Customer Reviews

The Cutting Edge

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Linda Howard asks the question: "Is there a limit to love, a point where it dies?" She believes there isn't and gives a very movingly works to make the case. I give this book 5 stars because of the powerfully move story (a wee bit dated and the whole book, since it was a series, is limited in scope).

Howard does more in a small book, than any writer outside of Anne Stuart, and has proved consistently to be one of my favourite writers, though I have not really been wowed by the writing in the last few years. It seems JAK, Howard and Roberts are suffering from a formula writing, that is taking the glitter off their craft, and in a move to go more mainstream is causing them to forget the romance roots, and ultimately betraying the very fans that built their careers.

What hurts this books, dating and limitations aside, is although you are carried along with her prose, the power of the relationship she creates, you get to the point where you just do not accept love forgives all. I am sorry, if the man I loved believe I was an embezzler, did not confront me with the evidence FIRST and give me a chance to prove my innocence, had me arrested without the first warning or preparation, refused to take my calls from jail or after I got out....well, I just don't see how I could forgive as easily as Howard's character did. And that in the end, it nearly cripples this book so much.

Tessa Conway is working in accounting of Carter Engineering. The firm is having the losses of large revenue, they bring in Brett Rutland the corporation's top troubleshooter. Brett has the reputation of a pitbull, has little respect for women, uses them and leaves them without a care. He is an emotionless hunter that shows no pity, and he goes after Tessa with the cutting edge of wanting sex and information. But he falls in love with her (or so Howard would try to make you believe). But he resents this so much, nearly hates her in his own way for taking away his control, that when he finds evidence showing Tessa guilty of stealing thousands and thousands of dollars, that he has her arrested. No warning, no chance to prove her innocence, no support. She is arrested and booked. She tries to call him, believing her lover, the man she loves desperately, will make everything all right. He refuses to take her calls. After she gets out of jail, he still refuses to take her calls. She finally goes to see him at his hotel and he cruels says he only slept with her to gain information. This nearly destroys her. All in an effort to save his pride.

Later, in an the middle of the night, he finally realises she could go to prison. He loves her (? sorry that is a big leap of faith for me at this point) and cannot stand to know the woman he loves will go to prison, so he goes to his boss and makes a deal to get the charges dropped. He tells the boss he will repay the money she stole himself, marry her. (nice of him!!). He arranges for the District Attorney to call her in, but she refuses to sign the agreement. She is innocent and will not sign a confession of guilt. It is only THEN he understands that she MIGHT be innocent. Now convinced she is innocent, he has the charges dropped, and suddenly moves in with her to take care of the fragile woman and hunt the real thief.

She shows a moment of fury and lashes out with her fists. But that is about all she does. I am sorry, this really hurt this book. She makes the point that she still loves him. Well, I love so I know you will forgive a lot in your life....but you do not forgive this easily.

Still, with all its faults, this is a powerfully written book. Howard weaves a spell that pulls you along, making you almost believe it...till you take a breath and reality check comes along.

I HIGHLY recommend it for the simple fact it is writing craft at it is highest peak, it is truly emotional...your heart will pound when she is arrested and finally comes to grips with the fact her lover is the one pressing charges. Just sorry, that the confined treatment of the series romance, pushed Howard to take the easy road in the solution.

This one isn't nearly as good as some of LH's other works. Brett was rather boorish, rude and manipulative (The best part is when Tessa throws some lemonade at him...believe me, you will cheer). Our heroine turns into a quivering lump of jelly when suspected of embezzlement. I'll give it 2 stars for the lemonade scene. Tess and Brett aren't even in the same ballpark as and Marlie, Faith and Gray etc. They are as poorly rendered and unlovable as that Greek jerk in "All that Glitters."

This is an early (1985) Linda Howard and it shows! Her character development is really weak, the villain sticks out like a sore thumb, and the story is totally unbelievable (even for a romance). Of course, LH must have developed her ability to write a scorching bedroom scene early in her career. If anyone's really interested in LH, I would recommend Dream Man or Son of the Morning as two of her better works.

I only recently discovered Linda Howard's books, and I've been making a concerted effort to read them all. For the most part, I've enjoyed them. However, the "hero" in this book was completely unbelievable. His last name, "Rutland" was certainly appropriate, since his solution to their conflict seemed to be "let's have sex, then you'll feel better about all this." I wanted the heroine to kick his insensitive, self-centered, Neanderthal butt out the door, but even though her love for him didn't seem to be based on much, it won out anyway. "Kill and Tell" was much better, as was "A Woman of the West," where the hero was also rough and didn't communicate well with the heroine, but I felt he was better rounded.

This is one of those frustrating early Linda Howard romances. LH is such a good writer, but her early books conformed to a common standard of that era (the book was published in 1985) that just does not hold up well two decades later. It was so bad that, after reading this book, I felt as if I needed an increased dose of blood pressure medication!

Tessa Conway overcame a difficult and impoverished early life in the South to become a bookkeeper at Carter Engineering in CA. She is good at her job and well-liked and respected by her coworkers. Unfortunately, an internal audit has uncovered some discrepancies and the parent corporation dispatches two troubleshooters to quietly check into the situation. Tessa is high on the list of suspects, and one of the troubleshooters, Brett Rutland, decides to combine business w/ pleasure by getting close enough to Tessa to both romance and investigate her at the same time. Tessa winds up falling for Brett, but he repays the favor by fingering her for embezzelment. Tessa is even briefly jailed, still believing that Brett is on her side and will come to her aid.

Of course, Tessa is not guilty. Before the true culprit is eventually identified, but after Tessa has been put through hell, Brett realizes he was too quick to jump to conclusions and belatedly defends her. Of course, once he has his revelation, he expectly Tessa to not only immediately forgive him, but to also immediately sleep with him. Sadly, she does both. (This is a pattern in LH's books, even some of her later ones. The hero will do something very hurtful/despicable to the heroine, and forgiveness/sex is quickly forthcoming.)

I suppose it's fairly obvious that I intensely disliked Brett Rutland. He was not a nice person and had no redeeming features. When you get right down to it, he wasn't even very good at his job, was he? He was so focused on seducing Tessa that it took him forever to find the real culprit. He behaved like a toad towards Tessa and didn't deserve her.

Tessa was a more engaging character. She wasn't initially portrayed as a typical weak, submissive, prone to victimhood 80s-style romance heroine--but that's how she ended up acting in her "relationship" w/ Brett. A real doormat. Brett really needed to do a lot more grovelling before Tessa even considered taking him back.

Tessa's lawyer also infuriated me. A decent lawyer would have made short shrift of the evidence/charges against Tessa instead of urging her to confess and go for a deal. Again, I wish Tessa had hired a new lawyer to sue the heck out of her first lawyer, Carter Engineering, Brett, and anyone else involved. And what was the deal w/ leaving her alone w/ Brett after her harrowing ordeal? A restraining order against Brett would have been a better idea! (Where's that darned BP medication?!)

LH is one of my favorite romance writers--really--but there just weren't enough redeeming qualities in The Cutting Edge for me to recommend it. It gets two stars from me based only on LH's overall body of work. There are much better choices (Midnight Rainbow, Against the Rules) among her earlier books. Better still, stick to her later works, like Dream Man, After the Night, Mr. Perfect, Kill and Tell, Son of the Morning, or numerous others, for some truly can't-miss reads.

This is an older book from Ms. Howard. It's a great story of one man's mistake and how he almost loses the woman he loves.
I enjoyed the heroine a lot, but the hero was a little too domineering for my tastes, but it didn't take away from the story too much.
I just found it hard to imagine liking this guy never mind falling madly in love with him like the heroine did. He is borderline stalker and seems more or less obsessed with her rather than in love. At times he is downright scary and I started to wonder in the back of my mind if he would flip out on her. Now that I said that, the heroine is very strong and very likable.

Tessa Conway is caught unawares when the top troubleshooter for her company, Brett Rutler takes an interest in her romantically. He is everything she isn't, overbearing and surly. What she doesn't expect is to fall for him and fall hard.
Brett isn't seeing her for his own pleasure. He is looking for an embezzler in the company and needs information from the one woman who seems to know everyone and works closely with the money. Neither does he realize what he is up against. His heart is on the line now and when the guilty shows itself he is stunned and must face the ultimate challenge...

Tracy Talley~@

I'm a huge Linda Howard fan, but this early effort is clearly not her best work. The characters are one dimensional and the plot is too obvious. Brett is a particularly unappealing hero. I have no idea what the heroine was supposedly attracted to. The one thing I did like about the book was the emotional reunion between the two leads where they try to figure out how to resume a their relationship despite their mistrust and guilt. This intense scene is indicative of some of Howard's better work. Basically, this is a semi-tolerable read if you are in serious Howard withdrawal, but most readers would be better served by picking one of her more mature works.

Yes, this IS one of those early Linda Howard novels where the hero is a jerk and does something *almost* unforgiveable to the heroine. But for some reason, despite all this, the book just worked for me and I really enjoyed it.

The Cutting Edge isn't like After The Night (a book which really left a bad taste in my mouth) where the hero constantly belittles the heroine from a young age and blames her for things that are out of her control. In this book, the hero Brett Rutland is a hardened and cold-hearted man who immediately falls for Tessa Conway and sets out to seduce her. However, after they embark on a relationship, Brett, who is investigating an embezzlement case at Tessa's office, finds evidence that Tess was behind the criminal activity. Without speaking to Tessa first, Brett files charges against her and Tessa is arrested. Tessa is actually innocent and has been framed - but Brett won't give her a chance to explain. Although a storyline like this would normally drive me crazy, in this book it was believable and even understandable due to Brett's fear of losing control.

My favourite scenes are when Brett finally comes to his senses and realises that he was wrong about Tessa. He sets out to get her back at all costs and wants to make up for everything he has put her through. To be honest, the book would have been a 5-star for me if Brett had actually apologised to Tessa and said the word SORRY, but in typical 1980s romance style, Brett never does this. However, it was clear that he did pay emotionally for his behaviour and tried to make up for it. Brett is also sinfully sexy and a powerful take-charge type of guy that I really like in romance novels. Tessa is a good female character, she seemed kind hearted and genuine - though of course she could have been more firm with Brett and not taken him back until he'd apologised properly.

Overall, this isn't the greatest Linda Howard novel I've ever read (that accolade would go to Dream Man, Heart of Fire or Touch of Fire) but it is actually a lot better than many of the newer romances I try to read, and certainly I liked it more than some of Howard's newest novels, where the focus seems to always be on espionage and danger rather than romance. I would recommend this to readers who can look past a typical 1980s hard-headed hero and just want to read an old-fashioned romance novel featuring a ruthless alpha male.

In The Cutting Edge, Brett and Tessa are the typical type of protagonists for the TIME period. Remember the old books of Stephanie James (Jayne Ann Krentz) Elizabeth Lowell and the like.

The Alpha Male of the 80's--was a jerk--and love overcame all obstacles. It's an escape from reality to be sure. Still, Linda Howard managed to give you characters you could love AND hate.

When I read this back when it first came out--and compare it to what I read today--I realize it's very outdated. Still, it's a must-read for those like me that are diehard LH fans.

These books are where she started. Her fans have grown with her--and her books today are not the same, of course.

Publishers wanted a different type of book back then than they do today. If you liked Raintree (the hero, I mean) then you'll like this book. Some believe Dane in Raintree Inferno was horrible, too.

Alpha Male meets sweet (too sweet) heroine.

Why am I bothering to review it? Well, I read it over 20 years ago--and remember the storyline as if I read it yesterday. That says something about an authors ability to draw you into the story--whether you like the hero or not.

Remember--(SPOILER ALERT) Brett made moves to get her out of the mess--when he still THOUGHT she was guilty!

As most critics say you can't read just one Linda Howard. She knows how to blend a romantic story with strong lead characters in an intriguing storyline. I got hooked on her writings with "Mr. Perfect" a couple of years ago and have been actively searching and reading all her other books I can find. "The Cutting Edge" is one of her stories that will keep you turning pages late into the night because you have to find out how it will end. Brett's character is one you have to learn to appreciate, he doesn't show all his cards until he has no other choice. I don't want to give the story away, but you will love Tessa's strong will and deep sense of self-respect. She's a woman who's independence fights the challenges she faces. A good read.