After a painful loss, Cady Moreland is coming to Magdalene to start the next chapter of her life. A chapter that began eighteen years ago but had a heartbreaking ending. The time in between was full of family and friendship, but Cady could never get the man she fell in love with all those years ago out of her heart.

Coert Yeager has learned to live without the girl who entered his life right when she shouldn’t and exited delivering a crippling blow he never would have suspected. The time in between was full of failing to find what he was missing…and life-altering betrayal.

But when that girl shows up in Magdalene and buys the town’s beloved lighthouse, even if Coert wants to avoid her, he can’t. A fire in town sparks a different kind of flame that won’t be ignored.

As Cady and Coert question the actions of the two young adults they once were thrown into earth-shattering circumstances, can they learn from what came in between and find each other again?

Series:

Magdalene series

Book 3

Can be read as a standalone

Book Type:

Contemporary Romance

Review: The Time In Between

Two people find love amidst chaos, but stray from each other when the crushing blow of deception shatters the future they’d envisioned.

With THE TIME IN BETWEEN, Kristen Ashley delivers a sweeping romance fraught with pain and regret, pockmarked by secrets and misunderstanding.

After a crippling loss, Cady Moreland starts anew in small-town Magdalene. Determined to confront a past she never quite left behind, specifically a man she never stopped loving. But when Cady sees Coert after more than seventeen years, Coert wants nothing to do with her.

Cady’s largely lived a life of disregard, where family has cast her aside, where friends have betrayed her, where those she loved, lied. During the time in between, she found a family who took her in and loved her, but yet, her sense of belonging never settled deep.

“All her life, she never belonged anywhere. Not anywhere. Not with her family, who didn’t allow her to belong. Not her real family, my family, who wants her to belong. The only time she ever belonged to anything, to anyone, was when she belonged to you.”

Sheriff Coert Yeager has spent the years focusing on the blessings life has given him, despite the deception that led him there and a girl from long ago who never quite left his heart.

“He wanted to let it be. He wanted to forget her and move on. But he hadn’t been able to do that for years either.”

When fate and good advice brings Coert and Cady together again, they must each overcome past trauma to find their happy ever after.

Cady and Coert’s story exemplified the beauty of second chances, the pang of real heartbreak. I felt their pain, felt their longing, felt the elation of finding a sense of home in the arms of the person with whom you were meant to be. And as their romance ignited in picturesque Magdalene, I couldn’t help but be swept away by it all.

This is my favorite romance of the year, thus far, just as I expected it to be!

Present day…

He looked me up and down, turned his gaze through the expanse then gave his serious expression back to me.

“Been doing this job a long time. I can see when a buyer is interested and I can see when they’re interested in something that they know is gonna be a heck of a project, but that doesn’t matter to them because they’ve fallen in love. And I see that last is happening with you. So I gave you full disclosure, now I’ll give you full honesty.”

“That would…” I hesitated because I wasn’t sure my last wasn’t a lie, “be appreciated.”

He didn’t hesitate.

“See, this is a lot of work and you got it in you to restore it, great. But there are buildings, land. Take an entire day even with a riding mower, probably, just to mow the lawn. And the townsfolk’d lose their minds, you mow over the tulips that coat the place come full-on spring. No one knows how those tulips got here, but Google ‘Magdalene Lighthouse’ and that’s pretty much all the pictures you’ll see.”

God, I couldn’t wait to see that and I was going to Google it the minute I got back to the inn.

“But you’re a slip of a thing, apparently on your own, and this is gonna be a lot for you.”

He lifted his hand and shook it at me even as he shook his head and kept speaking.

“I’m not being sexist. Like I said, I’m being honest. But more, it seems close to town, and it is, ish, you go the direct coastal path into town, which is just over two miles of walking. But by the roads, since it goes inland then eastward, it’s over five miles to get out here and there isn’t anything built within the first two, primarily because of that light and the horn I told you about. But also because Magdalene likes this view unencumbered, so a lot of that is parkland so it’d stay just that way. That means this is a lot more secluded than it looks from town.”

This was not a deterrent.

This could be, in future, if things went awry (and they were probably going to go awry), a boon.

I’d need to be secluded, separate, reclusive.

But regardless, I was one of those people who could be good on my own. I hadn’t had a lot of that in recent years, what with Patrick and his family, but when I had it, I could enjoy it.

And if I had this lighthouse all to myself, I had a feeling I could learn to love it.

“So, just to say, you should consider all that when you consider buying this,” he advised. “But I’ll also say I know you’re from Denver. And I know New Englanders are considered unfriendly by folks out west. We’re not. We’re just different. We like what we know and who we know. We depend on tourists but, being honest, they can sometimes be a pain in the backside. But you move here, you’ll be one of us. Simple as that. And to prove that’s true, if you don’t have someone who’s coming here with you to help you take this on, then I’ll be the first to share I’m happy to look after the old girl when you’re away. You just call on me. And if I can’t, I’ll help you find someone who can. We in Magdalene been looking out for this lighthouse for years. But if she comes with you, we’ll look out for you too.”

I stood there, immobile, and stared at him.

And I did this suddenly needing to cry.

He didn’t know me. He didn’t know my past. He didn’t know how stupid I’d been.

So unbelievably stupid.

He didn’t know.

So he couldn’t judge.

Maybe this could be a new chapter.

Maybe Patrick knew exactly what he was doing in a variety of ways.

I fought back the tears as he concluded, “And that’s not a gambit to get you to buy. You can’t know I’m telling you the truth until you put me to the test. But just to say, feel free to do that. You’ll learn soon enough.”

I tore my eyes from him and blinked at the landscape, taking in a deep breath through my nose, recalling his name.

Robert.

Robert Colley.

“You wanna see the outbuildings now or you wanna go up and look at the lens?” he asked.

I wanted to look at the lens.

Then I wanted to go look at the outbuildings.

But I didn’t say either.

I looked again to him.

“I’ll be needing the name of a good contractor.”

His eyes lit as he studied me and one side of his lips quirked.

“You’ll need to be looking at the outbuildings, gal,” he advised gently.

“Yes, you’re right,” I told him. “But I’ll also be needing the name of a good contractor.”

He continued to study me and he did this until I smiled at him.

And when I did, the half lip quirk disappeared and Robert Colley smiled back.

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