Bet Me: Jennifer Crusie

 

 Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie
Published:  8-31-04
337 pages
Obtained from the library

 

 

 
I declared this weekend my own personal little read-a-thon.  I did get some reading done during October, but not as much as I would have liked, and I’ve been missing my books!  I decided to pick up Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie from the library on Friday afternoon, solely based on the glowing recommendation of my friend Fuzzy Cricket, and boy, am I glad I did!  I should have expected nothing less though — she has never steered me wrong!  (F.C. introduced me to the Fever series by Karen Marie Moning—need I say more? I think not.)

So I began Bet Me around 7:00 on Friday night, and was finished by 5:00 pm on Saturday.  And mind you, I even found the time to take the kids to breakfast, make a couple meals, go to a soccer game, clean the kitchen (for the first of at least five times this weekend) and did some laundry (loads 1-3 of approximately 10 total, I believe. And yes, there’s still more. How does this happen??? Damn Gremlin laundry).  Anyway…suffice to say I was pleased with my personal read-a-thon progress.  And more importantly, I was very pleased with Bet Me.

Minerva Dobbs and Cal Morissey, the main players of the novel, are just impossible to resist.  You can’t help but fall in love with them, nor their circle of friends who also play a prominent role in the story.  Min and Cal’s relationship, as you may have guessed, all begins based on a bet, but quickly becomes a force of nature that can’t be ignored. Lest you think I felt this book was perfect, I did not… the whole “bet” storyline dragged on too long, I felt.  And my goodness, that David, what an ass.  But every story has to have an antagonist, I guess.  And the romantical scenes (yes, I made up that word, and yes, I use it every chance I get.) were *very* steamy.  I’ll never be able to look at Krispy Kreme doughnuts in the same way again. 

But rest assured, the wonderful aspects of this story far outweighed the few things that bothered me.  And really?  Could someone PLEASE get me some chicken marsala??? I definitely plan on checking out more Crusie titles in the future.  I’m open to any suggestions as to which of her works I should read next.  Thanks, Miss Fuzzy Cricket, for causing me to move Ms. Crusie up in my massive TBR list.  Bet Me was the perfect way to spend a cool, fall weekend.  Now…off to research chicken marsala recipes….