Showing titles in Small Town & Rural

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….

A devastating injury ended Theo Haven’s pro-football career, but he’s made a good life for himself in his hometown. The high school teacher and football coach might be single, but that’s by choice. And his work bestie, Penelope? She’s one of the best parts of his job, but they’re just friends. No, really. Not the sort of friends who are secretly pining for each other or destined to hook up. Just… friends.

Kathleen Gallagher is sixteen when she shares her first kiss with Liam Flynn, the older brother of her best friend. The bells were ringing in the New Year and snow was falling: it was the perfect romantic moment. But Kathleen knows they can never be together. Three years later, it's 1939, and...

The Heritage Bakery is finally getting the makeover it deserves, with sisters Jade and Celeste modernising the place and putting their own stamp on it while retaining all the charm of days gone by. But Jade has far more planned than a brand-new kitchen and fancy cake designs. She’s ready for an even bigger change in her life. It’s almost time to take the next step and she knows just what to do to make that happen.

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.

When a movie crew abandoned thirty-seven crab-eating macaques in the Florida Everglades decades ago, the local residents of Cypress Grove thought they’d gained harmless tourist attractions. They were wrong. Dr. McKenna Dubrow, the town’s veterinarian, discovers the horrifying truth when the macaques begin exhibiting unprecedented intelligence—using tools, coordinating attacks, and leaving behind cryptic symbols that suggest something far more sinister than natural evolution.

The perfect seasonal tale of how laughter, friends and wacky Christmas jumpers can mend a broken heart. For fans of Trisha Ashley and Jenny Colgan. Heartbroken after being jilted at the altar, Sybil has been saved from despair by her knitting obsession and now her home is filled to bursting with tea cosies, bobble hats, and jumpers.

St Aidan: a cosy Cornish village where friendships are made for life and it’s always cocktail hour somewhere. Return to your favourite little wedding shop by the sea for love, laughter and a romance to sweep you off your feet! It’s the most romantic day of the year but the girls aren’t just gearing up for Valentine’s Day and a busy wedding season ahead, it’s also the 10-year anniversary of their beloved shop! Jess is planning the party of the decade, and with the champagne and cocktails flowing, sparks are going to fly...and not just from the fireworks display!

Double Blind follows three close friends and their circle through a year of extraordinary transformation. Set between London, Cap d'Antibes, Big Sur and a re-wilded corner of Sussex, this thrilling, ambitious novel is as compelling about ecology, psychoanalysis, genetics and neuroscience as it is about love, fear and courage.

Brought to you by Penguin. **LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE** A powerful, heart-breaking story about tempting fate and living with the consequences Arthur and Jake are brothers yet worlds apart. Arthur is older, shy, dutiful and set to inherit his father's farm. Jake is younger, handsome and...

Brought to you by Penguin. Ignored. Overlooked. But they're about to prove everyone wrong... Janet Pimm is used to being invisible. 70 something, with her beloved allotment for company, she simply doesn't need anyone else. But when the local council threaten to close the allotments, Janet will...

Mina McCreery's sister Evelyn disappeared 19 years ago. Her life has been defined by the intense public interest in the case. Now an anxious and reclusive adult, she lives alone on her family's destocked sheep farm. When Lane, a private investigator, approaches her with an offer to reinvestigate the case, she rejects him. The attention has had nothing but negative consequences for her and her family, and never brought them closer to an answer. 

When the only place you want to be is home.... When Ella's beloved grandmother dies, she comes back to the beautiful Cornish coast to heal her heart. There she finds her home again and discovers a new life and new love...but she also opens a treasure trove of secrets.

A remote island on lockdown. A killer on the loose. There is no escape for Inspector Jimmy Perez in Blue Lightning, the fourth Shetland mystery from Ann Cleeves. Now a major BBC One drama, Shetland, starring Douglas Henshall. Shetland detective Jimmy Perez knows it will be a difficult homecoming...

With her West Highland terrier Hamish at her side, Lucy plans to relax and read up on the women of nearby Bletchley Park. But the villagers of Little Maudley have other ideas and she finds herself caught up in the campaign to turn a dilapidated telephone box into a volunteer-run library. Along the way, she makes friends with treehouse designer Sam and finds herself falling for the charms of village life. And it seems Bunty has a special connection to Bletchley and the telephone box, one that she's kept secret for decades....

Myles Foster: CEO, thief, broody grump. And, once upon a time, the boy who read me stories when it stormed. My brothers hate him for the knowledge he took from our family's bourbon company to start his own empire. My sisters have forgotten him. But me? I'm going to be his new assistant. To him, I'm just a temp with a deep knowledge about the world of spirits. But if I come clean about just where I got that know-how, he'll toss me out before I can find out what happened to the boy who calmed my fears.

A leisurely weekend among the British gentry reveals the cracks in their upper-class society in this "beautifully crafted" historical fiction novel set in pre-WWI England (Washington Post). It is the autumn of 1913. Sir Randolph Nettleby has assembled a brilliant array of guests at his...

Timeless family drama from the best-selling author of Tuppence to Cross the Mersey. With over 3 million copies sold around the world, Helen Forrester’s hard-hitting and gripping fiction set in post-war Liverpool continues to move readers. A heart-warming story of family relationships and a...

On the quayside next to the Endless Beach sits the Summer Seaside Kitchen. It's a haven for tourists and locals alike, who all come to eat the freshest local produce on the island and catch up with the gossip. Flora, who runs the café, feels safe and content - unless she thinks too hard about her relationship with Joel, her gorgeous but emotionally (and physically) distant boyfriend. While Flora is in turmoil about her relationship, her best friend, Lorna, is pining after the local doctor.

'Haunting, heartbreaking, quietly terrifying. Unforgettable' CHRIS WHITAKER Three of them adrift on the narrowboat. Mother, son, and wickedness. Peggy Jenkins and her teenage son, Samson, live on a remote stretch of canal in the Midlands. She is a writer and he is a schoolboy. Together, they...