Bet Me

Rating:
Summary: Should have been a paperback original
Review: According to the author's website, this was an old unsold manuscript that was rewritten and updated, a la Dean Koontz. Although it is a fun book, it feels like an early effort, not up to the standards of Faking It or Fast Women. Wait for the paperback.

Rating:
Summary: the best of the genre -- Sara Donati to Jennifer Crusie
Review: Yet again Crusie delivers hard proof that romance can be well written and thoughtful. Her trademark humor is here, her deft touch with characters, the double-stepping plot that will engage and entertain. But there's a lot beneath the surface of this love story, if you care to look.

Rating:
Summary: Is it fair to compare an author to herself?
Review: Is it fair to compare an author to herself? I don't know. What I am sure of is that this book is not as fabulous as Crusie's Welcome to Temptation. However, that should not stop you from buying this book and staying up all night just to finish it! It's a good book, and it's a good Crusie book. The characters are quirky, the situations are wacky, and the dialogue is witty. Yes, it's true that the book is lacking in sex scenes, but I really didn't mind. I enjoyed the plot and the banter between the characters so much that I didn't miss some of the traditional elements of a romance novel that might be missing.

Bottom line: buy this book. Buy all Jennifer Crusie's books. Read them and keep them on your bookshelf so that you can read them again. You'll thank yourself.

Rating:
Summary: Fun book but it lacks freshness...
Review: Bet Me is a fun book--great main and secondary characters (Min being round and plump was great!) and great banter.What distracted me from the book was the number of props and lines in the book that have appeared in Crusie's other books--Dove Bars, ragged orphan animals and reference to rum and Cokes as wimpy drinks, to note a few. It got to the point I was looking for them, and I found I was getting more and more disappointed when I would find them.

Crusie writes well and the bantering is fantastic, but the lack of freshness did the book no favor.

Rating:
Summary: LAME!
Review: Sorry, but what happened to this author??? She used to be witty and interesting. Now she has gotten so lame. The contrived humor, the one-note characters, the gimmicky plot devices. I used to love her work but the last two books have been real stinkers! Also the stuff with Min's mother reminding her about her weight kept falling flat because these weren't remotely well-crafted or nuanced interactions. Instead, Crusie keeps beating us over the head with what we're supposed to find funny. I wish someone would tell this author to stop trying so maybe her books would feel natural again.

Rating:
Summary: A Dose of Happy
Review: I love Jennifer Crusie's writing style and basically have brought all her books, even the older ones. This book was a return to the classic romantic tale with a modern fairy tale thrown in. I had pre-ordered this book and was not disappointed.
I did not give it 5 stars because I am one of those women who likes my books to end with a husband, wife and kids. I know not every woman needs kids to be happy, but I just can't help it, I like my novels to end that way.
Other than that very tiny preference, I loved this book. The hardcover price did not bother me at all, it was worth it. I am really looking forward to more of her books.

Rating:
Summary: Always Trust Crusie
Review: She's done it again. If there's anything to believe in, it's Jennifer Crusie. Her witty dialogue keeps the story rolling, and there's no way you can get bored. She kept me laughing for all 384 pages, and made me believe in fairy tales again. You can't go wrong by reading Bet Me.

Rating:
Summary: Tiresome!!
Review: As the story opens, Minerva Dobbs is being dumped by her boyfriend in a bar. Later Min hears her ex making a bet with Calvin Morrisey. David bets that Cal cannot get Min into bed within a month's time. The bet is $10,000. but Min thought she heard $10. Furious, Min decides to use Cal for a month because she now needs a date for her sister's wedding. When Cal introduces himself and asks her out to dinner, she accepts. During dinner she realizes that she may not be able to hold out against this handsome man and decides to scrap her plan but fate will continue to throw these two together.

I read another book by this author entitled "Welcome To Temptation" and I did not like it. I will always give an author another try so when I read the first chapter of "Bet Me", I thought I was in for a good read. Well, halfway through I was again bored with these quirky characters. I am not a sourpuss or a prude and I love "Sex In The City" but all these characters really needed to get a life. Min is voluptuous and is constantly bemoaning her weight. Min's mother constantly reminds her about her weight. Cal is a hit and run lover who cannot commit to a woman. One friend, Bonnie is living in a fairy tale world. Min's sister, Diana, is not a happy bride. Min's mother is a pain in the butt. Cal's mother is a self-centered witch. And we hear the same things over and over and over. The love scene finally arrives at the end of the book and that also is a big letdown.

I now realize that there is no sitting on the fence with this author. You either like or dislike her work.

Rating:
Summary: Ho-Hum and a rant
Review: After I read Bet Me, I thought 'been there, done that. ' It seems like the author combined 'Fast Women' and 'Welcome to Temptation,' and threw in some new music (Elvis) and fairy tale stuff. There's the little kid and the baseball game, the three tight women friends, someone gets hit with something, the frozen mother and so on. And speaking of the frozen mother, it would be so nice to see this author portray a woman in her fifties as something other than an ice matron or manipulative or frozen or unfulfilled or incomplete or dead below the waist. When you think about some of her older female characters (Gwen, Liz, Nanette, Cal's mother, Maddie's mother) Crusie seems to perpetuate these stereotypes of the woman over fifty.

Rating:
Summary: Charming!
Review: Jennifer Crusie goes for it and tells a love story the way it should be told - with total, reckless abandon. In this modern-age fairy tale, actuary Min Dobbs knows handsome Cal Morrissey is a bad risk. He's a habitual lover-and-leaver, and too charming to be up to any good. Cal Morrissey knows that love's a long shot and the best you can hope for is a good time in the mean time - and uptight Min doesn't even look like a good time in the first place. But when Fate steps in to put them together, everyone knows resistance is futile.

From delightful main characters to an engaging supporting cast, Crusie hits another one out of the park with "Bet Me." Crusie's signature tight storytelling and graceful humor are as present here as ever, but she's added a layer of mythology without apology which creates a thoroughly charming set of characters in a lovely world where fairy tales can come true. It's a good bet that you won't find a better warm fuzzy this year; "Bet Me" is worth every penny of the hardcover price.