Being a small town girl myself, I’m drawn to small town or rural settings in novels. Whether there’s romance or not, I like the small town dynamics which sometimes includes a supporting cast of loveable, heart-warming, and quirky characters.

You can have New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago. I’ll head over to (fictional) Mulberry Hollow, North Carolina, or to Maycomb, Alabama (Monroeville in real life), or . . .  to Banister Falls, Wisconsin. 

The Dandelion Field is book #1 of the Banister Falls series by Kathryn Springer. I had the good fortune to meet Kathryn at a Wisconsin women writers retreat last year. Meeting the author is a good incentive for reading her books. When I asked for her recommendation of a good starting place in her lineup of books, she said The Dandelion Field (see the Q & A below about that). 

Here’s a smattering of small town/rural novels I’ve featured on the blog. (The date refers to the blog post.)

Southern Fiction, either contemporary or historical

• A Piece of the Moon— Chris Fabry (January 4, 2022) — Set in 1983, these folks at a West Virginia radio station are like family to each other.
• Mulberry Hollow — Denise Hunter (August 23, 2022)— A standalone romance, Book 2 of the Riverbend Romance series is set near the Appalachian Trail in North Carolina.
• The Finder of Forgotten Things — Sarah Loudin Thomas (March 2022) — A middle-aged teacher, a middle-aged post-mistress, and a dowser on the run comprise this tale surrounding the Hawks Nest Tunnel disaster in 1930s West Virginia.
• The Right Kind of Fool — Sarah Loudin Thomas (March 28, 2023) — A thirteen-year-old deaf mute boy is the only witness to a murder in West Virginia, 1934.
• The Moonlight School — Suzanne Woods Fisher (August 16, 2022) — Based on the true story of educator Cora Wilson Stewart who brought literacy to Rowan County, Kentucky in the early 1900s. From the perspective of a fictional cousin.
• Night Bird Calling — Cathy Gohlke (April 25, 2023) — Lilliana moves south to North Carolina to escape her abusive husband only to find herself in the throes of racism.
• Almost Home —Valerie Fraser Luesse (June 6, 2023) — A World War II novel set in a small town in Alabama, USA. Unemployed folks leave home to find work and end up at Si and Dolly’s boardinghouse. New friendships are forged among the fallout of war and a hundred-year-old mystery.

Southern Fiction — Dual timeline

• Under a Cloudless Sky — Chris Fabry (January 11, 2022) — A West Virginia coal-mining town is the backdrop for these 1933 and 2004 events: a massacre, exploitation, employers vs employees, family legacies, and a feisty, old woman who’s bound and determined to barrel forward on her own terms, despite her kids’ protests. 
• Secret Keepers of the Old Depot Grocery — Amanda Cox (April 5, 2022) — This tale encompasses three generations of women from the 1960s – 1980s and present day. They work in the Old Depot Grocery, a family-owned business in Brighton, Tennessee.
• Appalachian Song — Michelle Shocklee — 1943 & 1973. Bertie, an old midwife, takes in an injured pregnant teenager. Thirty years later, Walker Wylie learns he was adopted and goes searching for answers with the help of Reese, an adoption advocate.  (affiliate link)

Small town or rural Wisconsin Settings:

• A Murder of Crows — Anita Klumpers (August 30, 2022) — Contemporary romantic suspense. After witnessing a murder, Paulina Duncan is on the run and seeks safety hundreds of miles away in a small Wisconsin town.
• The House on Foster Hill — Jaime Jo Wright (Nov 8, 2022) — In Wisconsin, Kaine purchases a  house shrouded in secrets, mystery, and danger.
• Afraid of the Light — Cynthia Ruchti (Feb 8, 2022) — Beautiful prose offers a sensitive treatment of mental illness and those who hoard. Written from a counselor’s point of view, set in Wisconsin.
• As Waters Gone By — Cynthia Ruchti — Women’s contemporary — A woman whose husband is in prison for five years tries to rehab her life and marriage while rehabbing an old cottage they’d bought on remote Madeline Island in the Apostle Islands of Wisconsin. (Affiliate link)
•  Polly— Naomi Musch — Historical romance — First in the Apron Strings series surrounding a cookbook through the decades. Polly starts it off in the early 1920s, shortly after the Great War. Heartbroken Polly runs a tearoom in a small northern Wisconsin town and runs into competition practically next door.

Small town settings in Michigan or Minnesota:

• The Nature of Small Birds — Susie Finkbeiner (Nov 16, 2021) — A triple timeline: 1975, 1988, and 2013 in Michigan. Three family members’ perspectives reveal the heart of adoption and how it impacts them over the years.
• The All-American — Susie Finkbeiner (Nov 7, 2023) — In 1952 in Michigan, during the Red Scare, sisters Bertha (16) and Flossie (11) follow their respective pursuits of women’s baseball and literature. But life is upended when their author father is accused of being a Communist.
• All That We Carried — Erin Bartels (June 7, 2022) — Take a vicarious hike in Upper Michigan with two sisters and their baggage—both literal and figurative baggage.
• The Girls Who Could Breathe Underwater — Erin Bartels (July 5, 2022) — A sensitive treatment of a young woman finally facing the abuse she experienced as a teen, set in Michigan’s North Woods. 
• The Bookshop of Secrets — Mollie Rushmeyer (May 9, 2023) — Hope is running from a tragic past while seeking her mother’s books that will offer clues to a family treasure. The bookshop is set in a small Minnesota town on the shore of Lake Superior.
• Things We Didn’t Say — Amy Lynn Green (January 18, 2023) — On the home front at a POW camp in Minnesota, American Johanna Berglund works as a translator and gets accused of treason. An epistolary novel.

Blurb

This handsome firefighter makes a living coming to the rescue, but Gin doesn’t need a man to fight her battles.

After Raine’s dad walked out, Ginevieve Lightly  never lived in one place too long, a rambling lifestyle that defined her daughter’s youth. When their car dies in Banister Falls, Wisconsin, Gin promises Raine they can stay until she finishes her senior year of high school. Gin will do anything to make sure her daughter has a bright future . . . a future that’s compromised when Raine reveals she’s pregnant.  

Dan Moretti has only ever called Banister Falls home. After losing his best friend in a tragic accident, Dan devoted himself to responding to fires, rescuing the helpless, and guiding Cody Bennett, his best friend’s son, through life. With Cody being the epitome of the good kid, it was an easy job. Until he says four little words: “The baby is mine.”

Knowing gossip of Raine’s pregnancy will erupt sooner or later in the small town, Gin’s reflex is to grab the suitcase and escape to a new city, a new life. But with each passing day, Gin’s feet stay rooted in Banister Falls, and she falls a little more for this local firefighter who shows her not all men abandon women at the first sign of smoke. 

As Gin and Dan do the best they can to guide the two teenagers through their early entry into adulthood, they discover together that romance can bloom in the rockiest of situations. And God can turn the pieces of a broken past into a beautiful new beginning.

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My thoughts

Besides the vivid scenes, relatable characters, strong dialog, and story flow, Kathryn Springer’s writing style compelled me. 

I love the premise of this story, told from the point of view of teenager Raine, her mother Gin (Genevieve), and firefighter Dan. Dan is swoon-worthy for sure. Given the precarious situation they find themselves in, the characters have believable interactions, beginning with raw emotions, then gradually morphing into understanding and acceptance.

Having been abandoned by her own father, Raine’s father, and other men, Gin has had serious trust issues since childhood. No wonder she always keeps a packed suitcase in the closet. Moving yearly offered an escape and a sense of safety from growing too close to people, but it also prevented Raine from having any stability or sense of home throughout her childhood. 

Though Dan has been a father figure to Cody for twelve years, he refuses to take sides and is caught in the middle between Gin and Evie when their kids have to weather a crisis of their own making.

I can see why Gin starts to fall for Dan even though she’s very guarded and suspicious. She works at a local diner that’s more of a dive, but Dan starts showing up there and brings other fire fighters too. He’s helpful and protective. 

It’s shocking when a good kid does a bad thing. But watching how Cody responds afterward reveals his true character and priorities.

Honestly, I didn’t like Evie at first. But when I figured out how similar I was to her, I was duly chastised (by myself) for such quick judgements, and for her hasty, inaccurate  assessments of Gin and Raine. How quick we can be to judge anyone who—in our estimation—is unworthy of grace, when, in fact, we’re all unworthy.

But the strength and beauty of this story is the way the author draws you into Gin’s world and perspective. I have little in common with her except we’ve both have teenage girls. But becoming immersed in her life and pain, I empathized and eventually understood her decisions. I was rooting for her.

The story is unpredictable, and could have gone multiple ways. There’s a lot of talk about what Cody and Raine will do about the baby and their future and how they arrive at their decisions.

The characters are well drawn and fitting, considering their backgrounds. But sometimes I wondered why Dan was drawn to Gin, other than for her looks. They have nothing in common beyond their love for the two teens in trouble. I wish they had talked through more issues beyond one or two conversations about their past and how to help Raine and Cody. 

I was frustrated when some scenes ended abruptly and were merely summarized or referred to later instead of being played out. That’s because I was heavily invested in the characters and wanted to experience life beside them.

Despite the teen pregnancy, this is a clean read. A strong faith thread comes through without heavy-handedness, showing itself through themes of judgement, grace, and empathy. This is a tender, redemptive story.

Join me for some Q & A with Kathryn Springer.

Questions about The Dandelion Field

What was your inspiration for writing this story? Do you have a personal connection to the setting or situation?

Kathryn: I love stories that have depth and complex characters. Family, faith, and friendship mean a lot to me and I try to incorporate all of those things in the books I write.

How did you decide on the characters and situations of your heroine Gin and hero Dan?

Kathryn: Ginevieve Lightly had a personality of her own from the get-go! She had to be feisty to raise Raine on her own. She doesn’t trust anyone, but Dan is so different from the men she’s known that she can’t help but be drawn to him. She needed someone steady and kind, but also stubborn enough not to let her scare him away.

How well did you know Gin, Dan, Raine, and Cody when you started out? Did any of them hijack the story or did you have full rein?

Kathryn: I am more of a write-by-the-seat-of-my-pants girl than a plotter, so I didn’t know any of them very well when I started Chapter One. As I got to know their characters, they kind of took over the story and most of the time it felt like I was taking dictation!

Just for fun—what would Gin and Raine have to say about you?

Kathryn: No one has ever asked me this before! I hope they would say that I was one of the people who made them feel at home in Banister Falls😊

What was your biggest challenge in writing this story? How do you want it to resonate with readers?

Kathryn: My biggest challenge was writing from Raine’s point of view. To go back in time and look at the world from an eighteen-year-old’s perspective was harder than I thought it would be.

Another challenge was writing multiple POVs. All my books prior to DF were written in the hero and heroine’s POVs only. Keeping the flow and tension right, making sure everyone had equal “time” and everything was balanced was something I hadn’t tackled before, but I felt that we really needed to see what was going on in Raine’s head.

As far as resonating with readers, I hope it encourages them to have compassion for the “outsiders” in the world. It’s easy to make assumptions about people without knowing anything about their background or what they’ve gone through.

What’s the most unusual thing you had to do or research to create this story?

Kathryn: Dan’s career as a firefighter. I toured our local department, asked a lot of questions, and came home with a new appreciation for the people who serve their communities in this way.

Questions about writing

Which books and/or authors have most inspired you in your writing journey?

Kathryn: Any time I read a book that I hug when I get to the end (I can’t be the only one who does this!) is one that has inspired me and ends up on my keeper shelf.

As far as authors who’ve inspired me to write well, I’ve learned a lot from Karen Ball, Susan May Warren, and James Scott Bell.

Where do your story ideas usually originate from—character, plot, setting, theme, or a combination? Share examples of how a story grew from an initial idea, and whether you’re an outliner or a panster.

Kathryn: Most of my story ideas originate from a combination of those things but I write character-driven stories. It’s important that my characters are so real and relatable that the reader wants to hang out with them even when they’re drinking a cup of coffee!

A lot of my stories spring from the question, “What if. . .”

The Dandelion Field was different because a scene popped into my head when I was writing one day—only the characters weren’t in the book I was working on at the time! There was a redhaired woman standing next to a broken-down car and a teenage girl sitting on the trunk. I had no idea who they were!

Writers can’t ignore these things, though, so I started asking the “what if” questions and took notes. A few years later, I finally started writing their story.

It was supposed to be women’s fiction, more about the friendship that developed between Gin and Evie, Cody’s mom. Somehow, it turned into a romance, though, because I couldn’t help myself!

Out of all the books you’ve written, why did you name The Dandelion Field (2015) as the best introduction to you and your novels?

Kathryn: I love the characters. They are funny and flawed and real and I was cheering for them the whole time. I want readers to cheer for them, too. I want everyone who reads this book to want to linger in Banister Falls and eat at My Place and hang out with the Moretti family. I want them to hug the book when it ends because they just made some new friends.

What’s happening in my world right now? The release date for my Love Inspired Trade, Christmas at Spruce Hill Farm, is October 24^th, so I’m excited to share that story with readers. One of the main characters is a romance novelist, so it was a lot of fun to write!

I’m also working on a new series for Love Inspired that takes place at a summer camp. The first book, The Secret She Kept, will be coming out next April.

What writing advice do you wish you’d known 20 years ago?

Kathryn: This is a great question because my debut novel was released twenty years ago! I wish someone would have told me to keep up with changes in technology. I still have to ask my adult kids to explain things to me once in a while!

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Back to Laura . . . On a similar note . . . 

If you like small town Midwest fiction, you might enjoy my novel, A Hundred Magical Reasons. This story spotlights L. Frank Baum, author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, his friendship with a young girl, and his impact through the decades. Set in Holland, Michigan, this pre-published novel alternates between 1980 and the early 1900s. Read more and watch the book trailer here. The story won a Scrivenings Press novel contest last fall and will be published by them in January 2025!

If you like small town stories about family dynamics and secrets, you might enjoy my re-launched novel All That Is Hidden. Set near North Carolina’s Smoky Mountains in 1968, the story spotlights the bond of family and the connections of a tight-knit community. Northern exploitation threatens as a father’s hidden past catches up to him and tests family ties. Learn more and watch the trailer here.

All That Is Hidden awards:

• Winner of the Artisan Book Reviews Book Excellence Award
• Semifinalist in Serious Writer’s Book of the Decade contest

I invite you to join my monthly newsletter for writing updates, freebies, and giveaways. Sign up and I’ll send you a free gift: www.StandoutStoriesNewsletter.com

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Kathryn Springer Bio

Kathryn Springer, winner of the 2009 ACFW Carol Award (Family Treasures), grew up in a small town in northern Wisconsin. Author of over thirty novels, she lives on a lake in northern Wisconsin and enjoys long walks in the woods and the change of seasons. When not at the computer, she’s spending time with family and friends, paging through cooking magazines, or sitting in the sun. A really, really good day includes all three! If you want to know more, follow her blog Table Grace—thoughts and musings on living a life with nothing artificial added. Learn more on her website. 

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Join me next time for a visit with author Barbara Britton.

Meanwhile, have you read The Dandelion Field or any others by Kathryn Springer? Do you gravitate to small town settings? Answer in the comments below.

Ever reading,

Laura

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