Avery Hammons returned to her hometown of Pleasant, Missouri, six months before this story opens. She’s now the Supervising RN at Pleasant Residential Care Center. With Avery comes HER SMALL TOWN SECRET, which, it must be said, seems to be the most open of secrets. The only person who doesn’t know anything is the one who really should.

Grayson Stone drops back to town from California. He moved as a teen to work in his uncle’s building firm, but his mom died, and his dad Mathias had a stroke. He’s only here to get the ranch house ready for his father to live in. Turns out that his carefree ways, being wealthier than the trailer park kid he dated, Avery, led to untold problems. Grayson discovers that he has a daughter, Quinn, and for eleven years the girl didn’t know her father.  

Avery's shown as a brave single mom, and I have to admire her, putting herself through nursing school. Her foster mom, Nan Guthrie, is giving her a home again but Nan is now a well-created senior starting to have memory issues.  Given how hard Avery had it – and she’s probably still paying college debt while looking at the frame of a house she wants constructed - I really could not credit her denial of the need for Grayson to contribute to his daughter’s care. If nothing else, she should ask him to start a college fund. Quinn is a confusing name as I took a while to relate this name to a girl. However, I love the kid.  

Look out for the livestock. Coming through! A llama was bought at market by neighbour Tucker Church for Mr Stone senior, and this llama, Tony, comically plays truant with a mini-horse called Dolly and donkey Jack. Tucker is a local lad who knew what he wanted and stopped here in town, running businesses with aplomb and now supplying bucking bulls as well as camping trips. He would be a good catch, and provides a good friendship for Avery, and maybe more. I’m glad the lady has choices.

This is a Christian romance, and as so often with second chance romances, we get a theme of forgiveness and redemption. HER SMALL TOWN SECRET isn’t the only secret being kept. The tornado which storms through town shortly after our characters meet, signifies upheaval and a fresh start. Brenda Minton always writes of community, with realistic characters, and brings the ordinary to life, in a way that can interest every reader.