Cutting Loose - Confusing Passion & Drama

Cutting Loose

Author: Susan Andersen

I am not a passionate person. I refuse to be a passionate person. Please tell me I am nothing like my parents. –Jane's journal entry

All this time she had imagined herself immune to passion. Or if perhaps not entirely impervious, at least smart enough to prevent what little she had experienced from ruling her. She'd felt a bit smug about it, actually often reflecting that the world would be a far more manageable place if everyone would exercise their willpower a bit more often. –Narrator

Dev realized that neither Mike nor Dorrie had hugged or kissed [their daughter Jane] – not in greeting, not in goodbye. In his family no one got in or out of a relative's house without one or the other […] Up until tonight he'd taken that for granted […] Suddenly, however, he had a new appreciation for his family that he hadn't possessed half an hour ago. –Narrator

Thank God for girlfriends. What a screwed-up world this would be without them.

–Jane's journal entry

Book jacket:

Jane thinks nothing can make her lose her cool. But the princess of propriety blows a gasket the night she meets the contractor restoring the Wolcott mansion. Devlin Kavangh's rugged sex appeal may buckle her knees, but the man is out of control! Jane had to deal with theatrics growing up – she won't tolerate them in someone hired to work on the house she and her two best friends have just inherited.

Dev could renovate the mansion in his sleep. But ever since the prissy owner spotted him jet-lagged, exhausted and hit hard by a couple of welcome-home drinks, she's been on his case. Yet there's something about her. Jane hides behind conservative clothes and a frosty manner, but her seductive blue eyes and leopard-print heels hint at a woman just dying to cut loose!

This book was a much-needed easy read, after getting through such monsters as The Autobiography of Malcolm X (tough content) and The Stand (tough length). I could have probably finished this book in one solid weekend if life hadn't been happening at the same time. I've read several fluffy romance novels in my day – and I’m perfectly happy admitting that. Of those I've read, I have to say that this one, though fairly predictable – yes, the guy gets the girl in the end – was well-written with a few unexpected moments. I don’t recall if I've mentioned it before, but I’m keeping a list of books I want to read when this project is complete. The list contains books other people suggested too late to make the 30@30 list and sequels to books I've read or books by an author of a 30@30 book. Susan Andersen’s two companion books to this one have been added to that list.

One issue I have with this book – and it's not alone in this atrocity, by any means – is a character's fanatical adherence to an idea or compulsion. In the case of Cutting Loose, that idea is, "I must not be passionate, for passion always equals drama, and I refuse to be dramatic like my parents." This thought belongs to the story’s female lead character, Jane, who not only links passion and drama but also assumes that those are intrinsically entwined with alcohol. While her childhood reveals the reason these arbitrary linkages were made – her mother and father, a stage actor and playwright, respectively, were nearly always engaged in overblown arguments followed by passionate reunions, drinks in hand – it does not convince me that the adult Jane is not capable of separating passion from drama from alcohol.

She seems like an intelligent character in every manner except this one. This is what annoys me. It is out of character for her to be so close-minded and set in her ways on that one particular aspect of life. She doesn't let herself get emotionally involved, fearing that will lead to passion which will lead to drama and ultimately to an unhappy home. She doesn't allow herself to drink more than one glass of wine – and even then, rarely one! – for fear it will lead to drama and passion and fighting and an unhappy home and now we've come full circle. She sees this as black-and-white with no possible way to have passion free of drama, a drink free of fighting and love free of an unhappy home.

Of course, without this stalwart view of hers, much of the tension between Jane and Dev wouldn't exist, making this story pretty much pointless. I simply wish the conflict between the two could have been better played than an "I can’t have passion because my parents are dramatic!" attitude. It just annoyed me.

My takeaway: Love is often found in the most unsuspecting places when you let down your guard and free yourself to it. And passion, my friend, is not the same thing as drama or fighting – consult your thesaurus!