Sloth Goes Places is a feature where I share books I have tracked from the Literary Escapes and Read Around the USA reading challenges.
Today we are looking at books set in ....
West Virginia
Published by Bloom Books on August 4, 2026
Age/Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Rating:
Goodreads
"I'm afraid my vagina might turn itself inside out if you try to give it another orgasm so soon." - Scarlett Bodine
Raised by her three overbearing brothers, Scarlett is a hell-raising tomboy with a tool belt. A tornado stirring up trouble everywhere she goes. Her favorite pastimes? Drinking any man under the table and two-stepping. But she has zero interest in love. Scarlett's only being neighborly when she claims her sexy next-door neighbor as her new pet project.
Devlin is a man at rock bottom. Marriage, political career, five-year plan to Washington, D.C. All destroyed with one well-placed jab. The golden boy is now the black sheep relegated to Bootleg Springs, a tiny West Virginia town with two claims to fame: 1. Moonshine and 2. The cold case disappearance of a teen girl.
Devlin just wants to lick his wounds. But Scarlett has other ideas for his tongue… and the rest of him. She's determined to bring him back to life, even if getting him back on his feet means never seeing him again. But when an old mystery becomes new news, she'll need his help to survive the scandal.
This was a super fun, small town romance. I had a great time meeting all the Bodines, and I know I will return as there is a mystery that will not resolve until the last book.
[review]
Published by Thomas Nelson on October 6, 2026
Age/Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Rating:
Goodreads
Get ready for a laugh-out-loud holiday romance that's brimming with witty banter and heartwarming cheer by the bestselling author of Meet Me in the Margins, Melissa Ferguson.
Chronic people-pleaser Chloe Hollis is determined to finally learn how to get over her fear of rejection. Her unconventional solution? She must collect ten "nos" before Christmas Day by asking strangers for the most ridiculous favors she can dream up. But her plan goes hilariously off-track when she meets James Dutton.
James, a rule-following workaholic, has decided to do the exact opposite of he's saying "yes" to every opportunity that comes his way in hopes of finally embracing life--and maybe a little Christmas spirit.
As they continue to get tangled up in each other's wild experiment, Chloe and James find themselves in a whirlwind of festive, awkward, and delightful situations. But no one is more surprised than they are to realize they're falling in love.
With sparkling humor and swoon-worthy heart, this delightful Christmas rom-com is a feel-good story about facing fear head-on, choosing growth over comfort, and finding the courage to say "yes" to the things--and the people--that truly matter.
This has a wild concept - the heroine was trying rejection exposure therapy to change her of her people planning ways. One of her victims of her outlandish asks was James who was trying to learn to say yes. There were a lot of silly outcomes of these asks blended in with holiday festivities which made this a fun one for me.
The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer
Published by Ballantine Books on July 16, 2024
Age/Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Goodreads
Inspired by C. S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia, this wild and wondrous novel is a fairy tale for grown-ups who still knock on the back of wardrobes—just in case—from the author of The Wishing Game.
As boys, best friends Jeremy Cox and Rafe Howell went missing in a vast West Virginia state forest, only to mysteriously reappear six months later with no explanation for where they’d gone or how they’d survived.
Fifteen years after their miraculous homecoming, Rafe is a reclusive artist who still bears scars inside and out but has no memory of what happened during those months. Meanwhile, Jeremy has become a famed missing persons’ investigator. With his uncanny abilities, he is the one person who can help vet tech Emilie Wendell find her sister, who vanished in the very same forest as Rafe and Jeremy.
Jeremy alone knows the fantastical truth about the disappearances, for while the rest of the world was searching for them, the two missing boys were in a magical realm filled with impossible beauty and terrible danger. He believes it is there that they will find Emilie’s sister. However, Jeremy has kept Rafe in the dark since their return for his own inscrutable reasons. But the time for burying secrets comes to an end as the quest for Emilie’s sister begins. The former lost boys must confront their shared past, no matter how traumatic the memories.
Alongside the headstrong Emilie, Rafe and Jeremy must return to the enchanted world they called home for six months—for only then can they get back everything and everyone they’ve lost.
This is a portal fantasy where a woman finds her way into a magical land in order to find her missing sister.
[review]
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