Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an early review copy.

Virginia, who is 27 year old, is running away to start a new life, everything she owns is in a backpack. Fortune Springs Improvement Initiative sounds like just the break she needs, a town with too many men and due to which,
they are offering women a place to live and to work there for 12 months, so that they can build up the female population.

But Virginia doesn’t want to stay past 12 months, all she wants is to break away from her abusive ex, a chance to start a fresh.

An easy read but not one I particularly enjoyed. I was ready for something light but found this a little too predictable. The characters were likeable and the idea of a town advertising for women (this is not a plot spoiler as it’s right at the start) was promising but where were the other applicants or was there only one? Surely this could have be3n an interesting plot addition.

This is my first book by this author so wasn't sure what to expect. I've never read any Debbie Macomber or Robyn Carr so was a bit clueless.
This is a light read which whilst it does cover domestic violence does sort of skirt over the issue - there are plenty of other books to read if you want to delve into that subject matter further.
Fortune Springs sounds like a film set - all a bit too perfect like in a US television series. The Bride House was a bit of a strange concept too - to apply to become a resident for a year before carrying on with your life. But I can see why it appealed to Virginia.
If this was a mystery then it would be classed as a cosy mystery but sometimes what you need is a light heartwarming book to take your mind off what is going on around you.
But saying that I do like a happy ending but this book seems a little unfinished. We cannot have Virginia and Owen sailing off into the sunset together. We need to know more. Maybe this is the first book in a series.
Would I read more from this author. Yes I think I would - the covers of her other books look gorgeous.

Virginia is desperate to make an escape, either from something or someone, so when she spots an advert for a small village that is looking for women, offering them a home and jobs to boot she is overjoyed and finds herself boarding the three day greyhound to take her there.

When Virginia arrives, she realises just how small this village actually is. As she tries to adapt to her new life here, she finds herself continuously crossing the path of the rather aggravated fire chief, who is massively opposed to this initiative that has been imposed upon them, believing that the village could have used the funds somewhere else. She finds herself living with an old lady and her granddaughter Willow, and feels rather fortunate in doing so.

Virginia is such a well structured, layered character who has a lot to add to this wonderful story. As we are made aware from the beginning that she is holding on to a secret, I couldn’t help but spend many hours pondering as to what she might be hiding, and why.

I loved the relationships that Virginia formed as this story progressed. The bond in which she formed with Willow was truly heart warming, and added a new depth to the book. They way they learnt to support one another through their difficulties was fantastic, and really allowed you to see another side to Virginia’s character.

This book is beautifully written, full of intriguing characters and drama throughout. I adored the love story that blossomed between Virginia and Owen, and the way that Virginia grew as an individual as the story progressed. The storyline itself was unique and enchanting, really drawing you in to the lives of the characters as well as the world that the author so brilliantly brings to life. A truly enjoyable read. I can’t wait for future releases by this author!.

<b>women needed for the Fortune Springs Town Improvement Initiative. One year’s room and board provided.”</b>

Any takers? Virginia is desperate to escape her life so when she sees this ad for A small town needing more women she jumped at the chance. Hops on a Greyhound. with everything she owns in her backpack. When she first reaches the town she runs into firefighter Owen who is less than pleased about this ad campaign drawing women to the town. Lucky for Virginia not all the town feels this way and she is welcomed with open arms by Calla Who is in charge of the women during their first year in town. What follows is a sweet occasionally emotional romance with a hint of mystery.

This was such a sweet somewhat predictable story that made me smile. Virginia was a great character and I really wanted her to find her forever home and her happily ever after. Cala was a great character and I loved the relationship that grew between Virginia and her as well as the relationship between Virginia and Willow. Now Owen was quite frustrating at times although just as he did Virginia he grew on me throughout the course of the story. When you’re in the mood for a delightful story to escape into this is the perfect read.

*** Big thank you to Bookouture for my gifted copy of this book. All opinions are my own. ***

A small town is looking for women offering them money jobs and a home for a year. Virginia is running from something or someone so when she finds this add she's on the 3 day greyhound to get there. The town is small and she keeps bumping into the angry fire chief who is completely opposed to the initiative and believes the funds could be spent better somewhere else. Virginia settled into town life living with an old lady and her grand daughter willow.

I must say this is an extremely easy read and take little effort to follow the plot. Is this a predictable chic click, yes! But did I hate it no!

Virginia as the protagonist might had been a bad choice I didn't connect with her like the other characters it would of been great to break up her thoughts by adding Owen or even Willow as an occasional narrator but I see what the author was doing by giving is Virginia.

To begin I found myself what is her big secret and concocted loads of responses, turns out the first guess was correct so the big showdown at the end wasn't a complete surprise.

The relationships that Virginia manages to build throughout the book are so well written esp. her relationship with Willow. I loved to see how she manages to realise that her lack of fight isn't necessary the best advice for a teen who is struggling herself. I really loved the two of them. Almost more than the love interest Owen, although he is a hunky fire chief so I wasn't offended every time he happened to grace us with his presence.

This book handles well the idea of running but having your trauma for company. It also talks about standing up for yourself and remember that your voice matters just as much and this was achieved

Would I recommend this book? Sure as long as you know going on its a predictable in its build up but it plays out well. It's a nice romance book with a great almost coming of age storyline. 3 stars 🌟

Thank you netgalley, the publishers and author for the digital ARC in exchange for my fair and honest review.

I thought of all the romance novels I had read about the mail-order brides that went out to the Wild West, when there was a shortage of women. But while the premise about the need for women in Fortune Springs Town is similar, there was no one bride for one prospective groom.

27-year-old Virginia Bessel has other plans though. She wants to use this opportunity to escape her present life. As soon as the year is up, she plans to move to California with a nest egg. What she didn’t bargain for were the lovely people of Fortune Springs who made her feel so welcomed and accepted.

As with all of Alys’ books, the characters are so endearing. She also has a gift of creating the feeling of family and warm community that make her stories uplifting and heartwarming.

I absolutely loved Small Town Secrets and would recommend it as a quick paced and feel-good read.

Emotionally Driven Drama....
Will Fortune Springs bring much needed changes for Victoria? Emotionally driven family drama with a small town setting, a good sense of place, a well drawn cast of characters and an interesting plot line with some gaps that would have added to storyline. An enjoyable read.

This is my first Alys Murray book and I enjoyed it.

It's an easy read that will keep you turning the pages until the end.

Virgina is well drawn out and her character is enjoyable. I loved Calla the owner of the Bride house. She was very kind hearted to Virginia and knowledgeable.

It is a very light hearted and fun read and i will be reading more from this author.

This is a new author for me. I thought Small Town Secrets would be more a romantic novel which isn’t really my thing so I was apprehensive about reading it. Thankfully, my fears were quashed as soon as I started to read the book. There are some romance elements but these are not the main plot and just an events that occurs over the course of the book. I’m from a small town and have a soft spot for books set in small towns. The author does a good job bringing small towns to life. Things are different than in cities. This is a book about fleeing an unhappy life and looking for somewhere quieter to breathe before making important life changes. I fell in love with the town and characters. I had such pleasure reading this. The books gets quite dark towards the end but not OTT or anything.

Small Town Secrets is a unique and captivating drama charting the evolution of a woman from a broken to strong individual, which really, at its heart, is a romance novel, set in the fictional town of Fortune Springs, Colorado. The book opens with an advertisement on WKTV on February 19 about the Fortune Springs Settlement Initiative, which had just launched. After a recent census determined that their female population was well below fifty per cent, they decided to offer jobs, funding and housing to any women interested in moving to their town and bringing gender parity back to their community. But applications would only be open for a week. It manages to attract the attention of 27-year-old Virginia Bessel who although had missed the applications deadline, which was a month ago, was so desperate to get away from her life in Savannah, Georgia, she sets off on a Greyhound bus towards Fortune Springs hoping that her late application would still be accepted. It's an almost three-day journey but she feels it'll be worth it with the beauty, tranquillity and rustic decadence promised by the Settlement Fund brochure. Her ex-boyfriend Porter Zachariah Hampton the Third, who she met and shared a kiss with aged 12 and then ran into again at a fundraiser when she was working as a caterer and in grad school, is who she's running from. The abuse suffered at his hands is one of the reasons she wants to start over so badly; he became controlling, making her drop her Master's degree she had worked so hard for and forcing her to stop eating certain foods so she looked better on his arm. But then it escalated even further and he hit her for the very first time. And it was that evening she found out about The Bride House and the scheme. She had left while he was at work and threw the only thing that he could possibly trace, her mobile phone, in a bin in Tupelo, Mississippi.

Everything she owned was now contained in her backpack. The idea of the initiative was to select a few young women every year to come to their town, live in one of their houses with free full room and board, a job or a small business loan and a living stipend, and get paid to (hopefully) stick around and start businesses or families. Virginia planned to escape to California once the year was up, begin anew with her funds and live her dream life by the coast. Arriving in the centre of town she asks Owen Harris, the tall, handsome guy wearing a too-tight Fortune Springs Fire Department T-shirt wrapped around his muscles, where Harbin House, aka The Bride House, was. She made haste and followed his directions where she meets Calla Holtzman, a lady in her mid-sixties who was the program’s chaperone and in charge of making sure the women who applied were well looked after. Luckily, she is given a room. Virginia and Owen initially aren't fond of one another but soon their chemistry becomes sizzling. And when her past comes back to haunt her, Owen is there to protect her. But how will life turn out for Virginia when she finds true friends and real love in this quaint town? This is a captivating and absorbing love story with both uplifting and heartwarming parts and sad, unsettling parts. It doesn't shy away from addressing serious topics. The characters, in particular Virginia, Owen and Calla, are nicely developed and the surprises along the way as the story progressed were well executed. I must admit, I got this believing it to be more of a thriller or family drama and whilst there is plenty of drama this is much more of a romance novel. It's a testament to the author's skill that I enjoyed it as I don't normally read this genre. Recommended to those look for a quick, easy happy ever after.

I have really enjoyed this author’s Full Bloom Farm series (see my review for Home at Summer’s End which includes links to the first three books) so I was more than eager to read this stand-alone.
Or maybe it isn’t stand-alone, because it certainly has the potential to be a new series. More on that later.
We get another feisty heroine in Virginia. You can read the blurbs and other reviews to find out why she is headed to Fortune Springs. She is also running away from something (as female leads in these types of novels are wont to do).
I liked Virginia. She was prickly, and we got just enough background to explain why she never took anything that anyone said to her at face value. While her character wasn’t as deep as the Anderson sisters in the other series, she was still likeable, and I found it easy to root for her.
I felt the same way about Owen. Although, in some ways he felt more of a stereotype than a fully recognized character. That being said, the scene with an ailing Polka was charming and amusing. It also gave readers a picture of what was hidden beneath his gruff demeanor.
To me, the real stars of the book were Calla and Willa. If I could wish for anything from this book it’s for it to be a series with Calla getting a dedicated storyline. I loved her attitude, her perceptiveness, and her heart. She was just a good person.
Willa took after her grandmother, I think. Although there wasn’t a lot of background on her, she was in a tough position (especially as a teenager), yet she still managed to bond with Virginia and find her way out of sulkiness.
The plot itself was hit or miss. There was a lot to like, but there were also some holes.
It was fairly apparent why Virginia was headed to the town, but I felt like that motivation was merely a way to get a surprise in towards the end more than a real deep exploration. However, Virginia did have a lot of realizations that came from her past experience and how she was handling the events that had driven her to get on the bus.
One of these was her relationship with Willa. While some may think that Willa’s attachment seemed out of the blue, I think it was indicative of Virginia’s character that Willa (with whatever trauma she had experienced) was able to bond with her. Virginia’s realization of how much Willa looked up to her was a good moment in Virginia’s development.
I was missing the depth of Willa’s experiences and how that led to her being with Calla. It was obvious that it was nothing good, but it felt rushed and not very fleshed out. The same goes for the central conceit of the plan that brought Virginia to town in the first place. I’m not sure that was as supported as it could have been.
What I like best about this author’s books though, and what does stand out in this story, is the way she captures small town life. From people being in each other’s business to everyone stepping up to help a fellow townsperson, the whole range of small-town living is accurate.
One scene involving Willa’s school assignment and the local firehouse perfectly captured this. I loved the descriptions, and I could picture the action happening as if I was there myself. These are the best parts of her books.
With that in mind, I could see this being a series where other women trickle into town and find their life purposes. This would give the author the chance to explore the motivations of the townspeople and the newcomers, and some entertaining parallels could appear, while also expanding on the original premise.
And it would give Calla the opportunity to eventually have her own plot as she shepherds the women through their arrivals and assimilations into the town. I’ll be waiting for this story and looking forward to the author’s next book.

I’ve read many novels by this author and I will say that she never disappoints. Alys Murray never wastes time pulling you into her stories, and this book is no different. This rapid page-turner will have you reading well into the night.

Not only does Virginia leave her city behind, but all of the things of her past, for a fresh start. She moves to Fortune Spring, Colorado for a job opportunity and the pay is free room and board for a year. It’s exactly the new beginning she needs. After her year is up, she plans to head out to California. She meets some very “interesting” people, especially eccentric Calla who literally runs the town. But Virginia soon realizes that residents of Fortune Springs, are not that different from her. They too, all have a past that they would rather forget and wish that everyone in the town would forget too. But the truth will always come out. The question is, will the truth make you a stronger person? This is a good story with a hopeful outcome.

I really liked this book and I recommend it. Once you begin it you won’t be able to stop until the last page is turned.

Small Town Secrets was a nice quick read. It's not the type of book that I would normally read but I fancied a change of genre. I liked the characters in the book and I would love to live in Fortune Springs but I feel there was not enough depth in the storylines for myself.
I feel fans of this genre would love this book but it just didn't have enough detail for my liking.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for my ARC.

Really lovely heart warming book. Read it in two days. I could see myself sitting on a porch in Fortune Springs watching the story unfold. Great strong characters. It shows It is never too late to change your life if you are stuck in a rut.

Thank you NetGalley, Alys Murray and Bookouture for the ARC of Small Town Secrets. This is my personal review.
Fortune Springs, Colorado was where Virginia had her mind set on going to start her life over. Fortune Springs Town Improvement Initiative was what she knew would get her life back on track. The Bride House was the place she needed to get to for this to happen.
Once there she found much more than she imagined. She found friends and love to guide her to her second chance in life and away from everything she wanted to lose in her life.
This was an easy read that had characters I liked and enough to give me a few hours of enjoyment.

“Young women needed for the Fortune Springs Town Improvement Initiative. One year’s room and board provided.”

That's how the story starts with Virginia Bessel moving into Fortune Springs to start a new life. She befriends Calla and her granddaughter, Willa and lives with them in the Bride House. Then she meets a handsome firefighter, Owen--initially, they first didn't get along and soon sparks start flying between them...

I had enjoyed reading Alys Murray's books and so I was excited to read this one. Like all her book, this story was engaging and also actually easy to read and quick to read as well. The characters to me are all likable, particularly I like little Willa and how Virginia quickly becomes friends with Willa. This was actually more like a Hallmark movie with Virginia leaving behind bad memories and wanting to start a new life in Fortune Springs, Colorado and then meeting a handsome man and falling in love with him.

Overall, to me, this wasn't a bad book--it was good. The story was nothing new but nonetheless, I enjoyed reading this book and read in one go. Worth four stars in my opinion!

Virginia probably wouldn't have given a second thought to the Fortune Springs initiative to bring young women to a town that's almost entirely male had she not been looking for a way away from her abusive relationship. She heads there, with her whole life in her backpack, and is surprised by what this small Colorado town holds. Own, the fire chief, is not a fan of hers to start - nor she of him- but they find common ground helping others. And then he comes to her aid when her past comes back. This is light- very light- given the issues faced by Virginia and Willa- but the storytelling is good. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC.

Small Town Secrets is an absolute charmer. A joy to the heart. A story of healing, redemption and second chances.

This book has all the trademarks of a fantastic romance novel: a love story, secrets in spades and deep friendships with elements of suspense.

A compelling and page-turning saga with elements of mystery and romance, Small Town Secrets grabbed my attention from the first page and held it until the very end. I absolutely loved the world that Alys Murray created with characters that are likeable and easy to root for.

Overall, Small Town Secrets is a heartwarming and uplifting read.

Thanks to NetGalley, Bookouture and Alys Murray for an ARC to review.

Another easy read from this author. The standout character is Calla the owner of the bride house who welcomes Virginia into her home, even though she missed the deadline. There’s also Willa, Calla’s grand daughter who has to be rescued halfway through the book.

Although I enjoyed reading this book, I found it predictable and a bit superficial. There’s no real
Understanding as to why Willa had to leave her mum nor opportunities to help her address this other than a few ‘sisterly’ chats with Virginia.

There was a real opportunity to show the difficulties that people face in abusive relationships and how we can help them both inside and outside of those relationships. The male character Owen also has his demons and while these are explained they are not really dealt with. Everyone has just run away!

Also there’s a big plot hole - apart from one sentence when Virginia first arrives, there’s no mention of any other applicants - or any other ideas to help address the imbalance of the town. After all, wasn’t that the whole point of the scheme?

Ultimately I enjoyed this book and will continue to read more by this author but I feel that more depth could have been explored to help convey how to support people in toxic relationships.

3-3.5*