Small Life

Nothing short of a miracle can restore Eliza Hayward’s Christmas cheer. The job she pinned her dreams on has gone up in smoke—literally—and now she’s stuck in an unfamiliar, if breathtaking, small town. Precariously close to being destitute, Eliza needs a hero, but she’s not expecting one who almost runs her down with his car! Rescuing Eliza is pure instinct for tech genius Aidan Caine. At first, putting the renovation of his lakeside guest lodge in Eliza’s hands assuages his guilt—until he sees how quickly he could fall for her.

Karen Sommerfield has been hiding from the big questions of her life - the emotional distance in her marriage, her inability to have children, and her bout with cancer. Getting lost in her high-powered career provides the sense of purpose she yearns for. Until the day she's downsized out of her job and the doctor tells her the cancer may be back. It's a double blow that would send anyone reeling.

As fall paints the Pennsylvania countryside in flaming colors, Sylvia Bergstrom Compson is contemplating the future of her beloved Elm Creek Quilts. The Elm Creek Quilt Camp remains the most popular quilter’s retreat in the country, but unexpected financial difficulties have beset them and the Bergstrom family’s stately nineteenth-century manor. Now in her eighth decade, Sylvia is determined to maintain her family’s legacy, but she needs new resources—financial and emotional.

Once a gifted ballet dancer, Julia Costell buckled under the demands of a professional dance career, and has landed with a thud in an unglamorous job as a guidance counselor at a performing arts high school. Living back home with her parents and feeling lost, she is afraid she’ll never soar again...until the day young Dell Jordan is sent to her office, carrying an essay. In Dell’s writing, Julia sees luminous sparks of hope. But as she fights to forge a brighter future for one disadvantaged student, she's drawn into startling undercurrents of conflict and denial within the academy.

With her adopted son missing and the rest of her family increasingly estranged, Sandra Kaye Darden is drawn to the little pink house where her Uncle Poppy once provided security. What begins for Sandra as a simple painting project, meant to prepare the house for sale, becomes a secret venture that eventually changes everything. Cass Blue is having trouble keeping food on the table since she ditched foster care. When Sandra Kaye shows up with lunch one day, Cass has no way of knowing that the meeting will lead to the creation of a place of refuge that could reunite a divided community.

Who says falling in love after forty can’t be fun, steamy, and wildly romantic? From grumpy ranchers and flirty factory workers to single parents and second chances, Hands On includes 5 midlife romantic comedies that celebrate love, laughter, and life’s surprising detours. This collection is full of heart and heat including cinnamon roll heroes, curvy heroines, and instalove fun including: A blue-collar factory guy and a no-nonsense consultant who go from enemies to lovers—with a basset hound referee. A harried single mom and a handsome stranger who ring in the New Year with a bang…...

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 ...

From the day that old Nana Reja found a baby abandoned under a bridge, the life of a small Mexican town forever changed. Disfigured and covered in a blanket of bees, little Simonopio is for some locals the stuff of superstition, a child kissed by the devil. But he is welcomed by landowners Francisco and Beatriz Morales, who adopt him and care for him. As he grows up, Simonopio becomes a cause for wonder to the Morales family, because when the uncannily gifted child closes his eyes, he can see what no one else can - visions of all that’s yet to come, both beautiful and dangerous.

Scarlett Fontaine is a true Hollywood legend—a singer, actress, and beloved fashion icon. But Scarlett dies tragically at just thirty-six years old, leaving behind no children. Or so the story goes… Gwen Hollingsworth is the curator at a museum dedicated to Scarlett’s life. She’s also sole heir to Scarlett’s fortune as a descendant of the star. But all is not well in Gwen’s world. She’s dealing with a messy marital separation and is struggling to move forward.

Molly Thorn used to be young and hip. Then she died. Now, she’s back from the second veil as a hot-flashing, brain-glitching, middle-aged woman. Worse yet, the shop she owns—Unraveling Yarn—is a cover for her new position as Assistant to the Grim Reaper of the Magicals. The guy’s a total grump. On her first undead night, Molly discovers a co-ed group of misfit Mythicals hiding in her attic: a vampire, an ogre, a dragon, and a fairy. The eclectic group of knitting enthusiasts fuss and discuss absolutely everything, but sex after forty is their favorite topic upon which to share their...

In the northernmost reaches of Scotland, where a string of little islands in the North Sea stretches towards Norway, lives Gertie MacIntyre, a proud island girl by birth. Her social circle is small but tight: family and friends, particularly the women in her knitting circle. In the whitewashed cottages of their hometown, everyone knows everyone, and the ladies of the knitting circle know more than most. In a place of long dark winters and geographic isolation, the knitting circle is a precious source of gossip, home, laughter, and comfort for them all.

All her life, Epiphany Salerno has been tossed like a dandelion seed on the wind. Now, at 16, she must move to the low-rent side of Blue Sky Hill and work where she's not wanted: in an upscale home on The Hill. J. Norman Alvord's daughter has hired a teenager to stay with him in the afternoons. Widowed and suffering from heart trouble, Norman wants to be left alone. But in Epie's presence, Norman discovers a mystery. Deep in his mind lie memories of another house, another life, and a woman who saved him.

When the McPheron brothers see Victoria Roubideaux, the single mother they’d taken in, move from their ranch to begin college, an emptiness opens before them—and for many other townspeople it also promises to be a long, hard winter. A young boy living alone with his grandfather helps out a neighbor whose husband, off in Alaska, suddenly isn’t coming home, leaving her to raise their two daughters.

A second chance at love... in a former nudist colony. 38-year-old woman billionaire Joy Maddux has everything she could want. Then, an "alpha-male" podcaster targets her. There’s only one place on earth where she’ll be safe. The former nudist colony - known as home. Hotshot reporter Thorn Pryor stumbles onto the biggest story in the past 40 years. It should land him a promotion. Instead, it gets him fired. The last thing he wants to do is run a failing newspaper on a quirky island. Until he meets his curvy new neighbor. And uncovers a one-in-a-billionaire chance at redemption. One in a ...

Adrift in the wake of her father's death, a failed marriage, and multiple miscarriages, Libby McKenzie feels truly alone. Though her new life as a wedding photographer provides a semblance of purpose, it's also a distraction from her profound pain. When asked to photograph a wedding at the historic Woodmont estate, Libby meets the owner, Elaine Grant. Hoping to open Woodmont to the public, Elaine has employed young widower Colton Reese to help restore the grounds and asks Libby to photograph the process.

He adores her. She adores him. But can they build a life together? Widowed sixty-something Paula Montana isn’t looking for a new love. Between her pancake restaurant, her volunteer work, and her adorable-but-ill granddaughter, she’s far too busy. Besides, when you’ve lost the man you shared fifty years of your life with, anyone new has a lot of memories to compete with. Divorced seventy-something doctor Richard Stewart isn’t looking for love, or for family. His disastrous first marriage and a son who hasn’t spoken to him for fifteen years taught him it’s wiser to focus on work. ...

She’s 43 years old…and starting over from scratch. How did this happen? She had it all together. A stable marriage of two decades. Two grown daughters. And now she and her husband, empty nesters, were moving to a beach house. Until he showed up late one night and tore their marriage apart. A secret life. A different woman. Another family. Left alone, she has to begin again. And then her estranged sister and mother get thrown into the mix. When she buys a house on a small South Carolina island, will she learn what life is really about?

In An Irish Country Christmas, the third book in Patrick Taylor's Irish Country Books, Barry Laverty, M.B., is looking forward to his first Christmas in the cozy village of Ballybucklebo, at least until he learns that his sweetheart, Patricia, might not be coming home for the holidays. That unhappy prospect dampens his spirits somewhat, but Barry has little time to dwell on his romantic disappointments. Christmas may be drawing nigh, but there is little peace to be found on earth, especially for a young doctor plying his trade in the emerald hills and glens of rural Ireland.

What does it mean to live the good life—really? In a world where success is measured by wealth, fame, or power, the Bible offers a deeper and more lasting vision. The Good Life Workbook: Scripture Reflections for Small Groups and Individuals invites readers on a ten-session journey to discover God’s design for a life of meaning, rooted in spiritual depth, integrity, love, service, and joy. Each chapter explores a key theme—like calling, contentment, resilience, and legacy—through Scripture, real-life reflections, poetry, and guided questions. Whether used for personal study, small ...

Rebecca has been catapulted from her home, her marriage, and her children. She has escaped to Pawleys Island to hide herself from herself. But after Miss Olivia pries Rebecca's secrets from her, Huey and especially Abigail are challenged to reenter life outside the dream state their idyllic geography evokes. They will see that Rebecca has her day in court, but they never expect to provoke a national forum for discussion.