Crazy for You

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Summary: A great page-turner.
Review: "Crazy for You" was pretty good. I never suspected Bill to be that crazy. I'm glad Quinn found true love with Nick, and that everything worked out well for Darla and Max. Last year, I read "Tell Me Lies", and that was also good. Jennifer Crusie is a great writer. She depicts small town life pretty well.

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Summary: The following is a Los Angeles Times review, June 2, 1999.
Review: SHE FINALLY WAKES UP, THEN THE FUR STARTS TO FLY/ Speed Read/ By Michelle Williams, Times Staff Writer

Quinn McKenzie's life is pretty good. She has a good job, a good man, good friends, and she's from a family that seems to be functional.

Fortunately, it doesn't take many pages into Jennifer Crusie's "Crazy for You" (St. Martin's Press) to see that Quinn's boss is from hell, her man is from Mars (and a stalker), her friends are unravelling (and from Venus), and her mother, father and sister are one enchilada short of a combo plate.

In summary, Quinn's life stinks.

Quinn is a bit more charitable. She describes her life as "beige." We all know a Quinn. She's the reliable, dependable person in your life who will retire after 40 years on the same job. She has the same phone number she got when she first got a phone; she's even listed. She rarely complains, and when she does, you have to listen closely because her gripes don't sound like normal gripes: There's no great outrage. She keeps all promises-- when she says she'll meet you at the movies on July 23, 2004, at 8 p.m., you know she'll be there.

When the world is crashing around you, she's the one you look to to hum "Don't Worry, Be Happy." Quinns don't sing it, they just hum. They're reliable (and not annoying) that way.

"Crazy for You" is the story about what happens when Quinn McKenzie decides not to be a rock anymore. Yeah, yeah, we get to witness her personal growth and introspection blah, blah, blah. But the chain reaction is what makes this book a delight. Even the most minor character is affected by Quinn's decision to make her life more colorful-- and all because of a rat-dog named Katie.

Katie is a stray who wanders into Quinn's life and, of course, is a metaphor for Quinn's life. Quinn has been having a comfortable collie life. Now, she needs a stray rat-dog life. Quinn takes to Katie immediately, but her live-in boyfriend, Bill, doesn't. Let's just say Bill wouldn't go into mourning if Katie were to meet, say, the right front wheel of a moving bus. But even Bill isn't a dog killer, at least not directly. So he hauls the dog off to the pound-- unbeknownst to Quinn-- and sets plans in motion for the pound to do the dirty work.

When your man kidnaps your dog and takes it to the pound without your consent, well, it makes you do some hard thinking. Should this man be the one you spend the rest of your life with? Should he be the father of your future children? Definitely not, Quinn decides. What follows is a delightful romantic romp complete with happy ending. It is reminiscent of Beach Reading Queen Susan Isaacs in the early days before she started competing with Tom Clancy for the Biggest Book award. It's one thing to write page after page about the battle for world domination, but a romance novel should not go on and on and bloody on.

"Crazy for You" is a short (yes, even at 325 pages), sweet book filled with characters who are just plain hoots, including Quinn's ESPN-dependent father, Joe; Quinn's appropriately named friend Darla, who does hair at the Upper Cut; and Quinn's new hunka-hunka hunk of a boyfriend, Nick, who, it should perhaps be mentioned here, used to be married to Quinn's sister, Zoe, who is now happily married to Ben.

With beach season soon upon us, I'm now going to root around for Crusie's other novel, "Tell Me Lies." She's certainly a legitimate heir to the Beach Reading Throne.

Rating:
Summary: What A Great Book!!!!
Review: "Crazy For You" was a great book, almost as great as "Tell Me Lies." Quinn has a lot on her plate: A man who is crazy about her needs to save her from another who is just plain crazy. I can hardly wait for her next book to come out.

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Summary: A sexy, enjoyable glimpse of the "other side."
Review: So this confetti cover catches my eye. What kind of book gets this kind of weird cover? As a man, if it's a "woman's book," I won't be interested.

When I look inside I see sex - good stuff, with both emotions and sensations - from a woman's viewpoint. Is this for real? Most woman novelists are too indirect. But, checking the author photo, it was written by a real live woman. Just maybe, if I read this, I can get a glimpse of sex from the "other side."

And I read it, enjoying the sex as expected. And I do get to see the other side, not just the sex part either. Yes, it's a little romancy contrived - but not enough to spoil the fun. So why only three stars? Well, Steinbeck gets five. I'm sure Jennifer will understand. She does, after all, have a passionate sense of humor.

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Summary: Crusie is a treasure!
Review: So, there I was: sick of kids, sick of husband, sick of everything in my normal, ordinary life. Needed a treat in the worst way. Do I buy the hardcover or indulge myself with a bottle of Italian wine? One or the other--both are impossible. I bought the book. And, boy, was it ever worth it. We all know Cruise is funny--and she is. This is a very funny book. But there's also a rich, deeply satisfying kind of honor underlying her work, an exploration of our deepest relationships, our most treasured wishes and dreams, a recognition of how deep and terrible and wonderful our lives are if we take three seconds to appreciate them. Crusie is funny, but she's also wise, and the combination has never been better than in CRAZY FOR YOU.

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Summary: Wonderful, winning characters!
Review: Aw, this book is so good that I hated for it to be over. Read it cover to cover in one, late night sitting. Quinn, the heroine, grabs your heart from the first line. And her reluctant hero Nick? Well, he has one of the best comeback lines I've ever read in a book. Count me in the crazy for Crazy for You camp. Totally. Absolutely. And I'm ready to read it again.

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Summary: CRAZY ABOUT CRUSIE!!!
Review: Jennifer Crusie hits a home run with this one! I lost an entire day's work because I couldn't put it down. It's funny,fresh, and completely satisfying! This is one book you won't feel as if you've read a hundred times before. I loved the characters, the humor, and the surprises. The best book I've read in months!

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Summary: My mother says it's a great book
Review: Great sex and warm-hearted humor. This author has a gift for creating absolutely true, human characters and putting them in the middle of an ordinary life...and then making them a part of an extraordinary story! A super read which my mother stole from me before I could get to it, but then she gave it back saying it was great. I dove right in and you know what? Mothers are ALWAYS right.

Rating:
Summary: Terrific!!!
Review: This book has it all. It's fun, it's incredibly sexy, and the characterizations are fantastic! Jennifer Crusie has outdone herself!

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Summary: oh, heck...couldn't put it down
Review: Let me just say that Jennifer Crusie is quite possibly the world's best writer. I kid you not. Seriously, this book is so fabulous, it is nearly impossible to put down. All I need in life are Jennifer Crusie's books, chocolate, ice cream, four hours alone and I'm fine. Wonderful, superb, exquisite and in all other ways fantastic book. I only wish Jennifer Crusie wrote more, but the world can't possibly get that great.