Reviewed by Becca
TITLE: The Ghosts Between Us
SERIES: The West Hills #1
AUTHOR: Brigham Vaughn
PUBLISHER: Two Peninsulas Press
LENGTH: 325 pages
RELEASE DATE: March 2, 2019
BLURB:
Dr. Christopher Allen knows how to deal with death. He’s a psychiatrist who works with hospice patients and their families, helping them cope with grief and letting go. But Chris’s job doesn’t prepare him for the sudden death of his devil-may-care brother Cal.
At Cal’s funeral, Chris is completely thrown when he meets Elliot Rawlings, an artist Cal has been dating. Chris is hurt to discover that the brother he knew as straight was actually bisexual. Elliot is angry and resentful of having been kept hidden from Cal’s family.
After the funeral, a night of drinking at the bar with Cal’s friends leads to Chris and Elliot falling into bed together. The next morning, they’re overwhelmed by guilt and grief and agree to never speak of it again.
But Cal’s apartment needs to be packed up and Elliot reluctantly agrees to help Chris, as well as answer some questions about Cal’s life and their relationship. Despite their guilt and initial dislike for one another, they sort through the pieces of Cal’s life and begin to fall for each other.
Despite his best efforts to fix things, Chris’s family seems to be crumbling around him and he begins to question who he is and what his role with them is. As his feelings for Elliot grow, Chris must decide if they’re worth further damaging his fragile relationships with his friends and family.
Elliot’s rough upbringing has left him distrustful of getting close to anyone, much less another man who isn’t willing to acknowledge him in public. The odds seem stacked against Chris and Elliot, but if they can overcome them, they may be able to lay Cal’s ghost to rest, along with their own demons.
REVIEW:
Whenever you lose someone that’s really close to you, a family member, a spouse, whoever, it’s extremely devastating. Some people can learn to deal. Most often, though, they can’t. It’s too much. Even people trained in dealing with death often can’t deal with it when it comes to themselves. This is that kind of journey. It’s a story of death, grief, and all that comes with it. The anger, guilt, despair. But it also shows that there is still life after death. Still hope and a chance to be reborn. But we have to be willing to take the steps necessary. This is one hell of a book, and through the tears cried, I enjoyed every minute. I hope that don’t sound morbid. For the things this book dealt it, it was so well written. The author showed all of it. Good, bad and ugly.
Chris dealt with grief in forms every day. Being a psychiatrist that deals specifically with death and coming to terms with it, you’d think he’d be prepared when death dealt a blow to him. But no one’s ever really ready and losing his only brother was a blow he could not cope with. Especially when a strange man from the funeral told secrets no one really knew about Cal. The more secrets were spilled, the more Chris questioned everything. Why, of course, is always the biggest? And the one person who seemed to get it and him was the one person who spilled the secrets to begin with. Cal’s boyfriend, Elliot. As time passed, the grief weighed heavily. His father lost his way again in ways Chris had hoped he never would again. His mom found solace in other ways too. His family was falling apart. What friends he thought he had, he realized weren’t HIS friends to begin with. And the relationship he finally wanted, that made him feel, was fraught with both of their doubts, fears, Elliot’s past and Chris’s grief. And it finally came to a head. Chris is now at a turning point. He has to ‘fix’ himself and move ahead or possibly lose everything completely.
I remember when I lost two very important people in my life. I never thought I’d be able to get over it. Fortunately, I had a little girl who made me have to get up and face every day. So I can just imagine the grief. I’ve been there. Reading the journey of this family, of Chris and Elliot, through everything they went through, it brought back a lot of memories. I guess it’s true what they say. Time heals wounds. They never go away. Not truly. We just have to learn how to grieve and move on and realize life is for living. Loving. Joy and happiness.
One thing I especially loved about this book, is that even though there is a ‘happy’ ending, it showed that the happiness was worked at. It was work and a process. There is no magic pill or fairy or whatever and poof, everything is ok. Nope. It doesn’t work that way. And even with the happiness the characters felt, they all knew it could blow up in their faces if they didn’t keep working at it. Keep getting help. These characters were so real. You could literally take them off the pages and put them anywhere in this world.
This is not an easy read story. It’s another book that doesn’t hold back. It shows all the nasty. But it is one hell of a book. It was beautifully written. The characters are endearingly flawed and it’s worth reading every page.
RATING: 
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