Rural Fiction

With some of the strongest relationships in Shellseeker Beach facing daunting challenges, the family must come together like never before. Budding romances are tested by unexpected arrivals, and major decisions threaten to bring upheaval instead of peace on the beach. Like the tides that bring a bounty of shells every morning and night, change is the only constant…and love is the foundation that holds this found family firmly on the sands of the place they call home.

Jan Karon's millions of fans can't wait to spend time with her heartwarming and hilarious characters, who have a way of becoming family. In fact, fans and booksellers across the country kept Out to Canaan and At Home in Mitford on The New York Times best-seller list for months. In A New Song, Mitford's longtime Episcopal priest, Father Tim, retires. However, new challenges and adventures await when he agrees to serve as interim minister of a small church on Whitecap Island. He and his wife, Cynthia, soon find that Whitecap has its own unforgettable characters.

Roman Amato is perfect on paper; sexy and broody and arrogant. He’s a divorced single father, so he’s completely off-limits. I’m not looking for anything other than a hot date to take to my sister’s wedding. I have something he needs, and he has something I need. The fake dating gods have shined down on both of us. We write up a contract so everything is aboveboard. Signed, sealed and soon-to-be delivered. Rule number three is written in all caps: NO CATCHING FEELINGS.

Greenville County, South Carolina, is a wild, lush place that is home to the Boatwright family - a tight-knit clan of rough-hewn, hard- drinking men who shoot up each other's trucks, and indomitable women who get married young and age too quickly. At the heart of this story is Ruth Anne Boatwright, known simply as Bone, a bastard child who observes the world around her with a mercilessly keen perspective.

Everyone knows that Addie Fullbright can’t keep a secret. Yet, twelve years ago, as her best friend lay dying, she entrusted Addie with the biggest secret of all. One so shattering that Addie felt she had to leave her hometown of Starlight, Alabama, to keep from revealing a devastating truth to someone she cares for deeply. Now she’s living a lonely life, keeping everyone at a distance. But when her beloved aunt gets a shocking diagnosis and asks her to come back to Starlight to help run the family bakery, Addie knows it’s finally time to go home again.

Barton Dawes' unremarkable but comfortable existence suddenly takes a turn for the worst. A new highway extension is being built right over the laundry plant where he works - and right over his home. Dawes isn't the sort of man who will take an insult of this magnitude lying down. His steadfast determination to fight the inevitable course of progress drives his wife and friends away while he tries to face down the uncaring bureaucracy that has destroyed his life.

Lily Bishop wakes up one morning to find a good-bye note and divorce papers from her husband on the kitchen counter. Having just moved to Alabama for his job only weeks before, Lily is devastated. New to town and knowing no one, Lily finds herself in desperate need of a job and a new place to live. When Lily hears that a hair stylist is needed at small retirement community, she decides to apply.

Sam's daddy always said she shouldn't get a vintage car until she knew how to fix one. And when her 1965 Mustang breaks down in a town smaller than a matchbox, she realizes he might have been right. Now she's stranded in the middle of nowhere, on the run from heartache, until she can get the vehicle repaired. At least Jack the mechanic is one tall drink of water. And Sam's pleasantly surprised to learn there's more to him than meets the eye when he shows his soft side by sending her to the only B&B in town, run by his grandmother, to take refuge.

Welcome to Neverton, Montana: home to a God-fearing community with a heart of gold. Nestled high up in the mountains is Camp Damascus, the self-proclaimed “most effective” gay conversion camp in the country. Here, a life free from sin awaits. But the secret behind that success is anything but holy. And they’ll scare you straight to hell.

Rice Moore is just beginning to think his troubles are behind him. He’s found a job protecting a remote forest preserve in Virginian Appalachia where his main responsibilities include tracking wildlife and refurbishing cabins. It’s hard work, and totally solitary - perfect to hide away from the Mexican drug cartels he betrayed back in Arizona. But when Rice finds the carcass of a bear killed on the grounds, the quiet solitude he’s so desperately sought is suddenly at risk.

Evie Austin, native of Hatteras Island, North Carolina, and baddest girl on the planet, has not lived her life in a straight line. There have been several detours - career snafus, bad romantic choices, a loved but unplanned child - not to mention, her ill-advised lifelong obsession with boxer Mike Tyson. Evie is not plucky, but when life's changes smash over her like the rough surf of the local shoreline, she muddles through - until that moment of loss and longing when muddling will no longer suffice.

When therapist Luna Mason uses her grandmother's inheritance to build a wellness center in coastal Seagrove, she's determined to create a haven for healing minds and bodies. At Serenity, she offers a sanctuary where breathing comes easier and new beginnings feel possible. Everything unfolds perfectly until she encounters Archer Hawk, a former golf champion whose career-ending injury has left him bitter and resistant to her methods.

It’s 1951 in Blowing Rock, North Carolina. Blackburn Gant, his life irrevocably altered by a childhood case of polio, seems condemned to spend his life among the dead as the sole caretaker of a hilltop cemetery. It suits his withdrawn personality, and the inexplicable occurrences that happen from time to time rattle him less than interaction with the living. But when his best and only friend, the kind but impulsive Jacob Hampton, is conscripted to serve overseas, Blackburn is charged with caring for Jacob’s wife, Naomi, as well.

The young widower arrives ready to roll up his sleeves and build a place of worship and welcome, but he needs some help. And the Lord works in mysterious ways. With her tight shirts and short skirts, pastor's assistant is not a phrase that springs to mind when Noah meets brassy, beautiful Alicia Baldwin. The former exotic dancer needs a respectable job so she can regain custody of her children. And Noah can't help but admire her spunk and motherly determination.

Mischief and vandalism escalate, putting lives at risk. Is the sabotage linked to Sue or the town’s founder? As the stakes rise with each incident, often forcing the closure of Sue’s new garden shop in the town founder’s historic log cabin, she can’t imagine the reason. Even after the health department blames the taffies sold at Butterflies and Blooms for the recent foodborne illness in Aspen Notch, Sue feels certain that someone has orchestrated a scheme to close her business permanently. But why? The Garden Shop Mystery is a cozy mystery that combines an engaging whodunnit with ...

Eloise Foley, known to her friends as Weezie, has been through the divorce from hell. Her ex-husband Tal (aka Talmadge Evans III) was awarded their house in Savannah's historic district, the house that Weezie had spent years painstakingly restoring to its original splendor. Weezie was awarded the two-bedroom carriage house on the same property. Each was sure the other would sell.

After losing her job in Seattle, Maileah moves in with her sister Junie on Crown Island for a fresh start. Now in her thirties, she wonders if she will ever find the partner and future she has dreamed of. When she decides to use a dating app, her friend Sailor, a champion surfer, insists on vetting the suitors. But what happens next is the real surprise.

I was supposed to be attending a friend's birthday party, not used as bait to lure out the elusive Holden Hayes. Holden was the last thing I needed. My life was already spiraling, a slow-moving head-on collision that you couldn't swerve to avoid. In hindsight, so was his. Neither of us was looking for a relationship, but that is precisely what we found. An instant, all-consuming, soul-deep connection that few people ever find.

It’s been years since Abby O’Brien Winters set foot in Chesapeake Shores. The Maryland town her father built has too many sad memories, and Abby has too few spare moments - thanks to her demanding Wall Street career, the crumbling of her marriage, and her energetic daughters. Then one panicked phone call from her youngest sister brings her racing back home to protect Jess’ dream of renovating the charming Inn at Eagle Point. But saving the inn from foreclosure means dealing not only with her own fractured family but also with Trace Riley, the man Abby left 10 years ago.

When Kate Bowman temporarily moves to her grandmother’s Missouri farm with her husband and baby son, she learns that the lessons that most enrich our lives often come unexpectedly. The family has given Kate the job of convincing Grandma Rose, who's become increasingly stubborn and forgetful, to move off her beloved land and into a nursing home. But Kate knows such a change would break her grandmother’s heart.