Anywhere You Are by Elisabeth Barrett

Blurb:
As the daughter of a music legend, Grace Davingham knows all too well what it’s like to be burned by the media’s glare. Now all she wants is to be left to do her painting and conservation work in peace, with no intention of returning to the spotlight. But after she sprains her ankle hiking and a handsome real-estate mogul comes to her rescue, Grace once again finds herself in the public eye.

Sexy, successful, and averse to any attachments, Marcus Colby thrives on rigid discipline in order to manage both his real-estate investment company and his personal life. Marc has no time for fun, and no patience for crazy. Which is why meeting Grace—and inheriting an enormous Great Dane who won’t listen to a word he says—has turned Marc’s carefully constructed world upside down.

Only when Grace and Marc square off over a local controversy do they realize how different they really are. But if opposites attract, their love is destined to bind them together—forever.

    

My Review:
3 stars — I received a free copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review/opinion.

This is a book I probably would have enjoyed a lot more a few years ago, but I think I’m just not as in the mood for these days.  I knew it was probably a stretch when I requested it, but it felt like a good solid romance so I went for it.  I might also just not be in the right frame of mind for it right now, but I read it because it’s release was this week and I wanted to be timely.

Anyways, so basically it was an OK read for me.  It was kind of slow and I was slow to like both characters.  When they say Marc is stuffy, they really mean it.  He just did not endear himself at the beginning when he first meets Grace.  And Grace just didn’t feel like she had much substance either.  Now as we got further into the novel, we definitely got to see a lot more to both characters.  I was sucked into it eventually, and began to enjoy the story a bit more.  Big Blue, the Great Dane, definitely helped with that for both characters…I’m an animal lover, and he was a great animal character that brought the best out of both characters.  I became more intrigued by who Grace was and the unique struggles she dealt with because of her famous family.  I really felt for her at times.  And there was a bit more depth to Marc, and I felt sorry for the man he had become and loved seeing his joy hanging out with Grace.  The problem, inherently, is that the growth didn’t always stick for these characters.  I wasn’t happy with the choices Grace made in the end, but I was mostly unhappy with Marc for flip flopping all the time.  I didn’t end up buying his resolution AT ALL.  It was sudden, and felt forced.

Their chemistry was a strange thing for me as well.  It felt really forced at the beginning.  Then they would have some amazing scenes where I really felt it between them.  And then strangely it ended feeling kind of forced again.

I don’t know if it was me and the breaks I took while reading the book just disrupted the flow *that* much, but it was a strange read.  It started off slow and I was tempted to DNF (not that it was that bad, but I know I have so many books on my plate that I wasn’t sure it was worth my time)…then I got sucked in and even cried at one point…then I ended it feeling super meh.  So yeah.  I probably wouldn’t read more from this author, b/c I just don’t think this is my style anymore.  It’s weird when we change as readers, isn’t it?