This month, we are celebrating Women’s Fiction titles that showcase small-town settings. The good and bad of knowing every soul in town and trying to keep some degree of privacy when the townsfolk talk about everybody else’s business. The warmth of places when nobody’s a stranger and neighbors help each other. The way these peculiar dynamics contribute to the emotional arc of the characters, either they’ve lived there all their lives, are the newbies in town, or left and came back years later.
The Birdcage by Krista Lynne White
The Birdcage (Saga Fiction, 2021)
by Krista Lynne White
The story is narrated through the dual points of view of a married couple. Matt is a high school teacher who grew up in a small rural community north of Toronto, moved away and married Jill. Matt and Jill are now back in Matt’s hometown to raise their daughters. Jillian is feisty, intelligent, and excellent in the job she found as soon as they moved there, her first executive sales position. But Jillian’s job requires long hours and Matt can’t help but suspect an affair with her boss, putting their marriage at risk. Matt’s insecurity pushes Jillian to realize she needs to find the balance of being a woman, wife, mother and hard-charging executive without feeling caged, all while reassuring Matt that her still deep love for him is not based on his professional success.
Rescuing Hope by Heidi M. Thomas
Rescuing Hope (SunCatcher Publications, 2021)
by Heidi M. Thomas
Samantha Mose is facing big challenges as a rancher in the tiny town of Ingomar, MT, where only another 13 people live. She’s struggled to manage the ranch her great-grandparents once ran for a heartless owner and now dreams of buying it. She enjoys rescuing horses with the help of a troubled teenager she’s mentoring. But when the man she’s interested in has a serious accident helping her to rescue another horse, life under the big Montana sky does not feel so sweet anymore. She still wants to pursue her dreams, but she needs to find the strength and courage to overcome the many difficulties and obstacles life is throwing at her.
Deer Season by Erin Flanagan
Deer Season (University of Nebraska Press, 2021)
by Erin Flanagan
It’s 1985 and the opening weekend of deer season in fictional Gunthrum, NE, a rural town with a population of twelve hundred. Alma Costagan’s intellectually disabled farmhand, Hal Bullard, has gone hunting with some of the locals. That same weekend, a teenage girl goes missing, and Hal returns with a flimsy story about the blood in his truck and a dent near the headlight. When the situation escalates from that of a missing girl to something more sinister, Alma and her husband are forced to confront what Hal might be capable of as rumors fly and townspeople see Hal’s violent past in a new light. The book has been nominated for an Edgar Award.
Arborview by Karen Guzman
Arborview (The Wild Rose Press, 2021)
by Karen Guzman
Ellen is an empty-nester and new divorcee, now feeling alone in the Connecticut town where she raised her children. Her financial future rides on the success of her new pastry shop. A bruising divorce has drained her bank account, along with her spirit. A man enters her life promising love, but Ellen questions whether she can pull off this new beginning. College student Rosa Escamilla has her own culinary dreams, and she scrapes up the money to enroll at a prestigious culinary school. She meets Ellen in the pastry course she teaches. But while Rosa dreams of moving to a smaller and nicer town like Ellen’s, Ellen will end up ready to sell her house and maybe move to a different community that could match her evolving identity.
A Talisman of Home by Annie M. Ballard
A Talisman of Home (Devon Station Books, 2021)
by Annie M. Ballard
Mackie Brown lost her marriage, her unborn baby and then her mother, one after the other. While cleaning out her mother’s apartment, she found information about Eric Johnson, the father whom she’d never known. With a snapshot, a medallion, some letters, and a tiny ray of hope, Mackie leaves Boston for a small fishing village in eastern Canada to try to find him. Mackie tries to blend in, but she remains the outsider in town. She finds Eric but he’s not the man she’d hoped he’d be. Instead of being the hero of her girlhood dreams, Eric is a man with big problems and a lot of other family members. Feeling inadequate and alone, she’s not sure about what she should do. When she confronts Eric, tragedy strikes and she faces the necessity of stepping up to become a true member of the family.
The Shell Collector by Nancy Naigle
The Shell Collector (WaterBrook Press, 2021)
by Nancy Naigle
Two years after her husband’s death, Amanda Whittier has two children to raise alone, an abandoned dream of starting a business, and a fixer-upper cottage by the sea in Whelk Island. Paul Grant is a relative newcomer to the area who works with former military dogs needing rehabilitation. Widowed Maeve Lindsay was born and raised on Whelk Island. Spirited, kind and a little mischievous, she pours her life into the town. But she carries a secret that shapes her every move. Together, these three souls find encouragement in the most mysterious places and discover a love that’s bigger than their pain, healing their wounded hearts in ways none of them could have hoped for or expected.
Beyond the Pear Blossoms by Shawna Rodrigues
Beyond the Pear Blossoms (Notebook Publishing, 2020)
by Shawna Rodrigues
When Tori — driven, ambitious and independent — returns to Oregon, the ink still damp on her college diploma, she’s thrilled to start living life instead of preparing for it. A woman who has prioritized reaching for the stars and crafting her future, she is tripping over her small-town roots and the expectations of others when an old acquaintance re-enters her life. The depth of their connection is undeniable, but things quickly turn pear-shaped, leaving Tori searching for answers about love, heartbreak, the importance of finding one’s path and the strength of connections, either romantic or platonic.
The Eternal Conductor by Debbie Garneau Griffin
The Eternal Conductor (Write Your Way, 2020)
by Debbie Garneau Griffin
In 1850, 12-year-old fugitive slave Samuel Prescott, along with his mother, sister and nephew, seek shelter from a midnight storm at a farm in Vermont. Emma and Gabe Hopper, conductors at the waystation, hide the fugitives and provide them shelter. Several days later, Gabe and his son, Luke, embark upon the next dangerous stage to transport the Prescotts to freedom. The devastating aftermath of that ill-fated journey will impact families all the way to the present day. In 1999, DeeDee Williams is faced with the daunting task of moving her elderly mother to a nursing home from their century-old Fair Haven farmstead. While cleaning out the property, DeeDee discovers it had once been a stop along the Underground Railroad. A twist of fate brings her face-to-face with a living reminder of those long-ago tragic events.
Courting Greta by Ramsey Hootman
Courting Greta (Gallery Books, 2013)
by Ramsey Hootman
Samuel Cooke knows most women wouldn’t give him a second glance even if he were the last man on earth. He’s the nerdy, disabled computer genius every female past puberty feels compelled to mother. When he leaves his lucrative career to teach programming to high schoolers in Healdsburg, a town in the Napa Valley, romance isn’t on his radar. Perhaps that’s why Greta Cassamajor, a sarcastic gym coach with zero sense of humor, catches him off guard. But a single act of kindness on her part makes him realize she’s interesting. She accepts his invitation to dinner, and Samuel is determined to do whatever it takes to keep her as long as he can. Should he be vulnerable enough to admit why he ditched his programming career for teaching? That would require honesty. And if there’s one thing Samuel can’t live without, it’s the lies he tells himself.
