Books Set in Michigan
Our journey through the 50 states continues with a stop in Michigan!
Book Club Pick – Michigan
Second Chance in Summit County by Katherine Karrol
What is Second Chance in Summit County about?
Her marriage, career, and reputation crashed around her and eliminated the little trust she had left in herself to make good decisions. She packed her bags, shook the dust off her feet, and started driving, begging God to tell her where to go. When He led her to a charming little northern Michigan town, she started recreating her life from scratch—without men.
His world turned upside down when he lost the love of his life and had to start over as a single father. Now playing both mother and father to his little girl, he’s built his life around taking care of her and protecting his heart from ever being hurt like that again. Love is not a part of his life anymore.
God has a better idea.
Can two people who have sworn off love stop fighting their attraction long enough to see that God is working? Can they trust Him enough to risk giving happiness a second chance?
Katherine Karrol on Literary Escapes Podcast
Want to know more about Katherine and her books? Listen to this conversation on the Literary Escapes Podcast!
More Sweet Reads Set in Michigan
Enjoy this additional selection of books set in Michigan, spanning cozy mystery, romance, women’s and historical fiction. Perfect for easy reading, these delightful tales promise happy, hopeful endings.
Which one will you choose for a literary escape to Michigan?
The Women of Copper Country by Mary Doria Russell
Genre: Historical Fiction
In July 1913, twenty-five-year-old Annie Clements has seen enough of the world to know that it’s unfair. She’s spent her whole life in the mining town of Calumet, Michigan, where men risk their lives for meager salaries—and have barely enough to put food on the table for their families. The women labor in the houses of the elite, and send their husbands and sons deep underground each day, dreading the fateful call of the company man telling them their loved ones aren’t coming home. So, when Annie decides to stand up for the entire town of Calumet, nearly everyone believes she may have taken on more than she is prepared to handle.
Yet as Annie struggles to improve the future of her town, her husband becomes increasingly frustrated with her growing independence. She faces the threat of prison while also discovering a forbidden love. On her fierce quest for justice, Annie will see just how much she is willing to sacrifice for the families of Calumet.
Michigan for the Winter by Dr. Rebecca Sharp
Genre: Romance (unknown spice level)
Ryan Finan needed a change of scene. No more warmth. No more wooing. No more women.
Needing to get over what the last woman did to him, he’s fled to Michigan for the winter.
A secluded cabin, a wood stove, a bottle of scotch, and guaranteed solitude are all he needs… until Winna Madden recklessly collides into his path—and other parts of him. With her fresh beauty, captivating awkwardness, and far too much talk of freshly jerked meat, Ryan struggles to give his temporary neighbor a necessary cold shoulder.
Having lived in this neck of the woods all her life, Winna knows the gorgeous recluse isn’t prepared for a Michigan winter—nor for the kinds of harsh truths it brings. She’s determined to be a good neighbor—no matter how much he grouses.
As temperatures plunge, their walls tumble down faster than the snow. Soon, the only thing left is a wild desire burning between them. But Ryan’s stay always had an expiration date. When it arrives, will he walk away? Or will the warmth he found with Winna tempt him to stay?
A Wish for Winter by Viola Shipman
Genre: Sweet Romance
Despite losing her parents in a tragic accident just before her fourteenth Christmas, Susan Norcross has had it better than most, with loving grandparents to raise her and a gang of quirky, devoted friends to support her. Now a successful bookstore owner in a tight-knit Michigan lakeside community, Susan is facing down forty—the same age as her mother when she died—and she can’t help but see everything she hasn’t achieved, including finding a love match of her own. To add to the pressure, everyone in her small town believes it’s Susan’s destiny to meet and marry a man dressed as Santa, just like her mother and grandmother before her. So it seems cosmically unfair that the man she makes an instant connection with at an annual Santa Run is lost in the crowd before she can get his name.
What follows is Susan and her friends’ hilarious and heartwarming search for the mystery Santa—covering twelve months of social media snafus, authors behaving badly and dating fails—as well as a poignant look at family, friendship and what defines a well-lived and well-loved life.
The Welcome Home Diner by Peggy Lampman
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Betting on the city of Detroit’s eventual comeback, cousins Addie and Samantha decide to risk it all on an affordable new house and a culinary career that starts with renovating a vintage diner in a depressed area of town. There’s just one little snag in their vision.
Angus, a weary, beloved local, is strongly opposed to his neighborhood’s gentrification—and his concerns reflect the suspicion of the community. Shocked by their reception, Addie and Samantha begin to have second thoughts.
As the long hours, problematic love interests, and underhanded pressures mount, the two women find themselves increasingly at odds, and soon their problems threaten everything they’ve worked for. If they are going to realize their dreams, Addie and Samantha must focus on rebuilding their relationship. But will the neighborhood open their hearts to welcome them home?
Lending a Paw by Laurie Cass
Genre: Cozy Mystery
With the help of her rescue cat, Eddie, librarian Minnie Hamilton is driving a bookmobile based in the resort town of Chilson, Michigan. But she’d better keep both hands on the wheel, because it’s going to be a bumpy ride…
Eddie followed Minnie home one day, and now she can’t seem to shake the furry little shadow. But in spite of her efforts to contain her new pal, the tabby sneaks out and trails her all the way to the bookmobile on its maiden voyage. Before she knows it, her slinky stowaway becomes her cat co-pilot!
Minnie and Eddie’s first day visiting readers around the county seems to pass without trouble—until Eddie darts outside at the last stop and leads her to the body of a local man who’s reached his final chapter.
Initially, Minnie is ready to let the police handle this case, but Eddie seems to smell a rat. Together, they’ll work to find the killer—because a good librarian always knows when justice is overdue.
Beach Read by Emily Henry
Genre: Romance (unknown spice level)
Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews writes bestselling romance. When she pens a happily ever after, he kills off his entire cast.
They’re polar opposites.
In fact, the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months, they’re living in neighboring beach houses, broke, and bogged down with writer’s block.
Until, one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel. She’ll take him on field trips worthy of any rom-com montage, and he’ll take her to interview surviving members of a backwoods death cult (obviously). Everyone will finish a book and no one will fall in love. Really.
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
Genre: Historical Fiction
In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family’s orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.
Early Morning Riser by Katherine Heiny
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Jane falls in love with Duncan easily. He is charming, good-natured, and handsome but unfortunately, he has also slept with nearly every woman in Boyne City, Michigan. Jane sees Duncan’s old girlfriends everywhere—at restaurants, at the grocery store, even three towns away.
While Jane may be able to come to terms with dating the world’s most prolific seducer of women, she wishes she did not have to share him quite so widely. His ex-wife, Aggie, a woman with shiny hair and pale milkmaid skin, still has Duncan mow her lawn. His coworker, Jimmy, comes and goes from Duncan’s apartment at the most inopportune times. Sometimes Jane wonders if a relationship can even work with three people in it—never mind four. Five if you count Aggie’s eccentric husband, Gary. Not to mention all the other residents of Boyne City, who freely share with Jane their opinions of her choices.
But any notion Jane had of love and marriage changes with one terrible car crash. Soon Jane’s life is permanently intertwined with Duncan’s, Aggie’s, and Jimmy’s, and Jane knows she will never have Duncan to herself. But could it be possible that a deeper kind of happiness is right in front of Jane’s eyes?
Two Parts Sugar, One Part Murder by Valerie Burns
Genre: Cozy Mystery
When Maddy Montgomery’s groom is a no-show to their livestream wedding, it’s a disaster that no amount of filtering can fix. But a surprise inheritance offers a chance to regroup and rebrand—as long as Maddy is willing to live in her late, great-aunt Octavia’s house in New Bison, Michigan, for a year, running her bakery and caring for a 250-pound English mastiff named Baby.
Maddy doesn’t bake, and her Louboutins aren’t made for walking giant dogs around Lake Michigan, but the locals are friendly and the scenery is beautiful. With help from her aunt’s loyal friends, aka the Baker Street Irregulars, Maddy feels ready to tackle any challenge, including Octavia’s award-winning cake recipes. That is, until New Bison’s mayor is fatally stabbed, and Maddy’s fingerprints are found on the knife . . .
Something strange is going on in New Bison. It seems Aunt Octavia had her suspicions, too. But Maddy’s going to need a whole lot more than a trending hashtag to save her reputation—and her life.
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