Liviania’s review of Strange Bedpersons by Jennifer Crusie
Contemporary romance released by HQN 24 Nov 2009

I’m supposed to focus on new releases, not reprints.  I picked up this Jennifer Crusie because I know she’s a favorite of many.  (I’ve even seen her on my mother’s shelf.)  I figure it’s all right then, as there are probably a number of readers like me who are new to the romance genre and pick up a big name completely clueless as to whether it is new or a reprint.  I can say this after finishing Strange Bedpersons: Crusie earned her reputation.

Tess is the crunchy granola feminist.  Nick is the lawyer determined to make partner.  Together, they pretend to be affianced even though they broke up.  (Why they broke up is a bit of a headbanger.)  Nick is about to land an important client, and it matters to him who Nick is dating.  Then Tess gets further involved with Nick’s life when her best friend, retiring dancer Gina, begins to date and falls for Nick’s best friend, playboy lawyer Park.  Tess and Nick have conflicting sensibilities and desires, but an undeniable attraction to the other.

Unfortunately, Tess was the weakest part of the story.  She is utterly intolerant of other people’s points of view.  She’s that friend who tries to make you guilty for ever eyeing a cow, much less eating and wearing it.  I’m all for living in the way you prefer and not hiding your lifestyle, but people who try to shove their way of living onto others because it is the only way to really live and be a good person annoy me.  Luckily, Gina gets a great scene of calling Tess on her shit.

On the other hand, I really loved Nick.  Tess’s main issue with him is that he’s too ambitious.  However, he never comes across as ruthless or cut off from other aspects of life.  Dude wants to make partner and be secure and thus does a good job.  She’s also got a problem with the fact he isn’t instantly GGG when she tries to foist her kink on him.  Kink’s fine, but you’ve got to look out for your partner if he or she is going to indulge you.  My main problem with Nick is that he kept pursuing this crazy chick who stepped all over him.  (That, and he messed with her clothes.  He’s not perfect, but he was more likeable and sympathetic than Tess.)

This sounds really down, but it is a major compliment to Crusie that I enjoyed Strange Bedpersons despite my initial dislike of Tess.  The book is extremely funny, particularly during the final dinner scene.  Nick and Tess have enough chemistry with each other and enough willingness to compromise (even if it does come slower on Tess’s part) that I believe the happy ending, despite the relationship’s rocky beginning.  I think I will seek out another one of Crusie’s novels, though I know some of them are considered misses.  After all, it doesn’t take much work to check out the blogs and see which ones are hits.

Grade: B-

Summary:
Tess Newhart knows her ex-boyfriend Nick Jamieson isn’t the right guy for her. He’s caviar and champagne; she’s take-out Chinese pot stickers. He’s an uptight Republican lawyer; she was raised in a commune. He wants to get ahead in business; she just wants…him. But there’s no way Tess will play second fiddle to his job.

Yet somehow she finds herself agreeing to play his fiancée on a weekend business trip that could make or break Nick’s career. And while he’s trying to convince Tess that he needs her in his respectable world, Tess is doing her best to keep her opinions to herself and her hands off Nick.

Read an excerpt here.

Gwen’s review of Dogs and Goddesses by Jennifer Crusie, Anne Stuart, and Lani Diane Rich
Contemporary paranormal romance released by St. Martin’s 3 Feb 09

This is not, I repeat NOT, an anthology.  It’s a collaboration between three authors – a book with a single major story arc, containing sub-arcs about three heroines and their related adventure(s), reaching a single climax.  Publisher’s Weekly calls this book a “quirky charmer” – I call it a light romance with humor salted in and a lot of paranormal stereotypes.  The book has its own website here if you want to read more about the collaboration concept. 

Presumably Crusie, Stuart, and Rich each took on a heroine and focused on that piece of the overall story. Surprisingly, it reads as well integrated, even though it must have gone thru a huge number of hands before we get to see it. However, I did have to make a cheatsheet to keep track of which heroine went with which hero, dog, and profession – just too many details to keep straight.  Think about it: that’s 12 very important details to track over and over again (their stories are peppered throughout).  Ack!  I have a hard enough time remembering to give the kid lunch money, let alone which fictional dog goes with which fictional heroine at multiple points in a book. Then there was the heroines’ moms who play important roles, the new mythos, the villain, the villain’s minions, and all the secondary characters.  It was all a little mind-boggling.

It’s a cute story, if a bit longer than perhaps it should have been.  D&G is written with the light, humorous style that is prevalent in a lot of chick-lit these days. The heroes were all suitably masculine and hot, the heroines pretty and desirable.  There were a couple of departures from the norm (an older than normal heroine being one), but these authors stayed mostly on the well-trodden path of paranormal romance formulas.

Which leads me to the paranormal elements.  They were all a bit bromidic.  Very little new plot or world-building is done with the exception of some twists on established Egyptian mythos.  Bromide #1: the heroines are raised unaware of their abilities, and when they can suddenly speak to dogs, they’re shocked, but not that shocked.  I realize this is “normal” in a paranormal (heh – made a funny), but c’mon.  Then, bromide #2 – a heroine bakes cookies while lusting for her hero and, when eating them, or even smelling them, makes people go on a sex bender – I think I saw a movie or two with that time-honored cliché.  There are others, but those are the two that I recall right now.

It was all entertaining, but not terribly compelling.  A bit like watching a Lifetime movie that makes you chuckle a couple of times, but you still channel surf during the commercials, get distracted by the nuts at Mythbusters, and then suddenly remember that you were watching something interesting but can’t remember the channel…  (I’d rather watch reruns of the new Battlestar Gallactica, thanks.)

The upshot is I can recommend this book to fans of lighter paranormals or of the authors.  If you like a bit more meat on the bones of your stories, this may not be the book for you.

Grade: C+

Summary:

Abby has just arrived in Summerville, Ohio, with her placid Newfoundland, Bowser. She’s reluctantly inherited her grandmother’s coffee shop, but it’s not long before she’s brewing up trouble in the form of magical baked goods and steaming up her life with an exasperating college professor.

And then there’s Daisy, a web code writer, and her hyperactive Jack Russell, Bailey. Her tightly-wound world spins out of control when she discovers the chaos within and meets a mysterious dog trainer whose teaching style is definitely hands-on.

Finally there’s Shar, professor of ancient history at Summerville College, who wakes up one morning to find her neurotic dachshund, Wolfie, snarling at an implacable god sitting at her kitchen table, the first thing in her life she hasn’t been able to footnote.

What on earth is going on in this unearthly little town? It’s up to Abby, Daisy, and Shar to find out before an ancient goddess takes over Southern Ohio, and they all end up in the apocalyptic doghouse…

Read an excerpt.

Due to the ever wonderful Smart Bitches I have a $10 gift cert to use at Amazon. So I must spend 25 so I get free shipping.

duh

So what do I want to get? Any suggestions? I want Lord of Sin, but I want it as soon as I can. So I shouldn’t order it.

I just bought:
Bet Me by Jennifer Cruise (my first of her)
Only with Your Love by Lisa Kleypas
Prairie Wife by Cheryl St John
Angel Rogue Mary Jo Putney
Turn Left At Sanity by Nancy Warren
Lady’s Choice by Winnie Griggs
Bad Boys Down Under by Nancy Warren

sssssoooooo what books do I get now