The best romance books that make you want to kick up your heels and move to a fictional small town

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been a reader all my life. It started with books like Where the Red Fern Grows, and as I got older, I moved on to books like The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver and Skipped Parts by Tim Sandlin. Whatever I was reading, it was taking place somewhere in the wilds of the mid and western United States. I’m from a small town, and growing up, everybody knew their neighbor’s business. These are the places I love to read and write about. Add some steamy romance, and I’m there! So when the MMC from my first book, Burned, cowboy Jack Cade, showed up in my head, I knew he was from a small town.


I wrote...

Book cover of Burned

What is my book about?

 “If you like Yellowstone but wished it had more romance, this is your book.” – Filipino Bookworm Blog

Burned is a steamy cowboy romance about learning to trust and letting love guide you home. Jack Cade doesn’t trust women; Everlea Donovan doesn’t trust anyone. When they’re stuck together at Cade Ranch under the big blue Wyoming sky, they must face reality—and each other—if they’re going to survive the danger hunting them.

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Forever Endeavor

Greta Rose West Why did I love this book?

I wanna live in Janus Lake, and you will too when you read Barbara Kellyn’s Forever Endeavor. She’s my favorite romantic comedy author. Forever Endeavor is funny, charming, and a little angsty. When Billie and Sonny meet, the sparks fly, but so do the quips. Ms. Kellyn is the Queen of Witty Banter. She’ll have you laughing out loud and blushing so hard, you’ll definitely want to move to her small, fictional Midwest town. And her secondary characters fill the pages full of small-town gossip and community. What more could you want from a rom com?

By Barbara Kellyn,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Forever Endeavor as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Inspiration walked out on bestselling romance author Billie Mustard the day her husband blindsided her with divorce papers, leaving her clouded by writer’s block and soured on happily ever after.

Time-pressed to deliver a new manuscript about everlasting love, Billie embarks on an exotic vacation to find her muse, only to be forced to detour to dinky Janus Lake, a speck on the map known for its fishing and a bizarre statue of a Roman god in the middle of town. It’s bad enough that she’s missed her flight and stranded with a useless suitcase of beachwear, but now she…


Book cover of Cowboy, Take Me Home

Greta Rose West Why did I love this book?

Pippa is so down on her luck, she can’t see up. What better way to turn it all around than to return to the small western town of Cabrillo where she and her sisters were happy when they were little girls. Unfortunately, the house her aunt left her seems to have been claimed by the grumpy cowboy next door, who’s aptly named Bear. Attraction grows while Pippa and Bear try to come to an agreement about the house. Their families have something to say about it, though, and therein lies the conflict. With her descriptive writing, Ms. Turner has the ability to take me home, and there’s nowhere else I’d rather be.

By Genevieve Turner,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Cowboy, Take Me Home as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A down-on-her-luck woman finds her perfect home—but a surly cowboy claims it’s already his!

She has one last chance to turn her luck around…

Pippa is homeless, jobless, and dead broke. Her last chance for salvation may be in her late aunt’s dilapidated house. One tiny problem… she’s got Bear trouble.

Bear’s had his eyes on the old Crivelli eyesore for years, and now that he’s bought it, he’s determined to tear it down. All is well… until a sassy, sexy woman rolls into town and claims the building for herself.

The house is a death trap, but Pippa’s determined…


Book cover of Big Bad Cowboy

Greta Rose West Why did I love this book?

Small-town Texas cowboys with some Little Red Riding Hood mixed in? Yep. So good! The book starts off with steam, then moves on to laughs, but the real story is in the love. Travis and Maggie don’t feel it at first, and Travis has his nephew to think about when he comes home to his family’s ranch to provide a home for Henry, but times are hard. Travis tries to pick up work, but stubborn Maggie is always in his way. Big Verde, Texas is a small bluebell town filled with the loveliest secondary characters since Jan Karon’s At Home in Mitford. A menagerie of quirky side characters rounds this read out perfectly.

By Carly Bloom,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Big Bad Cowboy as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Travis Blake had dreams that stretched beyond Big Verde, Texas. He never planned on running his family ranch or becoming a father, but when his little brother gets into trouble, Travis must return home to pick up the pieces. With the ranch struggling, this big, bad cowboy needs all the extra income he can get. But he never expected to compete for a big job with the irresistible woman he shared a steamy, unforgettable, no-strings Halloween fling with. Trouble is she has no idea it was him...

Maggie Mackey needs this job and she knows she can do it better…


Book cover of Breaking Him

Greta Rose West Why did I love this book?

This book broke me! Eli, a big, silent cowboy, and Abigail, a determined ranch owner come together in this book in explosive ways. The steam knocked my socks off, and I could picture the dusty ranch and barn set in Deep River, Montana so easily from the author’s descriptions. The love story is intense, filled with angst and a little bit of kink. Breaking Him is a book I will remember for a long time to come.

By Sherilee Gray,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Breaking Him as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Folks in town call him a monster—say he’s dangerous. But I know him simply as Elijah Hays, the quiet, gentle giant who works with the horses on my ranch. I can feel him watching me, that steady intense gaze making me crave things I don’t quite understand, burn in a way that frightens me. He’s always kept his distance…until that night.

I remember him coming to my rescue, me following him into the barn, giving him his first taste of a woman, and his inexperienced yet barely reined touch turning me to ash.

Now all I can think about is…


Book cover of Accounting for Love

Greta Rose West Why did I love this book?

Stetson and Jennifer = Grumpy and Sunshine. There’s a forced proximity vibe but this small town ain’t big enough for the both of them! This book has laughs, a feisty housekeeper who puts grumpy Stetson in his place, and the descriptions of Long Valley are beautiful. It’s the first in a multi-book series with more than one spin-off series, so when you finish Accounting for Love, you’ll have plenty more to read from Long Valley.

By Erin Wright,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Accounting for Love as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Enjoy this steamy cowboy series by USA Today Bestselling small-town romance author Erin Wright…

He’s a farmer, dammit, not a bookkeeper…
When cowboy Stetson Miller inherits his father’s farm in small-town Idaho, he’s too focused on crops and yields to pay attention to the financial side of things.
The next thing he knows, he’s got a stack of unpaid bills, the bank is threatening to foreclose…and the auditor who’s come to examine his accounts is the sexiest thing he’s ever laid eyes on.
But she’s a city girl, just like the last one who left him at the altar. He'll…


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Return to Hope Creek

By Alyssa J. Montgomery,

Book cover of Return to Hope Creek

Alyssa J. Montgomery Author Of A Spanish Seduction

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m an Australian USA Today bestselling romance author who writes contemporary romance and uses the pen name Alyssa James to write medieval romance. I think the makeover trope resonates with me because although I’m no beauty queen now, I was definitely an ugly duckling in my teens. For reasons best known to him, my father insisted on close-cropped hair, and financial circumstances dictated out-of-style hand-me-down clothing. After university, I found my own style, but it wasn’t until I was accepted as an international flight attendant that I believed that I couldn’t be all that ugly if Qantas employed me!

Alyssa's book list on makeover romances

What is my book about?

Return to Hope Creek is a second-chance rural romance set in Australia.

Stella Simpson's career and engagement are over. She returns to the rural community of Hope Creek to heal, unaware her high school and college sweetheart, Mitchell Scott, has also moved back to town to do some healing of his own.

Mitchell, a former NFL quarterback, doesn't need the complication of encountering Stella again so long after the messy end to their relationship, but as each tries to build a new life, they are drawn together and find their chemistry is just as strong as ever.

Will their love…

Return to Hope Creek

By Alyssa J. Montgomery,

What is this book about?

When two old flames come back to their home town, sparks are bound to ignite. A rural romance from USA Today bestselling author Alyssa J. Montgomery.


A horrific car accident ended former world number-one Stella Simpson’s tennis career, and a betrayal ended her relationship with her fiancé/coach. When a family friend offers to sell her half of a property in the rural community where she grew up, it seems like the perfect place to escape, heal and begin the next phase of her life. Until she discovers that the man who broke her heart ten years ago has bought the…


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