Kissing Tree Novella (Regina Jennings) Books in Order

The Kissing Tree is a shared historical-romance collection built around one old oak tree in Oak Springs, Texas. Across several novellas by different authors, the tree becomes a local landmark for first meetings, remembered heartbreaks, promises, and unexpected new beginnings. The stories move through different eras, but that rooted piece of the town's past links them together.

Regina Jennings's contribution is Broken Limbs, Mended Hearts. It opens the collection's connection to the tree and stays close to the community around it. Like her longer novels, the novella mixes a small-town setting, an independent heroine, a practical problem, and a romance made difficult by old wounds.

Bella Eden is a schoolteacher whose life was changed by a painful moment beneath the oak years earlier. She has settled into work and routine, but the past becomes hard to ignore when Adam, a young man she once knew, returns to town with a new invention. His arrival disrupts more than Bella's memories. It threatens the stability of the school and puts her job on the line.

The central question is not simply whether Bella and Adam still care for each other. Bella has to decide whether she can trust someone connected to her worst disappointment, especially when accepting his help might leave her more vulnerable. Adam's invention brings the pressure of change to a town that is used to doing things the old way, which gives their personal conflict a wider effect.

It is a compact story, so the pace is quicker than in a full-length novel. Jennings does not need a large mystery or a long journey to create tension. A threatened job, community resistance, and a shared history give Bella and Adam enough to work through. The old oak serves as a quiet reminder that places can hold memories, even when the people who made them are trying to move on.

The larger collection is especially suited to readers who like connected anthology fiction. The novellas are written by different authors, so each has its own couple and style, while Oak Springs and its famous tree provide continuity. Readers can enjoy Jennings's story on its own, but the shared setting adds another layer if they continue through the collection.

Begin with Broken Limbs, Mended Hearts if you want Jennings's entry first. It offers a warm, low-commitment introduction to the tree and to the collection's blend of Texas history, second chances, and romances shaped by a place everyone in town seems to remember.