Books with category 🏞 Small Town
Displaying 6 books

Pearl

Heartbreaking and redeeming, Pearl is the story of a young woman in a small English village who is struggling with the disappearance of her mother, what feels like a lifetime ago. Marianne is eight years old when her mother goes missing. Left behind with her baby brother and grieving father in a ramshackle house on the edge of a small village, she clings to the fragmented memories of her mother’s love; the smell of fresh herbs, the games they played, and the songs and stories of her childhood.

As time passes, Marianne finds it difficult to adjust, fixated on her mother’s disappearance and the secrets she’s sure her father is keeping from her. Yet, in one of her mother’s dusty old books, she discovers a medieval poem called Pearl, and, trusting in the promise of its consolation, it seems as if her life begins to parallel the poem's course. But questions remain. Marianne is ever more tormented by the unmarked gravestone in the abandoned chapel and the tidal pull of the river, and as her childhood home begins to crumble, the past leads her down a path of self-destruction.

Can Marianne ever come to understand her mother’s choices? And will her own future as a mother help her find her peace?

The Long Game

2023

by Elena Armas

In The Long Game, a disgraced soccer exec, Adalyn Reyes, faces the challenge of her career when a viral video disrupts her meticulously crafted routine. Sent to redeem herself by turning around a struggling local soccer team in North Carolina, Adalyn's plans are further complicated by the team's unconventional practices and their fear of her.

Enter Cameron Caldani, a retired soccer star with a mysterious presence and a rocky first encounter with Adalyn. Despite the odds, Adalyn is determined to help this ragtag children's team succeed, with or without Cam's assistance. Her journey is a testament to resilience and the power of second chances in this heartwarming small-town love story reminiscent of Ted Lasso and It Happened One Summer.

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

2023

by James McBride

From James McBride, author of the bestselling Oprah’s Book Club pick Deacon King Kong and the National Book Award–winning The Good Lord Bird, comes a novel about small-town secrets and the people who keep them.

In 1972, workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development when they unexpectedly discovered a skeleton at the bottom of a well. The skeleton's identity and how it ended up there were long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill—a dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side, sharing ambitions and sorrows.

Chicken Hill was home to Moshe and Chona Ludlow, where Moshe integrated his theater and Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. When the state sought to institutionalize a deaf boy, it was Chona and Nate Timblin, the Black janitor at Moshe’s theater and the unofficial leader of the Black community on Chicken Hill, who conspired to keep the boy safe.

As the characters' stories intertwine and deepen, it becomes clear how much those living on the margins of white, Christian America struggle and what they must do to survive. The revelation of what truly happened on Chicken Hill and the role played by the town’s white establishment, McBride reveals that even in the darkest times, it is love and community—heaven and earth—that sustain us.

James McBride brings his masterful storytelling skills and deep faith in humanity to The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, crafting a novel as compassionate as Deacon King Kong and as inventive as The Good Lord Bird.

All The Sinners Bleed

2023

by S.A. Cosby

A Black sheriff. A serial killer. A small town ready to combust.

Titus Crown is the first Black sheriff in the history of Charon County, Virginia. In recent decades, Charon has had only two murders. After years of working as an FBI agent, Titus knows better than anyone that while his hometown might seem like a land of moonshine, cornbread, and honeysuckle, secrets always fester under the surface.

Then a year to the day after Titus’s election, a school teacher is killed by a former student and the student is fatally shot by Titus’s deputies. Those festering secrets are now out in the open and ready to tear the town apart.

As Titus investigates the shootings, he unearths terrible crimes and a serial killer who has been hiding in plain sight, haunting the dirt lanes and woodland clearings of Charon. With the killer’s possible connections to a local church and the town’s harrowing history weighing on him, Titus projects confidence about closing the case while concealing a painful secret from his own past. At the same time, he also has to contend with a far-right group that wants to hold a parade in celebration of the town’s Confederate history.

Powerful and unforgettable, All the Sinners Bleed confirms S. A. Cosby as “one of the most muscular, distinctive, grab-you-by-both-ears voices in American crime fiction”.

Unfortunately Yours

2023

by Tessa Bailey

Unfortunately Yours, a novel by #1 New York Times bestselling author Tessa Bailey, is a hilarious rom-com set in the picturesque Napa Valley.

Natalie, after losing her job and fiancé, returns home to recover and plan her next move. With a trust fund that requires her to be married for access, she finds herself proposing a marriage of convenience to August, a man whose presence stirs both irritation and attraction within her.

August is determined to honor his late best friend's legacy but is struggling as no bank will approve the loan he needs. When Natalie offers a solution in the form of a quickie marriage, he's tempted by the prospect despite their mutual antagonism.

What was supposed to be a simple arrangement becomes complicated by their unfortunate, unbearable, and undeniable attraction to each other.

Secretly Yours

2023

by Tessa Bailey

Secretly Yours is a steamy romantic comedy that brings together a starchy professor and his bubbly neighbor, creating sparks at every encounter. Hallie Welch has been infatuated with Julian Vos since she was fourteen, following an almost-kiss in the vineyards of his family's winery. Years later, Julian, now a handsome enigma, returns to their hometown, and Hallie is tasked with revamping the gardens on the Vos estate, reigniting her teenage crush and the hope for that long-awaited kiss.

However, Julian is not the teenager she once knew. His formal demeanor contrasts sharply with Hallie's free spirit, leading to fiery clashes. After a night of wine and whimsy, Hallie frets over a reckless act—a secret admirer letter penned in a drunken blur. Julian, on sabbatical to write a novel, finds himself distracted by Hallie's vibrant energy and presence, which disrupts his structured life. As he uncovers the anonymous letter, Julian is drawn irresistibly into Hallie's colorful world, challenging his orderly existence and making him question everything he thought he knew about love and life.

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