New release 1.12.2025: When passion breaks boundaries

Publication date: December 1, 2025

Following the bestseller "Schlaflos im Rausch des Lebens", the moving sequel is now being published:
"Schlaflos zwischen Leidenschaft und Lügen"

With her first book "Schlaflos im Rausch des Lebens", Katina Engel hit readers right in the heart - with ruthless honesty, intense encounters and a radical desire for freedom.

But life knows no straight paths. On December 1, 2025, "_Schlaflos zwischen Leidenschaft und Lügen"_ will be published - a book that goes deeper, is more vulnerable and shows what happens when love, longing and dependency collide.

The starting point is the farewell: Maik, the great passion, begins his withdrawal - and Katina stays behind in Berlin, alone in the big house, torn between hope, despair and irrepressible longing. Her days alternate between tears, memories and a desperate search for support. But instead of sinking into loneliness, she makes decisions that radically change her life once again - right up to moving to the Baltic Sea to be close to Maik.

"Sleepless between passion and lies" is an unsparingly frank account of love on the brink, the pain of letting go and the desperate hope of closeness. It is a book that shows that passion can give you wings - but it can also forge chains.

This book is not just a sequel - it is a twist.
A story that goes deeper and touches because it shows what happens when passion, longing and truth are inextricably interwoven.

A first reading sample is already available.

Inquiries and pre-orders: katina-engel@posteo.de

Reading sample:

What has happened so far

After the death of my husband, I, Katina Engel - in my early 50s - fell into a deep loneliness. The big house in Berlin became quiet and cold, and the longing for closeness, for touch, for life grew with each passing day. So I took the plunge and wrote an honest personal ad on an erotic portal. Thus began a journey that tore me out of my stupor and into encounters full of passion, adventure and new freedom.

Then Maik came into my life, a man from the Spreewald - or rather a completely crazy guy who savors life in all its facets. 16 years younger than me, full of energy, impetuous and marked by his drug addiction. A wild time began with him that took me far beyond my limits. We roamed the world together, sometimes reeling in intoxication, sometimes intimately connected - in Prague, Budapest, Mallorca or Dubai. These trips were like fireworks: intoxicating, unpredictable and always on the edge of the abyss.

And suddenly it all came to an end!
On April 15, the time had come. I drove him to the meeting point with his friend Manu, with whom he set off for Lübeck. Maik would now be in a rehab clinic on the Baltic Sea for six months. The farewell was short and sad, no one said a word. An intimate, warm embrace, feeling the other person's breath on my neck again - and it was over. Now I'm back here in Berlin, in the lonely house that is both my home and a burden. And although I know that distance and healing are necessary, I miss him with every fiber of my being.

Continued from

"Sleepless in the frenzy of life"

BERLIN April 2025

A cold shiver runs down my spine. I miss his closeness, his strong upper body, his muscular legs, his feverish eyes - and of course his unmistakable eroticism. It might sound like something out of a romance novel, but that's exactly how I feel. The first night without him and countless tears are behind me. A look in the mirror shows the traces: puffy eyes stare back at me. Emptiness spreads again.

Helplessly, I write to Chris, my best male "friend". I also met him through my erotic ad and we have exchanged all kinds of energy - despite a huge age difference of 20 years. He runs a pub in Neukölln and usually works in the evenings, I work during the day - meeting up is usually a long undertaking. Nevertheless, we looked for and found each other and built up a wonderful friendship, intense and honest - at least from my side. Everyone is there for each other, unconditionally. We often exchange thoughts, feelings and anger.

We write back and forth a little, giggle and joke. Due to a lack of time, we've stuck to the communication we use almost every day. This morning is no exception. I tell him about my feelings, cry again and again and tell him how terribly I miss my Casanova. Somehow it almost feels like love, even though I didn't want it and am not really ready for it. But life goes its own way, which is sometimes incomprehensible. Chris finds kind words and encourages me. It does me good and I feel drawn to him. He suggests meeting up that evening, but I don't feel up to it - and we postpone it to another day, as we almost always do.

I can't call Maik because cell phones are taboo for the first two weeks in rehab. I fall into a bottomless pit. The first days without Casanova begin and I try to cope. I often drive to my mother's, who lives just ten minutes away, because I don't feel like seeing anyone else. I distract myself there for a while, but it soon gets on my nerves. I actually want to be alone. But as soon as I retreat into solitude, I start to tremble. I want to feel him, breathe in his scent - that special smell that often mingles with the sweet perfume from our psychic trip to Dubai.

This spiral grows stronger day by day and escalates into immeasurable sadness. Four weeks have now passed. We can talk on the phone every day. I promised him I would write him a postcard every day - and I almost always keep to it. I have had fifty postcards printed from his abstract painting, which he made especially for me in detox with a lot of whimsy, which I tenderly write on or stick on alongside the usual purchased copies. I stick mementos such as flight tickets or hotel cards that I find when tidying up on them. But it's precisely these things that drive me crazy.

I must have lost my mind long ago - at least that's what my mother thinks. She's dragged me to the doctor because she thinks I'm suicidal. And I can't even deny it.

Dr. Weinhold, a thin, nervous, middle-aged fidget, shoves four pages of questions at me: whether I smoke, drink, have allergies. I mechanically tick the boxes and answer his irrelevant points. Then a few more special questions and it's over. No real conversation, no honest look into my soul. At the end, he hands me a prescription for antidepressants - as if that was the end of the matter. A simple thing, quickly ticked off. But for me, it feels like my despair has been reduced to four sheets of paper.

On the way back, I can barely hold back the tears. We buy another piece of cake and later my mother, stepfather and I sit on their balcony. They talk, I nod, but emptiness spreads through me. The cake tastes like cardboard, the afternoon like lost time. I wanted help, real help - and now I just feel even more helpless.

Suddenly, a lightning bolt goes through me - and I know what I want and what urgently cries out for a solution. I move to the Baltic Sea, very close to him. Of course I don't want him to know about it, but it will help me to feel close to him.

I immediately break off the drive back home from my mom's and hurry to find my laptop. Before I can change my mind, I book a room for five days in the neighboring town of Lübeck, right next to the clinic where Maik is staying. I let my son know that he will take care of everything at home. I tell him that I'm going to spend a few days with my friend Thomas in the Spreewald. That settles it.

As I'm taking my two dogs with me, everything is relaxed anyway. The cats stay at home and manage well on their own. My two parrots need some entertainment, but the radio will do for a few days. I pack a mountain of washed clothes - well, I stuff everything into a bag - gather my medication and everything I need for the beach and storm. Now my sloppiness proves useful once again. The packed travel bag from our last trip to Malle two months ago is still in the hallway. I haven't cleared it out yet, so I can use it straight away without having to search for clothes.

The night is restless, I'm happy and relieved about my decision...

Inquiries and pre-orders: katina-engel@posteo.de
https://www.amazon.de/dp/3769358600

Katina Engel
Raisdorfer Str. 15
15566 Schöneiche
Germany

https://www.amazon.de/dp/3769358600

Frau Katina Engel

katina-engel@posteo.de

Katina Engel is a communications strategist from Berlin. "Schlaflos im Rausch des Lebens" is her literary debut - personal, poetic, uncompromisingly honest.

This release was published on openPR.