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Faded Truths: Some truths fade. Others wait in the dark, patient and unforgiving.

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Edwina

Five years ago, Hayden Stone was the man who changed everything for me. He was my professor, the one person I should never have crossed a line with, yet somehow the only one who ever saw through every wall I built around myself. What began as resentment and defiance slowly turned into something neither of us could control, something dangerous enough to destroy both our lives. Loving him was never simple. It was intense, consuming, and filled with secrets we should never have kept.

And when the truth finally came between us, it shattered everything we had.

Walking away from him was the only choice I had, even if it meant carrying a secret that would change my life forever.

Now, five years later, the past I tried so hard to bury stands in front of me again. Hayden is still the same man who once held my heart in his hands, the same man whose presence makes every carefully built wall around me begin to crack.

But he has no idea what those five years have hidden.

He does not know the truth I have been protecting.
He does not know what part of my life belongs to him. And when that truth finally comes to light, it will not only reopen the wounds we tried to forget. It will force us to face everything we once destroyed, and everything we might still lose.



Hayden

Five years should have been enough to move on. Enough time to rebuild the life that fell apart the moment she walked out of it. Enough time to convince myself that losing her was inevitable, that what we had was destined to end the way it did.

But forgetting Edwina Carter was never something I wanted.

For five years, I searched for her in places I knew she would never return to. In crowded streets, in unfamiliar cities, in quiet moments when memory refused to leave me alone. I looked for traces of the girl who walked into my classroom and slowly unraveled every rule I had spent my life living by.

Edwina Carter was never meant to matter to me. Yet the more I tried to keep my distance, the more she found ways to break through the walls I had built around myself. What we became was reckless and unforgivable.

And when the truth finally surfaced, it destroyed everything we had before either of us could stop it.

But some things refuse to fade.

Now she stands in front of me again, no longer the girl I once knew. Edwina Carter no longer exists. The woman before me is Edwina Rhodes, carrying a new name and shadows I cannot yet understand.

The distance of five years has not erased the pull between us, and every instinct in me warns that getting close to her again will only reopen wounds that never truly healed.

Yet walking away from her a second time feels impossible.

Because there is something about Edwina that still belongs to me, something I sense every time our paths cross.

And the closer I come to the truth she is hiding, the more I realize that the past we tried to bury is not finished with us. Not even close.

431 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 15, 2026

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Elvina A. Elshad

2 books27 followers

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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
Profile Image for Rechal.
163 reviews4 followers
Review of advance copy received from Author
July 10, 2026
"My girl. My little Flare. The only woman I ever wanted badly enough to ruin myself over."


After the absolutely DEVASTATING ending of Faded Touches, I don't think I was prepared for what Faded Truths had in store.

Five years have passed. Edwina has built a completely new life in London under the name Edwina Rhodes. She's no longer the girl who believed love alone could fix everything. She's stronger, guarded, independent, and determined to keep the life she fought so hard to build.

Until Hayden Stone walks back into her life. And LET ME TELL YOU...that first reunion???

I WAS HOLDING MY BREATH.

Five years of unanswered questions, heartbreak, longing, regret, and love that never really disappeared all come crashing back the moment they see each other again. Every conversation felt heavy with everything they never got the chance to say, and the tension between them was absolutely INSANE.

One of my favourite things about this book was watching Edwina reclaim herself.

She's still kind, still compassionate, still so easy to root for, but she's also learned that loving someone shouldn't come at the cost of losing herself. She doesn't simply fall back into Hayden's arms because he reappears. She makes him earn every step back into her life, and I loved that the story gave her the space to choose herself without ever diminishing the love she still carried for him.

Then there's Hayden.

OH, HAYDEN STONE. God... this man absolutely shattered me.

"To her I existed as nothing more than a figure inside a darkened hall, while to me she remained the reason winter had never ended."


Getting inside his head completely changed the way I saw him.

The cold, intimidating professor from the first book is still there, but now we finally get to see everything he's been carrying beneath that carefully controlled exterior. Grief, guilt, regret, hope...it all hits so much harder once you understand what those five years were actually like for him.

Did he make mistakes? Absolutely.

Did I want to shake him sometimes? ALSO YES.

But one thing I never questioned was how deeply he loved Edwina. His choices weren't born from a lack of love—they came from fear, guilt, and believing he was protecting the people he cared about. Watching those layers slowly peel away made his character arc one of my favourite parts of the entire duet.

"Kissing her felt like coming home, a familiar comfort that settled deep within my soul."


What I loved most about their relationship this time around was how different it felt from the first book.

Faded Touches thrived on forbidden attraction, stolen moments, and unbearable tension. Faded Truths is about healing. It's about forgiveness. It's about learning that sometimes love isn't enough on its own—but when two people are willing to grow, forgive, and truly see each other, maybe they can still find their way back.

That emotional shift made this book feel even more special to me.

"What is home now?"
"You," I said. "And Helena."


This one finished me. Because after everything they'd endured, after all the years apart, home was never a place. It was always each other.

I also HAVE to mention Chapters 16 and 22 because...IYKYK.

Those chapters peeled back every last wall Hayden had built around himself and showed a vulnerability I wasn't expecting. They completely reframed parts of his character for me and delivered some of the most emotional moments in the entire duet. I genuinely had to stop reading for a minute just to process everything.

Elvina's writing deserves so much appreciation too. She writes emotion with such quiet intimacy that even the smallest interactions carry so much weight. Whether it's a single conversation, a lingering glance, or one heartbreaking confession, every scene is given the time it needs to breathe, making every emotional payoff hit EXACTLY the way it's supposed to.

Overall, Faded Truths was everything I wanted from the conclusion to Hayden and Edwina's story.

It gave both characters the growth they deserved, answered the questions I'd been carrying since the first book, and delivered a second-chance romance that felt completely earned.

And Hayden Stone? Yeah...He's officially secured himself a spot on my list of favourite fictional men. I'M NEVER MOVING ON.
Profile Image for Kim Janey.
262 reviews10 followers
Review of advance copy received from Author
July 9, 2026
Faded Truths takes us back into Hayden and Edwina’s world after everything that was left broken between them in Faded Touches. Time has passed, the wounds have deepened, and life has moved forward in ways neither of them could have expected. But when they find their way back to each other, it’s very clear that buried under secrets and heartbreak, the love is still very much there.

Okay, so first of all, if you haven't read Faded Touches yet, this is your cue to disappear for a few hours and go do that first. I'll try my best not to spoil anything, but this duet is one where all the reveals are half the experience and I want you to feel every single one of them so trust your girl and come back later.

“Every inch, every breath. I need you with me, by me. Always.”

I actually waited until the second book was released before starting this duet because I'd heard all about the cliffhanger and let me just say...BEST. DECISION. EVER. I binged both books back to back in a single day and I genuinely couldn't imagine reading them any other way. I knew there was a time jump going into this book...but NOTHING prepared me for opening that first chapter. My heart genuinely dropped. The thought of all that lost time, all that love sitting untouched for years, oh God it really, REALLY hurt my heart.

I don't say this very often, but every now and then a series comes along that I know I'll reread every single year because the couple just means that much to me. Hayden and Edwina are officially one of those couples. I genuinely felt every ounce of their love, their heartbreak, and their longing. When they hurt, I hurt. This duet had such a profound emotional impact on me, and it's easily earned a place in my top ten favourite series of all time...and believe me, I've read a lot of books.

“I swear to God, there is no version of my life that works without you in it.”

Hayden absolutely wrecked me. Yes, he made a mess of things with his secrets, but never once did I feel like he acted out of malice. If anything, my heart just hurt for him. Seeing the emptiness he carried after losing Edwina, how completely hollow he became...it genuinely felt like his life had paused the moment she walked away. Now THAT’S a special kind of love. And when the truth finally came out, the man Hayden became afterwards was honestly my favourite version of him. So gentle, so tender, so intentional. And of course, shoutout to the dirty talk in this book cause dang, no one can dirty talk like the way Hayden can.

And of course my girl Edwina was never a wallflower. She had this beautiful balance between smarts, softness and strength that made her very loveable. She had to make some incredibly difficult decisions throughout this duet and honestly? I understood every single one of them. Watching the woman she became after everything she'd endured made me admire her so much. And while power dynamics definitely exist in this story, I honestly felt like it was actually Edwina held the real power all along. Easily a 10/10 FMC!

“Kissing her felt like coming home, a familiar comfort that settled deep within my soul.”

One thing that really stood out to me throughout this duet was Elvina's writing. She was a new author for me and I was sooooo impressed. There's something so warm and intimate about the way she describes emotions, conversations, even the quiet moments between characters...it all feels incredibly moving. Chapters 16 and 22 were absolute perfection, IYKYK, like they completely finished me off. I was SOBBING like a baby. You can tell this duet was written with so much love and care. Every reveal, every emotional moment, every conversation was so deep, Elvina truly outdid herself. She has this way of making every scene feel personal, like you're right there experiencing it alongside Hayden and Edwina but in like a bubble.

Elvina has absolutely made a fan out of me, and I'm so happy our time in this world isn't over yet. I can already see several characters whose stories I desperately need, and I'll be first in line to laugh, cry, and inevitably sob my way through every single one of them.
Profile Image for Princessfal123 bookendedreviews.
174 reviews4 followers
Review of advance copy received from Author
July 13, 2026
FADED TRUTHS 5⭐️
by
Elvina A. Elshad

Faded Truths is a second chance romance and the second book in the Faded Duet and cannot be read as a standalone. To fully understand the story, you must read Faded Touches first. Tropes include: age gap, forbidden love, slow-burn reunion, with a secret child. This book picks up five years after Faded Touches.

Professor Hayden Stone and his student, Edwina Carter, had a love affair that was intense and all encompassing but filled with too many secrets. Those secrets found their way out and destroyed everything they were building. She walked away and took another secret with her, one that had the power to change her life forever. Now, five years have passed and it’s been enough time for them to have moved on, and they each tried in their own way but failed.

Two sentences. Five spoken words. That’s all it takes for Hayden to cause Edwina to falter in her steps. Their meeting is less of a walk down ‘happy memory lane’ and more of a collision of his betrayal and her desperate need to run away. Now, he has questions and wants answers which she’s refusing to provide. In the years since they’ve been apart, she’s learned to stand on her own two feet. All he wants to do is sweep her off of them but not before he gets the information he wants. They’ve both been pretending to have survived and moved on, but this opens old wounds that had a bandage but never healed. Both determined and neither willing to give in, they now have to battle their inner demons and their hearts.

This book is fantastic as it dives right in and the emotional intensity begins immediately. The author gives the characters dialogue that is realistic making them relatable. She lets them feel frustrated, angry, confused, reckless and irrational before they find their joy again. The storyline never lulls and held my attention. There is a most beautiful HEA but it is a marathon and not a sprint to get there. This is a 5⭐️ read but be sure to read the first book, Faded Touches, before this one because they must be read in order.
Profile Image for Mandy Britt.
726 reviews68 followers
August 24, 2026
Faded Truths by Elvina A. Elshad is a second chance romance and the second book in the Faded Duet, making it a must-read-in-order duet rather than a standalone.

Set five years after the shattering events of Faded Touches, this gripping installment plunges headfirst into profound emotional intensity, expertly weaving together an age gap, forbidden love, a slow-burn reunion, and a secret child.
​
Professor Hayden Stone and his former student, Edwina Carter, shared an all-encompassing love affair that imploded when their secrets were exposed.

When she walked away into the unknown, she carried a life-altering secret with her, leaving both of them trapped in a lingering standstill ever since.

A brief encounter brings them crashing back together, reigniting old wounds, betrayal, and a desperate need for answers. Edwina has learned to stand on her own, while Hayden is determined to get the truth and sweep her back off her feet, setting off a stubborn, high-stakes battle of wills and hearts.
​
The pacing is phenomenal, keeping attention locked in with realistic, raw dialogue that allows the characters to be frustrated, angry, irrational, and wonderfully human.

Their journey is messy, difficult, and full of raw emotion, tension, possessiveness, jealousy, and heavy obstacles to overcome. You will alternate between rooting for them and wanting to shake them as their flawed decisions transform their path to forgiveness into an unforgettable emotional rollercoaster.
​
Expertly blending dark love with a powerful journey of individual healing, they finally earn their hard-fought HEA, capped off by a breathtaking and completely unexpected final twist.

An absolute must-read for fans of high-angst, emotionally charged romance!
Profile Image for Erin E. .
326 reviews2 followers
Review of advance copy received from Author
July 10, 2026
4.5 rounded

"Because whatever I did, you were still there. In my head. In my soul. In every damn silence I thought I owned.”

This was like a soap opera that I couldn't stop reading. This one picks up right where the first one ends. You definitely need to read Faded Touches first!

5 years have passed and the wounds have only gotten deeper, secrets and lies have grown. They find their way back to each other but there is so much drama! Their story is NOT easy. It is messy, raw, and so realistic. Full of ups and downs, magnetic pull, tension, overcoming betrayal and lies. Possessiveness, jealousy, uncertainty.

As much as I love both Hayden and Edwina I found myself mad at both of them at times! They both made mistakes. Both made questionable decisions. Again their journey is not an easy one. Both did things. Major things. This was a rollercoaster watching them navigate the path to forgiveness. Healing individually and together. Truly finding their way back to one another. They both endured so much over the years... It all came together beautifully 🥹 I absolutely loved how their story wrapped up. Their second chance was earned and their love conquered. The ending was a tad shocking! Once again the author gave me something I wasn't expecting! Well done! 🖤


✔️Forbidden love
✔️Age gap
✔️Secret child
✔️Slow burn reunion
✔️Second chance romance
✔️ Possessive hero

Thank you for my ARC! I'm leaving this review voluntarily!
Profile Image for Gina Louise.
15 reviews
July 16, 2026
* Professor
* Age Gap
* Second Chance
* Slow burn

Book 2/2

The thing about pain and hurt is its not always what it seems. Our brain is always trying to protect the most vulnerable pieces of ourselves that sometimes its telling us to run and that is exactly what Edwina did. Sometimes our emotions get the better of us before we can listen to the truth.

Five years have passed when Hayden and Edwina find each other again, but the pain from betrayal has yet to fade. Edwina must navigate her new life holding onto secrets and a betrayal all her own while Hayden is searching for answers and forgiveness.

This book is a rollercoaster of emotions. There's love, grief, heartbreak, happiness and angst just to name a few. You can feel all the emotions through the pages. The push and pull between the two had me on the edge of my seat waiting for what would happen next.

Both Hayden and Edwina have grown so much through the years apart and are finally in a place where their love can grown through the past and into a future.

Thank you Elvina for this ARC. I wish you all the success with this duet and any future endeavors. <3

Profile Image for Cristina Hait.
159 reviews2 followers
July 9, 2026
First off I just want to say thank you to Edwina and her team for the opportunity to ARC read Faded Truths in exchange for my honest review. I was so happy to ARC read this after ARC reading Faded Touches.
This book picks up five years after the end of the previous book, and ALOT has changed. Without spoiling, Edwina has had some major life changes when she’s comes back into contact with Hayden again. And this time it’s her with the secrets. I love how much more confident Edwina has become since Book 1, whether that be because of age or life experience. And Hayden seems like the same obsessed man as in book 1, if not more. But when they interact for the first time.. couldn’t put it down.
Profile Image for Kristy.
529 reviews42 followers
Review of advance copy received from Author
July 14, 2026
Faded Truths takes us back into Hayden and Edwina’s world after everything that was left broken between them in Faded Touches. So, if you haven't read Faded Touches his is your cue to disappear for a few hours and go do that first. Tropes include age gap, forbidden love, slow-burn reunion, with a secret child. This book picks up five years after Faded Touches. Professor Hayden Stone and his student, Edwina Carter, had a love affair that was intense and all-encompassing but filled with too many secrets. Those secrets found their way out and destroyed everything they were building. This book is fantastic as it dives right in and the emotional intensity begins immediately.
Profile Image for Meghan.
214 reviews
July 17, 2026
Edwina and Hayden fell hard into possession, love, and lust before buried truths broke something neither of them knew how to survive. They both tried to build a life outside of one another only to be thrown back by fate. They both must work through their anger, hurt, trust issues, and open themselves to try again. They clash and push each other and each moment of possessiveness is felt throughout the book. I loved the balance of dark love and wonder that opens as they heal and grow in many ways. Good end to their chapter!
301 reviews10 followers
July 24, 2026
I loved this book. You should definitely read Faded Touches before jumping into this one. Elvina knocked this one out of the park. Thank you for the opportunity to arc this book early, I am leaving my honest review voluntarily. I can't wait to see is next!
1 review
July 18, 2026
Beautiful well written book

For a first time author, you really did your big one. We can work on the grammatical errors but alas, this was an amazing duet.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews