Narrated by Lesa Lockaman - Narration 5*s - Story 2.5*s Reviewed for AudioGals 9/6/12 http://bit.ly/TAZzr8Linda Howard wrote several books early in her career in which I find the heroes define the word Troglodyte = a person characterized by outmoded or reactionary attitudes with heroines who put up with them and actually fall in love with them instead of sweeping them out the door. With the recent release of The Cutting Edge in audio format, I was hoping the new-to-me narrator would change that aspect of Brett Rutland – a gal can dream, can’t she?The talent of narrator Lesa Lockford was obvious immediately and I was excited. With her skill, Ms. Lockford could easily give Brett’s overbearing actions and comments a sexy, teasing, “I can’t resist you” tone while adding a romantic bent to his thoughts about Tessa instead of pure caveman. But alas, as good narrators are wont do, she delivered exactly what Linda Howard wrote back in 1985 and she did it perfectly. Rats! Don’t get me wrong, the narration is top of the line – its quality is the only thing that pulled me through this dated story. But what I would have given for a modern day twist with a change in voice inflection.Brett Rutland has come to the CA based corporation where transplanted Southern belle Tessa Conway works, to ferret out an embezzler and his eye immediately falls on the popular employee. Tessa’s character was written with a backbone to go with her outgoing personality so it was disheartening to have her fall hard and fast for the highhanded consultant. We get a tiny glimpse of Brett as a tender lover, but not nearly enough before he’s forced to consider evidence that points to Tessa. Although Brett had good reason to draw the conclusions he did about Tessa, the outcome wasn’t satisfying. Tessa dealt out some well aimed verbal payback but she didn’t back up her words with any type of action before capitulating. Spoiler…..Like “Get the Hell out of my bedroom if not the whole house you big jerk, I don’t care how sorry you are, you’ve put me through too much to come play naked nursemaid within a matter of hours of walking back through my door ……” end SpoilerI like Alpha heroes but they need to meet their match and crying doormats are not that match.Lesa Lockford gives a pitch perfect performance of the material she had to work with. A great deal of this book is told from the inner thoughts of either Brett or Tessa which can be very monotonous in an audiobook but I easily remained involved. I was actually surprised to realize how little conversing there was until I started to write this review. When the speaking parts did come along Tessa, with her honeyed southern lilt, was a pleasure to hear as were each of her friends and co workers; Brett’s bossy masculine overtone fit his character as written so well I wanted to punch him more than once throughout the book. There wasn’t a flat note to be heard. Lesa Lockford’s admirable ability reminds me closely of Natalie Ross’ work with past Linda Howard books. And that’s a compliment, especially considering Ms. Ross’ class of narrators.I’m excited to see The Cutting Edge released as an audiobook and would be truly ecstatic to see Dreamscape Audio on the path to releasing Linda Howard’s series romance backlist from this point forward. If that’s the case, Midnight Rainbow will be next on deck – be still my heart!
The Cutting Edge by Linda Howard is a 1985 Mira publication. When Brett and Evan are hired to looking into a possible embezzlement coming from someone on the inside of Carter Engineering he decides to take out the lovely Tessa Conway, one of the firm's accountants and sort fish around for information. That first date turns into an intense affair with Tessa falling hopelessly in love, almost against her will. But, when Brett uncovers evidence that Tessa is the person behind the embezzlement, he slams on the brakes and has her arrested. He is cruel and taunting, completely breaking Tessa's heart into. Now Tessa is in for the fight of her life as she attempts to prove her innocence and avoid a prison sentence. I came across this book at a library sale. I just saw the name Linda Howard and the title didn't sound familiar so I tossed it in my shopping bag. After giving the book a closer look I found it was published WAY back in 1985 and OMG you should see the author photo in the back of the book. Linda looks about 18 or 19 years old!! I noticed as I was about to begin my review that many recent ratings and reviews on Goodreads were lukewarm at best, while the older reviews were more kind. The book I have is a first edition and many folks are reading re-issues which I can't vouch for. The important thing to remember here is: 1) This has to be one of Linda Howard's first books and 2) The book was written in 1985. It's very hard for young women to relate to the time period this novel was published in. Read any contemporary romance novel from the 1980's and you will see the exact same alpha type as Brett in nearly every single one. The men in these older contemporary romances are often the very definition of an asshole. Yes, it is hard to imagine someone putting up with a man like Brett no matter what decade, but I challenge you to find more that ten novels written in that era that had a beta male as the love interest. I recently read a book by Janet Daley as part of a retro romance group on Goodreads and if you thought Brett was jerk, you should have this book!! So, while it's hard to get past that type of behavior in the Brett, Tessa will also make you mad because she is so stupid. How on earth can you be in love with such a brute???At times it hardly seemed like a romance at all and more like some sort of dangerous obsessive relationship that could hardly be healthy. However, these books were very popular and women read through them faster than they could release more. Taking a critical look at the book, the story really was pretty good. Being set up for a crime you didn't commit and having the person you love have you arrested was the scenario and well, I felt sorry for Tessa. Even if she had been a ball buster in our current day business world, this story could work effectively and our enlightened readers would feel empathy for Tessa under those conditions. So, if you were to tone down Brett's alpha tendencies and give Tessa more backbone, turn the volume down on the angst just a little you could give this book a re-make that contemporary romance readers would love.It think that Linda Howard has certainly come a long way from the time she wrote this book and she has established herself as a leading romantic suspense authors with a very loyal following. This one gets 3 stars.
What do You think about The Cutting Edge (1985)?
I've read other Linda Howard books and I've really enjoyed them. With this book, I debated between rating that it was okay and that I just didn't like it. Ultimately, I decided that there were too many parts of the book that I really didn't like to rate it as anything better than that. The 'main man' drove me crazy. I don't mind a strong male, but he was a bully and, at times, his actions and words were abusive and made me think of a rapist (she says 'no', but he does what he wants anyway because he *knows* what she wants -- oh, please.) Then, for the main female character to not only accept this behavior and his unreasonable demands, but love him regardless made me ill. And, for her to love him in less time than one date was beyond believability.Sorry, there are other Linda Howard books I would recommend, but this is definitely not one of them.
—Judy
I've gotten tired of waiting for new Linda Howard books to come out, yes I know she just came out with one but I read it right away and now I have to wait for another year or so for another one to come out. I've read most of her back list except for some of the really old ones so I decided to start reading those. Keeping in mind that THE CUTTING EDGE was written in the early 80's and that it's one of her first books ( I think ), I really enjoyed the story. The only thing that I would say is that I never got the feeling that I got to know the H very well,but she did a good job with the h. Oh and even back then nobody writes a woman in emotional pain better than Linda Howard.
—Noelle
I started it June 10, 2015 and stopped after a couple of chapters so I'm marking it as finished in 2000 so I will remember this dud but not have it count as my 2015 finished books. Not worth the time. The plot is a complete insult to readers' intelligence. So there's a highly successful, emotion proof, super exec supposedly doing an objective and thorough investigation and his first move is to instruct a low level not pretty but damn sexy employee in the department he's investigating to have dinner with him and some of the first words out of his mouth are "I want you more than I want this steak." Give me a break. The author doesn't set the year but it is definitely not set in 1960s when maybe this might happen between an exec and bookkeeper. Can't see a great investigator ever doing it minutes into his investigation. Author wrote this book in 1985 when maybe sexual harassment wasn't as well recognized but come on! Stupid stupid stupid.
—CMac G
