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A Step Away
ON THE EDGE
David Canfield had always lived on the edge--and now he was a step away from falling. But some long-legged woman with an easy smile and a heart that had been broken in a million pieces was trying to stop him. Raven McCandless had been to hell herself, though she'd survived--unlike him. And a lady like that deserved more than a bitter man with nothing to offer but his body ....
Raven knew all about pain and haunted pasts, but she wasn't about to let David ignore her. The hardened loner needed to learn how to love and be loved, and any man whose kisses could shake her to her very soul had a head start ....
David Canfield had always lived on the edge--and now he was a step away from falling. But some long-legged woman with an easy smile and a heart that had been broken in a million pieces was trying to stop him. Raven McCandless had been to hell herself, though she'd survived--unlike him. And a lady like that deserved more than a bitter man with nothing to offer but his body ....
Raven knew all about pain and haunted pasts, but she wasn't about to let David ignore her. The hardened loner needed to learn how to love and be loved, and any man whose kisses could shake her to her very soul had a head start ....
- GenresRomance
288 pages, Hardcover
Published December 9, 1994
10 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 24, 2015
David is angry. He's burnt out on his job as a secret agent, and he's suffering extreme guilt from a case where a hotheaded young female agent he was working with got killed. There also seems to be a killer after him. All this has made him reckless and ragey, so his boss Simon sends him to recuperate in a cabin he owns in a mountain valley.
Raven is a friend of Simon's. She's seen the worst life has to offer, and she's got through the anger and hurt and come out the other side with a serenity and an appreciation for life that David just can't understand. He hates her from the start, both because of her vitality and love for the world, and because her beauty tempts him like no other woman has. But as they spend time together as the only two human inhabitants of the valley, hate is overwhelmed by lust, and then by a deeper emotion...
I liked this book. I didn't expect to, as angry men aren't my thing, but I liked it the first time I read it and I like it still, on this second or third reading. David acts like an ass a lot of the time, but somehow instead of turning me off, it just exacerbated the sexual tension between the two of them. Raven puts up with a lot of crap from him, but rather than seeming like a doormat or an abused woman she reminded me of some ancient priestess or goddess, one who loves the world and the humans in it but who has risen to a place where she's too serene and content to be hurt by the battering waves of emotion. She does come down off that pedestal once she starts sleeping with David, but by that time he's become kinder and less explosive, and their relationship has gentled.
I don't think any other heroine could have made it work with David, but James has created that rare thing of a hero and heroine who blend perfectly, whose characters just fit each other.
The subplot of the killer who's after David isn't brought up much until the end, but despite that, it works into the story quite organically and doesn't make anything feel too fractured.
All in all, it's a very angsty book and for that reason I'll probably not read it again, but it was an excellent read. 4 stars.
Raven is a friend of Simon's. She's seen the worst life has to offer, and she's got through the anger and hurt and come out the other side with a serenity and an appreciation for life that David just can't understand. He hates her from the start, both because of her vitality and love for the world, and because her beauty tempts him like no other woman has. But as they spend time together as the only two human inhabitants of the valley, hate is overwhelmed by lust, and then by a deeper emotion...
I liked this book. I didn't expect to, as angry men aren't my thing, but I liked it the first time I read it and I like it still, on this second or third reading. David acts like an ass a lot of the time, but somehow instead of turning me off, it just exacerbated the sexual tension between the two of them. Raven puts up with a lot of crap from him, but rather than seeming like a doormat or an abused woman she reminded me of some ancient priestess or goddess, one who loves the world and the humans in it but who has risen to a place where she's too serene and content to be hurt by the battering waves of emotion. She does come down off that pedestal once she starts sleeping with David, but by that time he's become kinder and less explosive, and their relationship has gentled.
I don't think any other heroine could have made it work with David, but James has created that rare thing of a hero and heroine who blend perfectly, whose characters just fit each other.
The subplot of the killer who's after David isn't brought up much until the end, but despite that, it works into the story quite organically and doesn't make anything feel too fractured.
All in all, it's a very angsty book and for that reason I'll probably not read it again, but it was an excellent read. 4 stars.
May 23, 2008
A contemporary romance about the Black Watch set against the mountains of North Carolina. Raven has at last found peace after losing her family to a car bomb. David is sent to her valley to recover from losing his partner but is determined to find revenge. Through Raven, David learns the power of forgiving others as well as forgiving the self.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews