Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} Everything, including women, had always come too easily to Dominic Sinclair, until he met the immovable thick black line around Bo Carmichael heart. Bo Carmichael had stopped letting people into her heart when her husband was found to be embezzling from her company seven years before.  He had taken everything and left her with nothing, and she had to completely start over.  The people that had been there, and were family by default, were the only ones allowed past the thick black line she had mentally drawn around her heart.  She blamed herself for being young and naïve in letting her husband steal her company away.  So when a condo/assisted living building investment opportunity brought the two of them together, it was sparks from first sight.  Dominic wanted to explore the attraction, but Bo wouldn't let him past the thick black line she had drawn.  This stand-offish nature of hers drew him in and made him work harder to get past her thick black line every chance he got.  Bo started getting flowers, someone was getting into her house to leave them, notes and gifts also, which gave Dominic the chance to move into her home to protect her.  Then she came face to face with her ex-husband whom she had sent to prison seven years earlier.  This brought back all the self-doubts, self-loathing and other insecurities that she had worked so hard to bury.  Dominic was there through his stalking, supporting and protecting her, but when it had passed, and with Bo still keeping her distance, Dominic went back home.  Will Bo figure out she is not not the same girl who married the ex? Will she figure out that the laughter and joy that left with Dominic can be hers if she just erases her thick black line?

I read A Thick Black Line by Judah Raine and enjoyed the story line a lot. I could really understand the main character, her depression and holding everyone around her outside her comfort zone.  I understood her not trusting herself or her emotions with Dominic at first.  Ms. Raine has painted a very believable character in Bo Carmichael. A woman who made one drastic mistake when she was young and was afraid to try again after losing everything.  The character was also still young enough not to completely understand the depression that allowed her to move on professionally, but not emotionally.  Dominic was a wonderful hero that stuck by his woman no matter how hard she pushed him away, trying to lever every little crack that Bo opened into a full break, but was never quiet able to do so.  I kind of felt, when things came to an emotional head for Bo and she had one conversation with an investor/friend, that things moved very fast her shedding her depression and going after Dominic.  But all in all it was a wonderful well crafted story with believable, well fleshed out characters.  I give it a 4 ½ wings.