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.
After a devastating moment leaves a woman suspended between life and death, silence becomes something unexpected.
Not punishment. Not emptiness.
Space.
Space to revisit the life she had slowly disappeared from.
Then, within the stillness, comes a rhythm.
Tango.
Not simply a dance, but a language of tension, trust, surrender, balance, and presence.
A way back into the body. A way back into herself.
in broad brushes
As memories unfold – grief, money, addiction, loneliness, shame, love, and the exhausting weight of holding everything together – she slowly begins to recognise the woman she once was beneath the survival.
And somewhere within that strange suspended world, another presence begins to move beside her.
Not to save her. But to remind her she's still here.
Step by step, the dance becomes more than movement.
It becomes clarity.
Confidence.
Choice.
A second chance to decide how she wants 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 and a quick note about this book
Alina P. Burlacu writes about the places where money, relationships, identity, and wellbeing intersect.
For more than a decade, she has worked with individuals navigating life transitions, helping them make sense of the financial and emotional realities that often accompany change. Through this work, she discovered that money is rarely just money. Beneath financial decisions sit questions of confidence, belonging, freedom, love, loss, and the stories we tell ourselves about what we deserve.
Between Curtains is her first novel.
Inspired by years of listening to stories told and untold, it explores the small moments that shape a life, the choices that pull us away from ourselves, and the courage it takes to begin again.
Alina is the founder of Healthy Money Mind and co-host of the Healthy Money Mind and Wealth and Women podcasts, where she explores the relationship between financial wellbeing, emotional wellbeing, and the realities of modern life. She lives in Surrey with her family.
She believes that honest conversations have the power to change lives – especially the ones we have with ourselves.
And very 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.