Novels Set in Rhode Island
An annotated list of Novels Set in Rhode Island titles available at the North Smithfield Public Library.
Click on title if you would like to request a copy.
My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
Conceived to provide a bone marrow match for her leukemia-stricken sister, teenage Kate begins to question her moral obligations in light of countless medical procedures and decides to fight for the right to make decisions about her own body.
Summer by the Sea by Susan Wiggs
Rose Capoletti, owner of a restaurant voted best place to propose, finds her life sorely lacking in the romance department, until Alexander Montgomery, a former lover, returns, putting dark secrets from the past to rest and giving them a second chance at love.
The Vineyard by Barbara Delinsky
To her family, Natalie Seebring is a woman who prizes appearances: exquisitely mannered, a supportive wife, and head of a successful wine-producing enterprise. So when she announces plans to marry a vineyard employee mere months after the death of her husband of fifty-eight years, her son and daughter are stunned. Faced with their disapproval, Natalie decides to write a memoir.
The Gilded Newport Mysteries by Alyssa Maxwell
"As the nineteenth century comes to a close, the illustrious Vanderbilt family dominates Newport, Rhode Island, high society. However, when murders darken glittering affairs at the Vanderbilt summer home, reporter Emma Cross learns that sometimes the actions of the cream of society can curdle one's blood..."
Dance With Me by Luanne Rice
Jane Porter left the apple orchards of rural Twin Rivers, Rhode Island, years ago, fleeing memories that could tear two families apart. Now she has been unexpectedly drawn home to her mother and only sister. Amid this landscape of loss and renewal, a haunting story of converging lives, small-town secrets—and the magical sway of unexpected miracles—unfolds.
The Memory of Running by Russ McLarty
Meet Smithson Smithy Ide, an overweight, friendless, chain-smoking, forty-three-year-old drunk who works as a quality control inspector at a toy action-figure factory in Rhode Island. When Smithy’s life of quiet desperation is brutally interrupted by tragedy, he stumbles across his old Raleigh bicycle and impulsively sets off on an epic journey that might give him one last chance to become the person he always wanted to be. Along the way, Smithy falls in love and back into life.
I am Providence: a novel by Nick Mamatas
An author's murder during an H. P. Lovecraft fan convention reveals dark secrets beneath the printed page in this biting murder-mystery satire.
The Gods of Newport by John Jakes
When railroad mogul and former robber baron Sam Driver arrives in Newport in 1893, he and his beautiful daughter are determined to break into the elite inner circle that has tantalized them for the past few decades. Sam’s daughter also wants the best that Newport offers but finds herself drawn into a dangerous romance with an impoverished young Irishman.
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
In the highest circle of New York social life during the 1870's, Newland Archer, a young lawyer, prepares to marry the docile May Welland. Before their engagement is announced, he meets May's cousin, the mysterious, nonconformist Countess Ellen Olenska, who has returned to New York after a long absence.
Rogue Island by Bruce DeSilva
Someone is systematically burning down the neighborhood Liam Mulligan grew up in, people he knows and loves are perishing in the flames, and the public is on the verge of panic. With the whole city of Providence on his back, Mulligan must weed through a wildly colorful array of characters to find the truth.
Spartina by John Casey
A classic tale of a man, a boat, and a storm, brings us Dick Pierce, a commercial fisherman along the shores of Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay. A kind, sensitive, family man, he is also prone to irascible outbursts against the people he must work for, now that he can no longer make his living from the sea.
Compass Rose by John Casey
In this extraordinary follow-up novel to Spartina, barely any time has passed in the magical landscape of salt ponds and marshes in this fictional Rhode Island estuary, as Elsie Buttrick is forced to grapple with the fallout from her affair with fisherman Dick Pierce.
The Edge of Winter by Luanne Rice
Neve Halloran and her daughter have shared a fierce love for the austere beauty of Rhode Island’s South County ever since Neve guided Mickey’s first baby steps along the sandy shore. Now, with Mickey a teenager and Neve’s last hope for happiness with her daughter’s loving but unstable father gone, both will struggle to make a new life together amid the windswept landscape that sustains them.
A hope in the unseen : an American odyssey from the inner city to the Ivy League by Ron Suskind
How hard is it for a kid from the toughest high school in southeast Washington, D.C., to bootstrap himself into the Ivy League? Very, very, very hard. Suskind followed Cedric Jennings through the graffiti-strewn halls of Frank W. Ballou Senior High (where his academic success drew taunts and threats but also support from key teachers) and into an MIT program intended to help minority teens qualify for admission.
The Survivor’s Club by Lisa Gardner
.. . that's what Jillian Hayes, Carol Rosen, and Meg Pesaturo call it. They won't consider themselves victims. They are survivors. They helped lead the investigation that caught the man who changed their lives forever. Now they are the prime suspects in his murder.
Airs of Providence by Jean McGarry
An Irish Catholic neighborhood in the 1950s and '60s is the backdrop for these 15 stories, which treat the reader to some very credible slices of life. McGarry arranges her tales in such a way that every other one deals with the exploits of two sisters, Margery and April Flanaghan.
The Francoeur Novels by David Plante
Set in a French-Canadian neighborhood in Providence, this novel examines the life of the Francoeur family in the 1950s. The depiction of the Catholic Church and the millworking environment is very realistic. The Francoeur Novels include the stories: The Family, The Country, The Woods
Click on title if you would like to request a copy.
My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
Conceived to provide a bone marrow match for her leukemia-stricken sister, teenage Kate begins to question her moral obligations in light of countless medical procedures and decides to fight for the right to make decisions about her own body.
Summer by the Sea by Susan Wiggs
Rose Capoletti, owner of a restaurant voted best place to propose, finds her life sorely lacking in the romance department, until Alexander Montgomery, a former lover, returns, putting dark secrets from the past to rest and giving them a second chance at love.
The Vineyard by Barbara Delinsky
To her family, Natalie Seebring is a woman who prizes appearances: exquisitely mannered, a supportive wife, and head of a successful wine-producing enterprise. So when she announces plans to marry a vineyard employee mere months after the death of her husband of fifty-eight years, her son and daughter are stunned. Faced with their disapproval, Natalie decides to write a memoir.
The Gilded Newport Mysteries by Alyssa Maxwell
"As the nineteenth century comes to a close, the illustrious Vanderbilt family dominates Newport, Rhode Island, high society. However, when murders darken glittering affairs at the Vanderbilt summer home, reporter Emma Cross learns that sometimes the actions of the cream of society can curdle one's blood..."
Dance With Me by Luanne Rice
Jane Porter left the apple orchards of rural Twin Rivers, Rhode Island, years ago, fleeing memories that could tear two families apart. Now she has been unexpectedly drawn home to her mother and only sister. Amid this landscape of loss and renewal, a haunting story of converging lives, small-town secrets—and the magical sway of unexpected miracles—unfolds.
The Memory of Running by Russ McLarty
Meet Smithson Smithy Ide, an overweight, friendless, chain-smoking, forty-three-year-old drunk who works as a quality control inspector at a toy action-figure factory in Rhode Island. When Smithy’s life of quiet desperation is brutally interrupted by tragedy, he stumbles across his old Raleigh bicycle and impulsively sets off on an epic journey that might give him one last chance to become the person he always wanted to be. Along the way, Smithy falls in love and back into life.
I am Providence: a novel by Nick Mamatas
An author's murder during an H. P. Lovecraft fan convention reveals dark secrets beneath the printed page in this biting murder-mystery satire.
The Gods of Newport by John Jakes
When railroad mogul and former robber baron Sam Driver arrives in Newport in 1893, he and his beautiful daughter are determined to break into the elite inner circle that has tantalized them for the past few decades. Sam’s daughter also wants the best that Newport offers but finds herself drawn into a dangerous romance with an impoverished young Irishman.
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
In the highest circle of New York social life during the 1870's, Newland Archer, a young lawyer, prepares to marry the docile May Welland. Before their engagement is announced, he meets May's cousin, the mysterious, nonconformist Countess Ellen Olenska, who has returned to New York after a long absence.
Rogue Island by Bruce DeSilva
Someone is systematically burning down the neighborhood Liam Mulligan grew up in, people he knows and loves are perishing in the flames, and the public is on the verge of panic. With the whole city of Providence on his back, Mulligan must weed through a wildly colorful array of characters to find the truth.
Spartina by John Casey
A classic tale of a man, a boat, and a storm, brings us Dick Pierce, a commercial fisherman along the shores of Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay. A kind, sensitive, family man, he is also prone to irascible outbursts against the people he must work for, now that he can no longer make his living from the sea.
Compass Rose by John Casey
In this extraordinary follow-up novel to Spartina, barely any time has passed in the magical landscape of salt ponds and marshes in this fictional Rhode Island estuary, as Elsie Buttrick is forced to grapple with the fallout from her affair with fisherman Dick Pierce.
The Edge of Winter by Luanne Rice
Neve Halloran and her daughter have shared a fierce love for the austere beauty of Rhode Island’s South County ever since Neve guided Mickey’s first baby steps along the sandy shore. Now, with Mickey a teenager and Neve’s last hope for happiness with her daughter’s loving but unstable father gone, both will struggle to make a new life together amid the windswept landscape that sustains them.
A hope in the unseen : an American odyssey from the inner city to the Ivy League by Ron Suskind
How hard is it for a kid from the toughest high school in southeast Washington, D.C., to bootstrap himself into the Ivy League? Very, very, very hard. Suskind followed Cedric Jennings through the graffiti-strewn halls of Frank W. Ballou Senior High (where his academic success drew taunts and threats but also support from key teachers) and into an MIT program intended to help minority teens qualify for admission.
The Survivor’s Club by Lisa Gardner
.. . that's what Jillian Hayes, Carol Rosen, and Meg Pesaturo call it. They won't consider themselves victims. They are survivors. They helped lead the investigation that caught the man who changed their lives forever. Now they are the prime suspects in his murder.
Airs of Providence by Jean McGarry
An Irish Catholic neighborhood in the 1950s and '60s is the backdrop for these 15 stories, which treat the reader to some very credible slices of life. McGarry arranges her tales in such a way that every other one deals with the exploits of two sisters, Margery and April Flanaghan.
The Francoeur Novels by David Plante
Set in a French-Canadian neighborhood in Providence, this novel examines the life of the Francoeur family in the 1950s. The depiction of the Catholic Church and the millworking environment is very realistic. The Francoeur Novels include the stories: The Family, The Country, The Woods
