Small States

Eat Like a Local: Illinois by author Elaine Joy Nicholson Small offers the inside scoop on food in Illinois, USA.

Winner of Inkitt's Horror story contest. Inspired by true events, Don’t Cross the X is a historical, heartbreaking story of a woman’s tragic life after crossing paths with the local witch. In 1919, twenty-two-year-old Pearl Hayes leads a blessed life with her husband and two sons in rural South Carolina. But when she crosses a large X etched into the dirt near a local blackberry field, she comes to find that she has entered into the realm of a force of evil she has no hope of stopping. Slowly, her life deteriorates, and through her misery she knows who is to blame: Hazel Sullivan—who ...

Black Jack Hollis was a daring outlaw before he was shot down. In the wake of his death, it's discovered that Hollis left behind an infant son. Elizabeth Cornish, coowner of the Cornish Ranch alongside her brother, Vance, takes it upon herself to raise the child as her own. Elizabeth names the boy Terry Colby and gives Terry a fictitious aristocratic background, believing the way the boy is raised will determine the man he will become. But Vance is convinced that Terry is destined to become an outlaw himself.

Neal Burgess, a semi-retired, middle-aged computer analyst from California, had just cashed in from a start-up company he helped bring to life. He bought the sailboat of his dreams and was enjoying his new liveaboard lifestyle in a small marina in southern Alabama, intending to just kick back, relax, do some writing, and focus on his zen practice. Life there was idyllic and blissfully uneventful until the day he met Cap'n Billy, a prototypical, down-home good ol' boy who operated a small shrimping trawler along the inland waterways that lined the Gulf.

When Declan Lorne, the last remaining knight in Ireland, dies suddenly, an ancient title passes with him. But his estate on Ireland’s rugged south-west coast is left to his three daughters. The two eldest, Ottie and Pip, inherit in line with expectations, but to everyone’s surprise - and dismay - it is the errant baby of the family, Willow, who gets the castle. Why her? Something unknown - something terrible - made her turn her back on her family three years earlier, escaping to Dublin and vowing never to return....

După ce a petrecut zece ani în Anglia, Bill Bryson vrea să-şi rememoreze copilăria, aşa că pleacă din locul în care s-a născut, Des Moines, Iowa, într-o călătorie prin 38 dintre statele americane, pe care o documentează cu mult umor. Autorul speră să se reîntîlnească cu peisajele idilice ale copilăriei sale, însă găseşte lanuri nesfîrşite de porumb, benzinării, moteluri şi localuri care arată peste tot aproape la fel şi sunt populate de oameni care seamănă uimitor de mult unul cu altul.

Years ago, I left Clarkstown with a sourpuss on my face and better hopes for the future. But what I ended up with was extra baggage, in more ways than one, and even more reasons to leave. Now that I’m home, I’m not sure if Austin Walters looks at me with pity, hatred…or something else, as most of the townsfolk do. But when he figures out the real reason why I left, he looks at me in a different light. Even more importantly, he realizes more of what I need now that I’m back. And now I seem to look at him and everyone else differently, thanks to him.

When Jack Parker’s father dies, Jack knows one thing: Tom Parker was a good man. Beyond that, decades of distance and silence had kept the two men from truly knowing each other. Jack attends the funeral with the hope he can shovel some dirt onto Tom’s casket, collect a few commiserations, and put miles between himself and the questions he’d let simmer since he’d left home years before. But when a group of strangers appears at the funeral, Jack realizes he has more questions than answers about how his father actually lived his life.

When California's local and state governments enacted sweeping COVID pandemic restrictions, San Diego wedding planner Amy Ulkutekin found herself forced to fight for the survival of both her industry and her own small business. A need for social impact quickly developed into political action, bringing her to the steps of California's state capitol, followed by hundreds of protestors, all dressed for a wedding.

State Street Chicago, 1999. One summer that changes everything. An unlikely trio: Felicia 'Fe Fe' Stevens, daughter of fiercely protective mother; Precious Brown, daughter of a prominent church Elder; and Stacia Buchanan, daughter of a Gangster Disciple Queen-Pin. They have a simple friendship, wiling away sunny days with games of Double Dutch. But when Fe Fe invites mysterious Tonya into their fold, life as they know it will never be the same again.

Après quelques années passées à Atlanta, Toya Gardner, une jeune artiste afro-américaine, revient dans la petite ville des montagnes de Caroline du Nord d'où sa famille est originaire. Déterminée à dénoncer l'histoire esclavagiste de la région, elle ne tarde pas à s'y livrer à quelques actions d'éclat, provoquant de violentes tensions dans la communauté. Au même moment, Ernie, un policier du comté, arrête un mystérieux voyageur qui se révèle être un suprémaciste blanc. Celui-ci a en sa possession un carnet dans lequel figurent les noms de notables de la région.

In this heartwarming novel from bestselling author Kathryn Kaleigh, two soulmates overcome unsurmountable obstacles for a happily ever after. Danielle Worthington. New to Houston. A new start. A good time to declare a dating moratorium. She needed to start over. On her own. Samuel wanted nothing more than to focus on his new job as an airplane pilot at Skye Travels. Until his new boss sent him on an unexpected personal errand. But something more important than dating turned Danielle's world upside down and changed everything. This is a feel-good sweet wholesome contemporary romance.

Life tests the Mayer family as danger and hardship continue to come to Revival Cove. Huck Mayer continues to fight his weakness for alcohol while past regrets haunt him. Drinking has cost him everything. He longs to see his daughter more often and find a woman to love, but he must make some changes. And the new life he wants will cause a rift between him and his father. Johnny has been a preacher in Hairston for six months––a long stay for him. If not for a confident blonde-haired mountain woman who has his heart, he would be long gone. He promised her his wanderlust days were over, but...

Amanda Hildreth jumped at the chance to start life anew in the booming town of Virginia City in Montana Territory. She heads West to work at her stepbrother’s mercantile and maybe find love one day. But, her mule train is attacked before she even gets there. Mountain Man Cal Ayers agrees to lead Amanda safely across the mountains. It’s not long, though, before they realize the attack was aimed at Amanda – and that living with her stepbrother might not be the safest plan. Amanda can’t establish a new life when someone is trying to kill her. And she can’t imagine a new life without ...

Instead of spending the next phase of her life traveling around the world with her husband, Tara finds herself alone and starting over. Welcome to Blueberry Hill. Tara Singleton was perfectly happy with her life, right up until the moment she cut the cake at her birthday party. As everyone cheered, her husband sheepishly admitted he'd lost everything, they were flat broke. And he was leaving her for his pregnant mistress, a personal trainer young enough to be his daughter. Thank goodness their three children are grown with lives of their own. Instead of looking forward to traveling and ...

He can't seem to shake the memory. From the top floor of his office building, he stands in the window and looks out over his domain, one of the cities that never sleeps in the north. His mind is drawn to a simple uncluttered encounter, a scene stuck in his mind for over 15 years. Miles away, on the outskirts of a place called the "Shanty Town", Mrs. Craft remembers a person met by accident at the train station's taxi turnabout. She barely said thank you as he held the taxi door for her. But as he held the door, there was an undeniable sensation that he'd see her again.

Baking is Isabeau Collins's life. Back from studying under the finest chefs in France and Italy, and with a newly minted culinary degree in hand, Izzy is ready to pursue her dream: whipping up creative confections in her own custom cake shop. But her perfect plans are waylaid when two women claiming to be her half sisters show up with a stack of letters addressed to Izzy from their late mother.

'Think big. Live out loud.' When their mother passed away a decade ago, Evie Ross and her sister, Suda Kaye, were each left a stack of letters, one to be opened every year on their birthday. While the letters encouraged Suda Kaye's wanderlust, taking her away from Evie for years, their free-spirited mother's wish for her more cautious daughter was to discover what her heart truly desires. But steadfast Evie discovered long ago that wishes rarely come true. A successful life stems from planning, building a stable career—and keeping your heart guarded at all costs.

It is the summer of 1948 when a handsome, charismatic stranger, Charlie Beale, recently back from the war in Europe, shows up in the town of Brownsburg, a sleepy village in the Valley of Virginia. All he has with him are two suitcases. Finding work at the local butcher shop, Charlie befriends the owner and his family. And it is through the shop that Charlie gradually meets all the townsfolk, including Boaty Glass, Brownsburg's wealthiest citizen, and most significantly, Boaty's beautiful teenage bride, Sylvan.

When March Briscoe returns to East Texas two years after he was caught having an affair with his brother's wife, the Briscoe family becomes once again the talk of the small town of Olympus. His mother, June, hardly welcomes him back with open arms. Her husband's own past affairs have made her tired of being the long-suffering spouse. Is it, perhaps, time for a change? Within days of March's arrival, someone is dead, marriages are upended, and even the strongest of alliances are shattered. In the end, the ties that hold them together might be exactly what drag them all down.