Rating: 
Summary: BET ME
Review: Bet me was a great read! I read it in one sitting. I was so looking forward to reading this book and I was not disappointed. If you like quirky characters and funny dialogue this is a book for you. One of Jennifer Cruise's best.
Rating:
Summary: Bet Me is a Sure Bet!
Review: If you liked Tracy and Hepburn, Bogart and Becall, Gable and Lombard just to name a few then I think it's safe to say that you will like Cal and Min. Like the preceding couples, they click in a memorable way. And like the archetypes above, they are sexy and fun to read about. Once I picked up Bet Me, I had a hard time putting it down. Not because I was worried about the ending or that it kept me in suspense. Nope, it was just so much fun to read that I enjoyed almost every minute of it.Crusie has matured in her writing and it shows in this offering. Her characters are sophisticated, smart and likable. They are movie material. I always thought WTT was movie material but more in a Farrelly Brothers type of movie. Bet me is akin to Mike Nichol's material. Either is lots of fun and true entertainment but Nichol's films have that touch of something that makes them classics. And Bet Me is like that. It has that certain something where the characters are bigger than the pages and they come right off and on to the stage. All the characters in this book are well written and indispensable. Each shines their little bit of flashlight on the fun and development of the romance between the leads. Whether it's the lesbian neighbor bartender or the ex-psycho- analyst girlfriend who is an almost stalker.
Bet Me was an exercise in written foreplay. Badinage type foreplay, where the characters delve into every aspect of each other before giving in to the inevitable. The sexual banter and development of the relationship between Cal and Min is really good stuff and like I said hard to put down. JC really puts a lot into the cultivation of her characters in this book especially the heroine. She is a woman that you can relate to in some ways if not all ways. We all have our physical drawbacks and a person in our lives that makes us feel inadequate. So, Min is a sympathetic character like Brigid Jones was. Min is never going to be model thin and her mother is never going to be happy about that. She has an overprotective dad as well as in appearance, a perfect sister and Min isn't exactly the sweetest person in the world. Min has attitude and she doesn't want to settle. She's not expecting Prince Charming like her friend Bonnie but in a relationship she expects a little endurance and respect. Her ex provided neither.
Cal appears to be the consummate playboy type. Gorgeous, well off, buff and intelligent with a reputation as a heartbreaker. A love 'em and leave 'em womanizing male creature with no feelings. Appears is the operative word here. Cal like Min has layers and depths and is not as shallow as he seems to be. He has had to contend with dyslexia his whole life as well as overbearing parents. And though it seems like he can't maintain a long term relationship, it's obvious he has never fallen in love before.
The secondaries are great in this book and very memorable. Even the per se villains the exes are well drawn and add just the right dimensions to this book. I was trying to think of my favourite scene in this book and I was running them all through my brain. It was nearly impossible to pick one but if I had to, I would have to pick the post coital scene near the end where everyone and his mother literally show up. Great plotting and excellent dialogue in this book. Bet Me gets an A from me and I really hope it does get made into a movie. There are rumors that there may be one. Wouldn't that be fun.
Rating:
Summary: A Perfect Fantasy
Review: I've loved all of Crusie's books, and "Bet Me" is no exception. The characters are well defined, and fun. I laughed and I enjoyed! It's a romantic comedy fantasy where fate just won't let them go until they "live happily ever after". It's a definite read.
Rating:
Summary: funny and scarcastic and true
Review: It's been a long time since I had to stop reading for several minutes because I was laughing so hard I couldn't focus on the page. But I did just that several times. Crusie has a gift for getting emotional and sexual tension just right. And Min gets to say things that most of us only think, and then only if we have a sense of the absurd.
Rating:
Summary: A great read...
Review: An absolute winner! I thoroughly enjoyed this story. I love the fact that Min isn't a perfect size 4. She's a normal woman with issues about her body. It was refreshing to read a story about a great-looking guy who falls in love with a smart, funny and attractive girl who just happens to be overweight. Ms. Crusie has done it again. Her characters are funny, quirky and enjoy great friendships. Is it too early for summer? This one goes hand in hand with sun, sand and a boat drink. Cheers!
Rating: 
Summary: enjoyable
Review: I don't think this is the worst Jennifer Crusie book, far from it. It's exactly what all the rest of her books are - fun, exciting, interesting, sexy and funny. This one did remind me more of Crazy for You than any other because the the characters and the entire story is pretty down-to-earth and it's just everyday situations for all of the characters. She describes a life that could be anyone's and often is. Great book. Fun read. Enjoy it.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Crusie Sample
Review: The only problem I had with this book, personally, is that I can't help but compare it with Welcome to Temptation, which is the best Crusie book out there, bar none, and perhaps the best witty romantic contemporary fiction novel available, period. However, Bet Me has its own charm. Min Dobbs, our plump, witty heroine, is conflicted about accepting the attentions from Cal Morrisey, a red hot training seminar maven who, under normal circumstances, would be out of her league. However, Cal's interest is piqued when Min's smarmy ex-boyfriend points her out and initiates a bet that Cal can "get" Min within a month... and Min overhears their exchange. Crusie shines in the drafting of outrageous characters (this time, in the form of Min's mother, a cluelessly social-climbing barracuda; her and Cal's friends, and a cat named Elvis... not for this particular volume the ever-present Crusie dog... for me, vive la difference!). Characters are the key for this novel, and each one sparks independently of the others. Together, they combust. Min and Cal work out the kinks in their pseudo-but-evolving relationship in the face of considerable and hilarious impediments. As always, Crusie relies on cleverness, wit, and fundamental humor, plus generous italicized thought revelations, to create depth in her story. However, Min's comparative ordinariness is the single most outstanding component of this book; she's round, professionally accomplished, entrenched in a weird family, doesn't want kids... Min is a real woman (finally!); not for this story an impossibly slim, impossibly beautiful, impossibly exquisitely heartstricken young thing who's dying to fall in love with the right man and crank out babies in ostensible sequels that would be too boring to read. This book is not boring. If you like Crusie, this is a great book for you... it's a solid effort of an increasingly mature writer with growing mastery over her genre.
Rating: 
Summary: Mildly amusing, but not much of a plot.
Review: I have to agree with other reviewers that Ms. Crusie's last two efforts (BET ME and FAKING IT) have not been up to par with her usual standards of excellence. Although the characters are likeable and there are some witty lines, the book lacks any kind of plot. It consists mostly of couples pairing off in a singles bar. It reminds me of "Seinfeld" meets "The Dating Game" (which is not a compliment since I don't care for either show).
Also, I felt the author threw in some things to try to please everyone. Min is overweight and carb conscious. The bartender (who is also Cal's neighbor) is a Lesbian. One couple decides to remain childless, which disappointed me because they both like children and it is pointed out a couple of times in the book that they would make beautiful children. I will continue to read Ms. Crusie's books, but hope for better in the future.
Rating:
Summary: Destiny trumps even the best made plans.
Review: Minerva Dobbs is a young lady that begins to have doubts about every finding Mr. Right when her boyfriend dumps her for not wanting to have sex. "IS that all men think about?" she judges. Just when things seem to have gotten as bad as they could get, they go even lower. Her ex-boyfriend, pegging Min as a cold-hearted lady with no sex drive, bets Cal Morrissey that he is not able to bed her. Min decides to have fun in raising Cal's hopes before she ultimately plans to leave him with the desires in his hand. A funny thing happens on the way, they actually go beyond their original plans for each other and start to come to terms with the fact that they may have found their perfect match. Sometimes, destiny is grand and Jennifer Cruise takes us through a humorous journey in search of the Cinderella ending that everyone dreams of but always feels is beyond our own reach.
Rating:
Summary: I loved it! Wonderful! Funny, warm, sexy!!
Review: I inhaled this book in one sitting. I couldn't put it down. The dialogue was absolutely delightful, very witty, very funny, very warm. Cal is sexy as hell, and Min is so funny and so insightful. I really enjoyed this book and can't wait to read Jennifer Crusie's other books. The secondary characters were a hoot. This book is a real modern day fairy tale and I loved every minute of it. Jennifer Crusie's voice is so pure, so true, so funny. It's a wonderful, warm, sexy book!!
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