Between Books in Order

The Between books are a two-book YA gothic story built around one very simple question that never gets a simple answer: who, or what, is River West Redding? The series begins with Violet White, a sharp, lonely teenager spending the summer in a sleepy seaside town while her parents are away. She and her twin brother Luke are left in a crumbling estate that already feels full of old trouble.

Then River rents the guesthouse.

From there, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea runs on attraction mixed with dread. Violet cannot stop thinking about River, even as eerie accidents, whispered fears, and unsettling signs start piling up around town. Her grandmother Freddie has always warned her about the Devil, so the story keeps asking whether River is simply a damaged boy with a talent for chaos, or something darker that has walked into Violet's life wearing a nice smile.

The setting does a lot of work here. The town is all sea air, heat, cemetery paths, faded money, and long afternoons that feel just a little unreal. Tucholke likes old houses and edge-of-nowhere places, and this series uses both well. Even when the plot turns strange, Violet's bond with Luke and her friendship with Sunshine keep the story from floating away entirely.

That push and pull is what gives the series its shape. Violet is curious, impulsive, and sometimes far too willing to move closer to danger. River is magnetic and hard to read. Neely, River's brother, seems steadier at first, but this is not a world where trust stays clean for long. Everyone carries secrets, and the books keep testing how badly Violet wants answers.

Trust is the whole game.

In Between the Spark and the Burn, the story opens outward. River is missing, rumors of strange events begin spreading, and Violet ends up chasing clues through mountain towns, islands, and other places that feel half forgotten. The first book has the mood of one bad summer that keeps getting worse. The second turns into a haunted chase, full of radio whispers, witch hunts, and the creeping suspicion that even the people trying to help may not be telling the truth.

These are romantic books, but they are not soft or tidy romances. They are creepy, dreamy, and often uneasy, with just as much interest in fear, obsession, and family damage as in kissing the dangerous boy. If you like decaying mansions, beautiful bad decisions, ominous folklore, and supernatural menace that stays slippery until late in the game, this duology is a good fit. Read Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea first, then Between the Spark and the Burn, because the second book picks up the first book's emotional and supernatural threads and brings the main story to a close.