Rural Life

Her Borrowed Angel traces the life of book-smart Madeline Wharton Saldivar from her childhood in rural, deeply segregated Georgia to adulthood in northern Mexico and southern Texas. Maddie’s life, like all lives, plays out against the current events and changing social moods of the times. Deeply committed to family—and horses, or at least the idea of horses—Maddie struggles with the painful truths and impossible situations of abuse and dysfunction within her own small world. Buoyed by her sister Hattie’s infallible courage, as well as her own ability to catalog life into manageable ...

I have one rule when it comes to my sex life: I only hook up with guys who identify as straight. It’s a tried and tested way of avoiding the cling factor, which I’ve found to be a huge problem in the past. A one-night stand with a curious "straight" guy is the perfect situation. Of course, there’s one straight guy who’s completely off-limits. George Goode is sweet, charming, hilarious, and sexy as hell. And he’s also become one of my best friends since I moved to the tiny town of Finchley about a year ago. But let’s make one thing clear: I do not have feelings for him.

Get ready to hold your breath and cling to the edge of your seat as Giselle makes the ultimate sacrifice to make things right. With Ignacio by her side, they embark on a dangerous journey to Kansas, where Giselle hopes to make amends with the Abbot family and clear her name once and for all. But Santiago is skeptical of Ignacio's motives and struggles to come to terms with his own feelings for Giselle. Desperate to move on, he urges her to reject his friend's advances and focus on building a new life without him. Just when things seem to be looking up, James captures Santiago and demands to...

A Goose For Christmas is a heartwarming story from 1950s rural Oxfordshire as a family prepares for Christmas with more than a little trepidation. Based on real events, and recalling a bygone, pre-television age and a childhood that will be familiar to the post-War generation. The Adventures of the Carson Gang relates life as children, learning and exploring the world around them, making their own entertainment out of fantasies and the opportunities that the village presented to them.

This Christmas Eve, I had one simple plan: close up the family café and face another quiet night alone. But fate had other ideas when Trystan—the boy who was once my best friend and first love—walked back into my life, dusted with snow and wearing a Marine uniform that made my heart skip a beat. I never expected to see him again, let alone offer him a place to stay when a canceled flight leaves him stranded. Under the glow of twinkling Christmas lights and over cups of hot cocoa, old memories resurface and the sparks between us reignite. But letting him in means risking the walls I've ...

Wishes in branches tied with string. Someone's hopes. Another's dreams. Pam Olson’s talent for remodeling sets her onto an unexpected path. When the terrain gets rocky, love interest Steve Turner steps in to help. But will his presence smooth the way or make the journey even more treacherous? Meanwhile, a young girl’s wish on the Wishing Tree takes root in Pam’s heart. Can the tree work its magic and deliver on the dream? Settle into the heartwarming community of Linden Falls as Pam tries to keep all the plates spinning and prevent what she most desires from crashing to pieces. Join ...

One photographer, one wedding dress, one bride by mistake… Famous actress Fliss Rivers returns to her childhood home in the Bay of Islands after a scandal, hoping to hide from the press for a few weeks. Oblivious to the celebrity gossip on the internet, Dominic is captivated by her, and soon they’re in love. And then a photographer sees her modelling a wedding dress, and suddenly the whole world thinks they’re getting married… * Fans of Catherine Bybee’s Weekday Brides series are sure to love these small-town romances with plenty of sizzle!

Skye disappears after a one-night stand, but Owen’s an expert at finding lost people... Skye Graham has come home for Christmas to Doubtless Bay in New Zealand, but she has no plans to stay. Then she meets sexy Owen Hall, a dog handler for Search and Rescue. She can’t afford to let their one-night stand develop into something more serious and promptly disappears, but she hasn’t accounted for the fact that Owen’s an expert at finding lost people. But can Owen convince Skye to stay? Tropes: Fling, one-night stand, he falls first

Chris Thornton, a rugged cowboy with eyes that hold the warmth of the prairie sun and the mysteries of the Montana mountains, has a big heart in need of a woman’s love. As he herds cattle, dreams of the future, and whispers to the horses in the quiet of the night, fate and an odd set of circumstances set their sights on him. Julia Brown, a high school teacher with a smile as bright as the morning sun and dreams that reach beyond the classroom, finds herself at the Double Horseshoe Ranch when a twist of destiny brings her car careening into a snowbank. As her life takes an unexpected turn,...

Now that Joy is back in Rocky Ridge, she’s hoping she’s made the right decision. Though life with her husband in LA had been turbulent, she’d at least had a job and a steady income. Now she’s got to rebuild from the ground up and jobs aren’t as plentiful in the small mountain town as they were in the city. Her daughter is depending on her, so this move to her home town has to work. Running into Joy was the last thing Aaron expected. She’d been his best friend and his biggest crush back in the day. They tried to date once. He’d been smitten and she’d decided that a guy with ...

My name is Christine, and I'm on the run from a cult that wants me dead. Annabelle Lane is the cult's cunning and venomous leader, who forced me to commit crimes that are unforgivable. Annabelle's threats aren't to be taken lightly, and everybody knows that once you're in the cult, you're in it for life.

Life is sweet for chocolate maker Chloe Lyon…Business is booming at her artisan chocolate-makers 'Chocolate Wishes' in the picture-perfect Lancashire village of Sticklepond - not least because all of Chloe's sweet treats contain an inspirational prediction for each customer. If only her own life was as easy to read in the cards, perhaps Chloe could have foreseen being jilted at the altar….

Dakota Jones had a difficult upbringing, but he escaped to the military as soon as he could. Now, after several tours of duty he has finally been discharged. Refusing to return home, he arrives in Sullivan's Crossing, where his brother, Cal, and sister, Sierra, have found a home. Nestled at the crossroads of the Colorado and Continental Divide Trails, the area attracts those looking for answers or direction or a new lease on life. Dakota will come to terms with his less-than-perfect family and will plant the roots he's never had.

A small-town island where everybody knows everybody, Bloombay is a sought after tourist paradise—and some even end up making it their home. When a flood destroys Savannah Thompson’s livelihood, she is faced with rebuilding her bakery while taking care of her sick sister. At forty-five, she’s never had a break, she’s never fallen in love and with everything going from bad to worse she begins to wonder what life is all about. When her longtime friend, Luke, offers her a helping hand, she realizes there might be more between them… Lawyer Harper Wilson never thought she’d end up ...

Charlene Ann Baumbich—award-winning journalist and best-selling author of the Dearest Dorothy novels—launches a series of heartwarming stories linked by the swirling flakes of one special snowglobe. In this charming tale of second chances, renewed faith, and forgiveness, a captivating heirloom triggers inexplicable changes.

Virgil Ray and Martha Mae Pickers are basically good people. Still, like most basically good people, they’re subject to the siren calls of fame, fortune and — not least — impressing their neighbors. In this laugh-out-loud novel of linked stories reminiscent of the unforgettable characters and sense of place portrayed in stories by Fannie Flagg and Garrison Keillor, the Pickers and their Oakley County neighbors find themselves in outlandish predicaments, however well-intentioned. A faked resurrection, a return to high school at age 60, a visit by Elvis, helping the US Treasury bust a ...

Running away from one's troubles is never the solution. Iniya knows it but does it anyway. As a straight-laced Gynaecologist from the city, she can totally survive rural life. Probably. If only she didn't have the attention of the local playboy, this life might be tolerable. Too bad life never cares about what you think. Neither does Hari. Join Iniya in her quest to find peace in the quiet village of Udhayapatti! Witness silly village shenanigans, petty squabbles and a whole lot more drama! Who knows? There might even be romance in the air!

When I woke up in the morning, it had stopped snowing for the first time in several days and it was a clear day with the blue sky. I decided to go to a city a little far from the town. But it had started snowing heavily again by the time I left. I scurried to the station in the snow and heard the delay of the train announced there. That meant I would miss my connection of the train to the city. Because only a few trains run in this line, having another connection is hard. I gave up going there and had lunch at a local restaurant. This town is situated in the mountains and the weather is ...

ESCAPE TO EXTREMADURA is the candid, entertaining account of a middle-aged Lancastrian’s move to a small town in one of the least populated areas of Spain. After fate brings Brian and Mónica together in a café in Clitheroe, love blossoms and they begin to make plans for the future. His hasty retirement from a long career at a Lancaster furniture company precedes their flight to Llerena, Mónica’s home town, where her pious mother and unruly father await them expectantly. Don Andrés, the ailing patriarch of their ever-expanding family, welcomes the Englishman with open arms, while ...

1917. Virginia Woolf arrives at Asheham, on the Sussex Downs, immobilized by nervous exhaustion and creative block. 1930. Feeling jittery about her writing career, Sylvia Townsend Warner spots a modest workman’s cottage for sale on the Dorset coast. 1941. Rosamond Lehmann settles in a Berkshire village, seeking a lovers’ retreat, a refuge from war, and a means of becoming ‘a writer again’. Rural Hours tells the story of three very different women, each of whom moved to the country and were forever changed by it.