Unable to deal with life at home with husband Mark, Olivia has taken off to another town. There she joins a letter-writing club, where she forms a bond with Ned, a former SEAL who was wounded in Afghanistan. Many of the members use the art of letter writing to heal old rifts or hurts, including Olivia who writes to her absent daughter and tries to come to terms with the incident that rocked her marriage.
This story is an emotional read and really picks up the pace as readers wonder about that life-shattering event. The author keeps up the suspense well and she admits at the end that the way the story unfolded even took her by surprise.
The Shadow Between Us, by Carol Mason, is a story about finding hope in second chances.
The summary says: "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?" The Shadow Between Us is out in March 2019.