Showing titles in Small Town & Rural

Adam Bede (1859), George Eliot's first full-length novel, marked the emergence of an artist to rank with Scott and Dickens. Set in the English Midlands of farmers and village craftsmen at the turn of the 18th century, the book relates a story of seduction issuing in "the inward suffering which is the worst form of Nemesis". But it is also a rich and pioneering record - drawing on intimate knowledge and affectionate memory - of a rural world that we have lost.

For years, rumors of the 'Marsh Girl' have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved.

Scarlett Vandermeer is swimming upstream. A Junior at Stanford and a student-athlete who specializes in platform diving, Scarlett prefers to keep her head down, concentrating on getting into med school and on recovering from the injury that almost ended her career. She has no time for relationships - at least, that's what she tells herself. Swim captain, world champion, all-around aquatics golden boy, Lukas Blomqvist thrives on discipline. On the surface, Lukas and Scarlett have nothing in common. Until a well-guarded secret slips out, and everything changes.

As a new decade begins, hopeless romantic and big dreamer Ellen is finally moving on from her hometown. In Galway she takes a job in a bookshop, and somewhere between the dusty bookshelves and the quiet afternoons, a bookseller called Ben finds a place in her heart. Fast forward, and the bright lights (and cosy flats) of London are calling Ellen's name. There she meets Leo, a charming, attentive City banker who's everything she's ever wanted. And wherever she goes, her heart beats in time with her childhood friend, Danny - though they never seem to be in the right place at the right time.

Laurel Lake held the title America’s Friendliest Town for seventeen years running, and friendly was just what I needed right now. Unfortunately, friendly wasn’t the welcome I got when I arrived. Instead, I got Fox Cassidy. My tall, dark, and burly neighbor, who grunted at me instead of saying hello. Okay, so I might’ve had his mailbox in my hands the first time we met. And it might’ve been a little crushed after removing it from under my tire. And I might’ve needed his help breaking into the place I was staying in after the key broke off in the lock.

The road to love is a rutted dirt track for the other vet from Snowy River ... An unmissable, funny, feel-good romance from the author of The Vet From Snowy River, Stella Quinn.

At twenty-nine years old, single, living in a very small country town, and working in the same job she'd had since she left school, some would say Bel Buckley's life was mediocre at best. But life had sort of panned out that way. She'd always planned to leave - she just hadn't gotten around to it.

With a coveted promotion dangling within reach, the last thing Addy Topic needs to do is waste precious time singing in Rookery Cove's choir. But when she's reminded how much music meant to her late mother, she can't say no. The building pressure raises the ghosts that sent her running from Rookery Cove years earlier - memories she's spent decades hiding from, silencing them with work, alcohol and sex.

A young Anne flees Wattle Island in 1950, heartbroken and desperate to make her own way in the world. As she begins to forge a life for herself in the city, a forbidden love returns, and she is faced with a choice that could destroy all she has built. When disaster changes her life forever, starting the Wattle Island Book Club is the only thing that offers her solace.

Under extreme pressure, neurosurgeon Maggie Sullivan knows she needs to slow down, and the best place she can do that is Sullivan's Crossing, the land and store at the crossroads of the Colorado and Continental Divide Trails. She relishes the opportunity to indulge in a simple way of life. But Maggie's world is rocked, and she must take responsibility for the Crossing. When Cal Jones offers to help, Maggie is suspicious.

Gerrardsville, Colorado. One tragic event. Two witnesses. Two conflicting accounts. One witness sees a woman throw herself in front of a bus—clearly suicide. The other witness is Jack Reacher. And he sees what really happened—a man in grey hoodie and jeans, swift and silent as a shadow, pushed the victim to her death, before grabbing her bag and sauntering away. Reacher follows the killer on foot, not knowing that this was no random act of violence. It is part of something much bigger.

Our first kiss was a lie. Our second was a mistake. And the night we spent tangled up in each other? Hot as hell, but a complete disaster.

The Center for women's reproductive health offers a last chance at hope - but nobody ends up there by choice. Its very existence is controversial, and to the demonstrators who barricade the building every day, the service it offers is no different from legalised murder. Now life and death decisions are being made horrifyingly real: a lone protester with a gun has taken the staff, patients and visitors hostage.

Cormac McCarthy, best-selling author of National Book Award winner All the Pretty Horses, delivers his first new novel in seven years. Written in muscular prose, No Country for Old Men is a powerful tale of the West that moves at a blistering pace.

Café owner Frankie has been unlucky in love all her life. It's hard in a small town like Bunyip Bay to meet prospective partners. Her sister, Simone, lost the love of her life years before and is now devoted to raising their two teenage girls, leaving little time for romance. When Frankie is kissed by a handsome stranger who calls her Simone, it's a case of mistaken identity – but who is this man and how does he know Simone?

Farah Highland was raised with more money than most people could ever dream of, but with that wealth and privilege came cold indifference and cruelty. Determined to start living for herself, Farah cut ties with everything and everyone she’d ever known for the chance at starting over in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains. Cannon Banks, notorious town playboy, grew up living the good life. Love and commitment were the last things on his mind...until he locked eyes with a woman across a crowded bar, and everything changed in a heartbeat.

Peony flower farmer Clancy Parker was born and bred in the Australian high country. Small-town Bundilla is the only place she will ever truly belong, even if staying means remaining alone. The man she'd loved is long gone, and single men are as rare as a summer snowfall. As soon as he could, street artist Heath MacBride escaped his complicated family and traded mountain peaks for city concrete. Now a commission to paint a mural on Bundilla's water tower brings him home.

Bringing together six short stories - two of which are previously unpublished - One Last Dram Before Midnight is perfect for fans of Denzil Meyrick. These tales take us from Jim Daley's early days pounding the beat in Glasgow as a young constable to a lighthearted whisky smuggling romp involving Hamish and some ghostly pipers.

The night belongs to them, and it will be a night eternal… After the blasts, it was all over. Nuclear Winter has settled upon the earth. Except for one hour of sunlight a day, the whole world is plunged into darkness. It is a near-perfect environment for vampires. They have won. It is their time. Almost every single man, woman and child has been enslaved in vast camps across the globe. Like animals, they are farmed, harvested for the sick pleasure of the Master Race.

The soldiers called her the Angel of Waterloo...Henrietta Bartlett, the esteemed surgeon's daughter who was born on a battlefield, lost her mother on a battlefield, and was widowed on the battlefield, where she worked alongside her father on that fateful day in June 1815. But after the carnage of war, Hen dreams of peace, and her own home, and a society that would allow a woman to practice medicine. The new and faraway colony of New South Wales seems a paradise, where even convicts have a chance of a good life.