Romance Recs

Small Town Romance

• Jordan & Devonnie • Season 2 • Episode 17

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This week Devonnie and Jordan discuss small town romance recommendations. Small town is a subgenre of romance where the town plays a significant role in the story. Think nosy neighbors, town gossips, and local wildlife that terrorize the locals. You'll find everything from sweet connections to bully romance in these recs. 

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Devonnie:

Welcome to Romance Recs where book besties explore the world of romance novels and encourage you to expand your TBR. Join us as we dive into the hottest releases and hidden gems of the genre. You can find us on Instagram and threads at romancewreckspod. Hey guys, welcome back. This is Dev. Hey. Okay. So I'm a little in between books right now, but I have a advanced listening copy of needy little things by chanel Desamores. Desamore? That's what I'm going to be listening to. You're welcome.

Jordan:

Hello, Jordan here. And I am currently listening to A Tropical Rebel Gets the Duke by Adriana Herrera. So buckle up for some bookish banter because today it's just us. It's Dev and Jordan. We're here. We're gonna have some fun.

Devonnie:

Yes. We're going to talk, be talking about all things, small town romance, and this is not Christina's favorite subject. So she skipped out on this one. I don't blame her because we do not yuck each other's yum. So if she's not feeling it, she doesn't have to show up and that's her business. Yeah, I love that for her. Put your foot down.

Jordan:

Uh, she was not having it. She's you know what? This is my hard line. This is my trigger. Small towns. And that's fine.

Devonnie:

because when I want to do an episode that is straight pregnancy trope, Jordan's probably going to bow out.

Jordan:

I have one. I have one rec. But,

Devonnie:

We celebrate each other's book likes and dislikes and they're all Okay with us. I don't have a quote today, but I do want to have a rant, a little bit of a rant with you guys about my own tunnel vision. Y'all know I love me black authors down. I love the black girlies who are writing the books down. They are my people. I love that. Quite literally my people. Let me stop. But I,

Jordan:

allowed to say those things. Will not be saying it in that way. Thank you. Yes.

Devonnie:

Yeah. So I celebrate, I love seeing when black women release books and everything. But when I was looking for the recs, cause I read a lot of contemporary romance, I have a good selection that I can just pluck a couple of small town romances from. And. I was like, where are the black girlies in the small town romance? And I was becoming more livid as I scrolled through the Rolodex of my past reads, looking for the black girlies who write small town romance. And my first thought could have been, the black girlies are not writing small town romance. And that's a lie because it is my job to go find them. And so I did so I've yeah. So if you think there's a space where you're not seeing people, they're probably there. You just can't see them. They're not being blown up or talked about as much. So we got to celebrate them as well. So I have a couple of honorable mentions of black authors that I've. Looked up a couple of their books. I've read some of the like plots for a few and they do fit the small town vibe. Now, some of these authors have other books as well that are not small town, but some people, if you're looking for reading black women who are out there writing, we've got Brittany Cherry. We've got Lauren Lacey, Mimi Grace, Z Renee. One author I'm actually going to mention today, uh, Zia. Kaylee Galan, I hope I'm pronouncing her name correctly, but she has a series that is very small town. It is so cute. I'm going to talk about that later. Uh, but yeah, the black girlies are out here writing small town romance. If you were concerned, they are, you just got to find them and let's celebrate them when you do. So that's my rant rave for the small town episode.

Jordan:

I love that. I think I'm gonna, I'm gonna take a page out of your book, and I'm gonna do just a little rave. So if you're new here, usually we do quotes at the beginning, but if we don't, aren't feeling the quotes Then we do a rant or rave. I am just really into threads right now. It really sucks that it's under the meta umbrella. I'm gonna just throw that out there. I wish it didn't, but anyways, I put out a call on my tiny little following of threads on Jordan's book banter account, and I said, this dark romance girl needs some help. I need more small town romance. recommendations. I said bonus points if it's an indie author, double bonus points if it's an audible, I said self recs welcome, and boy did I get them. they found me. So you went out and found them, I put out a call, and they found me. There were a huge diversity of indie authors too, which was So fun to find. So I'm like following everyone. I got 16 new authors to look at, all of who are indie. And each one of them had multiple books. So I'm putting together a post. If it's not already out, follow our socials on Instagram. At the very least, I'm going to have all of those that were recommended to me on there. I just love it. I just love the book community.

Devonnie:

Yeah.

Jordan:

Threads and I also, yeah, that's where I

Devonnie:

of y'all suck!

Jordan:

yeah, no, some of you guys, I most, most of my threads though are

Devonnie:

Or good. Yeah. Yeah.

Jordan:

people who follow authors, but the authors and their PAs. And it is the best world to be living in now. So, join me over there, because it's so fun.

Devonnie:

Yeah, I need to use my threads more. I'm a silent threader. I and repost, but I don't actually be saying much. So I need to use it more.

Jordan:

I'm pushing myself out of my comfort zone. And I'm pretending that this is the early days of Twitter. Back when I was just throwing shit into the void.

Devonnie:

That's

Jordan:

Yeah, that's my rave. Thank you to all you indie authors and those who recommended new indie authors. You saved me this

Devonnie:

going to share them.

Jordan:

Yeah. Definitely

Devonnie:

it off your,

Jordan:

this is more dev's comfort zone than mine.

Devonnie:

yeah, I'm not going to lie. I struggled limiting myself to the books that I wanted to recommend because I, like I said, I love reading contemporary romances and so small town tends to, I feel like when I got into the romance genre, I'm not going to lie. I cannot remember the name of the book. I can slightly remember the premise, which is kind of the premise of every book that small town romance, but it was a Harlequin book. I shouldn't have been reading it. I was probably too young to be reading it, but it was a small town. He was a cowboy. He had a ranch. She was some girl who stumbled into town and they fell in love and there was a past after her and stuff like that. So like it was very formulaic in that way, but that's what started my love. I know. I can't remember. I know there was a horse. I know somebody fell off of it. If y'all can find the book that I'm talking about, I would love you so much. But. It was a Harlequin book, and I loved it, and I think that's when I really started to love small towns. Uh, so yeah, I struggled giving you guys recs today. Recs, I'm not gonna lie, but I do have a couple.

Jordan:

Okay.

Devonnie:

So, the first one I'm gonna start with is actually the one by Zia, uh, Kaylee Galan, which is, or Galan. Saddled with Finesse. This story follows Reese and Corey in the small town of Alpenglow Ridge. You get to see Reese's character growth as she navigates the obstacles life keeps throwing at her on top of her own actions. Because, mmm, we gotta point fingers at ourselves too, babe. Uh, there's definitely found family, there's like girls, uh, there's Spice. And the spice is done so well, I think yeah, I don't I'm trying to remember if I was cringing But also so it's by a black author and the characters are black. So it was really nice to see that world and just

Jordan:

town.

Devonnie:

yeah, very it was very small town like she grew up in farming horses that kind of life and The I think what I love about this Two is that, yes, it's a small town romance, but I would edge it a little bit towards romantic suspense because there is a past and another character by the name of Teddy, I think. It's been a while since I read this book, but there's a past for Reese, who is the female main character. Right. And there's a Teddy who is an absolute asshole. You hate him every single time he's on the page. But. Yeah, so there's this romantic suspense like thriller vibe a little bit so not too much So if you're like don't take my word that it's a thriller, but there's definitely more than small town. It's not your typical small town It's not just comedic relief and happy times and like growing in love. There is this element of dark themes Definitely check your content warnings Because I feel like some of them may apply to this, which means, yeah, I guess it's a little more than a small town if I'm telling you to check your content warnings. But yeah, I really like that because it's a little different and I am trying, so, I mean, I am trying to get into my romantic suspense life. So this was a good entry into that because it was nice. I really enjoyed it. I'm not gonna lie to you about that. So yeah, that's my first wreck, I think.

Jordan:

That leads perfectly to Guilty Minds It's book two in the Little Hope series. So this was one of the recommendations I was given on threads and I believe this one someone else came in To the discussion and recommended this author in this series and then the author piped in if I'm remembering correctly but it's by Ariana Kane And I saw the tropes for all the books in the series, and I saw Bully Romance, Small Town Bully Romance, and I went, we're jumping in at book two. I am not gonna deal with these other tropes from the first one. And they are definitely interconnected, stand alones. I mean, I know the whole plot of the first book now because of how involved the characters are with each other. I didn't even care though, because it was so good. So, definitely Small Town. Enemies to Lovers, Contemporary Romance. It's set in an unforgiving small town named Little Hope. Kayla has had a crush on Justin since she was just 13 and he was 18. So just imagine like you're only 13 and you see this like hot. Older senior, like junior or senior in high school, and you're just like, Ah! And, you know, there's that infatuation. But, even as they grew older, she didn't have much hope for her chances. She's from the trailer park, and he's from the wealthy side of town. But, while he simply ignored her for most of his life, actively started to hate her when he returned home from jail a few years ago. She has

Devonnie:

Oh,

Jordan:

Justin has no idea why he hates her so much and can't keep up with the constant bullying from him and his cop of a younger brother who is abusing his power on her. She needs to find a way out of this town, but there's one complication holding her there. Justin? Can never forgive her. He knows she's to blame for everything horrible that happened on that tragic night eight years ago. He'll never forgive her. How could he when his family was ruined so thoroughly? She acts all innocent like she doesn't know just what she did to ruin him. He hates her, but He also can't keep her off his mind. When he sees just how dangerous her Jeep is getting from the neglect and old age, he can't help but rage fix it after having it impounded from all the unpaid tickets his brother keeps giving her.

Devonnie:

stop.

Jordan:

and that! Is even more unforgivable.

Devonnie:

Yeah, because he

Jordan:

Dare she. How dare she be this alluring. And how dare she drive this jeep that she can't afford to fix. And these dozens of tickets over the last two years. How dare she. She works all the

Devonnie:

so good.

Jordan:

it's Thank you, I wrote that synopsis.

Devonnie:

Really? Oh, no.

Jordan:

I wrote it. I, thank you. I feel really proud of this one.

Devonnie:

You have sold the book to me. Like, when I tell you, give it to me now. I need 14 of them. I'm ready for this small

Jordan:

Yeah,

Devonnie:

No, that was good.

Jordan:

good. Ariana let's talk

Devonnie:

Yeah.

Jordan:

this is so good. I'm

Devonnie:

Ariana!

Jordan:

book three.

Devonnie:

Right now?

Jordan:

Yeah, I'm writing big yeah, so this is coming out later. I didn't mention it earlier because yeah, I mentioned it in another episode of the Aeonic Storm episode. Uh, but it's I'm it's so good!

Devonnie:

Sounds good.

Jordan:

and you just know there's mis you just know there's a misunderstanding just

Devonnie:

Yes. Duh.

Jordan:

But like, where does that happen? And why does the town golden boy get sent to jail for

Devonnie:

Jail. That's where you had me at. Why was he in jail? Yeah. That's what I want to know. So yeah, I'm excited about

Jordan:

so good. Now there are please check trigger warnings, obviously. This is a bully romance. He is an asshole. In the beginning of the book, Ariana writes just about just so you know he's horrible. He is horrible to her. This is not supposed to be your misunderstanding or, no. He's terrorizing her. And he is the town mechanic. So like, when I say like, when he sees these things on her jeep it's so funny. He's I need to have her car impounded. How am I gonna do that? Oh, let's go. She has thousands of dollars in unpaid tickets. Let's, she can't pay that.

Devonnie:

so I can fix it. That is so funny.

Jordan:

then he has it removed from impound and we're just brought to her work and she has no idea how. So good.

Devonnie:

Good job, Ariana. That is so good. Um, from that heavy trauma

Jordan:

Yeah, you know, just normal small town.

Devonnie:

yeah, Normals Waltz out. I'm going to take us over to Spoons, Oregon,

Jordan:

Oh, I know this one!

Devonnie:

My favorite place to be. So the, I know the first book that I'm going to mention is Savor It by Tyra DeWitt. Tyra is my girl. When I tell you, I think we are besties in my head. I love the way Tyra writes. Her writing is so refreshing, so unintentionally funny, but also hilarious. And if you follow her, Yeah. If you follow her on any social media, you understand why her characters are the way they are because Tara, her posts crack me up. Her engaging with people, trolling people. She is so funny on social media. Whether you're reading her threads, please go follow her. I love following Tara. So savor it. We follow Sage and Fisher as they fall in love in the small town of Spoons, Oregon. I've, I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this book before on the podcast. So I'm just mentioning it briefly because I do want you to check that out because book two left of forever, which follows, it's an interconnected standalone book two comes out in May, I think. Either march or may it's one of the m months and it follows sage's brother ellis and her best friend ren and this is a second chance romance and tara has been leaking lines from the book and When I tell you I am like I am Foaming at the mouth to get back to spoons, because I think there's one line that Tower released recently where Ren and Ellis are divorced when you meet them and savor it, they are divorced. They're not together. They are co parenting their teenage son, Sam. There's a line in left of forever where Wren says I am so hopelessly in love with my ex husband And when I tell you the angst that must be in this book like I cannot wait and there is a line I think in savor it where Even though Ellis is like, they're not together, right? He has to care about his ex, right? But he says something like, she's still a bird. And bird is Sage and Ellis last name. B Y R D. And so he says that about Wren. And it's just so good! Also, aside from the characters, Oh, what makes a small town book is actually the town. I know you're thinking, Oh, they're just in an area where it's like not a lot of people or it's not a big city, but the town is actually a character in these books. And that's what makes it a small town romance. You walk down main street because main street is the only street there is baby. That's where everything's at, right? You walk down main street, you pass the one diner, you see the gossipy hairdresser or waitress or, you know, so

Jordan:

It's those characters. Yeah.

Devonnie:

And yeah the side characters and the town itself make the small town romances. And so like, when I tell you I'm, I want to be back in Spoons, I want to be there. I need to go see Gary. Was that the duck's name? I can't remember the duck, but yeah, I would, yeah, like in Savor It, there's a duck and I want to go back to see what Gary's been doing. So I'm really excited about Left of Forever. I needed to do that mention of that series. I do want you to read Savor It first, especially if you're listening to this right now and you're like, needing some Rex, go read, savor it. And then you'll be just in time for left of forever. And Tara's writing is just impeccable. She's going to make you cry. She's going to make you laugh and she's going to make you wish you lived in the town that she's writing about. So thank me later. Besties.

Jordan:

I love that. Love it so much. I did read Savor It over the holidays because I remembered you had recommended it. And I just was, I was, all of a sudden I needed a palette cleanser. I needed something cute. And I really didn't remember laughing so much at a book when I laughed at that one and I was so pleasantly surprised because it sounds so kitschy and cutesy, but you read it and it's The writing is amazing.

Devonnie:

she's so funny.

Jordan:

we should reach out to her because she sounds like a great person to talk to

Devonnie:

right? I think

Jordan:

hmm.

Devonnie:

All right. I really only have one more that I want to share, but I'm going to do like rapid fire. Of two one is lc silver's rose hill series. Y'all know i'm an lc silver stan I really just love her writing. I love her characters her latest. Series outside of the chestnut spring series, but it's like kind of connected to it still interconnected a little bit to that same area We're in rose hail books. One and two are already out, which are wild love and then wild eyes and then wild side comes out soon. And when I tell you, I think book three is probably going to be my favorite because it is two grumps. Two grumpy people. Uh, the premise of this book, and I know the book, I know the book isn't out yet, but I'm recommending the series as a whole so that I can get you to book three with me. Two grumpy people. She, okay. I don't even know. Start with this. Her sister dies. Okay. I'm just going to put that out there. Her sister dies. Her sister had an addiction problem and I'm, we're not sure right now. If it was due to that or something else, we're unsure, but she blames the landlord who is the guy who also happens to be, he's the male main character, but he also happens to be like a hockey player or he,

Jordan:

where are we going?

Devonnie:

right. But he's not currently he's, he has money, but I can't remember from what sport or what he was doing to get his money. And he reluctantly rents out his home to this person. And she has a kid. The kid is now under the sister's protection or whatever, but for some reason the guy is tied to the kid. It's not his kid, but I guess because while the sister was living there, he got to raise the kid and saw the kid and probably helped the sister out when she was struggling or anything. But when I tell you they're like oil and vinegar, oil and what oil and vinegar is actually pretty good oil and water. Like they

Jordan:

Vinegar is really

Devonnie:

Yeah. They do not gel together and it's, I've never. Had grumpy. I'm trying to think in all my years of reading. I haven't read grumpy small town

Jordan:

It's really interesting because I was just thinking about this a couple days ago. I was like, I just want, because I kept saying grumpy

Devonnie:

grumpy Yeah, black

Jordan:

And I'm like, I want just grumpy people. I want angry people who see each other and just let's light the world on

Devonnie:

yes, and that's what that you've seen hints of their like Interactions and book two I think but all of a sudden in book three where we're married. So I can't wait

Jordan:

Oh.

Devonnie:

They're going to kill each other and I think there's a legal reason pertaining to the kid where they had to do that. Or something for her to be able to keep her niece or nephew I think she had to do that or something. So we're going to see how that plays out. But what I tell you, I cannot wait. I

Jordan:

Maybe they're both Aries. My husband and I are both Aries and so I like live

Devonnie:

that's yeah, that's fire. So I wanted to quickfire mention that series

Jordan:

It's a march Aries and a april aries, so maybe that's their deal

Devonnie:

There it has to be something and also I don't I mean I didn't read lc's first series Off to the races or something like that I think that was I didn't write so I don't know the characters from that and if she's written a like truly grumpy character Uh yet or characters, but I know for me this will be my first experience with that because we've have had grumpy sunshine I've had grumpy and just like indifferent but like grumpy these people seem to just I don't understand how they're gonna coexist So I wanted to mention that because rose hill itself that whole town that small town again has its own presence Uh, there are other couples who are living there because it's interconnected. So it's really nice to kind of see how the town bends together And that's why we read small towns next one briefly mentioning it again, but I have mentioned it before. It's the Skyland, High Sea Skyland series. I think it's by, uh, Kennedy Ryan. You read the first one before I let go.

Jordan:

dnf'd it because

Devonnie:

And then,

Jordan:

This is so I did have to dnf it not because of any serious. I mean it was serious like

Devonnie:

Yeah. There was just

Jordan:

it was so well written, but it was some really heavy triggers for me and I was just bawling my eyes out and it kind of put me in a place that I did not want to go back to so I

Devonnie:

Yeah, and I feel that's fine. I love this series.

Jordan:

Oh, it's so wet! It's so good! It

Devonnie:

ryan's just go good with orion. Uh, the third book which is uh, one of the last characters hendrix Her book is coming out soon, and I can't wait to read it. So I wanted to

Jordan:

I'll just skip over.

Devonnie:

Hendricks book might also be super heavy but also Kennedy Ryan is a black woman So we love to see that love of black women from infinity to infinity and it's also a good series I don't know if I should classify it really and truly as a small town But because all of this is happening in like a certain radius and we're running into the same places I think that's why I'm gonna classify

Jordan:

a small community.

Devonnie:

Yeah, it's a small community So I'll toss it in there, but my final Small town rec. And I will die on this hill. Do you hear me, listener? I will die on this hill. The greatest small town recommendation I have for you.

Jordan:

Really? This is

Devonnie:

It's Ice Planet Barbarians by Ruby Dixon, and uh, I want you to be, I want you to listen to me. I know what you're thinking, Dev, there's aliens. It's sci fi. What do you mean? Let me tell you something, babe. Where are those aliens? They're on an isolated ice planet, okay? They live, one, in a cave at first, and everybody basically got their own room. Okay. Then after the cave, I'm not going to give you out too much information. Something happens to the cave. We have to leave the cave. They find a Valley where they build or finish huts that were already existing in their little Valley. They run up and down. There's always a big house where everyone hangs out. Every couple has their own little hut with their families. Babes, it is so small town and I will die on this

Jordan:

It is.

Devonnie:

just wanted barbarians. It's for the small town

Jordan:

yep. Because the environment and the town play a major

Devonnie:

Major role! Exactly. And so that is my greatest small town romance. And y'all know my Ice Planet barbarian girl. I love them. Uh,

Jordan:

Way to go. I do want to slip in another, myself, uh, another rec. I've mentioned it. I don't think I've really focused on it. I'm not going to do too much, but Trist 6 Venom by Penelope Douglas. This is a small town, in Florida. I mean it might be technically a medium town, but like the town itself and the community is so small And it's like opposing communities in the same town ship And it, it plays a major role in what happens. This is another bully romance. Heh. But this is sapphic. So it's two female main characters. And, I know. And so you get girl on girl bullying. So you get one bullying the other. Which is way harsher than any man could ever do. I mean, cause, we cut it, we can cut

Devonnie:

Women are mean, okay?

Jordan:

yeah! So, I'm just gonna put that out there really good, but I know I have given so many Penelope Douglas stuff, so Look into that if you want. I just really want to make sure that got repped.

Devonnie:

Yeah.

Jordan:

Yeah, so I'm gonna leave those at that and I'll have more on our socials, these and more, that are on our TBR. Yes, there's always more.

Devonnie:

Yes. I have so many more small town romances that I want to get to. So along with the authors that I mentioned at the beginning of the episode that you should check out, like definitely stay tuned. I'll try to inform you guys or keep you updated about the new small town romances that I come across because yeah, contemporary is just one of my favorite genres in the romance space. So I love sharing those recs with you guys.

Jordan:

And I'm a convert. I found my niche in

Devonnie:

Right, in the contemporary space, yeah, in small town, I love that. Cause they have it! They have everything for somebody, you know?

Jordan:

exactly. And if you want more small town romance, you want another episode like this, maybe you need a part two. Maybe you want us to do some more research, come back with a part two. Please let us know, send us a message. There's, where you're listening, there should be a little message you can send to us and be like, this is great, give me more Give us your feedback. Please leave us a review, leave us comments, subscribe wherever you're listening. But just thank you so much for listening to us ramble today about small town romance If you're looking for more romance recs, be sure to follow us on Instagram and threads primarily at Romance Recs Pod. You can find our favorite book recs from our episodes as well as behind the scenes content. Again, that's at Romance Recs Pod, so please be sure to give us a follow and we'll be back in two weeks with another episode. Bye.

Devonnie:

Wait, actually, what about small town romanticy? Is that a thing? But they always want to go on a

Jordan:

Oh, we could do, yeah.

Devonnie:

yeah.

Jordan:

Bye.

Devonnie:

Bye!