Ten Women, by Marcela Serrano (author), Beth Fowler (translator) Marisol Ramirez (narrator)

Brilliance Audio, February 2014 (original publication October 2004)

In Santiago, Chile, ten women--nine patients and their therapist--meet. Normally the women receive individual therapy, but this time the therapist, Natasha, wants them all together in a group session. They will all talk about their lives.

They're all very different women, different backgrounds, different experiences. An elderly former actress, a nineteen-year-old computer whiz, a housekeeper, a woman from a wealthy, connected family, women who have struggled to become or remain middle class. The last story we get is Natasha's own, an immigrant with a broken and traumatic past of her own.

Murder Has No Guilt (DCI Isaac Cook #9), by Phillip Strang

Phillip Strang, November 2018

A mass shooting in a high-end hair salon for men is the start of a big problem for DCI Isaac Cook and his team. Even the minor local mafia boss doesn't seem like a likely target for this type of killing. But  as Isaac and his team keep digging, it begins to look like it had nothing to with anyone there--and everything to do with a brewing gang war between a Romanian gang well established in the area, and a major Russian mafia gang moving in.

The deaths in the mass shooting are, of course, not the last deaths.

An informant of DI Larry Hill's, a leader of one of the local West Indian gangs, a source DC Wendy Gladstone has cultivated in the course of this investigation, all find their lives abruptly shortened. No one is happy about the Russians, more violent than any of the established gangs, moving in but working with the police is a hard step to take.

The Outlaw's Daughter (Marrying a Marshall #3), by Natalie Dean

Kenzo Publishing, November 2018

Ella Jenkins left her outlaw family because she couldn't accept being part of a criminal gang. She wanted a quiet, and law-abiding, life. She settled in Cypress Creek, with Meg, a woman she met who had set out to be a mail-order bride and been unceremoniously stood up by her intended groom. She's working as a seamstress for the local tailor, who is kind, but with Meg's income, together they can just about pay the rent on their cabin and buy food.

Then Meg connects with another mail-order groom.

And Hank Fulton, senior of the three US Marshals in Cypress Creek, knocks on their door and tells her he knows her name is Jenkins, not Jones, and that he wants her to help infiltrate the gang now run by her brother, Ezra.

It's a hard choice for Ella to make. She'd rather forget she was ever a Jenkins, she doesn't want to actively betray her brother, and she does want the Marshals to keep making the region safer.

Genius: The Game, by Leopoldo Gout

Macmillan Children's Publishing Group, ISBN 9781250045812, May 2016

Rex Huerta is an American teenager, and a coding genius. His brother Teo was, too, but Teo has disappeared, and Rex is working on a way to find them. His parents reported his disappearance, but an older teen, one old enough to have simply decided to leave, with no evidence at all of foul play, is not a major priority. The elder Huertas, unlike their two sons, are undocumented, and without real evidence, they can't afford to push harder and annoy the police.

So Rex continues with his schoolwork and his blogging activities, while working on software that will enable him to find Teo. Oh, his blogging activities--a blog called the Lodge, where he provides brilliant coding solutions, his friend Tunde, in Nigeria, answers questions about how to build practically anything out of, essentially, junk, and Cai, a Chinese girl they and everyone else only knows as Painted Wolf, exposes corruption. Her research skills and surreptitious videos have brought down some powerful figures.

Spring's Calling (Seasons of Magic #1), by Sarah Bigelow

Sarah Bigelow, November 2018

Ezri Trenton is a cop, a still-new detective with the Boston Police Department.

Ezri is also a witch.

Her relationship with both things is--complicated.

Ezri is the descendant of witches who died in the Salem Witch Trials. Prophecy says that she is the Savior, destined to defeat a plot by evil practitioners who will strike on the day that there is an eclipse of the sun and a meteor shower, on the Vernal Equinox. And Ezri is committed, personally, to doing her duty. Unfortunately, she's not on speaking terms with any of the other witches she should be collaborating with when the time comes--which is very, very soon.

Ezri's mother died on Ezri's fifteenth birthday. She found her mother's body, knife in her chest--and the Authority, the governing body of witches who seek to be law-abiding good citizens, covered it up and did nothing to find the killer. Ezri has cut ties with everyone who went along with this, which was everyone important in her life.

Her complicated relationship with her police career comes from the fact that she still basically seeks to follow the rules and ethics of the Authority, and that means, sometimes, often, not telling the whole truth about how she gets things done.

Love and Dreams (The Summer Sisters #2), by Jean Oram (author), Vanessa Moyen (narrator)

Oram Productions, July 2018

Maya Summer, the second of the Summer sisters, is a business school graduate with brains, drive, ambition, and maybe not such a good grasp of the importance of human connections. She thinks her family is too sentimental about the island cottage that's been in the family for generations. However, they are committed to keeping it, and she sees a possible way to both help pay the back taxes on it, and advance her own goal of landing the perfect job to launch her business career in Toronto.

Rent out the cottage as an "executive retreat," along with her own services as a summer assistant.

When Connor MacKenzie, business powerhouse, the "King of Toronto," giver of TED Talks on business, and Maya's own personal business idol, books two weeks on the island, Maya thinks her dream has come true and she's on her way.

Must Love Mistletoe (Alaska Sunrise Romances #3), by Melissa Storm (author), Ann Richardson (narrator)

Partridge & Pear Publishing, January 2018

Seattle realtor Riley McKinley is not thrilled when, a few days before Christmas, the day her Christmas holiday is to start, her biggest client asks her to go to Alaska to help he with a deal there--immediately. But he is her biggest client, it's a potentially career-making deal, and she likes him. So she flies up to Alaska.

When she arrives, she's met by Sebastian Rockwell. He's the winter sports coordinator for the resort chain that Riley's client wants to buy one currently-inactive location from. Sebastian is the last unmarried son of a match-making mama, and he dislikes Christmas as much as his mother and the rest of the family love it. He was happy to take the extra hours to be the tour guide for Riley and her client, when asked.

In the Shadow of Light,by Elaine L. Orr (author), Andre G. Chapoy (narrator)

Lifelong Dreams Publishing, October 2018

Corazon Sanchez, her baby brother Pico, and their mother, Isabella, have walked from Honduras to the US-Mexico border, fleeing the gangs that killed Corazon's father, Manuel. They wanted more protection money for the family's store than they can afford to pay. Also, though, Manuel and his father, Tito, helped save the life of an American soldier, Colonel Bill Haines, years ago when Manuel was a young man. That may also have been a sore spot for the gangs.

The Sanchez family think they are walking towards safety, but they don't know about the changes under the new President (not Trump; the people are all fictionalized.) They don't know about the family separation policy.

And they left too quickly to let Colonel Bill know they were coming.

A Reel Christmas in Romance, by J.J. DiBenedetto

Writing Dreams, November 2018

Marianne Carter owns the only movie theater in the town of Romance, the Esmeralda Theater, and like her father and grandfather before her, shows only classic movies--nothing after 1955. It's a labor of love, as well as her business.

Jack Nelson is with the state historical commission, sent to evaluate the theater and Marianne's application to have it designated an historic landmark. He has to do this without Marianne knowing, or becoming too friendly with her, because he has to not only be objective, but be seen to be objective.

The Duck Man is Marianne's anonymous email pen pal, new in town and a little general about exactly what he does, but a delight to chat with in email. She, also, remains anonymous.

Esme is Jack's anonymous email pen pal. She's a pleasure to converse with in email, and, since it's clear she works at the Esmerelda, a useful contact. Right? Jack, too, remains anonymous.

An Unexpected Christmas in Sampson's Quarry (Sampson's Quarry #4), by Sophie Tucker

Lirios Publishing, November 2018

First off, this book, despite being number four in a series, really does work as a standalone.

Second, the dog does not die. In fact, the dog is just fine, all the way through.

Nancy Redmond has a lovely Christmas planned--in Colorado with her college roommate, not in Europe with her parents. She knows her car needs to see the local mechanic--an old high school classmate--as soon as possible, but right now, it only has to get her to the airport, with one stop on the way for a quick visit with one of her real estate clients.

Instead, of course, the car dies while she's at the client's house. The client isn't there, because a family emergency kept them from making it to their vacation home, and their message was sent while she was busy. She doesn't see it till she's there, and stuck.

And she forgot to charge her phone, and it's dying now.