The Running Bibliophile

Always Watching by Chevy Stevens introduces us to Nadine Lavoie, a doctor at a psychiatric hospital. After counseling a new patient named Heather, Nadine starts recalling repressed memories of when she lived at a commune at a child and realizes that everything is not as it seems. When I first started reading Always Watching , I wasn't sure I was going to enjoy this particular storyline.However, once I got about a third of the way through the book, it picked up a lot. This book of Chevy Stevens ended up being one of my favorites by this author. Although some of the plot was predictable, there were a couple of plot twists that I didn't see coming, and after those twists were revealed, they fit in well with the story and made a lot of sense. There were quite a few characters that I didn't care for, but once a few things were revealed about those characters, I ended up liking them. This book is a definite must read for most people, but it may not be for everyone as it contains...

Into the Water by Paula Hawkins opens with single mother Nel Abbott being found dead at the bottom of a river, an apparent suicide that immediately raises questions. Nel had been investigating the deaths of other women who were also found in the same river over the centuries, making her own death feel unsettling from the very start. Her sister, Jules Abbott, is called back to town to identify the body and to take responsibility for Nel’s teenage daughter, Lena. Jules is forced to confront both her strained relationship with Nel and the dark history surrounding the river and the town itself. When I first heard that Paula Hawkins was releasing another novel titled Into the Water , I was genuinely excited. I really enjoyed The Girl on the Train , and because of that, I expected her second novel to be just as gripping, if not better. I intentionally avoided reading reviews for Into the Water because I didn’t want my expectations shaped by other readers’ opinions. Unfortunately, I ke...

It seems as though The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins was the undeniable smash hit of 2015. Everywhere I turned, someone was recommending it, and it consistently appeared on must-read lists, especially for fans of Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. Much of The Girl on the Train unfolds aboard a commuter train heading into London, where we’re introduced to one of the main characters, Rachel. She’s unemployed, struggling with alcoholism, and hiding the truth about her job status from her flatmate. During her daily train rides, Rachel passes by her old townhouse ... the home she once shared with her ex-husband, who now lives there with his new wife and their baby. A few doors down lives a seemingly perfect married couple, relatively new to the neighborhood. Rachel becomes fixated on them, creating imagined stories about their happy life. But when the wife Megan suddenly goes missing, Rachel believes she holds key pieces of the puzzle though the police dismiss her due to her unreliable s...