Every purchase helps someone else begin again.
Most proceeds from this book help fund access to financial education and wellbeing support for those who may not otherwise be able to afford it.
About the novel...
A Story About Money. And It Isn't.
Before they ever speak, they dance.
Two hospital beds. Two strangers, unconscious.
A thin curtain between them.
Then music. Tango.
Somewhere between memory and imagination, they take their first steps together.
“I’m fine,” she says.
The unopened bills tell another story. So does the wine. Tomorrow, she’ll sort it out.
Until the day fine runs out.
He plans. Provides. Prevents.
The dependable one. Always ready to step in. Never ready to stop.
Until he has to.
On a bridge, their lives collide.
Now they’re dancing, with all of that between them.
She retreats. He tightens his hold.
Everything they never said finds its way into the dance.
To move forward together, she must take up space.
He must leave room.
Beyond the curtain, their unfinished lives are waiting. So are the conversations they have spent years avoiding.
Because some of the hardest truths in our lives are not hidden. We simply stop trusting ourselves to speak about them.
Step by step, the dance becomes more than movement.
It becomes clarity. Confidence. Choice. Trust.
A second chance to decide how they want to live before life begins again.
This story is about
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losing yourself in ways that look like coping
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the silent weight of money, love, and expectation
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the invisible shifts that change who we become
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functioning while emotionally falling apart
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the things we avoid… until we can’t
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grief, addiction, shame, and emotional survival
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and what it means to choose yourself one small decision at a time
This book feels like a kind friend – one who listens without judgement, gently putting words to things many people struggle to explain even to themselves.
- Marianne D, engineer
What early readers are saying
“The story is so different from what I was expecting in the most beautiful way.
Raw, honest, and deeply immersive, this book gives readers permission to face their fears with clarity and compassion.”
- Julie H, financial services
“Beautifully written and deeply thought-provoking. It captures how small problems compound, how money flows through every part of life.”
- Chris M, financial adviser
“Clear, poetic, and beautifully multilayered.”
- Grainne D, performance coach
“WOW – what beautiful writing. I could relate to so much of it.”
- Emma H, director
“Alina has a rare way of creating space: space to reflect, to question, and ultimately to grow.
This book is extraordinary – a deeply personal, yet universally shared journey through money, identity, relationships, and the subtle patterns that shape our lives. A reflective masterpiece.
It may change you more than you expect.”
- Jenni C, mental health expert
About the author
Alina P. Burlacu is a UK-based writer, money coach and founder of Healthy Money Mind.
For more than a decade, her work has explored the places where money, identity, relationships and emotional wellbeing meet. Through years of listening to people navigate change, loss, uncertainty, recovery and new beginnings, she became interested in the private moments that shape a life – the choices we postpone, the patterns we inherit, and the courage it takes to begin again.
Her debut novel, Between Curtains: The Dance Worth Staying For, grew from that emotional territory. It is a literary story about love, money, silence, recovery and the quiet work of returning to yourself.
Written to open honest conversations, the book invites readers to pause, recognise themselves, and find language for the things we often carry quietly.
Alina lives in Surrey with her family.
And most importantly
Most of the proceeds from this book will help fund access to financial education, wellbeing support, and guidance for people who may not otherwise be able to afford it.
This book was written not only to start conversations but to help create access to the kind of support that can change someone’s life before things reach a breaking point.
So by reading this story, you are also helping someone else begin again.
Frequently asked questions
What is this book hoping to achieve?
Between Curtains was written to help give language to experiences many people quietly carry but rarely articulate – particularly around money, emotional wellbeing, relationships, pressure, identity, and the silent weight of trying to hold everything together. It doesn't offer perfect answers. It hopes to encourage more honest questions, deeper self–reflection, and more compassionate conversations – both with ourselves and with the people we love.
Is this a self–help book?
It isn't. This is a novel – an emotionally honest story about survival, identity, emotional exhaustion, money, relationships, and the quiet ways people lose touch with themselves over time. Rather than telling readers what to do, it aims to help them feel seen, understood, and less alone in the things they may struggle to explain.
Who is this book for?
For those who have spent too long holding everything together while quietly losing touch with themselves underneath. And for anyone drawn to emotionally honest stories about survival, healing, identity, relationships, and beginning again.
Is this based on a true story?
The novel is fictional, but many of the emotional experiences explored within it will feel deeply familiar to women navigating pressure, identity shifts, burnout, emotional survival, or major life transitions.
Is the book about mental health and emotional wellbeing?
Yes. The novel explores depression, emotional exhaustion, identity loss, coping behaviours, loneliness, grief, addiction, financial pressure, and healing with honesty and compassion.
Is the book about financial wellbeing?
Yes – but through story rather than instruction. It explores how money pressure quietly shapes confidence, relationships, emotional health, and the choices women feel able to make.
Is Between Curtains... a romance novel?
It contains a love story at its heart – but this is primarily a novel about a woman’s emotional journey back to herself.
Is this book emotionally intense?
At times, yes – because it explores real emotional experiences many people quietly live through, including exhaustion, grief, financial pressure, loneliness, addiction, identity loss, and mental health struggles. But Between Curtains is ultimately a story about reconnection, healing, self–awareness, and the possibility of returning to yourself. It isn't written to overwhelm. It's written to help people feel seen within experiences they often carry silently.