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Audiobook details
She came back to find the truth. He never planned to let anyone in again.
A year ago, Braedyn Winslow left Starlight Grove with nothing but grief and unanswered questions. Her best friend Nova, the one person who had stood by her through everything, vanished during a hike in those woods and was never found. With a young son depending on her and a past that refuses to stay quiet, Brae makes the choice no one expected: she moves back to the town that broke her, determined to find out what happened.
Her neighbor, Dex Archer, is not what she was counting on. Guarded, sharp, and carrying his own weight of damage, he operates on the edges of legality with a group of brothers who answer to no badge. Brae does not want to need him. Dex does not want to care about her. The closer they get to the truth buried inside Starlight Grove, the harder both of them find it to stick to those boundaries.
Whoever made Nova disappear is still there, still watching, and they have no intention of letting Brae uncover what she came back to find. The deeper she digs, the more dangerous the town becomes, and Dex has to decide how far back into the dark he is willing to go.
I started Across the Vanishing Sky on a Tuesday afternoon and did not surface until late Thursday evening. That is the most accurate review I can give you. Catherine Cowles has always had a talent for pairing genuine threat with genuine warmth, and this one delivers both without softening either.
Brae is one of those protagonists who earns your respect before she earns your affection. She is not performing strength, she just keeps moving because she has a son to protect and a friend to find, and stopping was never an option. The backstory comes in carefully, without dumping, and the result is that by the time you understand what she survived, you are already fully invested. Dex is harder to crack, which is exactly as it should be, and Cowles takes the time to build the reasons behind his walls instead of using them as a shortcut to brooding.
The mystery at the center of the book is genuinely well constructed. Nova's disappearance is not a backdrop for the romance, it is the spine of the story, and the two threads are woven tightly enough that one keeps feeding urgency into the other. I guessed parts of the ending but not all of it, which is the right balance. There is a scene midway through involving Dex's group of brothers that shifted how I read his character entirely. It is the kind of detail that makes a reread feel worth it.
One thing I want to flag: the side cast is exceptional. Cowles has seeded multiple future love interests here with enough real personality that the setup never feels mechanical. Each of them has their own weight on the page. That takes skill.
On the narration: Jason Clarke and Samantha Brentmoor carry the dual POV with real chemistry, and the addition of Sebastian York, Adam Gold, Teddy Hamilton, and Connor Crais for secondary characters adds texture that a single narrator could not have pulled off. The 13 hours and 51 minutes pass without drag. There are a few spots where the audio mixing between narrators is slightly uneven, but it is a minor issue in an otherwise strong production.
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Across the Vanishing Sky by Catherine Cowles opens on a woman returning to the one place she swore she would not. Brae lost her best friend Nova somewhere in the forests around Starlight Grove, and the town never gave her answers. Now she is back with her young son and no plan beyond refusing to give up. What she finds, alongside the danger, is Dex, a guarded man with a complicated past and a group of brothers who operate in the shadows.
Take advantage of the free trial, cancellable at any time, and listen to the full cast of Jason Clarke, Samantha Brentmoor, Sebastian York and others bring this story to life across 13 hours and 51 minutes. The dual narration by Clarke and Brentmoor gives the romance and suspense dual threads the room they need to breathe.
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US-based editor & staff writer focused on audiobooks. Honest reviews, curated “best of” lists, and practical guides with an accessibility lens.
