Showing titles in Small Town & Rural

Sophie Taylor has a secret and Joe Walsh thinks he knows it (all). He’s devilishly handsome, incredibly hot – and far too sure of himself. Unfortunately, Sophie desperately needs his help. She has lost her laptop – and her sequel to the sensational, spicy romance that everybody’s talking about. Because Sophie is not just hiding something small. She is Este Cox, the mysterious romance author the entire world is desperate to unmask.

Before Doctor Barry Laverty joined Doctor Fingal O’Reilly's practice in the colorful Irish village of Ballybucklebo, he was an intern, working long hours, practicing new medical techniques, falling in love, and learning what is most important in the medical field for a family physician - the bonds of family, friendships, and human kindness.

His lakeside holiday homes are a success, and he's generously invited the village to drink champagne with their wealthy new neighbours. This will be the party to end all parties. But not everyone is there to celebrate. By midnight, Rhys will be floating dead in the freezing waters of the lake. The tiny community is her home, so the suspects are her neighbours, friends and family—and Ffion has her own secrets to protect. With a lie uncovered at every turn, soon the question isn't who wanted Rhys dead...but who finally killed him.

Since the turn of the century, a generation has come of age knowing only war, recession, political gridlock, racial hostility, and a simmering fear of environmental calamity. In the country's forgotten pockets, where industry long ago fled, where foreclosures, Walmarts, and opiates riddle the land, death rates for rural whites have skyrocketed, fuelled by suicide, addiction, and a rampant sense of marginalisation and disillusionment. This is the world the characters in Stephen Markley's brilliant debut novel, Ohio, inherit. This is New Canaan.

A brand new novella set in the engrossing world of The Demon Cycle from bestselling fantasy author Peter V. Brett. Humanity has been brought to the brink of extinction. Each night, the world is overrun by demons. Bloodthirsty creatures of nightmare that have been hunting the surface for over 300 years. A scant few hamlets and half-starved city-states are all that remain of a once proud civilization, and it is only by hiding behind wards, ancient symbols with the power to repel the demons, that they survive.

Working with kids is totally my jam, and I'm damn good at what I do. Just call me Maxy Frickin' Poppins! When a new job prospect comes my way, I'm intrigued. A chance to move to Mystic Hollow (aka Monsters Hollow) to be a well-paid manny for two adorable orclings? Talk about a dream position. Sold! But when I lock eyes with the seriously sexy orc who's their guardian—and my new de facto boss—for the first time, I'm a goner. Big, muscular, and green all over–he's giving me full-on Hulk meets stern professor vibes—and I like it.

A spa stay turns into a homicidal holiday.... A bit snobbish and a trifle high strung, Sybil Foster prides herself on owning the finest estate in Upper Quintern and hiring the best gardener. In fact she is rapturous over the new asparagus beds when a visit from her unwelcome stepson sends her scurrying to a chic spa for a rest cure, a liaison with the spa's director...and an apparent suicide. Her autopsy holds one surprise, a secret drawer a second.

Billy Edgewater is a harbinger of doom. Estranged from his family, discharged from the navy and touched by a rising desperation, he sets out hitchhiking home to East Tennessee, where his father is slowly dying. On the road, separately, are Sudy and Bradshaw, brother and sister, and a one-armed con man named Roosterfish. All, in one way or another, have their pasts and futures embroiled with D. L. Harkness, a predator in all the ways there are.

When his village is sacked by French raiders, Thomas escapes from his father’s ambition to become a wild youth who delights in the opportunities which war offers - for fighting, for revenge and for friendship. But Thomas is hounded by his conscience. He has made a promise to God to retrieve a relic stolen in the raid from Hookton’s church. The search for the relic leads him into a world where lovers become enemies; enemies become friends; and always, somewhere beyond the horizon, a terrible enemy awaits him.

North Carolina, 2018: Morgan Christopher’s life has been derailed. Taking the fall for a crime she did not commit, she finds herself serving a three-year stint in prison. Her dream of a career in the arts is put on hold - until a mysterious visitor makes her an offer that will see her released immediately. Her assignment: restore an old post office mural in a sleepy southern town. Desperate to leave prison, Morgan accepts. What she finds under the layers of grime is a painting that tells the story of madness, violence and a conspiracy of small-town secrets.

Bramble Challoner has had a very normal upbringing. She lives in the suburbs of London with her parents and works at the call centre down the road. She still goes out with the boy she met at school. Bramble is dying for an adventure. So when her grandfather, Lord Penrose, dies, leaving his huge, rambling house in Cornwall to her, Bramble packs her bags immediately, dragging along her best friend Katie. The sleepy village of Tremarnock had better be ready....

Deep in the Yukon wilderness, a town is being built. A place for people to disappear, a fresh start from a life on the run. Haven’s Rock isn’t the first town of this kind, something detective Casey Duncan and her husband, Sheriff Eric Dalton, know firsthand. They met in the original town of Rockton. But greed and deception led the couple to financing a new refuge for those in need. This time around, they get to decide which applicants are approved for residency.

Retired schoolteachers Liz, Pat and Thelma never expected they would be caught up in a crime even once in their lives, let alone twice. But when poison pen letters start landing on the doorsteps of friends and neighbours in their Yorkshire village, old secrets come to light. With the potential for deadly consequences. It won’t be long until the three friends are out on a case yet again.

Children run through the streets in their Halloween costumes, giggling happily, not noticing the blood on the house is real. A baby girl is tucked up asleep in her room. Her mother’s body lies motionless in the front yard, pink petals on the ground beside her… Arriving in the quiet community of Mulberry Creek, Special Agent Nikki Hunt is shocked that amongst the chaos of costumes and fake, silver spider webs, a new mother called Kiania Watson has lost her life. A blooming rare flower placed carefully in her cold, bound hands.

Athena and Rosemary must embark on a perilous journey to the Underworld. Along the way, they uncover clues about a prophecy and encounter allies and adversaries in the dream realm. As they get closer to their goal, they face unexpected challenges, and true motives are revealed. Can they unravel the mysteries of the past before it's too late? The fate of the future hangs in the balance in this magical tale of fae, gods, and ancient prophecies.

As the festival of Beltane draws near, mysterious fires are springing up around the magical village of Myrtlewood, and Rosemary Thorn can't help but try to solve the case. Rosemary already has too much on her plate with a hoard of foundling children to house and her own teenager to raise. On top of all this, she has run out of excuses. There's nothing standing between Rosemary and her dream of becoming a magical chocolatier. Well, nothing except her own self-sabotage. Meanwhile, Athena Thorn is yearning for the fae realm and harboring a secret that could put the whole town at risk.

December 1965. ‘Tis the season once again in the cozy Irish village of Ballybucklebo, which means that Doctor Fingal Flahertie O’Reilly, his young colleague Barry Laverty, and their assorted friends, neighbors, and patients are enjoying all their favorite holiday traditions: caroling, trimming the tree, finding the perfects gifts for their near and dear ones, and anticipating a proper Yuletide feast complete with roast turkey and chestnut stuffing. There’s even the promise of snow in the air, raising the prospect of a white Christmas.

Marigold has spent her life taking care of those around her, juggling family life with the running of the local shop, and being an all-round leader in her quiet yet welcoming community. When she finds herself forgetting things, everyone quickly puts it down to her age. But something about Marigold isn’t quite right, and it’s becoming harder for people to ignore. As Marigold’s condition worsens, for the first time in their lives her family must find ways to care for the woman who has always cared for them.

When private investigator Reid is sent to look into a suspicious car crash, he finds himself in the one place he swore he'd never go back to—the town where he grew up. Returning to Manson brings back traumatic memories that Reid has spent a decade burying, and keeping his past separate from the investigation is futile. People remember what he did all those years ago. As rumours swirl about the couple involved in the crash, Reid's line of questioning is taken in a new direction when the Chief of Police's daughter goes missing.

As Edie Jones lies in a bed on the 14th floor of a Cambridge hospital, her adult daughter, Dido, tells their story, starting with the day that changed everything. That was the day when Dido - aged exactly six years and 27 days old - met the handsome Tom Trevelyan, his precocious sister, Harry, and their parents, Angela and David.