Who Are The Main Characters In Long Way Round: Chasing Shadows Across The World?

Briella Hart has spent her entire life fading into the background. The quiet girl with an alcoholic mother and an absentee father who ditched them years ago without a backwards glance. Gossip and mockery follow her wherever she goes. She learns early on that dreams do not come true for people like her. Especially not the dream that she has secretly carried for years. Ryder Landon is untouchable, powerful, and everything that she can never have. The Alpha heir to the Crescent Moon pack, everyone either wants to be him or be with him. He is known. But beneath the hardened exterior, he’s a guy who feels everything too deeply. The weight of leadership, fear of failure, and constantly needing to balance what his pack needs with what his heart wants. Then one devastating night at the Full Moon Festival changes everything. Humiliated and heartbroken, Briella disappears without a trace, leaving behind only a note echoing Ryder’s cruelest words—and a secret that could destroy them both. For five long years, Ryder searched for Briella, but the trail always turned cold. When their paths cross again, she is different. No longer the timid girl who moved about unnoticed. Quickly, Ryder realizes three things. One, his heart still belongs to her despite the distance. Two, there is a little boy named Liam who has her hair and his eyes. Three, someone wants her dead. Now, with enemies closing in and someone determined to see Briella dead, Ryder realizes he is running out of time. Because losing her once nearly destroyed him. He will not survive losing his family twice.

In the quiet woods, under the stars, Elara and Kaelen share a special, intimate moment. It feels forbidden because everyone has always told them they shouldn’t be together but it also feels right. Elara was raised to fear the dark, and Kaelen is made of shadow itself. But in each other’s arms, they start to see the truth: light and shadow aren’t enemies they belong together. For 400 years, the land of Luminara has lived by that lie. A powerful group called the Order rules everyone, using fear to make people obey. No one asks why winters are getting longer, why food is getting harder to grow, or why the moon is slowly losing its light. Elara never thought she would change anything. She’s just a normal girl, and all she has left of her mother who disappeared years ago is an old brass locket. But one day, the locket starts to hum with strange power. Then a man made of dark mist and starlight steps out of the trees. His name is Kaelen. He is the guardian the Order has hunted for hundreds of years, calling him a monster. But he tells Elara the secret no one is allowed to say: Light can’t live without shadow. If you separate them, the whole world will die. Now Elara is on the run. Valerius, the cruel leader of the Order, is chasing her he wants to steal the locket’s power so he can rule forever. She is also followed by Morgrath, a twisted shadow who offers her something scary: total power, no more fear, no more running if she lets the darkness take over. And deep under the mountains, something very old and powerful is waking up. It could fix everything… or destroy it all.

In a city where ambition shines brighter than honesty, Ethan Blackwood has built his life on control. A rising executive with a flawless image, Ethan keeps his emotions tightly guarded, believing that vulnerability is a weakness he cannot afford. Love, if it exists at all, is something distant—something meant for other people. Kai Rivera lives by an entirely different rulebook. A bold, intuitive photographer, Kai sees the world through shadows and light, capturing truths others work hard to conceal. Unafraid of emotion or connection, he moves through life with fearless curiosity—until a chance encounter at a rain-soaked art gallery collides him with Ethan. What begins as a charged glance turns into an undeniable pull. As Kai’s uninvited lens follows Ethan into quiet cafés, crowded elevators, and hidden rooftops, tension grows into something neither of them can escape. Ethan’s carefully built walls begin to crack under Kai’s relentless honesty, while Kai finds himself drawn deeper into a man who refuses to admit how much he wants to be seen. But desire is never simple. Jealousy, misunderstandings, and the pressure of expectations threaten to tear them apart. Forced into moments of uncomfortable proximity, both men are pushed to confront the truths they’ve been avoiding—about fear, identity, and the cost of loving openly. When emotions finally collide, Ethan must decide whether protecting his image is worth losing the one person who sees him completely. Shadows Between Us is a slow-burn BL romance about longing, restraint, and the courage it takes to step out of the shadows. It is a story of two men learning that love does not demand perfection—only honesty.

In the fifth year of Gwyneth Payne's marriage to Asher Crowe, he tells her thrice that he wants to bring Liana Quayle along with them when they migrate. Gwyneth puts down the dishes she's just prepared and asks him why. He's frank with her. "I don't want to keep this from you anymore. Liana lives in the residential area beside ours. She's spent nine years with me, and I owe her too much. I must bring her with me when we migrate." Gwyneth doesn't cry or kick up a fuss. Instead, she books a ticket for Liana on their flight. Asher thinks she's finally seen sense. On the day they leave the country, Gwyneth watches Asher and Liana board the flight. Then, she turns and boards another flight that will take her back to her parents' home.

On the day of our graduation trip, my boyfriend, Josiah Holt, and my childhood friend, Meredith Sloan, leave me behind at a highway rest stop. They drive for half an hour before realizing that I am missing. When Josiah calls me, there is no panic in his voice, only impatience. "Calliope, why didn't you get in the car? Stop messing around. We're rushing to catch the sunset. We can't turn back for you. Just take a taxi and catch up with us yourself." Through the phone, Meredith's voice comes through clearly. "She's not a child. You can't expect to take care of her forever, can you?" In the past, I would have apologized with tears in my eyes. Then I would drag my luggage along and do everything I could to catch up with them. But this time, as I stare at the gray-blue sky outside the rest stop, I suddenly no longer want to chase after them. I cancel all the hotels I have booked for the rest of the trip. Then, I change my ticket and head to a seaside town I have always wanted to visit—the one they always dismissed as boring. From this moment on, the world is my oyster. I finally set out on my own journey, no longer trailing after anyone.

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐢𝐧𝐝 In which a mysterious disappearance of a girl forces a group of individuals, friends and foes, to come together and untangle her mysterious disappearance.