Review: I Really Enjoyed This
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 23, 2011
For the Love of Anna is the story of a young woman narrowly escaping the horrors of her past to find her future in a most unusual and unforeseen situation.With her very life at stake, Anna narrowly escapes the city and flees to the home of her only friend. Stacy has been completely in the dark about the dreadful situations Anna has been dealing with and welcomes Anna into her home with open arms. Stacy lives on a huge ranch with her two husbands and their three cousins.  Concerned that trouble from her past may follow her, Anna refuses to consider putting her friend at risk by staying too long and decides it will be safe to stay only until she heals from her injuries and can earn enough money to move on. Ben, Wyatt and Charlie have a hunch that Anna may be just the woman they have been waiting all their lives to find. They hope to find a way to convince her to stay put.The characters in For the Love of Anna are well developed and interesting. Stacy is very convincing as a best friend who will do anything within her power to keep her friend safe. Ben, Wyatt and Charlie each have an intriguing back story that makes them relatable and also makes it easier to understand Anna's attraction to them, as well as theirs for her. The elderly town doctor, the restaurant owners and the other people of the town represent that small town dream of people pulling together and watching out for one another. Pearl may not be perfect, but it would be a wonderful place to live.This is an impressively enjoyable book. The writing flows easily and the story order and development make sense. While there is angst in the story, it is not over the top. This is, at its core, a love story in which the four main characters all have to overcoming some sort of adversity in their lives to be in the position to be open to the passion and devotion of the long lasting love they all desire.Having read Dixie Lynn Dwyer previously, I expected to like this book. However, I was not prepared for it to touch my heart the way it did. Anna's courage in being determined to leave the past behind, to release attachments to negative and difficult things and refuse to use those negative things as an excuse for stagnation serve as an amazing example of a courageous and victorious way to live.For the Love of Anna will be enjoyed by all who appreciate stories of overcoming adversity and finding true love, even when love looks a bit different than one might have expected.