Dawne Walters
Anchor Line by Dawne Walters
Life is simple for Conrad Renner – he has his career.
Why complicate it and more to the point why bother?
The term to have your cake and eating it springs to mind on more than one occasion throughout this book when it comes to how Conrad likes to live his life. He tries to eliminate anything unnecessary but only seems to incur more complications in the process.
Happy living the single life, he doesn’t really bother with conventional dating, I mean why put in the effort when you can have a sea of submissive women kneeling at your feet every day if you wanted, he is one of the most sought after Dom’s in the area after all.
And all this was fine until that point because until then his life did not include Addie.
Personnel Office worker, Addie Marshall is getting by, outperforming the others at work she has her head screwed on and is focused on promotion, that is until Conrad Renner enters the fray and screws with the head for all the wrong reasons. Getting rid of this determined guy is high on her list of priorities but the only way is to give in to his persistence and to agree to join him for lunch. Over the course of the week, lunch becomes more than a one off and Addie is finding it difficult to deny the chemistry between the pair of them.
But not one to play second fiddle, Addie is reluctant to get involved – and the barrage of women he attracts - women with whom he has been involved with at the club leaves her in no doubt that if they are to have something then something has to change.
This story is not a quick fix it is spread over a sizeable period of time and involves more than one occasion when any sane woman would have quite happily have told him to fuck off!!
But Addie believes there is something and like a fool keeps going back for more.
Her propensity for pain is staggering because knowingly or not Conrad appears to spend much of the book, wringing ever emotion from her.
I found Addie to be endearing enough but I found it frustrating that she put herself in the position where regardless of what she did, Conrad had the ability to break her heart. I understood the connection that she felt she had but there is only so much pain anyone should be prepared to put up with.
I thought that Conrad was reckless with Addie’s emotions most of the time and for that it was difficult to fully get on board with his character. Although I do have to say that in regards to his dominant activities – he certainly had a way that set the pages alight.
I have to say that the ending and epilogue made the suffering worthwhile – they were top notch.
The grammatical errors in the book are noticeable but do not detract from the storyline – although saying that you have to try hard to glance over them. The book would have benefitted from being more robustly proof read.
Overall the story equipped itself well and if anything had you rooting for Addie – sometimes the heart wants what it wants and is not prepared to give in! Little did Conrad know that his future was far beyond the realms of where he believed his rainbow lay, strike one for the hopeless romantic!