There’s some sort of thrill when you read a book that is set in a familiar place, either where you live now, or a place you used to live. Luckily, there are hundreds of books set in North Carolina for you to enjoy! Here are some of our favorites:
Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
Other books by Allen: The Sugar Queen, The Girl Who Chased the Moon, The Peach Keeper, Lost Lake, First Frost, Other Birds
If you want a book that has a touch of magic and set in a small Southern town, Sarah Addison Allen’s books are for you! In Garden Spells, you meet the Waverley family, of Bascom, North Carolina, who have always been a little odd. They each have special gifts, as does their garden, with a tree that tells the future, and flowers that can heal or hurt. While most of Allen’s books are set in fictional towns, you’ll feel right at home with her descriptions of North Carolina flora and fauna, and the charm that our state’s small towns have.
In West Mills and Decent People by De’Shawn Charles Winslow
These books also are set in a fictional North Carolina town, West Mills, which is based on South Mills, NC, near Elizabeth City. In West Mills tells the story of Azalea “Knot” Centre, who finds herself pregnant, friendless, and alienated from her family. But she finds kinship with Otis Lee Loving, her neighbor, who hopes he can redeem his failures with his family by helping Knot. Decent People revisits West Mills, and tells the story of three slain siblings who live on the “wrong” side of the canal for the white police to want to solve the crime. But Jo Wright has retired, moved back to West Mills, and is going to marry her childhood sweetheart, “Lymp” Seymore. The victims are his half-siblings, and he’s the main suspect in their killing, so Jo must solve the crime and clear his name.
The Kudzu Queen by Mimi Herman
North Carolina in 1941 – Mattie Lee Watson is 15 going on 30, and is captivated by the arrival of the Kudzu King. This historical novel introduces readers to the failed experiment of using kudzu to improve the soil and solve all ills in the South, and tells the personal story of a young woman growing up and discovering that not everyone has good intentions. The story is set in fictional Cooper County, NC, but it could have been set in any farming town in rural North Carolina in the 1940s.
The Fool Dies Last and Death Rides a Pony by Carol Miller
This cozy mystery series is set in Asheville, NC, where sisters Hope and Summer Bailey run a mystic shop called Bailey’s Boutique. Anyone who has been to Asheville knows that would fit right in with this metropolitan but mystical town! In The Fool Dies Last, Hope is accused by a local doctor of trying to kill one of his patients with a tincture, while their grandmother’s friends are dying suddenly, with the Fool tarot card placed near their bodies. Hope and Summer have to get to the bottom of all of this before their grandmother is next! In Death Rides a Pony, Hope and Summer are roped into reading tarot cards for the annual charity festival. But when Summer’s realtor is found dead after Summer gets a bad tarot reading, they need to find out if the cards can help them solve the murder.
Last Girl Gone and What Lies Beneath by J. G. Hetherton
This series of murder mysteries are set in Hillsborough, NC (just down the road from Alamance County!). In Last Girl Gone, Laura Chambers reluctantly has returned to her hometown. Fired from the Boston Globe, she takes a job at the local paper, and thinks her life will be boring from now on. But then there’s a murder, a young girl killed, cleaned and dressed up, and Laura is pulled back into investigative journalism and finding the murderer. In What Lies Beneath, Laura is called to the scene of a horrible accident. A woman ran out in front of truck on the highway. She had just called Laura, and carried a photo of Laura, her father, and her best friend, who moved away when they were 8, after her family was brutally murdered in their home. Now Laura has to mine the depths of her memory of that time, and find out what her father might have had to do with her friend’s family’s murder twenty years ago.
The Magnolia Sisters by Michelle Major
Other books by Major: A Carolina Christmas, A Carolina Valentine, The Merriest Magnolia, The Road to Magnolia, A Magnolia Reunion, The Last Carolina Sister, A Lot Like Christmas, The Wish List, The Front Porch Club, Springtime in Carolina, A Carolina Dance, A Carolina Promise, Wildflower Season, Magnolia Season.
Michelle Major has written several romances set in fictional Magnolia, North Carolina. If you’re looking for something lighthearted and heartwarming, these are the books for you! In The Magnolia Sisters, you meet Avery, whose father didn’t acknowledge her when he was alive. Avery hopes to collect her inheritance and leave Magnolia behind, but she didn’t count on falling in love with the town, her half-sisters, and the cute firefighter next door. Each book focuses on another resident of Magnolia – some are full novels and others are novellas.
If you’d like more North Carolina novels, you can search in our catalog, then choose Fiction from the Collection menu on the left hand side, or you can ask any library employee to help you!
Mary Beth Adams is the Community Engagement Librarian for Alamance County Public Libraries. She can be reached at madams@alamancelibraries.org.