Talk of the Townies

by Gwenna Laithland

Swinton, Oklahoma runs on gossip.

The supply is managed by The Gaggle—a flock of civic-minded busybodies who treat the town Facebook pages like a public records database and everyone else’s life like a community project.

So when ceramic artist Didi Stephens moves to town to help her twin brother  and open her dream pottery studio, the Gaggle immediately decides she’s the perfect solution to another civic concern:

Chief of Police Foster Grady needs to get over his divorce. Within days, the town has already decided Didi and Foster are secretly dating. Didi suggests the obvious solution.

The town wants a romance? Give them one.

A pretend relationship will convince the Gaggle Foster has finally moved on and give Didi the publicity she needs to launch her studio. All they have to do is hold hands in public, show up together to town events, and survive the rumor mill. Easy.

Except Swinton is currently dealing with a serial panty thief, the Gaggle has begun planning Foster and Didi’s wedding, and the more convincing their fake relationship becomes, the harder it is to remember it started as damage control.

Because in Swinton, once you become talk of the townies, the whole town expects a happy ending. And everyone is watching.

Genres: Audiobook

Unknown Binding

Published June 26, 2026

About the author

Gwenna Laithland was born and raised in Oklahoma, the only child of a military family with both parents serving in the United States Air Force. She has absolutely no idea what she is doing most of the time but is pretty confident she is doing an okay job. She still lives in Oklahoma with her husband, Jackson, their three children and two spoiled dogs.

Reviews

[Teresa]

Cute, but could have used another round of editing.

[Kelly Anderson]

2.5 ⭐
I thought the story was cute, but the grammatical errors and redundant bits of dialogue were distracting.

[Elizabeth Gee]

Adorable and relatable. Are you sick of young, mostly perfect FMCs? Meet Didi in all her millennial, curvaceous glory. It's so refreshing to read romance novels about real people in my own age bracket. Really looking forward to the second in the series!!! 😸

[Ali Pethe]

delightful, a great relaxing read

This has been a great escapist book this summer. It is so easy to read, the story is delightful, the characters are super relatable. I highly recommend this book if you just need a nice romantic comedy.

[Ashley]

I have loved listening to Gwenna Laithland for years, and her writing style and word choice makes me happy. I enjoyed the humor and the characters. Parts of dialogue felt a little pointed at times, and some of the conflict towards the end felt out of place, like there weren't enough pebbles throughout the story to equal the landslide. Overall its an enjoyable, cozy read.

[Dragon Be Reading]

Full disclosure: contemporary anything isn't truly my thing, and contemporary romance isn't anywhere close to what normally draws me to a story.

That said, Talk of the Townies dragged me in kicking and screaming, shoved me into a comfy overstuffed armchair, handed me a delicious artisan coffee beverage, and regaled me with the cutest romance I've encountered in a minute!

Gwenna Laithland's ability to weave a story drew me in quite quickly, introducing Didi Stephens and Foster Grady in such a way that I could have sworn I knew them - and in fact, I did. They and the rest of the Swinton Townies are every small town community I've ever encountered, and if you live or have lived in a Midwestern or Southern small town, you'll recognize your neighbors in them. You will spend a good deal of the book reminiscing about those people and those places. I giggled more over the Townies' antics than I had anticipated I would, and that made me even happier to read on.

Didi and Foster are very grounded characters, each with their own baggage they must open up and put away. The best part, though, is that they aren't ultra-hip, overly-trendy, or even remotely annoying. They are incredibly relatable - they're people that have actual weight, flaws, and feel very much like they could be any one of us!

You know what I loved the most? The way the town simply grew richer with every chapter. The town's own Facebook page made several appearances, which tickled me beyond belief. Truly, I am begging for a small town mystery to be told solely through the "Swinton Town Page (Official) NO DRAMA!!" page!

If you're looking for a cozy romance set in small town middle America, with a tiny dash of mystery, some hijinks, and the most lovely cast of characters you might find, grab a cup of your favorite coffee, a big ol' cinnamon roll, and a copy of Talk of the Townies. You'll be one of the Gaggle in no time!

Many thanks to Gwenna Laithland and her PA, Jennifer Jimeson, for allowing me to read this ARC; doing so has not influenced me, and all thoughts on this review are my own.

[Minding My Bookshelf]

I thoroughly enjoyed the book!! As someone who has lived in a small town (with 2 Main Streets too!) for the last 10 years, I can definitely identify a lot of the characters with people in my own town. The characters are all well thought out and layered. There are genuinely laugh out loud moments in the book and I LOVED the addition of the Facebook posts. Didi and Foster are such likeable characters and show so much growth through the book.

I also like that Didi was a curvier/plus size FMC. In a lot of books that feature curvy/plus FMCs, it has become something that authors mention once or twice, kind of just in passing. It’s just something that’s said and then nothing more. The world does not always conform or even accept larger people in some spaces (as a plus size woman, I know). The fact that Didi brought it up and claimed her space at the coffee house table instead of hanging off the side of bench feels very important. It also brings me to the next things I enjoyed.

Other than Didi taking ownership of her space at the table, two other parts stood out as being applicable to the real world. They are the quote from Dillion about Didi taking control of her life and treatment of the Chesterfields. I really liked that both of these were added to help make the reader think, after reading the book, about the world around them.

The only issue I had with the book was the pace in the first part. It was a little slow in the first few chapters of the book and I know things are slower because of the world building. You can feel a shift in the book and things begin to become smoother, pacing is almost perfection, and the dialogue is perfect. I cannot wait to read Cats Out Of The Bag!!

[Liz Baylus]

I’ve followed Gwenna Laithland, AKA MommaCusses on TikTok for years and more recently on IG and Threads, where she’s been talking about her new series, the Swinton Sweeties. Set in Swinton, Oklahoma, the first book in the series Talk of the Townies follows Foster Grady, the town’s official sheriff, and Didi Stephens, the twin sister of the town’s only legal 🍃 store owner 👀 oh and she’s also an artist who’s preparing to open a community art studio in the other half of the building she owns with her brother.

This book is definitely a departure from my typical reading as there is no spice, but I didn’t miss it at all!! I laughed so hard I cried, I was rooting for Foster and Didi from start to finish, and the side characters had me cracking up at their antics and their inability to read a room 🤣 There’s a reason I’ve followed Gwenna for as long as I have, and I could not be more grateful I was chosen to help get the word out about this amazing book!!

[Kristina]

I found this humorous and lighthearted take on a girl retreating to a small town to escape her jilted love life a creative and modern approach to a trope that I usually think as an overdone Hallmark movie, but this is not that, in fact the protagonist, clearly states multiple times, “This is NOT a Hallmark movie.” Is the small town vibe still more clean than what most truly are? Yes, but there is a nice vulnerability that emerges and makes this humorous approach to finding love when you least want or expect it a delightful cup of your favorite coffee drink. Put it on your list as a read between the heavy stuff to remind you that there are still lots of warm hearted people in unexpected places.

[Rae]

As someone that has listened to childproof and interacted with Gwenna's content across multiple platforms I really struggled getting into this because the main character kinda felt like a self insert of a version her. It was hard to get fully into the story because of that, but I will say it got a little better as the story progressed. It was cute, but also felt like it lacked something. I prefer her stories about her life, as they feel more genuinely cohesive and enjoyable... However I will say for me this was better than her novela. Not my favorite of her stories, but I'm intrigued enough to give the second book in the series a go when it comes out.

[Amanda Taylor]

I absolutely adored this entire book, start to finish. I don’t even have words for how many times I smiled, laughed out loud, and snorted right along with DeeDee. The cute little town in this book was so realistic, down to the Hot Cocoa Crawl and the Silver Bell Festival. I wanted to crawl inside the pages of this book and meet my new best friends. I cannot wait for the next one. And honestly, the audiobook made it even better for me. Cute, fun, quirky - all the best stuff in a small town romance.

[Jasmine]

My pre ordered Audio copy was available yesterday and I totally started in the morning before work and finished after work before bed!

It was sooo good! I laughed and love how real the characters feel! The chemistry between the main pair felt natural and not forced but didn’t drag on in a weird way either. This is a small town I’d love to live in!

[Teri]

Worth the wait!

I’ll admit, I bought this book because of Gwenna. But it was absolutely the best kind of boring ever! It is definitely salty, but frankly, I fell so in love with Swinton I didn’t even care. Dylan, Dillon, Grady, and the whole crew are just so likable, relatable, and wholesome! I can’t wait for the next installment!

[amanda]

Can't wait for the next book!

I absolutely love these characters and I can't help but imagine Didi with Gwenna's voice and inflections as I am reading which makes me love it even more!

[Nan]

Audiobook. Can’t wait for the next ones. Can confirm this is how Oklahoma is got a lot of things in this book. The emotions and so on handled here feel real and the circumstances pretty close to how it is. All this is mixed in with a LOT of crazy humor. This town!! 😆

[Dominique Kilgore-Moore]

I related way too hard to Didi through this whole book, enough that the end had me in tears. Also I really loved how the book captured living in small town Oklahoma, because the gossip mill is so real🤣 I’m super excited for book two!

[Desiree Berry]

Mad I didn't read it sooner!

Amazing book! The character building is great and you really get attached. Loved the story telling and descriptions. Overall loved the book! Can't wait for the second!

[Aaliyah Lowery]

Cute and cozy! This was the small town romance that I didn't know I needed. I loved the slow burn of Foster and Didi, especially since they are fully developed adults with a little heartbreak and baggage.

[Brittany Spurrier]

A great read. Really enjoyed the story.

[Dakotah Gumm]

Do not eat or drink anything while reading this book. I laughed until I cried. Beware the hefty bags beneath the water tower.

[Maddie King]

Really good, it let me check out into a different town and focus on small town drama. Funny and predictable in the best way.

[Callie]

Just like Oklahoma

What a wonderful little town that pulls you into their drama. I couldn't put the book down once I started reading.

[Jessica Williams LaBombard]

This book was super cute and had me laughing. I feel like it could have benefited from one more round of editing, but overall I liked it enough that I have pre-ordered the second in the series.

[teal]

Absolutely HILARIOUS! I adored this book!

[MechyAinz]

Cute enough but I found the grammatical errors and repeated dialog to be distracting. There was still a place holding loan "z" which I associate with waiting to fill in a name you haven't settled on for a character yet. I've read Momma Cusses and Thinky Thoughts and those definitely went through a more rigorous editing process. There is potential for this story so perhaps it will get a revised edition. If it does, I'd skim it and consider revising my opinion.

[Silvina Zunino]

Please do yourself a favor and read this book.

[Andrea Casto]

I love it

It’s a good book I am definitely gonna read it again when my kids back in school again and I can read it in peace

[Mary Barber]

I absolutely loved this cute little romance full of fun small town Oklahoma charm!