25 Best Southern Romance Novels with a Small Town Feel

Southern Charmer

Author Jessica Peterson

When Olivia feels stifled in her life, she heads down south – more specifically, Charleston, South Carolina, and one of the first people she meets is hot-and-sexy Eli. They have great chemistry, and he even invites her to his cabin for the weekend. The problem? Olivia still has a life back home, which includes a boyfriend, and she only intended this trip to be a temporary one. With her heart all a-flutter, she has to decide which man and which life she wants before she loses everything.

Southern Desire

Author Kaylee Ryan

After experiencing heartache and loss, Whitney finds herself in Kentucky and eventually finds some peace in her life. When she meets Aaron, she feels like that peace is complete, but soon the secrets she’s keeping make things complicated for the couple. Eventually, things become overwhelming for Whitney, and she pushes away from Aaron, but is it too soon to give up on their relationship, or should they both consider its demise a permanent thing?

Wish I Might

Author Kate Nolan

In a tiny town in Mississippi, Cecily is finishing up her internship and wants to be a graphic designer, and she is ready to take the next step, which means moving on to a bigger city. But she and Reed have gotten awfully close lately, and even though it is still a friendship and nothing else, Cecily volunteers for his struggling bookstore in order to explore the relationship further. If they don’t get what they’re both wanting very soon, Cecily will leave for good, so they both have to step forward and make important decisions.

Worth the Ride

Author Casey Peeler

Weston is the single father of a very precocious daughter, and when she gets older, he realizes he may need to find her a female role model to help her with things like makeup and boys. When he meets up again with a veterinarian named Timber, he is thrilled when the two girls form a bond. But soon, he is interested in Timber for many other reasons, and it isn’t long before he agrees to do anything to form a life with her.

Beneath a Southern Sky

Author Deborah Raney

Daria has just returned from a trip as a missionary, where her husband was killed in a neighboring village. After she’s back in the States, she gives birth to her daughter and tries to heal so that she can become whole again. When a vet named Colson starts paying attention to her, she feels like she can move on with him, and they get married. But later on, she discovers that her first husband is, in fact, still alive, which complicates her life in a way she never could’ve imagined.

Deceptions

Author Jeanne Hardt

Claire is living in Mobile, Alabama, after the Civil War and is trying to rebuild her life. Determined to stay single because of her mother’s experiences with men, she starts to wonder if that will work for her when she meets a doctor named Andrew, whose heart is so big that he helps anyone in need, regardless of their skin color. He eventually proposes to Claire, but she runs away after finding out she’s pregnant. With a lot of important decisions to make, Claire learns that each decision she makes directly affects other people, with both good and bad consequences.

Nemesis

Author Lisa Clark O’Neill

After Sadie’s engagement is called off, she moves into her childhood home and starts to repair both the house and her life. Her next-door neighbor is a man named Declan, who she remembers as the younger brother of one of her friends. But they are adults now, and their relationship hits a spark immediately. But soon, there is trouble in paradise, so to speak. Burglars with an agenda threaten Sadie’s life, and she soon learns there is something in her home that some people in town would kill for, including people she didn’t realize were enemies.

Southern Fried Blues

Author Jamie Farrell

Anna is divorced and has just moved to a Southern town to rebuild her life. She is underemployed and lonely, but she is determined to make a better life for herself. Jackson is a polite Southern boy who would never do a woman wrong, and when he meets Anna, he feels a spark inside that he can’t deny. They are two vulnerable souls that hit it off immediately, but will their differences bring them even closer or split them up in the end?

Southern Exposure

Author Jeannette Winters

Mark is a Navy man who takes a side job helping Hannah restore her homestead in Savannah, and at first, it is merely a business arrangement. But soon, the two take notice of one another, and Mark finds the job with a few more complications than he was prepared for. When Hannah’s life is threatened, will Mark come to her rescue, or will he do what he always does and remain emotionally detached so that his life will be less complicated?

The Southern Hero

Author Lenora Worth

Sam is on his way to his friend’s wedding in Louisiana, and when the bride’s sister, who just happens to be gorgeous, informs him he has to deliver the best man speech at the reception, he initially panics. When Madeline agrees to help him write the speech if Sam helps her irritate her ex-husband, he is reluctant at first. After all, he doesn’t like being used. But soon, this woman ignites a spark in him that he thought was long dead, leading him to think that their relationship may just last a little longer than his trip down South.

Down & Dirty

Author J.H. Croix & Ali Parker

Small towns have a way of causing even the deepest and darkest secrets to come out, as Jeremy finds out when he moves to a small town in Georgia. When his construction job leads him to a hair salon, one of the first people he meets is their new employee, Marie. Unbeknownst to Jeremy, Marie has a lot of secrets, and they are about to clash with his own secrets in a tumultuous way. Soon, they’ll have to decide whether those secrets are going to tear them apart or bring them closer together, which may be more complex than either of them thought.

Whiskey Heart

Author Caroline Tate

Riley lives in Savannah and loves her job as an interior decorator. She concentrates more on her career than anything else until a man named Cameron comes to town. He prides himself on being the town’s most eligible bachelor, but he also loves his independence and his one-night stands. When Riley finds herself attracted to this young stud, she starts to think about a more permanent relationship with him, but is that even possible given his reputation?

Hot & Handy

Author J.H. Croix & Ali Parker

Evan is a mechanic whose family’s reputation is being ruined due to an investigation of his father’s business. When single mother Sadie comes to his shop for a repair job, he is immediately smitten with the young woman. Even better, he seems to get along great with her young daughter, making him think that the three of them could possibly have a future together. But when Evan’s family problems start to intertwine with his relationship with Sadie, he has some serious decisions to make if he wants a happy ending to his story.

Leaving Carolina

Author Tamara Leigh

Piper is a successful P.R. consultant in Los Angeles, but when her uncle in her hometown in North Carolina decides to rewrite his will, she has to head back South to help. When she meets Axel, her uncle’s gardener, she is both attracted to him and curious as to why her uncle’s will is so important to him. She is also concerned that her uncle’s revisions will bring out family secrets that are better left on the back burner, making this one trip that is going to be complicated.

Southern Greed

Author Peggy Holloway

Belinda and Adam have come up with a plan to scam a woman out of a lot of money. The woman is looking for a granddaughter who disappeared when she was three years old so that she can include her in the will. Belinda jumps into action, convincing the grandmother that she is the lady’s granddaughter, Kathy. Soon, the plan works and the lawyer leaves everything in the old woman’s will to Kathy, but is that action going to make her less safe or safer in the long run?

Creole Fires

Author Kat Martin

Nicole used to be wealthy and beautiful, and now she is being auctioned off to the highest bidder. The winner ends up being a man named Alex, owner of the Belle Chene plantation and someone Nicole has been attracted to for a very long time. However, Alex has secrets about his purchase of Nicole because if he can win over her heart, his engagement to a very unpleasant woman can be cancelled. In the end, they will either be in love, or both of their lives will be ruined.

Taming Trouble

Author Jiffy Kate

Tucker is a man who has spent many years on the rock-and-roll road, boozing it up and having all the women he could want. But when he decides some R&R is needed, he heads back South to rediscover his roots and take it easy for a bit. There he meets a woman named Piper, and soon, they are in a very passionate and fun-filled relationship. However, when a blast from his past threatens everything, Tucker has some important decisions to make, and none of them are going to be easy.

Savannah Heat

Author Kat Martin

When Lady Selena – AKA Silver – is captured by bounty hunters in Georgia with the intent of returning her to the West Indies, she is determined from the very start to escape. A major named Morgan is in charge of her return, but soon the two are attracted to one another, and Silver starts to wonder if they can have a relationship together and forget about the nonsense of the task he’s been assigned to do.

Author Stephanie Bond

The Armstrong brothers are looking for women after a tornado ravages their Georgia home, so they run an ad in a newspaper up north asking them to come down South. A reporter named Alicia smells a rat, and she goes down to Georgia to prove their ad is really a scam. She starts by pretending to be interested in Marcus Armstrong, but it isn’t long before she realizes her feelings are no longer fake. How is this going to complicate the writing of her story – and her life?

Down South

Author C.M. Steele

Max is in trouble after he ends up on the side of the road because his rental car died, with no water, no cell phone reception, and no civilization in sight. He decides to start walking until he can find some help, and along the way he meets Maggie. And he meets her when he’s as close to death as he’s ever been before, but once they find out that Max is the one who is planning to buy Maggie’s family’s ranch, will their relationship thrive or dwindle down to nothing?

The Ocean Between Us

Author Michelle Heard

Emma is someone who’s suffered a lot of abuse in her lifetime, and when she decides to take life by the horns and go overseas for a bit, a detective named Aiden is there to help her along her journey. But then the unexpected happens, and she has to return home. But how is someone who’s tasted life going to go back to the dull routine she had before? And how will the love affair she started ever start up again when she and Aiden are separated?

Mended

Author Kayla Marie

Ashley feels that her heart belongs in the past because her husband is gone and she hasn’t recovered from his death. To make matters worse, her son is now getting into trouble with the law. So, she takes her family and moves to a small town in Alabama where they can start over again. There she meets Wade, a contractor with demons buried inside and feelings of guilt over his brother’s prison sentence. Can two people who feel they are stuck in an emotional rut ever move forward with their lives and find the happiness they both deserve?

You Were Meant for Me

Author Kait Nolan

Tess and a Scotsman named Mitch have a fun, passion-filled tryst that turns into a short-term affair, but unbeknownst to Tess, Mitch is actually a Southern boy. Just when their relationship starts to fade, Tess disappears, thinking she’ll never see Mitch again. But she’s wrong. Before she knows it, she’s at a family dinner, and her new stepmother’s family just happens to include Mitch. How are they now related? It doesn’t matter, because once they rediscover one another, things start to heat up again quickly.

Author Robin Covington

Beck is an ER doctor trying to fight against the mounds of paperwork that is always a part of his job, and Ginger is his new boss. Although they are attracted to one another, they both deny the attraction, in part because Beck has secrets that he feels will ruin any chance they have of being together. For now, at least, it is best if Ginger thinks that Beck isn’t interested in her, and their constant fighting helps as well because it stalls any relationship they may have together.

Love at the Marsh

Author Hope Denney

Return to Century Grove for a variety of stories that you’ll thoroughly enjoy. There’s Somerset and Sawyer, who return to enjoy some down time before Somerset starts medical school. There’s Myra, who’s led a privileged life until a tragedy makes her question who she really is, and there’s Joseph and Ivy, living at their beloved Orchard Rest plantation. When an unknown person seems to be set on revenge in this small Southern town, you can expect for many lives to be turned upside down.