Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline

Nearly 18 years old, Molly Ayer knows she just has one chance. Just months from 'aging out' of the welfare system and close to being kicked out of her foster home. A community service position helping an elderly woman, Vivian Daly, clear out her home is the only thing keeping her out of juvie or worse. Vivian has led a quiet life on the coast of Maine, but in her attic, are the vestiges of a turbulent past. As Molly helps Vivian sort through her possessions and memories, she discovers they aren't as different as they seem. 

Told in beautifully evocative prose, the story unfolds in alternate perspectives, revealing what has happened to each of them, and how the parallel lines of their lives now converge to spotlight the similarities between them.

It was a story with a perfect ending. 

Loved it.

Festive In Death by J D Robb

Personal trainer Trey Ziegler was in peak physical condition. If you didn’t count the kitchen knife in his well-toned chest.

Lieutenant Eve Dallas soon discovers a lineup of women who were loved and left by the narcissistic gym rat. While Dallas sorts through the list of Ziegler’s enemies, she’s also dealing with her Christmas shopping list—plus the guest list for her and her billionaire husband’s upcoming holiday bash.

Feeling less than festive, Dallas tries to put aside her distaste for the victim and solve the mystery of his death. There are just a few investigating days left before Christmas, and as New Year’s 2061 approaches, this homicide cop is resolved to stop a cold-blooded killer.

I enjoyed the story from the murder to the unmasking. How the characters interacted, how the investigation unfolded, the dialogue and the combination of investigative and personal relationships kept me engaged throughout the story. 

LOVE this series. More for Eve and Roarke's relationship then the murder/investigation side.

Frantic by Katherine Howell

n one terrible moment, paramedic Sophie Phillips’ life is ripped apart – her police officer husband, Chris, is shot on their doorstep and their ten-month-old son, Lachlan, is abducted from his bed. Suspicion surrounds Chris as he is tainted with police corruption, but Sophie believes the attack is much more personal – and the perpetrator far more dangerous...

While Chris is in hospital and the police, led by Detective Ella Marconi, mobilise to find their colleague's child, Sophie's desperation compels her to search for Lachlan herself. She enlists her husband's partner, Angus Arendson, in the hunt for her son, but will the history they share prove harmful to Sophie's ability to complete her mission?

It had me hooked from the first page and I was totally engrossed throughout. I loved that it was set in Sydney with familiar surroundings, I also loved the insight into being a paramedic. I wanted to yell at the 2 main characters, Chris and Sophie, to Talk to each other.  If they had they would have solved the whole thing a lot earlier.  Interfering mothers-in-law are also a bad thing.

Beach Babylon by Imogen Edwards-Jones

How does it feel to live and work in the world's most beautiful and luxurious tropical island resort, surrounded by white sandy beaches and aquamarine seas? 

How does it feel to exist in the lap of luxury when you're thousands of miles from anywhere else? 

And when the guests are some of the richest and most demanding people in the world, where do you find the energy every day to smile, smile and smile again? 

"Beach Babylon" takes you behind the scenes of the world of the five-star tropical island resort. Do all of the stories which take place behind closed doors of the exclusive spa have happy endings? What do the world's richest people expect from room service during their fortnight in paradise? What does the windsurfing instructor do to keep sane after hours? 
With a cast of millionaires, celebrities, hangers-on and prostitutes, "Beach Babylon" takes you to a world where luxury is the norm and where excess somehow isn't always enough...

Amusing look behind the scenes at an island resort that caters to the mega-rich. 
 

Willowswood Match by Gayle Buck

A most painful experience in love sent beautiful young Miss Miranda Wainwright from her home in America to the estate of her aristocratic cousins in England. Here she could start a new life, far from humiliating memories of betrayal... Burned once by a man's lying lips, Miranda vowed never again to put her heart and her fate in romantic jeopardy. Then she met the arrogant if undeniably dashing Viscount Wythe - and her iron-clad declaration of independence had to meet the test of passion's fire in the person of this lord who was everything that Miranda both distrusted and desired... 

Light, fluffy read. 

Dead Heat by Bronwyn Parry

Set in outback NSW in Australia, Park Ranger Jo Lockwood stumbles across the body of a brutally murdered man. Detective Nick Matheson arrives to investigate and it is soon discovered that Jo has seen the killers face. Jo is in danger as the killer doesn't want her to testify against him so Nick and Jo must solve the crime and find the murderer before he executes Jo!

Great suspense with a touch of romance that kept me turning the pages. Loved the setting of outback NSW, the descriptions of the bush and the small town. I want to read more by this author. 

Burning Dawn by Gena Showalter

 A tormented past has left Thane with an insatiable need for violence, making him the most dangerous assassin in the skies. He lives by a single code: no mercy. And as he unleashes his fury on his most recent captor, he learns no battle could have prepared him for the slave he rescues from his enemy’s clutches — a beauty who stokes the fires of his darkest desires.

Elin Vale has her own deep-rooted scars, and her attraction to the exquisite warrior who freed her challenges her every boundary. But Thane’s unwavering determination to protect her means she must face her greatest fears — and enter a world in which passion is power, and victory means breathtaking surrender. 

A great tortured hero who learns to love, a good heroine with her own baggage who learns to let go of the past. I enjoyed the cameo appearances by characters from other books in this series and couple of characters from her Lords of the Underworld series. 

The Royal Snuff Box by Barbara Hazard

Lady Julia was a beauty who stood out even in a London filled with lovely ladies. For a rake like Robert Hammond, she was an appealingly available female to be conquered with all his seductive skills. For an upright gentleman like the Earl of Bradford, she was a young woman whose show of virtue clearly masked the most devious designs. And for the Prince of the Realm himself, she was a subject from whom he expected the most proper obedience to his own most improper wishes.

Clearly Lady Julia had to be on guard against the strength of the passions she inspired... and against her own unexpected weakness... 

Light, entertaining reading.  Better than I had expected.

Under The Wintamarra Tree by Doris pilkington

Doris Pilkington Garimara was born on traditional birthing ground under the wintamarra tree. This is her life story, which follows on from her mother Molly's story in 'Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence', the book on which the internationally released film was based. Doris begins with the historic migration of her Mardu ancestors from the West Australian desert to the cattle stations and settlements on its fringes.
Generations later, living in the workers' camps with her family on Balfour Downs Station, three-year-old Doris' life is forever changed when she is removed by the authorities to Moore River Native Settlement. This institution, for children judged as identifiably of mixed race, was the place Molly had so famously escaped from a decade before.
The life of an institutional orphan, as seen through the eyes of a child, is movingly revealed. In contrast are lighthearted incidents when young Doris' vitality and independence test the patience of the staff. Leaving behind the regimentation of assigned routines and endless regulations, Doris goes to Perth to train as a nurse's aide but the racist culture of an institutional upbringing leaves an indelible mistrust of her own people. This is the obstacle she has to overcome when as a wife and mother she makes the courageous but difficult choice to find her mother and father, and to begin the journey to reclaim her Mardu heritage.' 

Fascinating, compelling reading. Knowing the areas she mentioned (Pilbara, Geraldton and Perth) in the book added a depth to the book.

Nerd Gone Wild by Vicki Lewis Thompson

Ally Jarrett has been a good girl all her life, mostly to keep from worrying her grandmother. But now her grandmother's dead, and Ally has inherited a fortune, so she travels to Porcupine, Alaska, to try her hand at wildlife photography. Ally doesn't know that her grandmother's personal assistant, and executor of the estate, Mitchell Carruthers, former PI, is supposed to be her bodyguard. To keep his mission secret, Mitch has donned the geekiest of nerd clothes. But Ally soon sees through his facade and insists that she doesn't need his help. But her sleazy uncle is after Ally's fortune, and he'll stop at nothing to get it. In the third book in Thompson's hysterically funny series, following Nerd in Shining Armor and The Nerd Who Loved Me, a riotous cast of colorful characters--including Ally's oversexed landlady, who specializes in roadkill casseroles; her uncle's dominatrix girlfriend; and the world's worst sculptor--fill the pages with hilarious situations, and hot, creative sex.

Much better than I had expected.. Very funny.  The Domme scene was well done.

Savage Awakening by J. D. Tyler

A group of former Navy SEALS, the Alpha Pack is a top-secret team of wolf shifters with Psy powers combating the greatest dangers in the world. But sometime those dangers are more intimate than they bargained for...

After a mission goes wrong, Aric Savage is taken prisoner. Half-dead and despairing, he makes a stunning discovery: his Pack mate Micah Chase, who was reported dead, is a fellow captive. When the Alpha team goes into full-rescue mode, accompanying them is an absolute stunner with sable hair--and a spine of solid steel.

LAPD officer and Psy Dreamwalker Rowan Chase has one priority: her brother Micah's recovery. Still, she can't help but be drawn to Aric, the ruggedly handsome wolf shifter who pleasures her as no man ever has--however fleeting their affair is destined to be. But when Aric's life is endangered, Rowan must ask herself what she's willing to sacrifice in the name of love, for the man fated to be her Bondmate. 

Interesting characters, a believable shifter world, lots of action, humour and love make for a very enjoyable read. I'll be looking for more in this series.