Forbidden Pleasures


Jo Rees - 2010
    From Las Vegas to Dubai, from Shanghai to London, the fatal pull of the gambling world stretches...Savannah, pleasure-loving It Girl, wants to prove herself to her powerful, ruthless father Michael Hudson - until a terrible tragedy forces her to re-think her lifeLois, an ex-cop from the wrong side of the tracks, , is now running the gambling business of Michael's greatest rival, Roberto Enzo - and torn between the glamour and wealth of the casinos and the needs of her vulnerable young daughter.Both women have to confront their pasts, discover new loves, and find out the really important things in life before the greed and corruption of their worlds consume them.

Air Kisses


Zoë Foster Blake - 2009
    Just as she's carving a path into the shiny world of guerrilla air kisses, achingly hip PR campaigns and goodie-bag overload, she reads about her boyfriend and another girl in the gossip pages of the local rag. Then she gets dumped. By text.Vowing to claw back some dignity and make her ex regret what he's done, Hannah adopts a manifesto of hardcore rules. Don't become best friends with the scary girls at work. Don't drink fourteen glasses of Moët & Chandon at PR launches. Don't go home with inappropriate men. And certainly don't get all besotted with your best friend's brother.As her rules start to slip away, Hannah finds herself having to decide on more important things than just the perfect shade of lip gloss . . .

Sunrise


Rosie Thomas - 1984
    For she and Harry were in love, untouchable.Until a shocking revelation drives Angharad to flee, pregnant and penniless, to London. There, struggling to make a new life for herself and her child, she resolves to put the past behind her, joy and heartache alike.But neither time nor success can banish her memories. In the end, Angharad must confront the sinister shadows that lie between her and Harry - the man she will always love, but may never have ...

Meant for Her


Amy Gamet - 2012
    Ordered to the scene of a fiery homicide, Navy officer Hank Jared wants nothing more than to wrap it up and get to his sister's wedding. His sense of duty won't let him walk away from a case, even if he can't figure out why his boss insisted he handle this one personally.When the key to a safe deposit box is found among the ashes, Hank finds himself staring at two pieces of paper--on one is a coded message, on the other, a name that will change the course of his entire life.Julie Trueblood wouldn't trust a Navy man if he handed her a life jacket on board a sinking ship. Her father was a cryptologist for the Navy, who went into hiding a decade earlier to avoid charges of treason. In his absence, Julie was harassed and interrogated by Naval officers who believed she was a traitor, just like her father.Hank tracks Julie down and confronts her with the cipher. She can't stand what he represents and sends him away, insisting she knows nothing about the message. But when she realizes someone is after her, Hank is the only person she can ask for help. He finds the perfect place to hide Julie, right by his side, pretending to be his girlfriend at his sister's wedding. Now he just needs to remember their relationship is all an act.The coded message brings Hank and Julie together, but its secrets hold the power to tear them apart. Guided by her generous and quirky Aunt Gwen, Julie will gather the courage to unravel the cipher that was meant for her to decode, as she learns to trust the man she was meant to love.

The Late, Lamented Molly Marx


Sally Koslow - 2009
    Newly arrived in the hereafter, aka the Duration, Molly, thirty-five years old, is delighted to discover that she can still keep tabs on those she left behind: Annabel, her beloved four-year-old daughter; Lucy, her combustible twin sister; Kitty, her piece-of-work mother-in-law; Brie, her beautiful and steadfast best friend; and, of course, her husband, Barry, a plastic surgeon with more than a professional interest in many of his female patients. As a bonus, Molly quickly realizes that the afterlife comes with a finely tuned bullshit detector.As Molly looks on, her loved ones try to discern whether her death was an accident, suicide, or murder. She was last seen alive leaving for a bike ride through New York City’s Riverside Park; her body was found lying on the bank of the Hudson River. Did a stranger lure Molly to danger? Did she plan to meet someone she thought she could trust? Could she have ended her own life for mysterious reasons, or did she simply lose control of her bike? As the police question her circle of intimates, Molly relives the years and days that led up to her sudden end: her marriage, troubled yet tender; her charmed work life as a magazine decorating editor; and the irresistible colleague to whom she was drawn.More than anything, Molly finds herself watching over Annabel–and realizing how motherhood helped to bring out her very best self. As the investigation into her death proceeds, Molly will relive her most precious moments–and take responsibility for the choices in her life. Exploring the bonds of fidelity, family, and friendship, and narrated by a memorable and endearing character, The Late, Lamented Molly Marx is a hilarious, deeply moving, and thought-provoking novel that is part mystery, part love story, and all heart.

The Last Maasai Warrior


Frank Coates - 2008
    Seven years later, that promise is broken, and the Maasai must choose between war with a powerful enemy and a perilous trek to the land allocated them by the government. Ole Sadera has risen from village scapegoat to leadership of his people. Now, they look to him for answers, while he struggles with betrayal and rapid change - and his desire for another man's wife. British administrator George Coll arrives in East Africa to face impossible choices of his own. How can he do the job he has been given and stay silent? And how can he ask the woman he loves to share an uncertain future? The Maasai gather to make their historic decision...and an Empire holds its breath.

I Invited Her In


Adele Parks - 2018
    Mel and Abi were best friends back in the day, sharing the highs and lows of student life, until Mel’s unplanned pregnancy made her drop out of her studies.Now, seventeen years later, Mel and Abi’s lives couldn’t be more different. Mel is happily married, having raised her son on her own before meeting her husband, Ben. Now they share gorgeous girls and have a chaotic but happy family home, with three children.Abi, meanwhile, followed her lover to LA for a glamorous life of parties, celebrity and indulgence. Everything was perfect, until she discovered her partner had been cheating on her. Seventeen years wasted, and nothing to show for it. So what Abi needs now is a true friend to lean on, to share her grief over a glass of wine, and to have some time to heal. And what better place than Mel’s house, with her lovely kids, and supportive husband…This dark, unsettling tale of the reunion of long-lost friends is thoroughly gripping exploration of wanting what you can’t have, jealousy and revenge from Sunday Times bestseller Adele Parks.

A Memory of Violets: A Novel of London's Flower Sellers


Hazel Gaynor - 2015
    Shaw’s Home for Watercress and Flower Girls. For years, the home has cared for London’s flower girls—orphaned and crippled children living on the grimy streets and selling posies of violets and watercress to survive.Soon after she arrives, Tilly discovers a diary written by an orphan named Florrie—a young Irish flower girl who died of a broken heart after she and her sister, Rosie, were separated. Moved by Florrie’s pain and all she endured in her brief life, Tilly sets out to discover what happened to Rosie. But the search will not be easy. Full of twists and surprises, it leads the caring and determined young woman into unexpected places, including the depths of her own heart.

Death Whispers


Tamara Rose Blodgett - 2011
    making the teens more powerful than the adults.After Caleb discovers he has the rare, Affinity for the Dead, he must do whatever it takes to hide it from a super-secret government agency whose goal is exploitation.Caleb seeks refuge in his new girlfriend, Jade, until he realizes that she needs as much protection from her family, as he does from the government.Suddenly, Caleb finds that hiding his ability while protecting Jade and his friends is a full time job; can he escape the government, protect Jade and lose the bullies that are making him miserable?

Watch Over Me


Daniela Sacerdoti - 2011
    Years of failed fertility treatments, a cheating husband and an oppressive family have pushed her to the limit. Desperate for relief, Eilidh seeks solace in the only place she’s ever felt at home – a small village in the Scottish Highlands. There, Eilidh slowly begins to mend her broken heart but soon learns she is not the only one in the village struggling to recover from a painful past.Jamie McAnena, Eilidh’s childhood friend, is trying to raise his daughter Maisie alone. After Maisie’s mother left to pursue a career in London and Jamie’s own mother, Elizabeth, passed away, he has resigned himself to being a family of two.But sometimes there is more to a story than meets the eye. Despite their reluctance, curious circumstances keep bringing Jamie and Eilidh together. For even when it seems all is lost, help can come from the most surprising places.An ethereal and beautifully written debut novel, Watch Over Me is a poignant story about letting go and moving on – with a little bit of help from beyond the grave.

Forbidden Disclosure


Terri Marie - 2012
    But the young, gorgeous, and sexy Daniel is more interested in fast cars, the family jet, and bedding women.When Francesco decides the best way to make his son grow up is to change his identity and move him away from his Manhattan penthouse, Daniel's world begins to rock.Sent to a little town in Tennessee, stripped of his family name and all access to money, Daniel finds himself on a mission to prove to his father that he can make it. If he doesn't, he risks losing the family business and billions of dollars. Country life isn't setting very well with the fast-paced New Yorker, until he meets the woman who stirs up every one of his senses. Katherine is beautiful, sassy, and has no intentions of hooking up with the new stranger in town. She leaves without a word. Will Daniel risk it all to find her?

Wedded Blitz


Martina Reilly - 2006
    Now, 16 years on, Jim announces that he's leaving. Jane's mother moves in, her daughter gets an unsuitable boyfriend and things look like they can get no worse. Then life deals her and Jim a dreadful blow and they must confront what drove them apart.

Killjoy / Murder List / Slow Burn


Julie Garwood - 2006
    But soon she will have to use every one of her skills on a case that hits painfully close to home. Avery's workaholic aunt, Carolyn Salvetti, persuades her niece to join her for the two weeks of luxury and decadence. But Carolyn never makes it to Utopia…Murder List:When Chicago detective Alec Buchanan is offered a prime position with the FBI, he takes it as the perfect opportunity to leave the Windy City and follow in his brothers’ footsteps to the top echelons of law enforcement. But first he must complete one last assignment: acting as a glorified bodyguard to hotel heiress Regan Hamilton Madison. The gorgeous exec has become entangled in some potentially deadly business: Someone has e-mailed her a graphic crime-scene photo - and the victim is no stranger.Slow Burn:Living a successful life in Charleston, South Carolina, Kate MacKenna has always been able to turn her challenges into triumphs. But now the fates seem to be lining up against her . . . in a lethal fashion. Dylan Buchanan’s convinced that she’s merely having a spell of bad luck - until he discovers how many people want Kate dead.

The Making of Us


Lisa Jewell - 2011
    His friend Maggie sits with him every day; she holds his hand and she listens to the story of his life, to his regrets and to his secrets. And then he tells her about the children he has never met and never will. He talks of them wistfully. His legacy, he calls them. Lydia, Dean and Robyn don't know each other. Yet. And they are all facing difficult changes. Lydia is still wearing the scars from her traumatic childhood and although she is wealthy and successful, her life is lonely and disjointed. Dean is a young man, burdened with unexpected responsibility, whose life is going nowhere. And Robyn wants to be a doctor, just like her father - a man she's never met. But is her whole life built on an illusion? Three people leading three very different lives. All lost. All looking for something. But when they slowly find their way into each other's lives, everything starts to change ...

The Perfume Collector


Kathleen Tessaro - 2013
    When she receives an unexpected inheritance from a complete stranger, Madame Eva d’Orsey, Grace is drawn to uncover the identity of her mysterious benefactor.Weaving through the decades, from 1920s New York to Monte Carlo, Paris, and London, the story Grace uncovers is that of an extraordinary women who inspired one of Paris’s greatest perfumers. Immortalized in three evocative perfumes, Eva d’Orsey’s history will transform Grace’s life forever, forcing her to choose between the woman she is expected to be and the person she really is.The Perfume Collector explores the complex and obsessive love between muse and artist, and the tremendous power of memory and scent.