Book Review by Pat Allchorne: Between You and Us by Kendra Broekhuis
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The book follows the relationship between Leona and David, flipping between their meeting for a blind date and present day. Present day begins with Leona meeting her husband for a tenth anniversary dinner at a posh restaurant usually out of reach of their limited budget, after which he drives her in a very expensive car to a very expensive part of the city to a beautiful house.
She is confused; she knows this house, but she doesn’t live here. She and David live in a much poorer part of town and struggle to afford everything they need. She plays along when she finds that her baby daughter, Vera, who died in a car accident at 4 months old, is alive and a toddler. Somehow she has ended up in a parallel universe with an alternative lifestyle, the one she could have had if David had taken a different path and followed his parents’ wishes for him to join the family firm, instead of following his own desires to make the world a better place.
Leona plays along with this new life; she is drawn into a society so far removed from her normal routine. Her mother-in-law, who never thought her good enough for David, takes her to fund-raising dinners and charity galas, lunches with other women whose main aim in life is to be seen to be doing the right thing and whose attire costs more than Leona can spend on clothes in a year. All this is for the sake of Vera, the baby she lost, and whilst she finds David different from the David she left behind, she is willing to work with the situation so that she can watch Vera grow up.
However, she is continually pulled back in the direction of the life she has left; a life where she is infinitely poorer, a life without Vera, but a life with a David who loves her deeply and to whom money is a secondary issue. How can she choose between them? She finally confides in her friend Eden, whom she has known for many years, who in the old life works with David at the business they built together, BioThrive, doing research which could enrich many people’s lives. Eden cautiously believes her, believes about the alternative universe that Leona finds herself in, and contacts a friend of hers, Carl, who talks about multiverses and how a significant event can open a door leading to another world.
Leona’s significant event was the anniversary dinner. This is the point in the book where it becomes clear where Kendra got the title from, as Leona writes a poem:
I’m stuck
between you
and us.
You, my baby.
Us, my love.
And so her dilemma really begins. Carl had told her that she can go back to her old life if she wants to. How can she choose between her baby and her husband, the husband she left behind who was more loving and caring than the one she finds herself with now, but choose she must.
Kendra, the author and her husband Collin lost a child in utero several years ago, and they still live with the grief whilst parenting their other four children. She learned what not to say to grieving parents and, as a Christian, that leaning on God for strength and comfort does not take away the grief, just helps you to walk through life with it.
Having written one book, a non-fiction one laced with humour and no delusions about her own capabilities, she wanted to write fiction. The book allowed her to analyse her own grief as she wrote it. When difficult things happen to us over which we have no control, it is possible, eventually, to be grateful for what we have whilst not forgetting what we have lost.
When a grieving woman unexpectedly steps into a different version of her life, she must choose between the husband she loves and the daughter she lost in this brave, gripping novel.
“A beautiful story that will make you rethink all the moments you’ve wished for a different outcome.”—Johanna Rojas Vann, author of An American Immigrant
Two possible lives to live. One impossible choice to make.
When Leona Warlon heads across the city to meet her husband, David, for a rare dinner out, she hopes they can share a moment of relief after their year of loss. But Leona quickly realizes this is no ordinary date night. She hasn’t just stepped into an upscale ristorante; she’s stepped into a different version of her life. One in which her marriage is no longer tender, in which her days are pressured by her powerful in-laws, and in which her precious baby girl lived.
Now Leona must weigh the bitter and sweet of both trajectories, facing an unimaginable choice: Stay in a world where tragedy hasn’t struck but where the meaningful life she built with David is gone? Or return to a reality that’s filled with struggle and sorrow but also deep and enduring love?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR | WEBSITE
Kendra Broekhuis writes stories that touch on heavy topics with a dose of humour and a lot of love. She is the author of the novels NEARLY BELOVED and BETWEEN YOU AND US, as well as the nonfiction book HERE GOES NOTHING: AN INTROVERT'S RECKLESS ATTEMPT TO LOVE HER NEIGHBOR. For her day job, she stays home with her four kids and drives them from one place to another in her minivan. She and her family live in Milwaukee.
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