Book: Alex Rider - Snakehead

Summary: Alex Rider has been forced into the Australian secret service – his target is the criminal underworld of South-East Asia, and the ruthless organization known as the Snakehead.

What I Thought: Loved it. So hooked on these. Nice to see the Australian side (although not sure the picture they painted is fair! Ha ha).

Book: A River Not Yet Tamed

Summary: Orphaned by a shipwreck, Philadelphia grows up on the banks of her beloved Murray River, seemingly destined for a conventional life. Book1.

What I Thought: Enjoyed this literary classic. Will read the rest of the series too! 

Book: Secret Vineyard

Summary: Single mum Grace has no plans - and no spare time - to fall in love again. Until she moves to her ex-husband's secret vineyard . . .
Grace Middleton knew that her ex-husband Jake was a lying, cheating, wife-abandoning bastard.
What she didn’t know – until his untimely death – was that he was also the owner of a secret vineyard in the heart of the Margaret River wine region. And, much to the chagrin of his new wife, he’s left the property to Grace's three young sons.
With the intention of putting it up for sale, Grace takes the boys to view Gum Leaf Grove. And immediately finds herself embroiled in mysteries from Jake's past and the accidental target of the resident ‘ghost’.
Nowadays Grace believes in love even less than she believes in ghosts. So no one is more surprised than her when she finds herself caught between two very different men - with secrets of their own . . .

What I Thought: Enjoyed this one - sure a bit far fetched but still enjoyable.

Book: Alex Rider - Ark Angel

Summary: The sniper’s bullet nearly killed him. But Alex Rider managed to survive . . . just in time for more trouble to come his way. When kidnappers attempt to snatch a fellow patient from the exclusive hospital where Alex is recovering, he knows he has to stop him. But the boy he saves is no ordinary patient: He is the son of Nikolai Drevin, one of the richest men in the world. The eccentric billionaire has been targeted by Force Three, a group of eco-terrorists who claim his project Ark Angel—the first luxury hotel in outer space—is a danger to the environment. Soon Alex discovers that Force Three will stop at nothing to destroy Ark Angel, even if it means sending four hundred tons of molten glass and steel hurtling down to Earth and killing millions . . . unless Alex can stop them.


What I Thought: Again sucked in. Loving the series.

Book: Bro

Summary: What happens when you mix teenage boys, a fight club and ethnic rivalries? You get war. Romeo Makhlouf knows the rules. Stick with your own kind. Don’t dob on your mates or your enemies. Respect the family. But even unwritten rules are made for breaking. 


What I Thought: A nice teen "coming of age" story.

Book: High Country Hero

Summary: Having brokered a fragile peace with his demons at last, ex-Afghan War pilot Mitch Stuart isn't in the market for redemption. But when he steps outside his comfort zone to help a stranger in a country pub, he inadvertently opens the door to the ghosts of a woman and a white dog he thought he'd left behind him long ago.

Veterinary specialist Lennie O'Donnell and her beloved dog, Pesh, are taking a break from big-city life to help Lennie's grandfather sell his old-fashioned rural clinic. Lennie has dedicated her career to healing those unable to tell her what's wrong, but Mitch is a puzzle even she struggles to solve - or completely let go.

Meanwhile, back in Lennie's old home town, another man of mixed messages, her high school crush Benji Cooper, is all grown up and looking at Lennie the way she always dreamed he would. Can Mitch find the courage to let Lennie into his life? And with gorgeous, sunny, funny Benji waiting in the wings, is it a threshold Lennie wants to cross? There's also the matter of her grandparents' unexpectedly fractured marriage to mend, and Lennie's growing suspicion there might be more to the sale of her grandfather's clinic than meets the eye.


What I Thought: Enjoyed revisiting some of these characters and places. Nice to read a NZ rural romance.

Book: The 12 Daves of Christmas

Summary: Abby Solomon may write happy–ever–afters for a living, but doesn't believe she'll have her own. But then a surprise visit from her grandmother's ghost sets her off on a journey she'll never forget. Grandma Charlotte wants to find her first love, Dave, who she mistakenly thought had died in World War II. A quick trawl through the Yellow Pages yields a list of twelve possibilities, and Abby and Charlotte set off on a Christmas road trip – twelve Daves over twelve days along the sun–drenched east coast of Australia.
With just over a week to make the meeting happen, Abby has to meet a dozen Daves – some sweet, some quirky, some downright dangerous – while trying to honour her book deadline and enduring the awkward challenges of having a ghost as a travelling companion.
But when she comes across a young doctor who looks like the hero in one of her novels, Abby has the chance to discover that true love transcends time and space, and that happy endings aren't only to be found between the pages of a book.


What I Thought: Actually enjoyed this cheeky Christmas book!