title: The Road and Beyond: The Expanded Book-Club Edition of The Road to You
author:  Marilyn Brant 
description: Marilyn Brant is a New York Times & USA Today bestselling and award-winning author of contemporary fiction, and she was named the 2013 Author of the Year by the Illinois Association of Teachers of English. She wrote ACCORDING TO JANE, the story of a modern woman who receives dating advice from the spirit of Jane Austen (October 2009); FRIDAY MORNINGS AT NINE, a tale about three suburban moms, their marriages and what happens a decade or two after the "Happily Ever After" (a Doubleday Book Club and Book-of-the-Month Club pick in 2010); and A SUMMER IN EUROPE, a novel about a woman's journey of self discovery as she travels through Europe with her adventurous aunt's Sudoku & Mahjongg Club (a Literary Guild and BOMC2 featured alternate in 2011, and a Rhapsody Book Club Top 20 Bestseller in "Fiction & Literature" in 2012), all women's fiction releases from Kensington Books. She's also a #1 Kindle & #1 Nook Bestseller and has written a series of fun and flirty contemporary romantic comedies, available as original ebooks. ON ANY GIVEN SUNDAE and PRIDE, PREJUDICE AND THE PERFECT MATCH were Top 100 Bestsellers on both Barnes & Noble and Amazon. THE ROAD TO YOU, a coming-of-age romantic mystery (October 2013), was a Top 100 B&N Bestseller. PRIDE, PREJUDICE AND THE PERFECT BET (July 2014) is her latest romance, and many of her novels will soon be available as audiobooks from Post Hypnotic Press. Look for them in late 2014 and beyond. As a former teacher, library staff member, freelance magazine writer and national book reviewer for Romantic Times, Marilyn has spent much of her life lost in literature. She received her M.A. in educational psychology from Loyola University Chicago, dabbled in both fiction and art at Northwestern University, studied the works of Austen at Oxford University and is a Lifetime Member of the Jane Austen Society of North America. Her debut novel won RWA's prestigious Golden Heart Award in 2007 and a number of awards since -- including the Single Titles Reviewers' Choice, the Booksellers' Best and the Aspen Gold. Marilyn lives in the northern Chicago suburbs with her family. When she isn't rereading Jane's books or enjoying the latest releases by her writer friends, she's working on her next novel, eating chocolate indiscriminately and hiding from the laundry. Visit her website: www.marilynbrant.com
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  # The Friendly Road; New Adventures in Contentment
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### David Grayson
  
  
  
      
  
  
  
  
  
  "Surely it is good to be alive at a time like this."
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  A WORD TO HIM WHO OPENS THIS BOOK
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I did not plan when I began writing these chapters to make an
  
  
  entire book, but only to put down the more or less unusual
  
  
  impressions, the events and adventures, of certain quiet
  
  
  pilgrimages in country roads. But when I had written down all of
  
  
  these things, I found I had material in plenty.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  "What shall I call it now that I have written it?" I asked
  
  
  myself.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  At first I thought I should call it "Adventures on the Road," or
  
  
  "The Country Road," or something equally simple, for I would not
  
  
  have the title arouse any appetite which the book itself could
  
  
  not satisfy. One pleasant evening I was sitting on my porch with
  
  
  my dog sleeping near me, and Harriet not far away rocking and
  
  
  sewing, and as I looked 