Breaking Away

by Heather Atkinson

Laura Harrison is terrified. Her boyfriend Darryl is becoming more and more unstable and she's bearing the brunt of his aggression. Haunted by the horrors she suffered as a teenager at the hands of her stepfather and stepbrother, she recognises the danger she's in and knows she has to get away. Unfortunately she leaves it too late and Darryl viciously attacks her.

Zak Banks, Darryl's best friend and officer in the Manchester police force takes her under his wing, having secretly loved her for years. As their relationship develops things get even worse for Laura when the stalking starts and she is attacked. But who can she trust? When Zak's colleagues begin to suspect that he is behind the attacks on her, Laura is plunged into a nightmare that will force her to confront the many demons of her past.

Contains sex, strong language, violence and scenes of domestic abuse.

388 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 7, 2012

About the author

**MY NEXT TRADITIONALLY PUBLISHED BOOK, A SAVAGE INHERITANCE (SAVAGE SISTERS SERIES #4) IS NOW AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDER ON AMAZON PRICED £2.84. RELEASE DATE 7TH OCTOBER 2024**

**MY NEXT SELF PUBLISHED BOOK, DEADLY GAMES (BLAGGER'S CODE SERIES #6) WILL BE RELEASED ON 29TH SEPTEMBER 2024 ONLY ON AMAZON KINDLE**

Author of over seventy books so far. Living on the beautiful west coast of Scotland with my husband, twin daughters and a cat called Mavis, although I am originally from Lancashire in the north of England.

My tastes in all things are eclectic, which extends to my writing. Although I primarily write crime books - especially gangland thrillers - I also write gothic historical romance and fantasy. I publish on Amazon Kindle and some of my novels are available in paperback too. I also have a traditional publishing contract with Boldwood Books.

When I'm not writing - which isn't very often - I enjoy reading Daphne Du Maurier, Edgar Allan Poe, Shirley Jackson, MR James and the Brontes, among many others. I also enjoy swimming, walking and spending time with my family.

Reviews

[Vicki - I Love Reading · Rating 4 out of 5]

Breaking Away
I have recently read the fantastic Dividing Line series by this author, and it seemed the next thing to do was start this series.
book one Breaking away- Starts off with Laura and Daryl in what I would call a not so great relationship. Its only after a lottery win she decides to leave, but has left it a little late, and Daryl turns into a major monster..
She soon enters a new relationship with Daryls best friends, The big hunky Zak. But will she ever be rid of Daryl, will he really let her leave and move on so easily?
The story starts to build right from the beginning, and to be honest it just has you gripped the whole way through, a really "need to keep reading book...
I thouroughly enjoyed the read and the Characters are realistic, to the point many times i found myself wanting to punch them, or shout out at them. And at one point I also filled up with tears, sooooo glad i was on my own at that point.

Contains sex, strong language, violence and scenes of domestic abuse.

[EILEEN SHEPPARD · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not for me

I found this book was just too unbelievable, all that happened to the one girl was just too much for me. I don't want to spoil the book for others so I can't exactly explain why. Even though I say this , I did keep reading till the end .

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was alright

[Abbi Birks · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book really let me down, I was expecting a lot because of the reviews but it felt very choppy? It didn't flow well at all and a lot of it just wasn't very realistic so it was quite a tough read.

[Vee Dowdie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read

This was an easy book to get into from the start.
It's one of them books that you really get attached to the characters and you feel the same emotions that they do. Anger scared terrified and elation to name but a few.

I read the Guiding Line series before this and those were excellent also.

[Patsy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant book.

I liked this novel very much and because I thought I was a miss marpell I thought I had found the killer half way through the chapter but how wrong was I I would of never guessed another man was involved so how wrong was I . I give this book 5 stars and well deserved I would definitely buy more of heather Atkinson book so looking forward to read more .

[Nicky Mottram · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed, a little far fetched in parts but some good twists.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

brilliant

Absolutely brilliant just couldn’t put it down and read it every opportunity I got, never saw the final ending though! I usually do but not in this book

[Shellygriff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love Heather Atkinson brilliant author

[xXx-Melisa-xXx · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm finding it hard to explain what I thought of this book. The very start I liked and I thought ah yes this looks like its going to be good and then somewhere in the first half it sort of lost me. It just seemed to become to far fetched and I felt a little to many things happened to Laura in such a short space of time, for instance when her ex attacks her then two seconds later so does a complete stranger who is unconnected to the story. Plus even if she had always had feelings for Zak, I felt she jumped into the relationship and it was way to much to soon, after everything she had been through and the fact she was meant to have lost all her confidence (so much so she stopped her dancing and training jobs) I just felt I would of liked to have seen Zak build her confidence up, develop their relationship and build her trust up a bit before they jumped into bed and became the golden couple.

I wondered if I was reading the same book at one point, Id read so many five star reviews on this and I'm usually very good and overlooking typing errors and slightly far fetched plots ect. I'm also the one who usually thinks other reviewers havnt given some books enough credit, Plus I hate giving bad reviews, so much so that I never do! But I have to admit I became.... in all honesty, quite board in the first half, rolling my eyes and in a number of places almost stopped reading it altogether. But I forced myself to carry on and In a way I'm glad I did, as it did seem to get better towards the end, actually if you could overlook how far fetched the story was and lack of researched police and court procedure (and its saying allot if I knew these mistakes)then it actually became really good, nail biting even and dispite what I said about the first half of the book in a strange way you really did need most (not all) of it to tie the story up, hence why I'm finding it hard to explain exactly what I thought of the book.

I think the only thing I can say is the actual plot had potential to be a fantastic story, It just for me needed a little less to have happened to Laura in the first half (she had all that happen in her childhood, then seemed to be attacked almost every page)so it just made it a little unbelievable and like I said if the writer had of done a little more research on police and court procedure then I may very well be leaving a 4/5 star review right now. I would have given this 3 stars instead of 2, because part of me feels I'm being a little harsh (cos I really did enjoy it towards the end) but I cant justify given 3 stars given how many times I had to force my self to keep reading.

[Leanne Hardy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Part one of the book was a more interesting read for me the writing was good & got a good insight into the characters, the odd thing it has 2 chapters then no more & suddenly it is part 2 which is a few months later was odd.
Part 2 was laughable what is this woman a terminator ?!?!?!?!? How much can one woman honestly go through???? yet she comes out strong time and time again, it got very silly, repetitive, same old, didn't leave you guessing who was behind things and so much had gone off it got to the point I didn't care. A simple happy ending did not hang right after everything I previously read.
Such a shame as I have read this authors other work & really enjoyed it but this one has really put me off now.

[Catherine Hunter-Kvaal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story.

I have to admit that I can't believe this is the same author who wrote the "Dividing Line" series. I absolutely enjoyed the storyline. Better editing too. I hope the second book in the series is just as good as the first!

[Neats · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and have never read any of her books before. Although it was a little unbelievable in places it was a great read and I'll be looking out for more by this author.

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a real roller coaster of a ride . Thrills and spills all the way . With a touch of romance . I would recommend this book . 5 stars from me

[Jo Notary]

388pgs, abused as a child, now in abusive relationship, officer tries to help, he has always loved her, police force believes he is behind the stalking and attacks, who can she trust

[Biff meechan]

Breaking Away⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

A good storyline,I love Heather Atkinson 's books & I can't wait to read 're next 1 👍 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ you'll enjoy the story & Characters