The Girl on the Train: Sidekick to the Novel


Anna Gooding-Call - 2015
     Warning: This is an independent companion to The Girl on the Train, meant to enhance your experience of the novel. If you have not yet bought Paula Hawkins' novel, make sure to purchase it before buying this unofficial Sidekick. Riding the train on her daily commute, Rachel watches the picture-perfect couple she’s dubbed "Jess and Jason" as they go about their lives. But one day she sees something that changes her perception of the couple forever—and leads her deep into the darker truths that lie beneath the pretty smiles and charming houses of Blenheim Road. First published in the U.K. in 2012, The Girl on the Train is Paula Hawkins' debut novel and has already sold over seven million copies. With this Sidekick, you’ll: • Spend some more time with the characters you've come to know and love • Take a look at the novel’s underlying themes • Learn what you might have missed on your first read of The Girl on the Train • Explore a possible alternate ending and imagine ideas for a sequel • Get a chance to discuss Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train with other readers Sidekicks are entertaining and insightful reading companions, filled with delightful commentary and thought-provoking questions. Readers have raved that they "really put you in touch with the many layers of the novel," "keep you entertained even longer," and are "perfect if you want a vivid understanding of the story." Designed to be read side by side with the novels they complement, they’ll give you even more reasons to love some of today’s best books.

Crab Bait


Carrie Enge - 2015
    No matter how you look at it, fishing in Alaska is a deadly way to make a living.

Field of Dead Horses


Nick Allen Brown - 2012
    Georgetown, Kentucky, 1939...soon after dawn on a February morning, Elliott Chapel discovers an unconscious, bloodied, young woman lying face up in the cold waters of Penny Creek. Days later, awakening from her hypothermic coma, Ellie Evans finds herself on the Chapel Farm. Once she explains her plight as the abused wife of a powerful man, Elliott offers her and her son a place to stay and vows to keep them from harm. For both Ellie and Elliott, life under the same roof is a challenge--with the cantankerous Paul Chapel, Elliott's father who spends his retirement days drinking whiskey with his aging coonhound by his side. Elliott has taken over the daily operations of the horse farm with his assistant, Booley. Unusual for the time--when blacks were subservient to whites--Booley manages a small staff and helps Elliott attempt the impossible with the newly-acquired horse of a high-profile client. Ellie pitches in and helps out when she can and helps change the mood of the busy farm with her sweet charm and culinary skills, even getting on the good side of the bad-tempered Paul Chapel. Just when daily life settles into an enjoyable rhythm, a violent struggle erupts when the malicious Mayor Evans descends on the farm with the county sheriff and two deputies. Armed with shotguns, they remove Ellie and her son from the farm, against her will. Narrated by Elliott five decades later, he recalls the incident on the Chapel Farm and subsequent events which ultimately reveal the long-kept secret...hidden in a small town since 1939.

The Adventures of Charlie Smithers


C.W. Lovatt - 2012
    Make way for Charlie Smithers.The time is the nineteenth century. The place, the Serengeti Plain, where one Charlie Smithers – faithful manservant to the arrogant bone-head, Lord Brampton (with five lines in Debrett, and a hopeless shot to boot) – becomes separated from his master during an unfortunate episode with an angry rhinoceros, thereby launching Charlie on an odyssey into Deepest Darkest Africa, and subsequently into the arms of the beautiful Loiyan…and that’s where the trouble really begins.Maasai warriors, xenophobic locals, or evil Arab slavers, the two forbidden lovers encounter everything that the unforgiving jungle can throw at them."A truly engaging read that will keep anyone’s attention from the hilarious beginning until the last word. I highly recommend this 5 star novel." ~ Chapters & Chats

Cursed Blessing


J.M. LeDuc - 2009
    There, he is content to live a peaceful existence as the town’s head librarian. Although he loves the peace and tranquility that have become his life, he is haunted by nightmares. Nightmares that always pertain to some skill that he had learned as a covert operative and they always contain an image of his lost love; Chloe.Brent’s life turns upside down when he receives a gift from Lucile Conklin. Her late husband has bequeathed a rare book collection to him upon his death. Among the books Brent finds a letter written by his grandfather twenty years earlier. What he doesn’t know is that he has also been passed a secret, now known as The Endowment. This secret is so old that it dates back to the dawn of creation. A secret which began as a gift from God, but because of man’s wickedness and immorality has become so evil that if it were to fall into the wrong hands, Armageddon would occur.A secret that is a Cursed Blessing. This is a new release of a previously published edition.

Finding Charlie


Katie O'Rourke - 2015
    When Charlie vanishes without warning, the people who love her are worried sick. Even if the law considers her an adult at nineteen, Charlie's still the baby of her already broken family. Older sister Olivia is determined to figure out what's happened. She finds a lost cell phone, an abandoned car and a shady boyfriend she's never met before. And he's not the only secret Charlie's been keeping.This disappearance feels uncomfortably familiar, reminding Olivia and her father of another loss years before. But this will be different, Olivia swears. Charlie's coming back.

The Secrets of Inishbeg Cove (Inishbeg Cove #1)


Izzy Bayliss - 2019
    In search of the truth he travels from North Carolina to the sleepy coastal village of Inishbeg Cove in the West of Ireland. But not everyone in the village welcomes Greg and he soon learns that his search for answers isn't going to be easy. Can Greg unearth the secrets lying hidden in the waters of the cove? Praise for Izzy Bayliss 'There’s just something about this authors writing skills that almost put you into a trance and I was quite happy to stay inside the book, losing myself into the story.' - Sarah Hardy - By The Letter Book Reviews 'Perfect for the romantic comedy loving readers. I think this is going to be one to watch!' Kasha Holloway - The Writing Garnet Book Reviews 'I ABSOLUTELY LOVED THESE BOOKS!!!' - 5* Amazon Reviewer 'Page Turner ... Outstanding' - 5* Amazon Reviewer

Speed of Light


Lee Baker - 2011
    He is destined to make history like John Glenn and Neil Armstrong. Pierce’s idyllic world screeches to a halt when, three weeks before the historic flight, his wife is killed in a tragic car accident.Determined to carry on with the groundbreaking flight in spite of his grief, Pierce is changed forever when, during the flight, his body is transformed into light. The shock of it all puts Pierce into a deep coma and when he wakes time is not relevant to his mind. Suddenly able to step into visions of the past, Pierce struggles to make sense of what he sees as he learns that his wife’s death was not an accident, but murder and her murderers are after him. As Pierce and the beautiful attorney, Vanessa Trace, sort through the bizarre attacks on Pierce and his vivid visions of the past, they cannot substantiate any evidence to his claims. In a frantic race to stay alive, Pierce and Vanessa find themselves matching wits with a conspiracy with seemingly endless resources and a police department convinced Pierce is a murderer, while at the same time they question whether or not Pierce himself is crazy.Standing out from traditional suspense novels, Speed of Light is fast-paced, intelligent and intricately layered with mind expanding concepts.

Little Wing


Freya North - 2022
    Years later, Nell and Dougie are both at critical moments in their lives when their paths cross. Between Camden, Colchester and the Outer Hebrides, the three story lines collide when secrets are uncovered and answers sought.Little Wing is a novel about resilience, forgiveness and the true meaning of family, about finding one's place in the world and discovering how we all belong somewhere and to someone.

Free Sampler of The Sea Sisters (Chapters 1-6)


Lucy Clarke - 2013
    . .Katie’s carefully structured world is shattered by the news that her headstrong younger sister, Mia, has been found dead in Bali – and the police claim it was suicide.With only the entries of Mia’s travel journal as her guide, Katie retraces the last few months of her sister’s life, and – page by page, country by country – begins to uncover the mystery surrounding her death.What she discovers changes everything. But will her search for the truth push their sisterly bond – and Katie – to breaking point?The Sea Sisters is a compelling story of the enduring connection between sisters.

Steps and Exes


Laura Kalpakian - 1999
    At Henry's House on Isadora Island, Celia has created a faux-family homestead, a testament to tradition. Personally, however, Celia's unconventional love life has kept Isadora Island entertained for a generation.Married only once and widowed at twenty-two, Celia has spent a lifetime preaching (and practicing) Unfettered Love, preferring unions free of matrimony, free of the ties that bind -- and can just as easily strangle. Despite all the domestic upheaval, she has acquired a large extended family of children, stepchildren, partners, and ex-partners. Generous and spirited, but notoriously stubborn, Celia nonetheless draws people into her arms and her home.When, much to Celia's dismay, her daughter Bethie announces her engagement, Celia reluctantly agrees to throw a lavish celebration. To this party she must invite everyone in her whole overextended family: her steps and exes, their current partners and starchy in-laws, as well as a host of island eccentrics. As the big day approaches, Celia senses impending disaster. But nothing prepares her for the fallout when the nuclear family explodes and she must reconstruct the past in order to transform the future.

Trick or Treat


Lesley Glaister - 1992
    Reprint. NYT.

Tuesdays with Morrie & the Five People You Meet in Heaven


Mitch Albom - 2007
    

A Cape May Diamond


Larry Enright - 2012
    I’ll never forget that day. The Vietnam War had ended with the fall of Saigon that April, and the world was mired in one of its worst recessions ever. Unemployment in the United States was nearly nine percent, inflation even higher, and leadership lacking. The Watergate scandal had cast a smear across American politics, resulting in Richard Nixon’s resignation in August 1974 to avoid impeachment, and his successor’s immediately pardoning him to close the book on an unhappy chapter in U.S. history.It was not a good time for anyone and a particularly hard time for the old Victorian town of Cape May. The crown jewel of the New Jersey shore had fallen into neglect and disrepair and was dying a slow death. Once the elegant summer home to presidents and kings, it had become the last refuge of the deposed.That’s where I met Tom Ryan. Tom was a king, or so he would have you believe, but unlike Richard Nixon, when Tom was dethroned, he wasn’t sent home with a slap on the wrist. He was sent to prison. He was a convicted draft dodger, but one of the lucky ones released early by President Ford as part of his mass clemency after Nixon’s pardon. The problem was, Tom had nowhere to go when he got out, so he took the money his dad mailed to him and spent it on a bus ticket to get as far away as possible to a place where nobody cared who he was or what he had done, a place where nobody cared about anything. That place was Cape May.As hard a time as it was for everyone, it was harder for me because that was the day I met Tom Ryan. I should have turned and walked away. I knew it when he first looked at me, but I didn’t, not my first mistake, but one that would make Monday, May 19th, 1975 the hardest day of my life. This is the story of how Tom Ryan and I met and how things never quite work out the way you think. You might find a love story in here somewhere. You might not. You might find a message hidden in one of the nickel pop bottles collected by the beachcombers from some of the most beautiful white sand beaches in the world. You might even find a little mystery, but life is a mystery, isn’t it?

The Blue Hour


M.J. Greenwood - 2021
    She hopes a combination of countryside and coast will heal her shattered heart. But she has yet to face tyrannical Tilly Barwise; the 89-year-old she will be looking after. Sharp, cantankerous and with an acid tongue, Tilly is the polar opposite of a sweet old lady. She has lived a thrillingly full life of romance and intrigue - and is determined shy Ava will follow in her doddering footsteps.Through Tilly's outrageous antics and bittersweet reminiscences, she shows Ava what it is to embrace life. As the pair form an unlikely bond, Tilly reveals the details of a wartime love affair with an American that ended in tragedy - but not quite in the way Tilly always believed.M J Greenwood has drawn a rich, funny, and poignant portrait of two women reluctantly bound by circumstance amid a landscape that retains a unique beauty, even in the midst of unwelcome change.