Cutting Loose (NYT Bestselling Author)

Jane, Ava, and Poppy have been friends since childhood, and now they're partners in an inheritance. A wealthy, eccentric old woman left them heirs in her will, and though her mansion is stuffed with valuable treasures, some of them are in no sort of order, and the house itself is rundown. Jane is in charge of two valuable collections that have been willed to the museum where she's a curator. The three women decide to have the house renovated and then sold, so they hire the Kavanaugh Construction Company for the work. Jane is utterly unimpressed with gorgeous Devlin Kavanaugh's drunken antics the night they meet, and the two of them just can't seem to get along. Jane is mortified to find herself thinking such lusty thoughts about Dev; she avoids passion after growing up amid the histrionics of her alcoholic actor parents. When Dev kisses her, though, that goes out the window, and Jane decides maybe she can handle a fling since Dev will be returning to Europe once his brother gets through chemotherapy. Meanwhile, a coworker who is jealous of Jane and the boost her inheritance will give her career is getting more and more dangerous as Jane's exhibits for the museum begin to exceed her expectations. This is not Wuthering Heights. What it is, is a light-hearted, fun, modern romance with witty dialogue and hot sex scenes. It's got sweet, gorgeous, built men and independent, vulnerable, far-from-helpless women. And the hilarious thing, after the bad rap romance publishing gets, is that I found no typos in the text--and I have found typos by the legion in almost everything else I've read of late. A nod to the editors at HQN. That important tidbit aside, this is a good book for killing a flight or a cold winter night at home; light and easy to devour, yet with enough heart to be more than a bit of fluff. Though the author has written books with more depth, this one was a very pleasant way to spend a few hours.

This book has it all. How will I wait for the next in the series not coming out till June 2009?!

I liked this book, but I was very irritated at Jane for at least half of the book. Jane comes across very uptight and not very friendly. It was hard to see her as the romantic lead. About halfway through the book that changed. I saw that she was really a worthy love interest and she just had a little more depth than the average female main character. Devlin is sex-on-a-stick from the very beginning. These two characters have an undeniable chemistry, and they both fight it. I love that neither one wants to want the other and they have to deal with that. Cutting Loose also deals with family and how our family shapes the person we become. In Jane's case a family of drama and hysterics has led to her life of order and calm. Dev's families intrusive behavior has led to him living on another continent. The author does a very good job of showing the different family dynamics. This book was a great read and I can't wait for the next book! more reviews at [...]

Three very different young girls, Poppy, Jane and Ava, are from various backgrounds and forged an unbreakable bond in their private school. The three of them became great friends and cementing that bond was an eccentric and wonderful lady, Agnes Wolcott. Agnes hosted teas and treated the young girls like equals. She encouraged their dreams and was a positive force throughout their lives. Now the women are adults and still the best of friends. Agnes has passed away leaving her estate in their hands with specific instructions on what to do with what. In the process of repairing the worn down old Wolcott mansion, Jane is cataloging some of Agnes' things that are slated to be donated to the museum that Jane works for. Dev Kavanagh has spent the past years away from his large Irish Catholic family, sailing boats and seeing the world. He comes home to help his family in the construction on the Wolcott mansion, intending to leave again, ASAP. But the future gets jumbled up when he butts heads and eventually other parts *wink* with the intriguing Jane. Throughout the book the story tended to ebb and flow for me. At times the pace was fast then it would slow down a bit, and then pick back up. But for the most part I really enjoyed it. Susan Andersen is an automatic buy for me. I eagerly await each new book as I am almost always thrilled with the results; such was the case with this one. Jane and Dev's relationship was fun; the sex was sizzling and the banter between the two, hilarious. Jane's friends are fantastic and as this is the first in the series, I am looking forward to reading more about them in the future two books, the next one being Bending The Rules. Cherise Everhard, August 2008

Jane is a little narrow minded. Raised by self-indulgent actor parents who spent more time drinking, arguing, then making up, she has had enough with amateur theatrics. Her only solace growing up was the escape to wealthy matriarch Agnes Wolcott's mansion for tea parties. Agnes wills her entire estate to Jane and her friends Ava and Poppy. Discovering that the mansion is crumbling, they hire the Kavanaugh brothers to restore the mansion to its former glory. And it's lust at first sight for Jane when she lays eyes on Devlin Kavanaugh, the brother who escaped to Europe and yet traded in his sea legs for a hammer when the family needs him most. But stuffy Jane assumes so many things about him that aren't true, and he enjoys making her squirm. When she propositions him for a no strings affair, Dev jumps at her offer. But soon the two are spending more and more time together and not having strings is suddenly not such a great proposition after all, as she falls hard for Dev and his extended family and he wonders if he couldn't stay on land after all. As Jane indulges in her affair and readies Agnes' beloved collections for a museum exhibition, items from the mansion start to disappear. What Jane doesn't realize is that she has a saboteur at work - Gordon will do anything to get his hands on the collection to fund his many gambling debts - but just how far will he go to get ahead? Andersen's first entry into the new series of novels featuring Jane and pals is a fun and romantic story. The constant bantering between Jane and Dev and Dev and his family is engaging and believable. The start of the story was a little slow, but once it reached its momentum, it really picked up. I liked it but had the same old gripe - lack of attention to editing and detail. At one point, brother Bren is described as having three sons - 25 pages later they suddenly turn into daughters. But overall, it was a fun and charming start to a hopefully knock out trio of novels.