Books Set in Louisiana
Our journey through the 50 states continues with a stop in Louisiana!
Book Club Pick – Louisiana
Leaving Houma by Akaysha Mynes
What is Leaving Houma about?
Schoolteacher Azalea LeBeau hasn’t left the state of Louisiana since an incident as a child left her fearful and untrusting of the unknown. She is content with her boring life reading and hanging out with her cat, never needing to leave her hometown of Houma. When her best friend convinces her to follow her husband’s band on a tour of Louisiana, Azalea hesitantly accepts.
Up-and-coming country music star Theo Monroe has no room in his life for romance until a sweet and shy teacher walks in and steals his heart. All he wants now is to show her how much she means to him, but their drastically different lives keep getting in the way.
When a hurricane threatens her hometown, Theo cancels shows to help her and her family get prepared for the storm. This budding relationship will have to find the calm in the eye of the storm or risk being lost forever.
Akaysha Mynes on Literary Escapes Podcast
Want to know more about Akaysha and her books? Listen to our conversation on the Literary Escapes Podcast!
More Sweet Reads Set in Louisiana
All’s Fair in Love and Cupcakes by Betsy St. Amant
Genre: Christian Romance
Kat inspected rows of the same old cupcakes. They seemed to blink back at her, as if they knew she was capable of so much more.
Kat Varland has had enough of chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry.
At twenty-six years old, Kat is still living in the shadows of her family in Bayou Bend, Louisiana. Still working shifts at her Aunt Maggie’s bakery. Still wondering what to do with her passion for baking and her business degree. And still single.
But when Lucas Brannen, Kat’s best friend, signs her up for a reality TV bake-off on Cupcake Combat, everything Kat ever wanted is suddenly dangled in front of her: creative license as a baker, recognition as a visionary . . . and a job at a famous bakery in New York.
As the competition heats up, Lucas realizes he might have made a huge mistake. As much as he wants the best for Kat, the only thing he wants for himself—her—is suddenly in danger of slipping away.
The bright lights of reality cooking wars and the chance at a successful career dazzle Kat’s senses and Lucas is faced with a difficult choice: help his friend achieve her dreams . . . or sabotage her chances to keep her in Louisiana.
So Not My Thing by Melanie Jacobson
Genre: Sweet Romance
I hated Miles Crowe more than itchy socks, “namaste” puns on yoga tank tops, and chigger bites. Combined.
26-year-old New Orleans native Elle Jones used to be the internet’s most famous meme for rejection thanks to an embarrassing teenage TV appearance. But she’s finally put that past behind her and now she’s killing it as a commercial real estate agent in the coolest neighborhoods in the city.
When Miles Crowe—the former pop star who made her notorious—insists on hiring her to find a property for his jazz club, she’ll do everything she can to get herself fired before he realizes who she is.
But Miles has grown up too, and Elle soon discovers that he is as passionate about the city as she is…and even sexier now than he was then. Will she risk exposing her humiliating past to claim a future with the guy who once nearly ruined her life?
Raising the Bar by Avery Kane
Genre: Romance
Moxie Stone had a plan when she came to New Orleans. She was going to launch the most successful bar on Bourbon Street, collect her accolades, and then move to a bigger market. She had her eye on the prize…and then he hijacked her launch.
Augustus “Gus” Kingman is one of those Kingmans. He has more money than Moxie. He has a pedigree. He has parents who are willing to throw money at a problem. What he doesn’t have is Moxie’s drive.
They’re supposed to hate each other, and they’re convinced they do. They’re also drawn to one another with alarming regularity.
Some things are inevitable.
Moxie has a secret. There’s a reason she goes to Jackson Square to feed the homeless every night.
Gus has a complex. There’s a reason he wants to launch this bar on his own, no parents in sight.
Apart they’re strong. Together, though, they just might be unstoppable. Now they just have to get out of their own heads and embrace the future. That’s easier said than done.
Laissez les bon temps rouler!
Midnight Bayou by Nora Roberts
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Declan Fitzgerald had always been the family maverick, but even he couldn’t understand his impulse to buy a dilapidated mansion on the outskirts of New Orleans. Ever since he first saw Manet Hall, he’d been enchanted—and obsessed—with it.
Determined to restore the mansion to its former splendor, Declan begins the daunting renovation room by room. But the days spent in total isolation in the empty house take a toll. He sees visions of days from a century past and experiences sensations of terror and nearly unbearable grief. Local legend has it that the house is haunted, and with every passing day Declan’s belief in the ghostly presence grows.
Only the companionship of alluring Angelina Simone can distract him from the mysterious happenings in the house, but Angelina has her own surprising connection to Manet Hall—a connection that will help Declan uncover a secret that’s been buried for a hundred years.
Plantation Shudders by Ellen Byron
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Secrets, suspects, and Southern hospitality abound at Maggie Crozat’s Louisiana B&B in this first installment of the Cajun Country cozy mystery series
It’s the end of the summer and Prodigal Daughter Maggie Crozat has returned home to her family’s plantation-turned-bed-and-breakfast in Louisiana. The Crozats have an inn full of guests for the local food festival—elderly honeymooners, the Cajun Cuties, a mysterious stranger from Texas, a couple of hipster lovebirds, and a trio of Georgia frat boys. But when the elderly couple keels over dead within minutes of each other—one from very unnatural causes—Maggie and the others suddenly become suspects in a murder.
With the help of Bo Durand, the town’s handsome new detective, Maggie must investigate to clear her name while holding the family business together at the same time. And the deeper she digs, the more she wonders: are all the guests really there for a vacation or do they have ulterior motives?
Queen Sugar by Natalie Baszile
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
When Charley unexpectedly inherits eight hundred acres of sugarcane land, she and her eleven-year-old daughter say goodbye to smoggy Los Angeles and head to Louisiana. She soon learns, however, that cane farming is always going to be a white man’s business. As the sweltering summer unfolds, Charley struggles to balance the overwhelming challenges of a farm in decline with the demands of family and the startling desires of her own heart.
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