Bet Me

by Jennifer Crusie

Other authorsDeanna Hurst (Reader)
Stand-alone audiobook player, 2004

Status

Available

Call number

813.6

Publication

Brilliance Audio (2008), Edition: Unabridged Audiobook, Preloaded Digital Audio Player, 12 hrs 30 secs

Description

Fiction. Romance. HTML: The beloved New York Times bestselling novel, now with an exclusive letter from Jennifer Crusie in celebration of its tenth anniversary This is New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Jennifer Crusie's novel about long shots, risk management, true love, and great shoes. . . . Minerva Dobbs knows how to work the odds. Calvin Morrisey always plays to win. But when they face off, neither one is prepared. Because when real life meets true love, all bets are off. . . . Minerva Dobbs knows that happily-ever-after is a fairy tale, especially with a man who asked her to dinner to win a bet, even if he is gorgeous and successful Calvin Morrisey. Cal knows commitment is impossible, especially with a woman as cranky as Min Dobbs, even if she does wear great shoes and keep him on his toes. When they say good-bye at the end of their evening, they cut their losses and agree never to see each other again. But fate has other plans, and it's not long before Min and Cal meet again. Soon they're dealing with a jealous ex-boyfriend, Krispy Kreme doughnuts, a determined psychologist, chaos theory, a freakishly intelligent cat, Chicken Marsala, and more risky propositions than either of them ever dreamed of. Including the biggest gamble of all�??-true love. Bet Me is the winner of a 2005 RITA Award.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member Eat_Read_Knit
Yes, this book is pink. (Okay, yours might be blue. But mine is pink.) Yes, it has shoes on the cover. Pink and shoes.

You know it and I know it. This means chick lit.

But this is the apogee of chick lit. This is chick lit for people who do not read chick lit. This is a great, multi-layered,
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character-driven story packed with humour and style that just happens to be centred around a boy-meets-girl story and to mention, on occasion, shoes.

Min Dobbs is 33, fairly sensible, a conservative dresser, risk averse but mostly comfortable in her own skin. Being sensible, she knows she'll never be skinny, but she also knows her appearance will never break mirrors, and once her sister's wedding is over and her mother gets off her back about being able to fit into her bridesmaid dress she'll be going back to eating butter and doughnuts with a (nearly) clear conscience. She has wit, intelligence, a good (if slightly dull) job and and very good friends. She is, moreover, a nice person.

She also has a horrible ex, David. What Min really hates about David is not the fact that he dumped her because she wouldn't sleep with him (although she's not precisely pleased about that), but the fact he did it three weeks before her sister's wedding: now, her mother is nagging her about being dateless as well as being too big for the bridesmaid dress. David was a toad, but he was a toad that was keeping her mother happy. Even toads have some redeeming features.

In a fit of drunken amphibian pique, David bets his business acquaintance Cal a serious chunk of money that Cal cannot seduce Min within a month. Cal tries very hard to tactfully decline the bet, being willing only to bet a pittance on being able to take Min to dinner. He's so tactful, though, that his friends don't notice he's declined the bet.

Cal also has a horrible ex. No, that's possibly unfair. Cal has a deluded ex, who thinks he's still in love with her. Like Min, Cal has wit, intelligence, a good job and very good friends. He is also a nice person. Yes, he takes Min to dinner on a bet, but he soon sees past her boring suit. Cal likes Min. A lot.

Min also likes Cal. But Min doesn't want to like Cal, because she overheard David making the bet and she doesn't realise Cal refused to join in. And this is where things start to get complicated, because Min refuses to take the situation lying down (pun totally intended).

And so Min and Cal's story unfolds, interwoven with several excellent and well-developed plots involving the families, friends and exes of Cal and Min, plus an insane cat named Elvis.

Altogether excellent. Intelligent and fun. And ignore the pink and the shoes: just because this isn't serious and depressing literary fiction doesn't mean it's superficial, inane or irredeemably girly.
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LibraryThing member magst
Loved this book! Enjoyed the chemistry between the hero and heroine. I think it's great that Min isn't a skinny rail, but a real women with real curves. And I love that Cal falls in love with her because of that! Most people didn't like that it wasn't as sexy as her latest novels, but I enjoyed the
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banter and flirting between these two great characters. There was a lot of great secondary characters also. It's a must read!
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LibraryThing member LisaMaria_C
The author, who started on the romance aisle can found in general fiction these days, as was this novel--often a sign of quality. I'd liked the other book by her I'd tried, Anyone But You. More than once I've been told by people who don't like romance books that Crusie is their one exception--I can
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understand why. I loved the heroine, Minerva Dobbs, a "chubby" thirty-something who has friends and a sister who love her and a mother who drives her insane. And Calvin Morrisey--I fell a bit in love with him myself. Aside from them there's an entire cast of lovable, quirky secondary characters. This might even be called "chick-lit" as much as romance because the friendships and family relationships are very important here.

There wasn't one word, not one sentence of this book I didn't savor--down to the love scene which makes the usual sex scene in books seem bland and generic no matter how explicit--because Crusie imbues it with humor and wrote it so this is something not interchangeable with other characters but belongs to Min and Cal. The book even has a theme(tm). The text is headed by a quote from Gloria Steinem: Women's total instinct for gambling is satisfied by marriage. Oh, and after this I'm going to have to make Chicken Marsala. And maybe get a Krispy Kreme doughnut. Read the book and you'll understand.

Funny, sharp, smart, literate, with a good, clean prose style--I loved this to death--it deserves shelf space--I could see rereading this (particularly as a pick-up on a rotten day). Will I be reading more Crusie? You betcha!
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LibraryThing member rosinalippi
Reading all the excellent early reviews of this book (even Kirkus, curmudgeons that they are, rave) a person might get the idea that Jenny Crusie is a bit of light hearted fun, somebody you can count on to make you laugh. Which is, in fact, true.

Her prose is deceptively accessible, her characters
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quirky and interesting (Min, the sensible actuary who has given up on love and is looking for a cat; Cal, the self-possessed, easy going partner in a firm that does software seminars and who doesn't believe in 'forever'), her plots just twisted enough to keep you wide awake and eager to turn the page without giving you a headache. You can read this book like that, and you'll enjoy it. But that would be a shame, because there's a lot more going on here. You know that old chestnut about the spoonful of sugar and the medicine? Crusie knows it too.

This is a wonderfully funny novel, a romp of a novel, and it's also a scalpel-sharp look at the way men and women approach each other these days, for better or for worse. Most readers will catch at least some of the veiled nods to the fairy tale: the rose bushes gone to thorn outside Min's house, the fact that Cal has to climb a steep hill to get there. But if you read carefully (which is hard, because you will be caught up in the repartee and the romance) you'll see that Crusie, a former academic, has taken a run at a dozen theories about love and attraction, and skewered them all. From the fairy tale to modern psychology to string-theory, everybody's take on what brings two people together and makes them stick is examined and found to be full of holes.

Except, in an odd way, the fairy tale itself. Cal and Min, non-believers, fight it, and can't quite escape fate or each other.

The biggest chance that Crusie takes here is the issue of Min's weight. She's plump, or chubby, or fat -- all of these adjectives get tossed around. She loves carbs. So does Cal, but he's got two things she doesn't: a great metabolism, and (this is the leap of faith) his head on straight when it comes to body image. He looks great, tall and well built; Min stays away from purple jumpsuits because they make her look like Barney's slut cousin. In one of the most interesting discussions between them, she finally comes out and asks him what he thinks about the f-word, and he gives it to her straight: she'll never be thin, no matter how hard her mother pushes dieting. Her genes won't allow it. And more than that, he doesn't mind.

This is what's so great about this novel. It takes on the thorniest issue of all -- women's bodies and sexuality -- and deals with it. As a woman made more in Min's image than a model's, I certainly identified. But did I believe Cal? In spite of the fact that I've been married to somebody a lot like him for a long time (tall, slim, good looking) and the fact that my genes are winning the battle to turn me into a small, round Italian matronly type, I *still* find it hard to believe Cal. That's the power of the modern myth.

Crusie takes it on and looks at it hard, and she makes you laugh while you look at it too. She gives us a great love story, a tremendous lot to think about, and a happy ending. What else could you possible want?
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LibraryThing member shelley582
Funny, touching. Refreshing to read a romance where the heroine did not end up with three kids at the end (and did not want them). I reread this one about once a year.
LibraryThing member dianah2o
Minerva Dobbs has self-image issues, which is not shocking considering the grief her mother gives her over every carb she puts in her mouth. Min's a sensible girl with cheeky taste in shoes, and she's met her match in Cal Morrisey, who's hot enough to melt the cherries on her shoes.

After being
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dumped, Min's in a man-hating state of mind the night she overhears her ex bet Cal that Cal won't be able to get "frigid" chubby Min into bed within a month, and is too furious to hang around and listen to the outcome. So when Cal approaches her a few minutes later, she can only assume the worst.

Horrible families, ten-dollar bets, and over-protective friends aren't enough to fight the fates that seem to want Cal and Min together. Bet Me is a wonderfully light and enjoyable read. If I had a rating system, this one would get top marks!
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LibraryThing member kikianika
And here I thought I'd read all of he books! Apparently not (or I completely forgot. Also possible). This one was both cute and gimmicky, but I thought the conflict rathwer weak. Who cares, it's still full of Crusie wit and humour. And at least it wasn't depressing. A lovely read. And it made me
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hungry!
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LibraryThing member dictator555
This is probably my favorite Cruise. As always with her books, the characters are so real they pop off the page. I don't know how Cruise managers to take stale characters (the grasping society mother, the bombshell friend, the bitchy ex-girlfriend.) and make them real people who you can (almost)
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sympathize with. I think it's all in the details, and this book has a lot of them.

The plot plays second fiddle to the characters, but there's still the usual Cruise climax, a jumble of people and confusion that somehow works out in the end. I know some people don't like the epilog, but I love that feeling of completion from knowing how everything works out.
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LibraryThing member nramos
Hilarious story of a reluctant romance between two stubborn, witty people. The dialogue is snappy, and while light on physical romance, the foreplay is in the arguments that last 4/5 of the book!
LibraryThing member Kobos
Calvin is the gorgeous love 'em and leave 'em type. Minerva is overweight and plays very hard to get with the men. On a bet, Calvin picks up Minerva. She overhears this bet between her ex-boyfriend and Calvin and decides to play along. Great food, great verbal sparring, whacky secondary characters,
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great shoes and a crazy cat make up this story. I thought the romance was lacking. Even though the book was funny and entertaining, I can't say I was crazy about it. It was just alright, in my opinion.
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LibraryThing member Ilithyia
If you were being pursued by a man (the kind of which never chases slightly overweight actuaries), and you knew it was only because he’d made a bet with your ex…would you touch him with a 39 1/2 foot pole? Neither would Minerva “Min” Dobbs. At least not until Cal Morrissey starts to entice
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her with delicious foods and even more delectable kisses.

Min lives her life by statistics, and the odds of a man like Cal actually being interested in her for herself are slim to none. But circumstances and coincidences (fate?) keep putting them together. Cal is a player, or so everyone thinks, and isn’t interested in a serious relationship - until he gets a look at Min’s zany shoe collection.

This is a fabulous book - my first Crusie, and I hope they rest are as good - one of the few times I’ve been tempted to turn the book over and start again immediately. I love the way the entire cast of characters interacted: Min’s two best friends, her bride-to-be sister and bridesmaids, her weight obsessed “no carbs, no butter” mother, the ex-boyfriend, Cal’s two friends, his sugar-induced vomiting nephew, his chicken marsala-making restaurant-owning friend, the ex-girlfriend, and the snobby parents - they make for one hysterical ride. The side stories and subplots create a rich story and a ton of laughs. You can’t help but love it!
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LibraryThing member wyvernfriend
Minerva Dobbs has just been ditched by her boyfriend. She finds herself part of a bet, a bet she has problems letting go because she fancies the guy involved. Calvin Morrisey is hot, but he really doesn't want commitment. As he slowly discovers that he likes her, she keeps trying to resist.

It's
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lighthearted fun and Crusie really does have a deft touch with her comedy and her romance. I enjoyed the main characters and some of the secondary characters are great fun as well.
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LibraryThing member devilwrites
This was, obviously, a fast read for me, and a lot of fun. Good thing I picked this up for the weekend, or I would've been screwed during the week. It's not an easy book to put down, because you want to know how things are going to end up.

The humor was fun, and I liked the real issues the book
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explored. It's one of those things that not many non-romance readers realize, that romance novels actually deal with a helluva lot of real-world issues: it's not all about how hot the main characters are and how they'll get into bed. For anyone who doesn't read romance, but wouldn't mind checking the genre out, I'd easily recommend this book.
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LibraryThing member Irenes
A quick read. This should be a screenplay due to the great wit and sarcasm.
LibraryThing member jadelennox
The heroine is fat and ashamed of it. The hero is entranced by the look of rapture on her face when he finally convinces her to eat. Yes, it's a fantasy -- in fact, it's a fairy tale, a feminist retelling of a someday-my-prince-will-come structure. The sex is hot, the food porn is glorious, and the
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overall sensuality (from the smell of lavender to the taste of butter) is consistently rewarding. As is often true in Crusie's style, even the villains deserve sympathy and eventual affection, and the community of friends around the hero and heroine forms a witty, snarky, loving family.
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LibraryThing member amf0001
I do love JC and this is my comfort read. I've read this book many times, it has a warm, comforting glow to it, full of friendships and laughter, and meeting for drinks in bars and bets and jokes and then, true love. What could be better? There's even ice cream and a bit too much veal marsala. Read
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and enjoy
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LibraryThing member Vidalia
Comfort read is such a good description. A treat for the senses. Makes me want to eat a Krispy Kreme. Always enjoy Jennifer Crusie.
LibraryThing member jonahfied
Love it! This is the first Crusie book I read, and now, I look forward to each new book she writes. They always make me laugh out loud.
BET ME is hilarious. I love Minerva and her sexy shoes.
LibraryThing member octavia
Really like the characters, and that everyone is flawed. But the characters never really grow from their 2 dimensional flawedness, and I slogged through the end. Also, although the witty repartee was enjoyable to read, it felt like the characters were constantly "on."
LibraryThing member allthesedarnbooks
Another A+ novel by Crusie! This might be one of my all-time favorites of hers. The main character, Min, is voluptous, smart, and shoe-loving. I adored this book!
LibraryThing member franoscar
A sexy plumpish gal meets a hunky guy. There are some ups & downs but true love triumphs. She has horrible parents. There is some todo about a bet she thinks he made to have sex with her. There are devious bad-hearted exes who conspire against our heroes. There is a nice cat.
LibraryThing member Kathy89
Fun. It's a "sex in the city" storyline with an insecure woman meeting a very handsome man who also has some secret insecurities. Some guys make a bet at a bar that the handsome guy can't get the uptight girl into bed in a month. She overhears the bet and decides to play a game of her own.
LibraryThing member oupelai
I used to think I hated romance novels, but this one doesn't quite fit the genre. It is funny and charming and the female character is refreshing. She's not the stereotypical bombshell. She's a real woman, with real curves who eats carbs! That's right, CARBS. And who doesn't like a happy ending
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once in a while?
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LibraryThing member PinkPandaParade
A guy walks into a bar. He meets his friends there, one of whom picks an okay-looking girl and bets him $10,000 that he will sleep with her within a month. He instead bets his friend $10 that he will take her out to dinner. Two things are of note here: (1) The friend making the bet just finished
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breaking up with this girl, and (2) the girl happens to overhear most of it, and is now under the impression that her ex-boyfriend bet a guy $10 that he would sleep with her in a month. The guy accepting the bet, the ever-popular serial dater Cal Morrissey, accepts the bet for dinner and $10 with the girl, Min Dobbs. Min's ex-boyfriend, David, is too drunk to realize that Cal accepted the $10 bet, and not the $10,000 bet. Min decides to go out with Cal in order to spite David. Plot to one of the archived comic relief episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210? Not hardly, and I must sheepishly admit that 90210 was one of my favorites in its heyday. Instead, this is the catalyst event for Jennifer Crusie's book, Bet Me, a novel I picked up with cynical expectations in my exploration of the "chick lit" genre. I have to say that I was not surprised to see that the characters (aside from, to a certain extent, Min and Cal) are generally one-sided and the plot itself was quite predictable (what else would they do but end up in each other's arms, right?). Still, the writing was very funny, and at the least it was an entertaining read if you are able to dismiss these shortcomings. Regarding these cookie cutter characters, it is almost easy enough to put the large majority of them into categories. Min has her girlfriends - one is the popular, svelte one who gets all the guys and is more than a little suspicious of men, and the other is the sweet, soft-spoken one who believes in fairy tales. Cal's friends are similar foils: One is the tough guy who appears to be monomaniacal when it comes to certain pick-up lines, and the other is a sort of shy and simple guy with old-fashioned values. Cal and Min at first present themselves too to fit right in. Cal is the popular hunk with a habit for dumping women, and Min is the angry woman who is upset over her breakup not because David left her, but because he left her without a date for her sister's wedding. A somewhat refreshing twist from this formula is the eventually over-emphasized subplot dealing with Min's weight, which is a subject of constant debate and complaint from her overbearing mother. (Yet another typical character... Heck, even the phrase "overbearing mother" is a cliche, yeah?) It was nice to take a break from the whole I-hate-you, I-love-you plotline to hear about Min's concerns about her weight and the tension it causes with the women of the Dobbs household. Aside from this twist, the subplots in the story act mostly as a way of presenting the rest of this ensemble cast in its typical fashion: Naturally, Cal and Min's friends attempt to hook up accordingly. Naturally, Cal and Min's exes act as interlopers. At times it felt like the subplots were fillers to space out the Cal and Min story, which would have been very typical if it weren't for the supporting actors of chicken marsala and Krispy Kreme donuts. The stars of the subplots were, possibly because of their one-dimensional nature, only somewhat likable, and only at certain moments. To be honest, some of the subplots were annoying, others ridiculous. Still, after all this, I have to say that the book did make me laugh out loud. The stories are set up for some entertaining, and even mildly believable comic moments. Once the main characters gain familiarity with the reader, it is easy to enjoy their expected reactions when faced with certain predicaments. I feel that more could have been done with this... More could have been done with EVERYTHING, but the comic potential is the only aspect that really made it through to near completion. Borrow it from the library if you're in the mood for a laugh on the beach.
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LibraryThing member kikilon
And here I thought I'd read all of he books! Apparently not (or I completely forgot. Also possible). This one was both cute and gimmicky, but I thought the conflict rathwer weak. Who cares, it's still full of Crusie wit and humour. And at least it wasn't depressing. A lovely read. And it made me
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hungry!
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Awards

RITA Award (Finalist — 2005)
AAR Top 100 Romances (#8 — [Previously 2004-#5] Most Recent Rank - 2007)

Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

2004-08-31

Physical description

7.9 inches

ISBN

1606409093 / 9781606409091
Page: 2.3976 seconds