The Shadow Between Us

By: Carol Mason

Narrated by: Billie Fulford-Brown

Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

What is it about the coast that attracts people running from their past?

Maybe there’s something in a sea breeze that blows away your problems. Maybe when you look out at the ocean you can see the future; forget the secrets and pain holding you back.

Or at least you can forget them for a time.

When Olivia moves to Port Townsend, her marriage is floundering, and her life is in pieces. She doesn’t know if things with her husband Mark are truly over, or quite why the phone call she longs for on her daughter’s birthday will never come.

Joining a letter-writing club seems like a harmless decision. But when she meets Ned, an ex-soldier badly wounded in Afghanistan, this unlooked-for friendship revives unexpected emotions and memories she’d rather forget.

Can Olivia find the courage to confront what she’s hiding from and finally begin to heal the wounds that have torn her life apart? From the bestselling author of After You Left comes a story about finding hope in second chances.

©2019 Carol Mason (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“A skillful, compassionate journey into the aftereffects of trauma, The Shadow Between Us deftly explores what happens when we hold tight to the secrets we keep, and they hold tight to us too.” (Amy Hatvany, best-selling author)

“I read The Shadow Between Us in two sittings. Carol Mason has created a fast-paced novel. At its center is a woman whose heart has been broken. She is on the run from herself. Carol takes us on an emotional journey which keep us gripped right to the very last twist, which hit me in the solar plexus. I had not seen it coming.” (Carol Drinkwater, best-selling author and actress)

“Poignant, emotional, and breathtaking…In The Shadow Between Us, Olivia is running from something we’ve all feared and hope to never face. Carol Mason’s effortless storytelling and exquisite writing will keep you turning the pages until the book’s stunning and surprising ending. Bring tissues!” (Kerry Lonsdale, Amazon Charts and Wall Street Journal best-selling author)

Mixed Feelings

This book left me feeling a bit unsatisfied. I feel like there were points that I was relatively sure of the ending, but there could have been more transparency. I felt neither good or bad about the status of the characters when it was over... just kinda glad that it was over and I'd made it to the end.

I enjoyed the narrator and like the author's work in general... this one just left me wanting.

Another great read from carol mason

I chose this book because I could read/listen for free with Kindle Unlimited but also because I have read two other books by this author that I loved. I know there are some mixed reviews on this one, but I really, truly loved this read. I read it in about two days and found myself desperately wanting to know the "big reveal." I think she did a great job of weaving little teases and small details of the secret that is "the shadow" throughout the early parts of the book. When the secret is finally revealed, it was not exactly what I expected and there was way more to the story than I had anticipated. It is heartwrenching and beautiful. Unlike her other stories, this one is less "romantic" and has less heat but still has a subtle, calm touch of romance in various places that fleshes it out a bit. If you've read the author's other stories, this should be a good read. It was easy and quick to get through and I liked that it was not necessarily a "happily ever after" tale. There's some complexity to this story that leaves you feeling like she doesn't just give you what you want to hear. For some, I understand that may be frustrating but I found it to be an enjoyable change of pace and felt it had "good bones."

A lot to process

It took me quite some time to make it through this as an audio book as it was slow and vague in places. Overall, it was good, though heart-wrenching. A truly good book is one that sticks with you, and I can see this one doing just that. Oftentimes I read to escape reality; this story is perhaps too close to reality to be 100% relaxing.

Unhappy is overwhelming.

Unhappiness is overwhelming. In this day and age can’t say this book was what I needed

Interesting

This is the first book I have listened to from this author. Her writing style is fresh and direct. No extra wording and silly games for the reader to have to wade thru. Excellent book in my opinion.

Grief is a different journey for everyone

The very best thing about this story is its portrayal of both a mother’s grief and the harrowing truth about PTSD and the trauma of war —- we seem to be used to war in the last 30 years as a constant in our everyday life. Kind of talking about it as if it were a far away city with horrible traffic. This book comes as close as any I’ve read at humanizing the living nightmare of life after surviving.

It paints a unique portrait of a mother’s mindset to grief and blame when a child dies.

BUT—-let an editor do his or her job! Better pacing and fuller characterization of the husband’s journey through grief would have resulted in a much stronger book—-as it is, the ending comes too an abrupt halt - like a smash landing—-after a LONG trail of unresolved grief kind of Peter’s out.

Horrible overall

What a terrible book!!! I endure in hopes that it will pick up, to no avail. Waste of my credit and time.