Small Life

Some women return home to say goodbye. Others return to discover who they really are. At forty-eight years old, Lila Simmons has spent years holding her life together by sheer force of will. After a painful divorce shattered the carefully controlled world she built, the last thing she wants is to return to Salt Flower Bay—the small Florida beach town she spent thirty years trying to escape. But when her estranged mother dies unexpectedly, Lila has no choice but to go home. Her plan is simple: Settle the estate. Clean out the house. Leave before the past has a chance to pull her under ...

From popular The Atlantic columnist Ian Bogost, a lively reflection on how we’ve become disconnected from the physical world—and how to reclaim gratification in our day-to-day lives. In an era dominated by convenience and efficiency, one would think that life would be simpler, easier, and...

Discover the potent force of kaizen... and use it to easily, effortlessly achieve any goal or make any change you want to!We've been programmed to believe that change is a "battle" - something hard fought and hard won, something that demands struggle and sacrifice. But as anyone who uses the technique known as kaizen can tell you, nothing could be further from the truth. With kaizen, it's effortless, simple, and inevitable to change your life.

Desperate to escape their high-pressure life in Los Angeles, the Finch family moves to rural Oregon. But it doesn’t take long to learn that “small town” is not code for “stress-free.” As the new owners of Applegate's one and only general store, the Finches find that the simple life’s anything but simple when your little store is the town's only grocery store, gas station, hardware store, fire station, and occasional dentist’s office.

Twenty-seven, eight years in the Army, a few months out, and a few months from starting law school at Duke. James Hunt's gap year was supposed to be a quiet one. Then his uncle dies and leaves him a beachfront condo in a small California town and a leather ledger with thirty years of handwriting in it. Duke is in September. Sunshine Shores is right now.

She came back to bury her mother’s things. She didn’t plan on finding her own second chance. Nell Hartley returns to the small coastal town of Lilac Cove to settle her mother’s estate—sign the papers, sell the bookshop, go home. Simple. Except the shop, The Salty Spine, is sinking. The roof sags, the bills are stacking up, and a developer is circling the waterfront. The only man who can save the shop in time is Sam Brennan—the same carpenter who wrote the report recommending they tear it down. Nell hires him anyway. What choice does she have? Sam is steady where she is guarded, ...

On a dusty little backwater planet where nothing ever happens, retired mechanic Ezra Kowalski’s biggest worry is keeping his prized cucumbers safe from pests—and from his meddling neighbor, Mrs. Wong. That is, until a spaceship crash-lands square in the middle of his veggie patch. Out tumbles a soft-spoken teenage girl from a nearby world and her infuriatingly cheerful robot. With a massive solar flare knocking out all communication and grounding space travel for the foreseeable future, they’re stuck there together. Ezra wants nothing more than to fix his vines and go back to being ...

Willow Shorts has told herself the same thing for years – she doesn’t want a divorce. But deep down, she knows there’s more to life than laundry and loneliness. Her husband, Charlie, had promised to give up his workaholic ways this summer. But it’s been months, and nothing has changed. In an act of desperation, Willow leaves her husband a note, drives south through the night, to stay at her best friend’s summer cottage on Sanibel Island. The first few days are filled with sandy streets, sunshine and crystal blue water, just as she imagined. It’s only after 4 days have passed ...

The house cleaner of a famous author must carry out her employer's shocking last wish in this delightful new novel from beloved author Phaedra Patrick Mother of two Liv Green barely scrapes by as a maid to make ends meet, often finding escape in a good book while daydreaming of becoming a writer...

A heart too big for this world. A life that changes everyone. "The audio version of Life & Death & Giants is especially captivating, with a cast of talented narrators voicing each of the points of view. Fans of John Irving will appreciate the quirky characters and surprising plot line. And...

A moment. A mistake. That's all it took for Kennedy Reynolds to lose her first love and her family. She's spent a decade traveling the world, building a life, hiding the truth, never looking back at the past--until her adopted mother's unexpected death pulls her back to the small town--and the secret--she left behind. A chance to make amends. That’s all Xander Kincaid wants from the woman who ran away with his heart all those years ago. At least that's what he tells himself, until he sees her again and that old flame flares bright.

Alden is drained. A dead-end job in a grey city is sucking the life out of him, and he’s a breath away from snapping. So when a mysterious letter arrives with a hundred-year-old deed to a magical farm, the choice is easy. He’s trading the city's grime and grind for a fresh start. But Starshine Farm is a wreck. The fields are barren, the buildings are collapsing, and the nearby villagers are openly suspicious.

From #1 Amazon Bestselling Author Kel Summer Harmony Bay: The Complete 7-Book Series A Small-Town Women’s Fiction and Sweet Romance Series of Later-in-Life Second Chances 🎵 Seven stories. One coastal town. And the second chances that change everything. Maggie Donovan spent a lifetime building a life that looked exactly the way it was supposed to. Carefully managed. Carefully controlled. Carefully… incomplete. Until the moment it all begins to fracture—and she makes the one choice she never thought she would: She leaves. In the quiet coastal town of Harmony Bay, Maggie isn’t ...

The truth was supposed to set her free. Instead, it changed everything. At forty-eight years old, Lila Simmons has spent years holding her life together by sheer force of will. After a painful divorce shattered the carefully controlled world she built, the last thing she wants is to return to Salt Flower Bay—the small Florida beach town she spent thirty years trying to escape. But when her estranged mother dies unexpectedly, Lila has no choice but to go home. Her plan is simple: Settle the estate. Clean out the house. Leave before the past has a chance to pull her under again. Instead, ...

When a billionaire CEO walks into a bakery, he gets more than a sweet treat, he now has a fake girlfriend. I never expected a simple favor for my grandfather to turn my world upside down. One minute I'm focused on my company, the next I'm playing the role of Piper's devoted boyfriend. Small-town chaos and wedding planning mayhem ensue, but being by her side feels right, even if it's all pretend. As I help her with her bakery and get entangled in her family drama, I start to question what I truly want. This fake relationship has become all too real, and I'm not sure I'm ready to let go. ...

Other than recently graduating college, Tom doesn’t have much going for him. Debts and future uncertainty weigh heavy on his mind when his relatives give him a B&B to run on his own. Tom doesn’t know the first thing about running a business, though, so he’ll need to rely on his friends…once he makes some in his new city. Fortunately for Tom, a short, curvy, sassy bombshell shows up needing a place to stay. He tells Veronica she can stay for free if she’ll help him run the place. She volunteers for that…and so much more. Free-Use B&B is a steamy slice of life romance.

What if the zipper in your jacket was the result of a bitter 20-year legal war? What if the teabag was an accident that sparked international outrage? What if the paperclip became a symbol of resistance against Nazi occupation? The objects you touch every single day—without a second thought—hide astonishing stories of invention battles, political intrigue, cultural revolutions, and unintended consequences that changed the world forever. Discover the Shocking True Histories You Never Knew The Secret Lives of Small and Everyday Things takes you on a fascinating journey through time, ...

She came to Salt Flower Bay planning to leave. Now she can't imagine walking away. At forty-eight years old, Lila Simmons has spent years holding her life together by sheer force of will. After a painful divorce shattered the carefully controlled world she built, the last thing she wants is to return to Salt Flower Bay—the small Florida beach town she spent thirty years trying to escape. But when her estranged mother dies unexpectedly, Lila has no choice but to go home. Her plan is simple: Settle the estate. Clean out the house. Leave before the past has a chance to pull her under again. ...

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.

Some questions take a lifetime to answer. Some answers change everything. At forty-eight years old, Lila Simmons has spent years holding her life together by sheer force of will. After a painful divorce shattered the carefully controlled world she built, the last thing she wants is to return to Salt Flower Bay—the small Florida beach town she spent thirty years trying to escape. But when her estranged mother dies unexpectedly, Lila has no choice but to go home. Her plan is simple: Settle the estate. Clean out the house. Leave before the past has a chance to pull her under again. Instead, ...