Narrative theme: sense of place

Book SynopsisIt''s been three years since LUTHER KHADAFI FULLER did the unthinkable by testifying in court against ANTONIO AMEEN FELDER. Now Khadafi is back on the streets that made him who he once was. Filled with hot anger, Khadafi wants nothing more than to repay those who betrayed, hurt or abandoned him. Especially the woman he loved.After making the decision to go against Khadafi and help Ameen during trial, MARNIE has moved on with her life. But with Khadafi free again, Marnie''s past threatens her future. Every breath she takes could be her last. Meanwhile, having been acquitted of multiple murders, Ameen decides to leave D.C. But an old secret forces him to return to face it head-on. Back in the city, Ameen''s protege-turned-enemy, has orchestrated a deadly game that just might call for someone to make THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE in order to survive. In this final chapter, everything will come full circle.

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisThe instant New York Times bestseller!“Sublime…Colgan infuses her latest book with humor, wit, suspense and a perfectly cast love triangle.”--USA TodayThe Christmas Bookshop is literary hot chocolate with a bourbon shot: hot, sweet but with a surprising emotional kick.--The Times (UK)Perfect for the holidays! A brand-new heartwarming Christmas novel from the beloved New York Times bestselling author of The Bookshop on the Corner and Christmas at the Island Hotel. Laid off from her department store job, Carmen has perilously little cash and few options. The prospect of spending Christmas with her perfect sister Sofia, in Sofia’s perfect house with her perfect children and her perfectly ordered yuppie life does not appeal.Frankly, Sofia doesn’t exactly want her prickly sister Carmen there either. But Sofia has yet another baby on the way, a mother desperate to see her daughters get along, and a client who needs help revitalizing his shabby old bookshop. So Carmen moves in and takes the job.Thrown rather suddenly into the inner workings of Mr. McCredie’s ancient bookshop on the picturesque streets of historic Edinburgh, Carmen is intrigued despite herself. The store is dusty and disorganized but undeniably charming. Can she breathe some new life into it in time for Christmas shopping? What will happen when a famous and charismatic author takes a sudden interest in the bookshop—and Carmen? And will the Christmas spirit be enough to help heal her fractured family?

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Book SynopsisJoette''s life brings new meaning to the phrase paycheck to paycheck. Struggling to afford her mother''s sky-high medical bills and also keep the lights on in her trailer home, Joette needs a break.So, when she spies a briefcase full of money amongst the fiery wreckage of a fatal car accident, she knows she can''t just let it be. Inside is a bounty better than she could have dreamed-just shy of $300,000 in neatly stacked hundreds and fifties. Enough to pay off her debts, give her mother the care she deserves, and maybe even help out a few of her friends.But, of course, the missing briefcase didn''t go unnoticed by the original owner, Travis-a ruthless dealer that''ll stop at nothing to get back what''s his.Joette is way out of her depth, but can''t seem to stop herself from participating in this cat-and-mouse chase. But can she beat Travis at his own game?

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Book SynopsisIn this standalone, Edgar-award winning author, Joe R. Lansdale, whom 'few can match' (Booklist) beams a light on an East Texas town where a QAnon-style, evangelist cult is brewing trouble.  Charlie Garner has a bad feeling. His ex-wife, Meg, has been missing for over a week and one quick peek into her home shows all her possessions packed up in boxes. Neighbors claim she’s running from bill collectors, but Charlie suspects something more sinister is afoot. Meg was last seen working at the local donut shop, a business run by a shadow group most refer to as ‘The Saucer People’; a space-age, evangelist cult who believe their compound to be the site of an extraterrestrial Second Coming.   Along with his brother, Felix, and beautiful, randy journalist Amelia “Scrappy” Moon, Charlie uncovers strange and frightening details about the compound (read: a massive, doomsday storehouse of weapons, a leashed chimpanzee!) When the body of their key informer is found dead with his arms ripped out of their sockets, Charlie knows he’s in danger but remains dogged in his quest to rescue Meg.   Brimming with colorful characters and Lansdale’s characteristic bounce, this rollicking crime novel examines the insidious rise of fringe groups and those under their sway with black comedy and glints of pathos.

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Book SynopsisA warm and uplifting story of how a woman falls in love with a place and its people: a landscape, a community and a fragile way of life. A rural idyll: that''s what Catherine is seeking when she sells her house in England and moves to a tiny hamlet in the Cévennes mountains. With her divorce in the past and her children grown, she is free to make a new start, and her dream is to set up in business as a seamstress. But this is a harsh and lonely place when you''re no longer just here on holiday. There is French bureaucracy to contend with, not to mention the mountain weather, and the reserve of her neighbours, including the intriguing Patrick Castagnol. And that''s before the arrival of Catherine''s sister, Bryony...Trade ReviewPraise for Rosy Thornton's previous novels: 'A refreshing twist on the romantic novel * She *Something of an achievement * Daily Telegraph *A love story with a difference * Woman's Weekly *She is skilled at drawing out the poignancy of ordinary life * Guardian *A sparkling, intelligent story - I loved it * Adele Geras *Thornton's debut is charming and funny * Glasgow Evening Times *A warm, witty and sharp-eyed look at what happens to real people * Emma Darwin *A charming well-written book, full of sweet anecdotes and humorous stories * Belfast Sunday Life *

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Book SynopsisGaile Parkin was born and raised in Zambia, and studied at universities in South Africa and England. She has lived in many different parts of Africa, including Swaziland, where When Hoopoes go to Heaven is set. She is currently a freelance consultant in the fields of education, gender and HIV/AIDS.Trade ReviewWith gentle humour and a gift for detail, [Gaile Parkin] brings Rwanda to life, with its physical beauty, food and customs... [Baking Cakes in Kigali] is fluent and deeply moving * Independent *With a lightness of touch, and a cast as colourful as one of Angel's cakes, debut novelist Parkin deftly uncovers the joys and sorrows of the survivors. Fans of Precious Ramotswe will love this * Marie Claire *

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Book SynopsisA roofing family?s bonds of loyalty are tested when they uncover a long-hidden secret at the heart of their blue-collar town?from Amy Jo Burns, author of the critically acclaimed novel ShinerIt?s 1990 and seventeen-year-old Marley West is blazing into the river valley town of Mercury, Pennsylvania. A perpetual loner, she seeks a place at someone?s table and a family of her own. The first thing she sees when she arrives in town is three men standing on a rooftop. Their silhouettes blot out the sun.The Joseph brothers become Marley?s whole world before she can blink. Soon, she is young wife to one, The One Who Got Away to another, and adopted mother to them all. As their own mother fades away and their roofing business crumbles under the weight of their unwieldy father?s inflated ego, Marley steps in to shepherd these unruly men. Years later, an eerie discovery in the church attic causes old wounds to resurface and suddenly the family?s survival hangs in the balance. With Marley as their light, the Joseph brothers must decide whether they can save the family they?ve always known?or whether together they can build something stronger in its place.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"[Paul Harding] writes with the gravitas of a mythmaker…The pace of Harding’s storytelling is stately, his descriptions, even of small events, gorgeous…This Other Eden is beautiful and agonizing—rather like the real place that inspired it." -- Claire Messud - Harper's Magazine"[This Other Eden] is a harrowing tale of paradise lost and a lyrical examination of people in isolation just trying to get by…[It] is a novel that is both devastating and meditative, a combination that is characteristic of [Paul] Harding’s work." -- MJ Franklin - New York Times"Stunning…You could imagine lots of ways a historical novel about this horror might be written, but none of them would give you a sense of the strange spell of This Other Eden—its dynamism, bravado and melancholy. Harding’s style has been called ‘Faulknerian’ and maybe that’s apt, given his penchant for sometimes paragraph-long sentences that collapse past and present…[An] intense wonder of a historical novel." -- Maureen Corrigan - NPR"Tender, magical, and haunting, Paul Harding’s This Other Eden is that rare novel that makes profound claims on our present age while being, very simply, a graceful performance of language and storytelling. Here is prose that touchingly holds its imagined island community in a light that can only be described as generous and dazzling. I have not read a novel this achingly beautiful in a while, nor one in which the fate of its characters I will not soon forget." -- Major Jackson, author of The Absurd Man"Harding, who won a dark-horse Pulitzer Prize for Tinkers, again demonstrates his gifts for concision and compassion in a narrative that balances historical fact with fully drawn characters...[S]ure to be a standout of 2023." -- Bethanne Patrick - Los Angeles Times"This Other Eden is a story of good intentions, bad faith, worse science, but also a tribute to community and human dignity and the possibility of another world. In both, it has much to say to our times." -- Rachel Seiffert - Guardian (UK)"Beautiful, brooding…Harding paints a rich, unvarnished portrait of Apple Island and its residents…Long, cascading sentences sometimes loop back on themselves to add salient details; others rush forward to encapsulate as much complexity as they can…Harding’s finely wrought prose shows us a community that refuses to see itself through the judgmental eyes of others, a society composed of people who give their neighbors the same latitude to go their own way that they claim for themselves. It closes on a note of determined hope, with an emblem of continuity and endurance held high above the waters that separate Apple Island from the censorious mainland." -- Wendy Smith - Washington Post"With gorgeous, often antique prose, Harding takes us into the prelapsarian world of the islanders…Harding has a gift for using language with intense precision that evokes his characters’ points of view." -- Carolyn Kellogg - Boston Globe"Frequent lyrical passages, which are as epic, forceful and sweeping as the floods the book depicts and recalls…Just as wonderful are the book’s frequent small touches." -- Clifford Thompson - Times Literary Supplement (UK)"There is no writer alive anything like Paul Harding, and This Other Eden proves it: astonishingly beautiful, humane, strange, interested in philosophy and the heart, stunningly written. It’s about home, love, heredity, cruelty, and the very nature of art, so completely original it’s hard to know how to describe it in a mere blurb, by which I mean: you must read this book." -- Elizabeth McCracken, author of The Souvenir Museum"In boldly lyrical prose, This Other Eden shows us a once-thriving racial utopia in its final days, at a time when race and science were colliding in chilling ways. In the stories of the Apple Islanders—especially that of Ethan Honey, spared a destructive fate because of his artistic gifts and his fair skin—we are made to confront the ambiguous nature of mercy, the limits of tolerance, and what it means to truly be saved. A luminous, thought-provoking novel." -- Esi Edugyan, author of Washington Black"Harding’s third novel revisits an appalling moment in Maine history…[A] brief book that carries the weight of history. A moving account of community and displacement." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"Pulitzer winner Harding (Tinkers) suffuses deep feeling into this understated yet wrenching story…It’s a remarkable achievement." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)"A superb achievement…Harding combines an engrossing plot with deft characterizations and alluring language deeply attuned to nature’s artistry. The biblical parallels, which naturally align with the characters’ circumstances, add depth, and enhance the universality of the themes…[T]his gorgeously limned portrait about family bonds, the loss of innocence, the insidious effects of racism, and the innate worthiness of individual lives will resonate long afterward." -- Booklist (starred review)

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Book SynopsisThe blistering Glasgow crime novel from the award-winning author of the Glasgow Trilogy.Trade ReviewThis is a writer who has had critics attempting to come up with new adjectives to praise him * Independent *Mackay is a natural storyteller, able to jump from one hurtling train of action to another * Washington Post *Gripping and vivid . . . Mackay succeeds magnificently * Guardian *The plot is meticulous, the dialogue sharp, the emotions edgy. Mackay turns in another mesmeric performance * The Times *Another Scottish crime-writing star is born * Mark Billingham *

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Book SynopsisA nostalgic, insightful and poignant story of women''s lives in the 1970s. ''Raw, nostalgic, utterly compelling and very, very cool... A mind-blowingly impressive debut'' Eva RiceThere are books that stay with you long after you''ve read them. This is one of those. Katie has been hanging around Comanche Street for three years and there are still times when it feels like she is watching a movie starring everyone in the world, except her.Through sun-kissed days by the ocean and hazy nights in drifter bars, through love and death and pain, while the Vietnam war rages distantly and yet disturbingly close, she yearns to belong and never dreams that all the others want is to escape.Night after night, they wait for something to happen. It''s summer, and anything is possible . . .A powerful coming-of-age tale reminiscent of Anne Tyler, Alice Hoffman and Melissa Banks.* Author interview includedTrade Review'A really wonderful book that will capture your heart and occupy your thoughts' * SUNDAY MIRROR *Raw, nostalgic, utterly compelling and very, very cool... A mind-blowingly impressive debut -- Eva Rice'Tender and brave storytelling' * GRAZIA *Despite the dark sides, If I Knew is gorgeous and thoughtful; a compelling, wonderful look at a particular point in time * EMERALD STREET *Chicurel's novel has its dark moments, but the overriding sentiment is one of acceptance, resilience and the enduring power of friendship. A coming-of-age-tale with a haunting quality 4* * The Lady *The story hooked me in so I felt the characters' pain and hope * WOMAN & HOME *Beautifully written prose... Rarely do books evoke so viscerally a place, so tangibly a time and such a broad sweep of big themes * Hannah Beckerman *Beautiful and heart-breaking at once. A mesmerising, compulsive combination -- Adele ParksThis book will haunt you long after you've finished * harpersbazaar.co.uk *'A thought-provoking debut novel' * CLOSER *'This love story set in 70s Long Island is guaranteed to have you gripped' * NOW *Beautifully evocative * Observer *Chicurel [is] a gifted and versatile writer, and always draws you in * Sunday Express *

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Book SynopsisExplores how novelists of the mid-century US South invented small towns to aesthetically undermine racial segregationInvestigates the role of writing in the civil right movementExplores neglected writersUncovers new readings of canonical textsModels a new form of critical reading based on close textual analysisInterrogates the relationship between literary production and social protestAnalysing the ubiquity of the small town in fiction of the mid-century US South, Living Jim Crow is the first extended scholarly study to explore how authors mobilised this setting as a tool for racial resistance. With innovative close readings of Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Wright, Lillian Smith, Byron Herbert Reece, Carson McCullers, William Faulkner and William Melvin Kelley, the book traces the relationship between activism and aesthetics during the long civil rights movement. Lennon reframes a narrative of southern literature during the period as one as one characterised by an aesthetics of protest, identifying a new mode of reading racial resistance and the US South.

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Book SynopsisSet in LA against the backdrop of the 2008 financial crash, this is the story of Rudy Reyes (a.k.a. Glasses), a gangster-turned-double-agent who wants out of the high-stakes high-risk life criminal life, and Ricky Mendoza, Junior (a.k.a. Ghost), a DEA safe-cracker with terminal cancer who's got nothing to lose. When Ghost goes rogue and steals thousands of dollars from a safe that belongs to an LA crime lord who happens to be Glasses' boss, he endangers a deal Glasses had with the DEA. As Ghost sets out to steal as much money as he can get his hands on - all with the plan to give it to those hit hardest by the crash - and the Mob gets ever closer to catching him, Glasses tries desperately to keep his plans on track.Fast-paced and gritty, Safe by Ryan Gattis is both a moving and human morality tale and an utterly immersive and heart-stoppingly suspenseful thriller.Trade ReviewA thrilling heist novel with a big beating heart -- Paula Hawkins, author of Girl on the trainWithout glamorizing his subject, there’s a lyricism in the vernacular and street language that makes it hard not to be moved * GQ *Safe is an immensely satisfying crime thriller, but it is also a deeply moving novel about one flawed man’s attempt to create good in a corrupt world. Ryan Gattis has a great ear for the patois of the street, and he reminds us that in 21stcentury America the worst predators often wear suits and work in offices. -- Ron Rash, author of SerenaSAFE is a propulsive thriller that confirms Ryan Gattis as one of our most gifted novelists. The book has unstoppable momentum yet is as finely layered and detailed with the gritty truth of life and the streets as I’ve ever read. It shoots you down a path that is fraught with surprise and insight, and you can’t ask for more than that. -- Michael Connelly, creator of the Harry Bosch and Mickey Haller series.Engrossing ... Gattis's refreshingly smart characters doggedly try to do the right thing in this satisfying upbeat tale of the drug world. * Publisher's Weeekly *Combining All Involved's facility for tenderness in the midst of stories of brutality, Safe is the perfect read to have in your suitcase * GQ *Ryan Gattis has a feel for street slang and nimble characterisation. A bobby-dazzler of a thriller. * Metro *Inherently compelling. This macho, faster-than-a-speeding-bullet novel benefits from the extensive research Gattis has done on the L.A. gang scene and that deep knowledge informs electrifying plot twists. * Time *A literary novel and a thriller with more twists than a DVD box-set make quite a combination. There is a lathed quality to Ryan Gattis’s prose, which is reminiscent of Raymond Carver or Ernest Hemingway. Gattis is superb with the staccato sentence, honed to a few words. I have previously been enthusiastic about Gattis’s polyphonic All Involved; this duet shows he is as assured on a closer frame. * The Scotsman *No ordinary gangster cat-and-mouse chase . . . While the gangsters-with-a-heart story might sound improbable, Gattis compensates with whip-smart vernacular and a narrative that zips along. Gattis has created a gripping novel about opportunity, transformation and hope. * Observer *

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Book SynopsisA Guardian, Financial Times, The Millions, Vulture, and Buzzfeed's Most Anticipated of 2020'An immigrant’s view conveyed with authority and wit . . . Adiga is a startlingly fine observer, and a complicator, in the manner of V.S. Naipaul.’ New York TimesFrom the bestselling, Booker Prize-winning author of The White Tiger and Selection Day, Aravind Adiga, comes the story of an undocumented immigrant who becomes the only witness to a crime and must face an impossible moral dilemma.Danny – Dhananjaya Rajaratnam – is an undocumented immigrant in Sydney, denied refugee status after he has fled from his native Sri Lanka. Working as a cleaner, living out of a grocery storeroom, for three years he’s been trying to create a new identity for himself. And now, with his beloved vegan girlfriend, Sonja, with his hidden accent and highlights in his hair, he is as close as he has ever come to living a normal Australian life.But then one morning, Danny learns a female client of his has been murdered. When Danny recognizes a jacket left at the murder scene, he believes it belongs to another of his clients — a doctor with whom he knows the woman was having an affair. Suddenly Danny is confronted with a choice: come forward with his knowledge about the crime and risk being deported, or say nothing, and let justice go undone? Over the course of a single day, evaluating the weight of his past, his dreams for the future, and the unpredictable, often absurd reality of living invisibly and undocumented, he must wrestle with his conscience and decide if a person without rights still has responsibilities.Suspenseful, propulsive, and full of Aravind Adiga’s signature wit and magic, Amnesty is both a timeless moral struggle and a universal story with particular urgency today.Trade ReviewThe kind of sharp social anthropology at which Adiga excels . . . Brimming with empathy as well as indignation, this novel . . . extends Adiga’s fictional concern with deprivation and injustice. * Sunday Times *What makes Amnesty an urgent and significant book is the generosity and the humanity of its vision. The abstract issue of immigration, fodder for cheap politics, comes starkly alive in the story of this one man, his past troubles and his present conflict. Amnesty is an ample book, pertinent and necessary. It speaks to our times. -- Juan Gabriel Vásquez * New York Times *A mesmerising, breakneck quest of a novel; a search for the true sense of self, for the answer to a moral dilemma which damns either way. The scope and profundity of Victor Hugo, the humour and wit we’ve come to expect from Adiga, and a novel which suggests the impossibility of keeping a sense of the self in a globalised world which either forces assimilation or exile. -- Andrew McMillan[Adiga] has more to say than most novelists, and about 50 more ways to say it . . . Adiga is a startlingly fine observer, and a complicator, in the manner of V.S. Naipaul . . . This novel has a simmering plot . . . You come to this novel for . . . its author’s authority, wit and feeling on the subject of immigrants’ lives. -- Dwight Garner * New York Times *Adiga is one of the great observers of power and its deformities, showing in novels like his Booker Prize winning White Tiger and Last Man in Tower how within societies, the powerful lean on the less powerful, and the weak exploit the weaker all the way down. Telling the tale of Danny’s immigration along the story of one tense day, he has built a forceful, urgent thriller for our times. -- John Freeman * Lit Hub *A forceful, urgent thriller for our times * Lit Hub *Danny's voice, in its sheer everyday ordinariness, will stay with you a long time. * Daily Mail *Scrutinizes the human condition through a haves-vs.-have-not filter with sly wit and narrative ingenuity . . . Adiga's smart, funny, and timely tale with a crime spin of an undocumented immigrant will catalyze readers. * Booklist *Engrossing . . . vivid . . . Adiga’s enthralling depiction of one immigrant’s tough situation humanizes a complex and controversial global dilemma. * Publishers Weekly *A taut, thrillerlike novel . . . A well-crafted tale of entrapment, alert to the risk of exploitation that follows immigrants in a new country. * Kirkus, starred review *

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Book Synopsis'The lives of the characters get entangled in this powerful read' WOMAN'S OWN'A pacy, gripping tale of secrets, love and betrayal in 1950s Catalonia, written with skill and colour. It gave me enormous pleasure to read such a satisfying novel.' SANTA MONTEFIORE 'If you're in desperate need of a far-Flung getaway, indulge in this slice of escapist fiction' HEAT'Being transported to a Spanish summer in 1951... I feel the cool of the shadows under the trees and hear the sea as it glistens in the rippling heat. I think you might like it too!' FERN BRITTON'As colourful, rich and mesmerising as one of Dali's paintings, this absorbing, poignant rollercoaster of a read is utterly satisfying and will stay with you long after you've put it down.' PATRICIA SCANLAN 'a tale of intrigue, love, politics and scandal. Mixing fact and fiction The Diver and The Lover keeps up the pace and excitement to the very end.' JOAN BAKEWELL'This tale intrigued me and captured my imagination in equal measure. I loved being whisked back to the 1950s and felt the heat of the Spanish sun as I fell in love with the sisters' unique relationship. Be prepared to be taken on a dramatic journey confronting pain, tragedy and passion along the way ' SARA COX'We'll never look at one of the world's best known paintings in the same way again. [Jeremy Vine] has managed to weave truth and fiction together to bring us a most unexpected love story.' FIONA BRUCE'A touching love story set in General Franco's postwar Spain is hallmark Vine - fresh, well-researchedand packed with female protagonists.' - COUNTRYSIDE MAGSoaked in sunlight, love and the mysteries surrounding a famous artist The Diver and the Lover is a novel inspired by true events.It is 1951 and sisters Ginny and Meredith have travelled from England to Spain in search of distraction and respite. The two wars have wreaked loss and deprivation upon the family and the spectre of Meredith's troubled childhood continues to haunt them. Their journey to the rugged peninsula of Catalonia promises hope and renewal. While there they discover the artist Salvador Dali is staying in nearby Port Lligat. Meredith is fascinated by modern art and longs to meet the famous surrealist. Dali is embarking on an ambitious new work, but his headstrong male model has refused to pose. A replacement is found, a young American waiter with whom Ginny has struck up a tentative acquaintance. The lives of the characters become entangled as family secrets, ego and the dangerous politics of Franco's Spain threaten to undo the fragile bonds that have been forged. A powerful story of love, sacrifice and the lengths we will go to for who - or what - we love.

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Book SynopsisA heartwarming small-town romance about high school sweethearts who return home and discover that first loves sometimes do get a second chance...Jay Wynter has avoided his hometown longer than he cares to admit. All he's ever wanted was to be successful on his own merit, but when his grandfather suffers a stroke, Jay is named successor to the family winery. The new gig would be a dream job if it hadn't been handed to him on a silver platter. And if it didn't come with strings attached, like having to work closely with the former love of his life.Leyna Milanis no stranger to the pitfalls of reviving the family business. She rallied for her grandfather to entrust her with his restaurant, and revamping it has left her flat broke. Though Leyna is determined to make the place her own, a clause in her grandfather's will forces her into a partnership with a local winery. When she discovers her business partner is the man who broke her heart, all bets are off. Unfortunately, his quick wit and sexy grin are impossible to ignore.Jay and Leyna have to put the past behind them if they're going to honor their grandfather's wishes. On the cusp of a second chance, they'll find out if true love ages as gracefully as a fine wine.

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Book SynopsisAshley Howland Scott has no time for romance as she grieves the loss of her husband, cares for her young son, and runs Magnolia Harbor's only bed and breakfast. Ashley never imagined she'd notice-let alone have feelings for-another man after her husband was killed in Afghanistan five years earlier. But slowly, softly, Rev. Micah St. Pierre has become a friend . . . and now maybe something more. Despite her reluctance, Ashley has to admit that Micah is kind, thoughtful, and handsome to boot. All the more reason to steer clear of him. She can't risk her heart again.After becoming the center of Magnolia Harbor's rumor mill once, Micah St. Pierre has no interest in letting the members of the local quilting club play matchmaker for him. Besides, the only woman he's interested in is the one he can never have. Micah is not allowed to date a member of his congregation, so there's no point in sharing his feelings with Ashley, no matter how much he yearns to. But the more time they spend with each other, the more Micah wonders whether Ashley is his match made in heaven.

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Book SynopsisDr. Charlotte Rodriguez is single-again-and she blames Jane Austen. She made brooding, aloof men sound oh so dreamy. But after years of failing to find her own Mr. Darcy, Charlotte decides it's time to swear off dating. She's going to lavish all her love and affection on someone who actually deserves it: her new puppy, Bingley.And there's no one better to give her pet advice than her neighbor and coworker George Leneghan. He's quiet and patient and, best of all, way too sweet to ever be her type. But as their friendly banter turns flirty, the unimaginable happens-Charlotte starts catching feelings.Just as Charlotte is trying to untangle what it is she truly wants, George announces he's contemplating a cross-country move. Suddenly, Charlotte wonders if she's kept her soulmate in the friend zone so long that she's entirely missed her chance at a happily ever after. Dear Reader, could it be possible she's had it wrong all this time?

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Book SynopsisDr. Charlotte Rodriguez is single-again-and she blames Jane Austen. She made brooding, aloof men sound oh so dreamy. But after years of failing to find her own Mr. Darcy, Charlotte decides it's time to swear off dating. She's going to lavish all her love and affection on someone who actually deserves it: her new puppy, Bingley.And there's no one better to give her pet advice than her neighbour and co-worker George Leneghan. He's quiet and patient and, best of all, way too sweet to ever be her type. But as their friendly banter turns flirty, the unimaginable happens-Charlotte starts catching feelings.Just as Charlotte is trying to untangle what it is she truly wants, George announces he's contemplating a cross-country move. Suddenly, Charlotte wonders if she's kept her soulmate in the friend zone so long that she's entirely missed her chance at a happily ever after. Dear Reader, could it be possible she's had it wrong all this time?

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Book SynopsisGabriella Monroe is doing her best to pretend that everything is fine, but her life is a mess. Sales are down at her vintage dress shop, her beloved grandmother isn't her usual spunky self, and Gabby desperately misses the closeness she had with her sisters, Margaret and Emma-who were once so inseparable that their family called them the Monroe Musketeers. When the sisters stumble across a stash of letters that reveals their grandmother's secret life, Gabby sees an opportunity to bring the sisters back together again and best of all, raise her grandmother's spirits. And sure, this new project makes it easier to pretend her own life isn't crashing around her, but concentrating on helping everyone else and ignoring her own feelings is what Gabby does best.Except when it comes to Jake Maddox. Once the boy next door she crushed on-hard-he's grown into an even more intriguing man, and her attraction to him isn't so easy to hide. It's clear he's just as interested in her, but dating Jake would only muddy up her already complicated life. Or is it finally time to put herself first and risk it all for a chance at happiness?

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Book SynopsisThis sexy cowboy is nothing but a complication...but he's also impossible to resist.As the new horticulturist at Rancho Lindo, Nora Torres is determined to make the garden a success and prove to the Ortega family that they made the right decision in hiring her. Plants take patience and care, and that should be Nora's focus, not Gabe Ortega, who is back home on his family's ranch after an injury abruptly ended his military career. A long time ago, Nora made the mistake of believing a promise from Gabe, and she's determined not to make that mistake twice. His family hopes he's home for good, but Gabe has always wanted something else-something more-than working at Rancho Lindo. So he can't allow himself to be sidetracked by his feelings for Nora when he knows he'll be leaving again. But soon, rather than keeping his distance from the garden and the talented horticulturist, Gabe finds what he really wants is to change Nora's mind about him.

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Book SynopsisFake dating isn't supposed to lead to real feelings....Highland Falls police officer Emma Scott is a workaholic who doesn't do small talk, hugs, or anything else touchy-feely. Ever since her fiancé's death over a year ago, Emma's been sleepwalking through life, and her family is growing increasingly worried about her. Enter Josh Callahan, her brother's best friend. Josh is obnoxiously good-looking and, even more annoyingly, in a perpetually cheerful mood. Though he may drive her crazy, his suggestion to fake date him is brilliant because there are no feelings involved. At least, not at first.High school football coach and volunteer firefighter Josh Callahan is a fun-loving guy who is all about friends, family, and community. After his wife left him, he committed to staying uncommitted, except now he's earned the nickname "Heartbreaker of Highland Falls." Spending time with Emma will improve his rep while she can remember what it means to get out and enjoy life again. And his plan works...until Josh realizes that the feelings he has for Emma are all too real. But is Emma ready to share her heart again?

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