Moving to this small town might just be a huge mistake. City girl Emma Johnson moves to Kurrajong Crossing determined to escape her troubled past and forge a bright future filled with new friendships, experiences, and even a pet cow. When the town starts a bet to see which of the many eligible bachelors around town will take her out first, she plays along. They’ll figure out soon enough that she isn’t interested in romance or relationships. Not now, not ever. Country vet and cattleman Gabe Jameson knows the gossip surrounding pretty newcomer Emma will taper off eventually. In the meantime, he’s willing to lend a hand and help with emergency repairs to her rickety old house. It’s not as if it’s a date, or that he wants it to turn into something more. Pretty women are trouble, and Emma is stunning. Besides, he’s sworn off love forever. It seems they might have something in common after all… First published as Breathless

During the Great Depression Roxie Mitchell has been warned to avoid Luke Bauer, an ex-con. Yet she hires him, daring to offer him a second chance even as gossip mushrooms in the small Missouri town to which they each have recently returned. Luke is an underdog and a man she finds hard to resist. Roxie is Luke’s only friend, but both their friends and foes will test them. A Daughters of the Great Depression novel by Fran Baker; originally published by Five Star

'The Talk of the Town' explores everyday communication in a 16th-century small town and the role it played in the circulation of information across and within early modern communities, using the notebooks of the St Gall linen trader Johannes Rütiner to gain unusual insights into an oral world, and show how conversation could shape society.

This study argues that in eighteenth-century Britain, the public sphere was a figure of speech created by juxtaposed images of more limited, local, and particular arenas of discussion. In letters, newspapers, and books, eighteenth-century British writers described the public qualities of three different spaces: court, coffeehouse, and meeting. Writers referred to the proliferation of these social spaces, describing multiple coffeehouses, drawing rooms, and meetings, among which the customary language of each was circulated in repeated conversations and printed newspapers.These multiple references created a set of interrelated, competing, and mutually defining metaphors and figurations: figurative public spheres. Identifying the relations between these metaphors requires work in an archive that crosses the boundaries between court, coffeehouse, and Parliament, and between manuscript and print. By following figures from one medium to another, and by examining the contexts in which they were used, it is possible to see a social imaginary emerging from the juxtapositions between them. Ann C. Dean is Associate Professor of English at the University of Southern Maine.

SWEET HOPE WEDDINGS Welcome to Sweet Hope, Georgia—where weddings come to those who least expect them! MEET THE BRIDE-TO-BE Belle Sherman decided to live life to the fullest, and moved to Sweet Hope to do just that! But this recently jilted bride had almost given up on finding—and keeping—Mr. Right. AND HER RELUCTANT GROOM? Widower Boone O'Malley had trouble aplenty raising his rebellious daughter. He didn't have time to keep rescuing the new gal in town. But once he held the lovely Belle in his arms, could he ever bring himself to let her go? Bells are ringing for some SWEET HOPE WEDDINGS.