Small Town & Rural

Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, Demon Copperhead is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father’s good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival....

After a wild bet, gourmet grilled-cheese sandwich, and cuddle with a baby goat, Alexis Montgomery has had her world turned upside down. The cause: Daniel Grant, a ridiculously hot carpenter who’s ten years younger than her and as casual as they come....

Grace Evans, an overworked New Yorker looking for a total escape from her busy life, books an Airbnb on a ranch in the middle of Wyoming. When she arrives at the idyllic getaway, she’s pleased to find that the owner is a handsome man by the name of Calvin Wells....

Knox lives alone, and he likes it that way. Unfortunately, runaway bride Naomi is about to have her life implode on his doorstep.

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

Set amid Colorado’s wild beauty, a heartbreaking coming-of-age story of a resilient young woman whose life is changed forever by one chance encounter....

The beloved #1 New York Times bestselling author brings her Nantucket novels to a brilliant finish: when rich strangers move to the island, social mayhem and a possible murder follow....

She’s just the girl next door. Fine, the frustratingly hot girl next door. But Audrey is all sunshine and her goofy dog isn’t any better. Josiah is too stoic. Too solitary. Too guarded. He doesn’t need a woman in his life, especially one who threatens to crack his heart wide open....

Coming home dredges up deeply buried secrets in The Survivors, a thrilling mystery by New York Times best-selling author Jane Harper....

Animal Dreams is a passionate and complex novel about love, forgiveness, and one woman's struggle to find her place in the world....

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....

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....

A Black sheriff. A serial killer. A small town ready to combust....

From a powerful rising literary voice comes Moon of the Crusted Snow, a daring post-apocalyptic novel blending action and allergory....

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....

He proposed . . . and I said yes. Normally a jovial occasion for a couple in love, but this proposal has a very different feel. Because the man that I'll be calling my husband blew into town with one thing on his mind . . . to make my life a living nightmare....

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....

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 the highly-anticipated sequel to the national best seller The Life We Bury, Joe Talbert returns to investigate the murder of the father he never knew, and to reckon with his own family's past....

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....

In the romantic tradition of Dear John, an injured Navy doctor meets two extremely important women whose secrets will change the course of his life in this number one New York Times best seller....

Hillsborough, North Carolina is a town with a dark history, one that was hidden until investigative journalist Laura Chambers pulled it into the light....

When life took an unexpected turn, I decided to get out of New York for a while. What better place to go than the idyllic small town my father spoke about so fondly when I was growing up? Laurel Lake held the title America’s Friendliest Town for seventeen years running....

Betsy and Ty Franklin, owners of Franklin Dairy Farm in Southern Alabama, have long since buried their desire for children of their own. While Ty manages their herd of dairy cows, Betsy busies herself with the farm’s day-to-day operations....

As the older sibling to identical twins Violet and Lily, Cami Porter was always the odd sister out. The divide grew even wider when their parents split up—while the twins stayed in Cape Sanctuary with their free-spirited mother, Rosemary, fourteen-year-old Cami moved to LA....

I ran away from a lavish New York wedding into the arms of my hot billionaire neighbor. I escaped from the loveless engagement to find solace in a small town nearby. But my new neighbor is a headache I can't shake. Riker Lawrence, the most beautiful man I've ever seen, shiny black hair, striking blue eyes, and a gorgeous physique. Little did I know, He’s the city's founder’s heir of a local whiskey company, and the most eligible bachelor with a playboy reputation. Haunted by a past heartbreak, he's vowed never to love again. Beneath his bad-boy facade lies a man yearning for connection....

After 30 years of marriage, and a wonderful family Christmas, Louisa is stunned when husband Kip asks for a divorce on Boxing Day. He’d never seemed unhappy – and they’ve raised three children together. For months, Kip has been secretly seeing a younger woman – and if that wasn’t bad enough – it’s the woman who broke their youngest son’s heart. Now Kip is moving out and embarking on a new life with Zoe, and Louisa is left to pick up the pieces. Their beloved family home, Charity Cottage, is up for sale, and tensions are running high.

It's summer, 1984, in blue-collar Swaffham, Massachusetts. Mel is thirteen, drinking a Slush Puppie at the drugstore, when she hears a voice, ‘deep and movie-star dramatic, like Lauren Bacall': Sylvia. What follows is a story of transgender awakening. Sylvia's shameless swagger and tough-girl trans femininity is an affront to the Swaffham locals, and her presence triggers hatred and, ultimately, violence. But it is also a catalyst for Mel. Through her friendship with Sylvia, Mel comes to realize that not only is there a world beyond Swaffham, there are other ways of being.

Reporter Freya Sinclair has always known she was different. While waiting on the outcome of an autism assessment, Freya uproots her life in Glasgow, quitting her job at one of Scotland’s top broadsheets and taking a local beat in her childhood home of Orkney. But her plans for a quiet life are shattered when human remains are exhumed by a winter storm on Orkney’s wild Atlantic coast. The identity of the bones opens old wounds in the islands, and sheds light on a darker truth nobody wants to accept.

Maggie and Liz may be sisters (and yes, named after a pair of much more famous siblings) but that's about all they have in common. Maggie is a free spirit - travelling the world, flitting through life and relationships without ever really having to connect. Liz, meanwhile, is the lynchpin of Little Martin village society and determined to be the perfect wife, mother and homemaker - even if she does live in a new build. When Liz and Maggie's beloved grandmother, Queen Vic, dies in a characteristically flamboyant fashion, they are left to deal with the aftermath - inheriting the family home.

When Lettie’s parents call her and her brother back to Hollyhock Farm on the island of Jersey, the last thing they expect to be told is that their childhood home is up for sale. Back on the island, with its rolling hills and golden sands, Lettie immediately remembers what it feels like to breathe in the fresh air in the green fields, and be part of this tight-knit community – a far cry from the life of events and high fashion she leads in London. But she surprises even herself when she suggests that she instead could take over Hollyhock Farm.

Ten years later, I'm back on the island for my best friend's wedding as her maid of honor. Who's the first person I literally stumbled into? Riley Dixon. Even worse? He's the groom's best man and a self-made billionaire to boot. Being forced to spend an entire week together for wedding festivities quickly leads to more—hot hate sex, late nights of sneaking out, and unexpected revelations. The boy I knew a decade ago is gone, and the hate becomes… something else entirely. And I begin to wonder if Riley is hiding some secrets of his own.

At birth, Violet and Rose Flowers were identical, save for a tiny bluish-purple mark gracing Violet’s slender neck. By nineteen, their temperaments distinguish them, as different as the flowers their mother named them for—Violet, wild and outgoing, and Rose, solitary and reserved. Still, they are each other’s world. Then, on a sweltering, terrible August night in 1928, an explosion rocks Lamb’s Dance Hall in Possum Flats, Missouri, engulfing it in flames, leaving one twin among the dozens dead, and her sister’s life forever changed.

When a local pickleball player is shot in the head while practicing at an abandoned tennis court with his partner-slash-lover, Sheriff Lew Ferris suspects that the bullet was a stray shot from hunters in the area. It’s not until a second player—the first victim’s mistress and pickleball partner—is killed that Sheriff Ferris realizes this is no hunting accident. Someone is hunting people, and it’s up to her to find out who.

Returning to my small-town roots, I can’t believe my new job is with my ex-boyfriend’s dad. Vincent, a widowed principal, seeks someone to bring joy to his daughter Astrid's life. His pain and Astrid's need for a motherly figure collide. Accepting the job feels like stepping into a forbidden realm, given our past connection and the 18-year age gap. Their laughter fills my ears and warms my heart. I'm a family member. A welcome guest in their love-filled bubble. His vibrant eyes, shared glances, and that stolen kiss lit a million fires in my soul. The town gossip, an age gap, and the ...

Cowboy Levi Granger is his own man. He’s proud of his ranch, and he’s proud of the siblings he brought up after the devastating loss of their parents. The only thing he’s not proud of is the way the Sullivan family took advantage of him when he was struggling the most. So when pretty Quinn Sullivan comes looking to access his land for a business venture, the kick of attraction is as shocking as it is unwelcome!

OMG, I can just see the Headlines. “Sherriff Hires the Town’s Notorious Speedster for his Nanny.” But I am out of options. Stacey is still the same thrill-seeker who earned her first speeding ticket from me. The tension between us is so thick I could cut it with a knife. She's wild and free, and I'm all about law and order. She’s young enough to be my daughter. Her lean, athletic build, vibrant personality, and zest for life break through all my walls. I want her. I can’t keep my eyes and hands off her. By day, she cares for my daughter; by night, she cares for me. My daughter is ...

She's my best friend's daughter, and I have no business wanting her the way I do. Especially since it's my fault that her dad died. Call it survivor's guilt if you must. I just know I'm to blame. Still, when she comes to me for help, I can't refuse her. Which means sleeping on my sofa so she can take my bed. Emerson is temptation personified. Giving into my desires and touching her would make me the worst sort of man. But everyone has their limits.

As kids, Amelia and Kylee were found unharmed in their upstairs bedroom the night their teenage cousin Grace, who was babysitting them, vanished from the farmhouse in Beaumont, Missouri, leaving blood all over the kitchen. Scrappy and driven, Grace, the first in their family to go to college instead of getting married and working at the meatpacking plant, had been on the verge of escaping their dead-end town. Her disappearance is a warning to any local girl who dared hope for better.

Michigan's Upper Peninsula is blessed with a treasure trove of storytellers, poets, and historians, all seeking to capture a sense of Yooper Life from settler's days to the far-flung future. Since 2017, the U.P. Reader has offered a rich collection of their voices that embraces the U.P.'s natural beauty and way of life, along with a few surprises. The sixty-plus short works in this 8th annual volume take listeners on U.P. road and boat trips from the Keweenaw to the Soo and from St. Ignace to Escanaba.