending years traveling the world with the military, Rose O'Malley is ready for a change. Heading back to Texas to hold down the fort at her aunt's bed-and-breakfast will give Rose just the break she needs. But while she may speak seven languages, she can't repair a leaky sink to save her life. When Hudson Baker strides in like a hero and effortlessly figures out the fix, Rose can't help wondering if the boy she once crushed on as a kid could now be her saving grace. Hud has always been rock-solid and dependable - a quintessential cowboy to his core.

In the still-segregated town of West Mills, North Carolina, in 1976, Marian, Marva, and Lazarus Harmon—three enigmatic siblings—are found shot to death in their home. The people of West Mills— on both sides of the canal that serves as the town’s color line—are in a frenzy of finger-pointing, gossip, and wonder. The crime is the first reported murder in the area in decades, but the white authorities don’t seem to have any interest in solving the case.

Avery Keller arrives in Magnolia, North Carolina, with one aim: collect her inheritance and quickly put the quirky town in her rearview mirror. But the father who didn’t acknowledge her when he was alive has left Avery a mess to sort through - along with two half-sisters she’s never met and a gorgeous single dad living next door. Soon, her plan to keep this colorful, close-knit community at a distance gets complicated....

Ava Dove—the sixth of the seven famed Dove sisters and owner of Ava Dove’s Landscaping and Specialty Teas—is frantic. Just as her new tearoom is about to open, her herbal teas have gone haywire. Suddenly, her sleep-inducing tea is startling her clients awake with vivid dreams, her romance-kindling tea is causing people to blurt out their darkest secrets, and her anti-anxiety tea is making them spend hours staring into mirrors. Ava is desperate for a remedy, but her search leads her into dangerous territory, as she is forced to face a dark secret she’s been hiding for over a decade.

Conducting research for her weekly history column, Jinx, a free-spirited Muscogee (Creek) historian, travels to Hold House, a Georgia plantation originally owned by Cherokee chief James Hold, to uncover the mystery of what happened to a tribal member who stayed behind after Indian removal, when Native Americans were forcibly displaced from their ancestral homelands in the nineteenth century.

They don’t call Rosie McCulley a Danger Girl for no reason. If there is trouble around, it will find her. So it shouldn’t be surprising when the bank she works at gets robbed and the robber decides to use her as a hostage to escape. Brady Bane has had his eye on Rosie for months. He hasn’t felt rushed to make his move, though—until he finds out she got kidnapped. Rescuing her, keeping her safe, and making her his all became priority number one. Sure, there’s his real job of trying to crack open a drug ring, but Rosie comes first.

In her rural Appalachian holler, 10-year-old Misty’s closest friends are the crawdads. Misty can speak to them, to the birds, to the creek, to everything outside, and she understands how they think. She knows that if she could just speak to her parents in the same way, she could stop all the fighting. But it’s too hard. Strange things start to happen in the holler. When her friend William takes their friendship too far, Misty’s need to connect is greater than ever, but it’s hard to talk about what you don’t understand.

Stella Williams has a mission. Watch the men of Bane Securities to see if they’re trustworthy. The governor needs to know if he can trust them with his daughter’s life. Not her. His “real” daughter. Stella’s been spying on the guys when she could—and then she found Sam. Spying on him can be boring since he doesn’t leave or do anything, but there’s something about him that has her inching closer and closer. Sam’s been shirking his responsibilities and hiding away for so long that he can’t remember what it feels like to be out in the real world. After nearly letting all of...

A collection of five lesbian romantic short stories by the author of Broken Women and Healing Embrace, mostly sweet with a little spice. Loving Blue in Red States: Sweetwater Texas Emmie Warren is a middle school teacher who is just trying not to rock the boat until she can finish her Master’s Degree and find the courage to move herself and her son away from sleepy Sweetwater to diverse, vibrant Austin, the only place in Texas she ever felt free to be herself. She’s been hiding her truth for years. She doesn’t see any reason to change that before she can make a clean break of things ...

Most any honest person can own up to harboring at least one fast-food guilty pleasure. In Drive-Thru Dreams, Adam Chandler explores the inseparable link between fast food and American life for the past century. The dark underbelly of the industry’s largest players has long been scrutinized and gutted, characterized as impersonal, greedy, corporate, and worse. But, in unexpected ways, fast food is also deeply personal and emblematic of a larger-than-life image of America.

Maren Walker told herself she wouldn’t need to sell pills for long, that it was only means to an end. But that end seems to be stretching as far away as the other side of Blackdamp County, Kentucky. There’s always another bill for Granny’s doctor, another problem with the car, another reason she’s getting nowhere. She dreams of walking through her little door to leave it all behind. The doors have appeared to the people in her mountain town for as long as anyone can remember, though no one knows where they lead. All anyone knows is that if you go, you’ll never come back.

A brother who disappeared. A mystery worth solving. A love worth finding. Hannah Summers lost her innocence the day she came home from school and found police cars in front of her house. Her parents are dead, her loss is deep, but its more than that—her baby brother, Micah, is missing. Vowing to find Micah no matter what she has to do or how long she has to search, Hannah ends up in Pelican Pointe with more questions than answers. She’s holding on to a shred of hope that Micah is still alive. While Hannah isn’t looking for love, one resident has other ideas. Caleb Jennings has his own...

Ocean. Sand. Long summer nights. A sexy Cape Cod escape. What could possibly go wrong? Simon Bremmer has put war and the Army behind him. He’s living the good life stateside in Pelican Pointe. He’s doing what he loves. His business is booming. He has no complaints. But all that is about to change when he gets a visit from a Boston lawyer. She not only drops a bombshell but delivers a package he never expected. Single mom, Gilly Grant, has given up on men. She’s trying to raise her three-year-old son by herself and deal with her mother, who has suddenly developed complicated health ...

It wasn’t until he faced death that life gave him hope and hope gave him the courage to love. Archaeologist River Amandez comes to Pelican Pointe to excavate and catalogue a long-buried Chumash settlement. She brings with her a not-so-pretty past and only one man in town can help her figure out how to make things right. Brent Cody is back in town to recover from a near-fatal attempt on his life. Together the two will lean on each other through tough times, finding strength and courage to correct their mistakes. They'll soon make plans for a reunion of a lifetime and discover the dunes ...

Tonasket: Anchored in the Okanogan is a sweeping historical fiction novel that spans a century of change, challenge, and quiet triumph in Washington State’s rugged Okanogan River Valley. Told through interwoven vignettes of pioneers, Native peoples, missionaries, and townsfolk, this heartfelt narrative brings to life the trials and transformation of a land once wild and untamed. From the early 1800s when fur trappers and tribal leaders cautiously exchanged words and wares, to the early 1900s when steam trains, apple orchards, and Baptist churches became fixtures of the valley, Tonasket ...

Throughout his career, Bill Geist's most popular stories have been about slightly odd but loveable individuals. Coming on the heels of his 5,600 mile RV trip across our fair land is Way Off the Road, a hilarious and compelling mix of stories about the folks featured in Geist's segments, along with observations on his 20 years of life on the road.

From the best-selling novelist of the American West, comes a novel of romance, danger, and life along the trail.

Twenty years ago, a pair of lovers disappear into the night to begin a new life. But is that really what happened? New principal Julianne Dickinson is overseeing the renovation of the brand-new elementary school when an old wooden box surfaces among the rubble. Curiosity as to how it got there leads her to a disturbing theory about the two, young lovers and their vanishing act so many years earlier. When the mystery becomes too much, and she realizes she’s making waves, Julianne looks for help in an unlikely ally. Ryder McLachlan is happy to be back working in construction again. His ...

From one of the most beloved Western authors comes an epic historical tale of adventure and romance in the great wilderness. Against the epic backdrop of the building of the Union Pacific Railroad across plains and deserts and through the mountains to meet up with the Southern Pacific in Utah comes a sprawling, historical tale. Warren Neale is a brilliant civil engineer who is constantly confronted with construction problems. He is sided by Larry Red King, a Texas gunfighter and friend.

The sixth Chloe Boston bundle is 113k words and includes the full texts of books 18 through 20 in the Chloe Boston Mystery Series: "On the Beach", "Camp Chaos", and "The Davenport Caper".