Akron Public Library

"Two high school sweethearts get a second chance at their perfect ending in this charming new romance by Kerry Winfrey, author of Very Sincerely Yours. Once upon a time, Sandy Macintosh thought she would have her happily ever after with her high school sweetheart, Hank Tillman. Sandy wanted to be an artist, Hank was the only boy in town who seemed destined for bigger things, and they both had dreams to escape town together. But when Sandy's plans...

"On a cold day in 1997, student Sara Morgan was killed in the woods surrounding her liberal arts college in upstate New York. Her boyfriend, Blake Campbell, confessed, his plea of temporary insanity raising more questions than it answered. In the aftermath of his acquittal, the case comes to haunt a strange and surprising network of community members, from the young woman who discovers Sara's body to the junior reporter who senses its connection to...

It's been ten years since Linwood Scott had to move back home to Mimosa Branch, Georgia, the first time. Now, with her work in real estate at a stand-still because of the economy, and her ex-husband and his alimony payments (and his former stripper-current wife) nowhere to be seen, Linwood finds herself back in the place she'd never thought she'd be-- the garage apartment next to her mother Mamie's mansion. But this time around things are different....

"It is 1952, and nearly all the girls 16-year-old Bertha Harding knows dream of getting married, keeping house, and raising children in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan. Bertha dreams of baseball. She reads every story in the sports section, she plays ball with the neighborhood boys -- she even writes letters to the pitcher for the Workington Sweet Peas, part of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. When Bertha's father is accused of...

Five friends reunite for a Fourth of July weekend after their high school basketball coach passes away; Lenny relocates his family back to the small town where he and his friends grew up.

"Minnesota, 1977. For the teens of one close-knit community, summer means late-night swimming parties at the quarry, the county fair, and venturing into the tunnels beneath the city. But for two best friends, it's not all fun and games. Heather and Brenda have a secret. Something they saw in the dark. Something they can't forget. They've decided to never tell a soul. But their vow is tested when their friend disappears--the second girl to vanish in...

"How can we uncover the truth when we keep lying to ourselves? After reckless behavior costs NYPD detective Leigh O'Donnell her job and her marriage, she returns with her four-year-old daughter to her beautiful hometown of Copper Falls, Ohio. Leigh had stayed away for more than a decade--even though her brother and a trio of loving uncles still call it home--because, while the town may seem idyllic, something rotten lies at its core. Three men in...

"Amelia and Kylee, two young sisters, were found unharmed in their upstairs bedroom the night their teenage cousin Grace, who was babysitting them, vanished from the farmhouse in rural Missouri, leaving behind evidence of a violent struggle. Grace had been on the verge of escaping their dead-end town, the first in their family to go to college instead of getting married and going to work at the meatpacking plant. Her disappearance is a warning to...

"In this novel, a young nurse forms an unlikely connection with the elderly man she cares for, and finds herself confronting the guilt she carries from her past"--

"For most of America's history, rural people and culture have been casually mocked, stereotyped, and, in general, deeply misunderstood. Now an array of short stories, poetry, graphic short stories, and personal essays, along with anecdotes from the authors' real lives, dives deep into the complexity and diversity of rural America and the people who call it home. Fifteen extraordinary authors--diverse in ethnic background, sexual orientation, geographic...