Serviceable, contemporary, romantic suspense from 1998

Eugenia Swift is the 30-year-old, never-married, happily single director of the Leafbrook Glass Museum in Seattle. She is not only a renowned expert on glass art in her professional life, in her personal life she is a connoisseur and collector of that art form. In the process, she has converted her upscale condo into her own private museum, in which she displays her glass art on spotlighted pedestals. When an extremely wealthy, eccentric collector of rare glass art named Adam Daventry dies from an accidental fall, and his entire collection of glass art is willed to the Leabrook Glass Museum, Eugenia receives the career-advancing, and personally pleasing, assignment of traveling to Frog Cove Island, an artists' haven near Seattle, to catalog his art collection.

Unfortunately, this is not a 100% positive opportunity for Eugenia for two reasons. First, a brilliant, 20-something artist named Nelly Grant, who was a coworker and close friend of Eugenia, and who had briefly been Daventry's lover and art protégée, is presumed dead from a boating accident, though no body has been found. Eugenia is determined to find out what actually happened to Nellie, but she doesn't want anyone else to know about her quest, because they might get in her way. Second, due to the fact that Daventry may have, in fact, been murdered, rather than suffering from an accidental fall down the stairs in his mansion while intoxicated, her boss, the chief administrator of the Leabrook Foundation, insists that Eugenia take along a bodyguard in the form of 35-year-old Cyrus Chandler Colfax, a rough-hewn private investigator, whose constant attire is garish Hawaiian shirts, and whose idea of appealing art is a pedestrian seascape that matches the color of his couch.

Eugenia and her boss are unaware that Cyrus has his own hidden agenda. Three years ago, while transporting a 2,000-year-old piece of glass sculpture called the Hades cup to its new owner after a secret auction, his business partner, Damien March, shot Cyrus, murdered his wife, who had been having an affair with Damien, and stole the Hades cup. Cyrus has been keeping feelers out for the Hades cup ever since and is convinced that it was stolen from March sometime in the past year and ended up in the hands of Daventry. Cyrus believes that Daventry stashed it somewhere in his mansion, and being there as a bodyguard will give him a chance to search for it. In service of that goal, Cyrus is in complete agreement with Eugenia and her boss that the two of them should keep a low profile. In order to achieve that purpose, there are only two choices: that he play what Cyrus considers a completely improbable role of Eugenia's assistant, or that he play what Eugenia considers an utterly improbable role as her lover.

This contemporary, romantic-suspense novel contains the following popular romance tropes:

Fake dating
Forced proximity
Opposites attract
Slow burn
Enemies to lovers

This story is told in a conventional manner for mainstream romance with the the point of view of both the MMC and the FMC. But because it is romantic suspense, periodically the POV of the Big Bad is included as well.

From the start of the story and throughout the entire middle of it, it was off-putting to me that the manner in which the "enemies to lovers" trope is created is, for me personally, the worst possible way: Eugenia is constantly, rudely abrasive to Cyrus, who never has a harsh word to say to her in return. It's not that he's a doormat, it's just that he lets her meanness roll off his back even, sometimes, finding it more amusing than offensive. Regardless of his, not just tolerance, but outright acceptance of her personality, to the point of liking her as well as lusting after her, I had a hard time accepting that his falling for her is a psychologically healthy choice.

It was also difficult for me to imagine what these two could ever have in common, since they are opposites in every possible way. In order for the "opposites attract" trope to truly succeed, by the end of the novel, the reader should be thoroughly convinced that, underneath all the conflict-producing issues of these two polarized personalities, that their values and life goals are well aligned. Sadly, very few romance novels utilizing this trope successfully manage this important feat, and this novel is one of the ones that didn't quite convince me that these two people are soulmates.

What saved the novel for me is Cyrus. He has admirable personal ethics that include: honesty, loyalty, self-discipline, and perseverance. He is fully capable of making important relationship commitments and keeping them. Because Cyrus is one of the very few MMCs that JAK has ever created who is younger than 39, this possibly explains why he does not have a harsh, cynical outlook on life. He is strong on the outside but a total Cinnamon Roll on the inside. One of the things that makes Cyrus particularly appealing in this story is his relationship with his 18-year-old nephew by marriage, Rick. For the past 5 years, after Rick's parents divorced, and his bio-dad abandoned him, Cyrus has acted as a father figure to Rick. We get to know Rick quite well, because he becomes an important subcharacter in this novel when he opts to join Cyrus on Frog Cove Island for the summer. His relationship with Cyrus is an onstage demonstration of what a thoroughly decent human being Cyrus is.

As for Eugenia, other than her friendship with her missing, and presumed dead, friend, which is used as motivation for her to become an amateur sleuth, there is not even a cute rescue terrier (a common feature of many of the novels by JAK) to soften her abrasiveness and render her more appealing.

Regarding the suspense portion of this novel, there is one major villain and several intermediary villains. They do not take up a huge amount of page space. Having a mild level of risk is not necessarily a turnoff for me personally. I mostly read JAK novels for the romance. So I am not grading the novel down for that aspect.

Finally, though this novel at the present time, in 2024, is 26 years old, the only thing that dates it at all is the lack of the internet and ubiquitous cell phones. But situations in which their lack would be extremely noticeable did not come up very often in this story.

When I previously read this novel, I gave it 4 stars. This time around, for the above reasons, it was a 3-star experience for me.

I love to read and "solve" mysteries and this book had an interesting premise. It was written, however, for a different audience than me. I thought the search for the Hades Cup was intriguing but the character development and the romance were trite. I am not opposed to some sexual tension yet I enjoy a little mystery in the bedroom too. As soon as the two leads started insulting each other I knew these polar opposites were going to get involved in a cheesy romance. After reading other reviews, I now realize that this type of plot device is common in books by this author. To each her own but not for me.

Sharp Edges is a pretty standard JAK suspense novel. I've met these characters before in her other novels, and I've seen her use these plot developments before, too. It wasn't bad, but there were no surprises. The plot was predictable, the romance was predictable, and every one of Eugenia's inane utterances was predictable. I had to laugh when, halfway through the book:

n  Eugenia decided it would be best if she kept her mouth shut for a while. Nothing intelligent was coming out of it, anyway.n

That's pretty much when what I had been thinking, too. And Cyrus was only marginally more interesting.

I'm giving this book 3 stars because I did find it moderately enjoyable. However, I don't plan to read any more of Krentz's contemporary suspense novels. They are all too much alike.

3.4*

I read it through audible, nice book for long commutes, maybe it could be a good reflection of a person who has deep child wounds and lives in a place where there is strong emphasis on rights and less on responsibilities, and how a mentally ill parent can ruin a person life.

Loved it

Great book with lots of humor and intrigue. Cyrus was creative, funny and honorable. Mystery with humor in it too

I find glass a most fascinating medium, and Tiffany's "Autumn Landscape" is my absolute favorite pieces of art. However, the heroine is a little too bitchy, causing me to knock the book down a star.

From the first moment I really loved Eugenia . A strong , resourceful, so wonderfully snobby . I also would have loved Cyrus but his blindness to his ex-wife was so annoying. Of course, then his eyes opened ... but up to that point was sensation ( murder , theft ) , romance ( they so much to each other did not fit) , but with each side fascination from the side of Cyrus and prejudice from the side of Eugenia changed for a feeling, trust, understanding .

I liked this one well enough.
I didn't understand why Colfax seemed to only wear Hawaiian shirts. That's a grandpa thing, isn't it? He didn't seem old enough for that stereotype.
Eugenia was far to stubborn for her own good, to the point of being annoying sometimes.
It didn't seem like Colfax and Eugenia really clicked in my opinion. The basis of their personalities were similar, but not in complimentary ways. I think they were basically the same, but they had different weaknesses. I'm not sure it's a relationship that would last.
I liked Eugenia's quotes about glass. They put it into a neat perspective I'd never thought about before.
It's not part of the series, but I got an Arcane Society vibe from this book. Eugenia in specific exhibited some of the intuition type abilities mentioned in that series. I like to think it might be in the same universe and she might be an untested and unwitting talent.

This was alllllll goodness. The dark side of the art world and ugly Hawaii shirts. Wonderful.

Read this many years ago and it was good fun

Serviceable, contemporary, romantic suspense from 1998

Eugenia Swift is the 30-year-old, never-married, happily single director of the Leafbrook Glass Museum in Seattle. She is not only a renowned expert on glass art in her professional life, in her personal life she is a connoisseur and collector of that art form. In the process, she has converted her upscale condo into her own private museum, in which she displays her glass art on spotlighted pedestals. When an extremely wealthy, eccentric collector of rare glass art named Adam Daventry dies from an accidental fall, and his entire collection of glass art is willed to the Leabrook Glass Museum, Eugenia receives the career-advancing, and personally pleasing, assignment of traveling to Frog Cove Island, an artists' haven near Seattle, to catalog his art collection.

Unfortunately, this is not a 100% positive opportunity for Eugenia for two reasons. First, a brilliant, 20-something artist named Nelly Grant, who was a coworker and close friend of Eugenia, and who had briefly been Daventry's lover and art protege, is presumed dead from a boating accident, though no body has been found. Eugenia is determined to find out what actually happened to Nellie, but she doesn't want anyone else to know about her quest, because they might get in her way. Second, due to the fact that Daventry may have, in fact, been murdered, rather than suffering from an accidental fall down the stairs in his mansion while intoxicated, her boss, the chief administrator of the Leabrook Foundation, insists that Eugenia take along a bodyguard in the form of 35-year-old Cyrus Chandler Colfax, a rough-hewn private investigator, whose constant attire is garish Hawaiian shirts, and whose idea of appealing art is a pedestrian seascape that matches the color of his couch.

Eugenia and her boss are unaware that Cyrus has his own hidden agenda. Three years ago, while transporting a 2,000-year-old piece of glass sculpture called the Hades cup to its new owner after a secret auction, his business partner, Damien March, shot Cyrus, murdered his wife, who had been having an affair with Damien, and stole the Hades cup. Cyrus has been keeping feelers out for the Hades cup ever since and is convinced that it was stolen from March sometime in the past year and ended up in the hands of Daventry. Cyrus believes that Daventry stashed it somewhere in his mansion, and being there as a bodyguard will give him a chance to search for it. In service of that goal, Cyrus is in complete agreement with Eugenia and her boss that the two of them should keep a low profile. In order to achieve that purpose, there are only two choices: that he play what Cyrus considers a completely improbable role of Eugenia's assistant, or that he play what Eugenia considers and utterly improbable role as her lover.

This contemporary, romantic-suspense novel contains the following popular romance tropes:

Fake dating
Forced proximity
Opposites attract
Slow burn
Enemies to lovers

This story is told in a conventional manner for mainstream romance with the the point of view of both the MMC and the FMC. But because it is romantic suspense, periodically the POV of the Big Bad is included as well.

From the start of the story and throughout the entire middle of it, it was off-putting to me that the manner in which the "enemies to lover" trope is created is, for me personally, the worst possible way: Eugenia is constantly, rudely abrasive to Cyrus, who never has a harsh word to say to her in return. It's not that he's a doormat, it's just that he lets her meanness roll off his back. Regardless of his not just tolerance, but acceptance of her personality to the point of liking her as well as lusting after her, I had a hard time accepting that is falling for her is is a psychologically healthy choice. It was also difficult for me to imagine what these two could ever have in common, since they are opposites in every possible way. In order for this secondary popular trope to work, by the end of the novel, the reader should be thoroughly convinced we are supposed that, underneath all the surface issues of these two polarized personalities, that their values and life goals are very similar. It is definitely true that very few romance novels utilizing this trope successfully manage this important feat, and this novel is one of the ones that didn't quite convince me that these two people are soulmates.

What saved the novel for me is Cyrus. He has admirable personal ethics that include: honesty, loyalty, self-discipline, and perseverance. He is fully capable of making important relationship commitments and keeping them. Because Cyrus is one of the very few MMCs that JAK has ever created who is younger than 39, this possibly explains why he does not have a harsh, cynical outlook on life. He is strong on the outside but a total Cinnamon Roll on the inside. One of the things that makes Cyrus particularly appealing in this story is his relationship with his 18-year-old nephew by marriage, Rick. For the past 5 years, after Rick's parents divorced, and his bio-dad abandoned him, Cyrus has acted as a father figure to Rick. We get to know Rick quite well, because he becomes an important subcharacter in this novel when he opts to join Cyrus on Frog Cove Island for the summer. His relationship with Cyrus is an onstage demonstration of what a thoroughly decent human being Cyrus is.

As for Eugenia, other than her friendship with her missing, and presumed dead, friend, which is used as motivation for her to become an amateur sleuth, there is not even a cute rescue terrier (a common feature of many of the novels by JAK) to soften her abrasiveness and render her more appealing.

Regarding the suspense portion of this novel, there is one major villain and several intermediary villains. They do not take up a huge amount of page space. Having a mild level of risk is not necessarily a turnoff for me personally. I mostly read JAK novels for the romance. So I am not grading the novel down for that aspect.

Finally, though this novel at the present time, in 2024, is 26 years old, the only thing that dates it at all is the lack of the internet and ubiquitous cell phones. But situations in which their lack would be extremely noticeable did not come up very often in this story.

When I previously read this novel, I gave it 4 stars. This time around, for the above reasons, it was a 3-star experience for me.