Susannah's Garden by Debbie Macomber

When she was eighteen, Susannah Nelson was sent abroad to school. In what she saw as her fathers attempt in dictating her life it effectively separated her from her boyfriend Jake, and she never got to see her brother Doug again who was killed that summer in an automobile accident. After a few short letters, Susanna never heard from or saw Jake and though it hurt at the time, she later met, married a fine man, and raised a family. -----

Now her children are just about grown, she's hitting midlife, and Susannah's marriage seemed stale as her thoughts continually seemed to focus on what `could have been' if her father hadn't interfered in her life and romance with Jake. With her father recently passed on, she had been summoned home sooner than she'd planned when alerted by neighbors and friends that her widowed mother was having difficulties dealing with her loss and living alone. Back in the house and town she'd grown up in Susanna would have to deal with her mother's increasing aging problems, and make some tough decisions regarding her care. Additionally, she would she face the past, discovering new insights into her troubled relationship with her dad, and dealing with a similar issue concerning her rebellious nineteen year old daughter. 

A lovely, heartwarming read.  I like the ending.  She discovered/decided that the life she had was way better than if her life had gone in any other direction and she and her husband reconnected. 

The Man Who Lied To Women by Carol O'Connor

When a woman killed in Central Park is mistakenly identified as Mallory, the former street urchin and computer whiz sets herself up as bait by moving into the apartment building that houses her three main suspects. Using a computer and the building's electronic bulletin board to psych out the killer, she stirs up more than she bargained for, including someone who wants her dead. Other elements in the intelligent plot include a crime of passion, a suspenseful cat-and-mouse game and a boy who may be telekinetic and whose stepmothers keep dying. 

A different sort of heroine, in some ways she reminded me of Dexter. She has her own set of rules that don't always conform to society's. Lots of bad guys, lots of men who lie to women but who is the murderer she is after?

I would read more in this series. 

Kill The Messenger by Tami Hoag

At the end of a long day battling street traffic, bike messenger Jace Damon has one last drop to make. But en route to delivering a package for one of L.A.'s sleaziest defense attorneys, he's nearly run down by a car, chased through back alleys, and shot at. Only the instincts acquired while growing up on the streets of L.A. allow him to escape with his life—and with the package someone wants badly enough to kill for. 

Jace returns to Lenny Lowell's office only to find the cops there, the lawyer dead, and Jace himself considered the prime suspect in the savage murder. Suddenly he's on the run from both the cops and a killer, and the key to saving himself and his ten-year-old brother is the envelope he still has—which holds a message no one wants delivered: the truth.

Very good read, likeable characters and a perfect ending.

Cara Gayle by Geraldine O'Neill

 Cara Gayle is one of life's pleasers. A young, country school-teacher in 1960s Ireland, she spends her life looking after her philandering husband, Oliver, and her pious mother, Maggie. When Cara's seventh wedding anniversary reveals her husband's latest infidelity, Cara decides it's time to do something for herself. Offered the chance to escape her loveless marriage for a few weeks by accompanying her parents to a family wedding in Lake Savannah, upstate New York, she's only too keen to accept. The gorgeous scenery and the relaxed, American approach to life make Cara more aware than ever of how narrow and unfulfilling her life in Tullamore has become. When she meets Jameson Carroll, a reclusive artist who lives with his young son on the shores of the lake, Cara embarks on a once-in-a-lifetime passionate affair. Yet in the background, her return to Ireland and life with Oliver looms. Can Cara Gayle find the courage, at long last, to finally please herself?

An engaging love story, that was much quicker and easier to read than I had expected from the size of the book.

Black Magic by Cherry Adair

SHE HATES USING MAGIC . . .

Ever since the death of her parents, Sara Temple has rejected her magical gifts. Then, in a moment of extreme danger, she unknowingly sends out a telepathic cry for help—to the one man she is convinced she never wants to see again.

HE’S A POWERFUL WIZARD . . .

Jackson Slater thought he was done forever with his ex-fiancée, but when he hears her desperate plea, he teleports halfway around the world to aid her in a situation where magic has gone suddenly, brutally wrong.

THEY’VE BEEN CHOSEN TO SAVE THE WORLD . . .

But while Sara and Jack remain convinced they are completely mismatched, the Wizard Council feels otherwise. A dark force is killing some of the world’s most influential wizards, and the ex-lovers have just proved their abilities are mysteriously amplified when they work together. But with the fate of the world at stake, will the violent emotions still simmering between them drive them farther apart . . . or bring them back into each other’s arms? 

An OK read with no surprises. I knew who the baddie was from the first time his character was introduced.  Not as good as I would usually expect from Cherry Adair.

The Borgia Bride by Jeanne Kalogridis

Sancha de Aragon, princess of Naples and illegitimate daughter to the coldhearted duke of Calabria (briefly king of Naples), is used to establish ties to the feared and influential House of Borgia when her father betroths her to the younger scion, Jofre. War with the French briefly returned her to Naples, but rumors of her beauty reach her lecherous father-in-law, Pope Alexander VI, who recalls her and Jofre to opulent Rome. There, she avoids the pope's advances—and her jealous sister-in-law Lucrezia's animosity—but falls into a steamy affair with her brother-in-law, the dashing Cesare, cardinal of Valencia. Cesare becomes furious when she refuses to leave Jofre, and he sets out on a warpath that includes her brother Alfonso, who has also married into the Borgia clan—to Lucrezia...

Well written, interesting story.

Midwinter's Bliss by Cathleen Claire

Seeking shelter from a snowstorm at the house of the notorious Marquess of Amberton, Lady Hope Blissfield and her companion unwittingly crash a raucous bachelor party and force their reluctant host to observe proper rules of conduct.

Light, fluffy and totally unbelievable nonsense.