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 … 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.
Reader Advisory: This story deals with themes related to alcoholism, death (of secondary characters), and past abuse/neglect.
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I would rate this 5 stars.
This starts with the funeral of Chris’s 28 year old baby brother Cal. A stranger at the funeral, Cal’s lover Elliot, upends everything Chris (also called C.J.) thought he knew about his brother. Drunk and in pain, they connect, adding a load of guilt to the grief. Chris is unhappy with his life and feeling the burden of keeping secrets from his parents. Although he is a psychiatrist working with terminally ill patients, he feels overwhelmed and unable to help himself, let alone his family in the face of his grief. The reader is thrown into Chris’s angst and gets to know Cal through flashbacks.
There are times when I like books that are fun and easy to read, but other times I miss more depth. This is a book for when you want more depth. Dealing with Cal’s death is not glossed over. Chris’s job interacting with his dying patients is not glossed over. Their father’s alcoholism is not glossed over. This whole book is devastating and devastatingly well written; it’s about working through the stages of grief and making incredibly bad decisions. It’s about Chris working on himself and who he is as a person. It’s about the difference between lust and love, sex and making love, using people as a crutch vs having a healthy relationship. If you like books that drop you into the psychology of a character, this book is for you. I loved the journey this book took me on. It has “all the feels,” but I didn’t feel manipulated or like the scenes where there for emotional pornography. It’s rare that a book can capture the agony of loss and the exuberance of living.
An extraordinairy and emotional journey is what I experienced when reading this book. I loved the plot as well as the characters and I can’t wait to re-read it many times in the future.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
The Ghosts Between Us is such a wonderful, beautifully emotional written book. Once I read the blurb I knew I was going to enjoy this book. The raw emotions that were coming off the pages had me reminiscing about the loved ones that I’ve lost in the past and you wonder do you really know a person. Chris, Elliott, mom, dad, and Dave, Brigham Vaughan really made you feel that you were there experiencing what the family was going through.
I can understand why everyone was hurt and why they felt the way that they did.
Chris is the main one that I felt sympathetic towards. It took his brother’s death to make him realize what he was missing out on in life; when you are living in someone’s else shadow you don’t realize it until its too late. Elliott and Chris both knew it was wrong but they also knew that they were meant to be together. The book has romance, angst, some sweet point, and I loved it.
This book completely stunned me with it’s depth of emotion. These two men, Chris and Elliott are both struggling in the wake of the death of Chris’s brothers death. Elliott was an important person in Cal’s life. They turn to each other for comfort in dealing with his death. Elliott is wary if letting Chris in because he’s been hurt immensely before, made to feel insignificant and unwanted,unloved. Things spiral out of control and Chris is hiding information about Cal, himself and Elliott. Things come to an explosive head and he’s left wondering how to fix things, mostly himself. He needs to come to terms with some harsh truths and decide just what makes him happy. Ultimately, these men become each other’s saving grace.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
The Ghosts Between Us is not an easy book to read, at least for me. From a mourning, to a slow burn, and some aspect I didn’t really comfortable to read, but read it anyway.
This is a little heavy story, hurt/comfort, and a maddening slow burn, I almost gave up. Glad I didn’t.
Turned out, this one was worth my time and heart-ache.
Recommended!
This was a very intense emotion filled storyline, talk about an emotional rollercoaster. While I felt for Chris my sympathy was for Elliot, he really got the end of the stick when it came to relationships. Both Chris and Cal hurt him in the same way, it took awhile but I did come around to liking Chris. All in this was a very multifaceted emotion driven read and I loved every brilliantly written word.
This was such a fantastic, bittersweet, poignant, raw, gritty, gripping, intense, hauntingly beautiful, heartbreaking yet hope, emotionally charged, grab-you-by-the-feels, simmering, and totally awesome story. Filled with tears, jeers, fears, and cheers, it pulled me in from the very first page, leaving me with a massive book hangover because I just could NOT put it down. It is now at the top of my “re-read over and over again” list.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
This book is a true emotional journey. The grief and emotions as they all try to come to terms with loss is so palpable. Elliott is like an enigma but he has so much compassion tucked away. Chris is sweet, caring and trying to be the glue that will fix everything. I enjoyed this a lot.
This was definitely a long book. There were times that, honestly, I wasnt sure if I would be able to finish this and give it the review it deserved. But, I am so glad that I did.
This was a story about immense loss, but also about love too, and so, so many other things. It touches on addiction, betrayal, death, guilt…
When Chris’ brother dies suddenly, he discovers that the very straight man had a gay lover. Chris, being gay himself, was realistically upset that his brother never shared even an inclination of this with him. But, when Chris and his late brother’s lover, Elliot, fall into bed after a night of drinking following the funeral, it turns Chris’ world upside down. What follows is the rocky road of guilt, passion and self discovery. I don’t even know what to say about this amazing book without giving too much away.
It was a beautiful, raw story, really. Full of intense heartache and so much sadness and wonder at the same time.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
So painful and yet so beautifully moving, 4.5 stars rounded up.
Tears. Actual tears came out of my eyes. The was so much pain and yet it was so moving and beautiful I couldn’t bring myself to care that I usually have a harder time with books filled with angst and suffering. Even the whole brother’s-ex-lover thing wasn’t as difficult for me to swallow. This was a long story and while I thought I would be skimming to get to the point of most passages, I was riveted. With the depth of the story’s themes I was glad for all the words because without them, the grief, angst, pain, and healing wouldn’t have had enough attention to grow to a climax and then to settle into something like peace.
Sometimes when brothers end up dating the same person (AT DIFFERENT TIMES) it can feel creepy and just wrong. In this situation it fully explores the guilt and confusion Chris feels over the situation. It felt believable and a lot easier to stomach the reality that Elliot was just a man in whom both brothers saw something special. The confessions and difficulties were hard to get through because they felt so real. I really, really wanted a dual POV with this one though I think that would have led the story down some darker, more painful paths and with the amount of agony already included, I don’t think we would have come out of that dark tunnel without additional emotional scars.
We got so much detail in this story that Chris’ emotional journey was all-encompassing and felt so complete. From the shocking revelations that tipped his world off its axis, to the emotional roller coaster they led him on, to the devastation and destruction of his family, and finally to the peace of letting go and moving forward, there was a lot to cover. Had this book been any shorter and it wouldn’t have done that trek justice. It was a painful ride and while I was shocked that no one seemed to be on Chris’ side except Ed, his godfather and mentor, it didn’t shy away from everyone else’s struggle with the secrets Cal left behind. I could appreciate that at the same time as being disappointed in certain characters.
With no shortage of torment, it was difficult to see just how everything would work out for Elliot and Chris, but when they got there, it was fitting. There was no magic cure, no saving moment, it wasn’t even a fully healed ending either. It was real in that grief isn’t linear and the path to finding peace among all the inner turmoil is never easy and doesn’t always have a terminus. But love, true and abiding love, being willing to see one another through to the other side, that’s what matters. Accepting yourself and your mistakes, making amends, and moving forward one step at a time gets the results. I was moved from the very start to the very end.
The Ghosts Between Us held me captive from the start. I loved this book. I really liked how the past stories blended with the current story. I thought Chris and Elliott were so likable. I really liked the interesting secondary characters as well. The story just hit all the right spots for me. I definitely recommend this story and I look forward to book 2 in the West Hill series.
The Ghosts Between Us by Brigham Vaughn is a gripping tale of dealing with the raw emotions of loss, guilt, lust, grief and moving on. Elliot and Chris are amazing characters that drew me into their story and made me care’ made me feel deeply about what was coming from these pages. A truly touching and beautiful read.
I received an advanced reader’s copy of the book and I am voluntarily leaving my honest review and recommendation.
I really love a hurt/comfort/healing and this was a perfect example of that trope.
Chris, having always looked up to his younger brother, Cal, is devastated at his funeral. Soon after, he realizes that his relationship with his brother wasn’t at all what he thought and he’s reeling from all of the questions and dishonesty surrounding his new found information.
Elliot loved Cal, but after six months of dating, he wanted more than just being his dirty little secret. And then suddenly, there was no time left. He was mad at the funeral. No one knew him there and seeing Chris for the first time brought back so many memories of Cal.
Neither of them could stay away from each other long and their odd friendship morphed into more.
Just reading this story was so interesting to me. The dynamic between Chris and Elliot and Cal was overwhelming at times. Everything they felt and worried about was so real. All of the questions… how much is he thinking of Cal instead of me? Gah. I loved how Brigham Vaughn just layed it all out there and forced the two to pick up the pieces.
Told solely from Chris’s POV, I kind of wanted to get in Elliot’s head a bit more. He was so much the typical brooding artist, but then he had this whole other side where he was funny and sweet and romantic.
Honestly, they were perfect for each other. There was an ensemble cast of friends and family that really left you raw, as a reader, and added so much to the story. I loved the story, the emotions, the feelings and the ending.
This is a great story and I’m excited to know it’s just the start of a series that I can’t wait to dive in to!
How does one cope with the death of a loved brother, by hooking up with his secret boyfriend on the day of his funeral. Chris was numb after his brother suddenly died, leaving behind a mess of epic proportions. Trying to come to terms with his death was hard, but trying to understand his secrets of the last six months were harder. He turned to Elliott his brothers secret boyfriend to try to get answers. They hesitantly became friends, then lovers. Through the pain, grief and betrayal the emotion radiated from the pages. Chris’s entire family was falling apart, his whole life was falling apart. There was a lot of soul searching and forgiveness. This book was real and raw, a moving, heartbreaking journey.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.