There are some great things about Bet Me, by Jennifer Crusie. As always, Crusie's dialog is snappy, funny, and believable. There is a terrific cast of supporting characters. And the development of the relationship between Min, a Rubenesque actuary, and Cal, a hunky business owner, is sweet and believable once it gets started. I read somewhere that Crusie said after writing this book that she was ready to move on to other types of fiction because this is the best contemporary romance she could write. And it is good. Except, well, .... except. It has, in spades, one of my personal pet peeves, which is a plot dilemma that could be solved if the two main characters just sat down and talked.
The setup: Before she meets Cal, Min thinks she overhears him make a bet with some of his buddies that he can get her in bed within a month. Of course, our hero Cal is way too much of a gentleman to make a bet like that, but she doesn't know him at that point, and she's sure she heard him say it. But for a variety of reasons, they end up together quite a bit. Their two best friends fall in love, Cal's nephew Harry develops a huge crush on Min, etc. They begin to fall in love despite their better judgment. Up to this point, it's probably one of the best romance novels I've ever read. The scenes where they meet each other's parents are nearly perfectly done. But then the strain over the setup-- the bet that didn't happen-- begins to show, and then it begins to show in a major way. After they've been spending time together for a couple of weeks, there's no reason for her not to talk to him about it. In fact, he hands her several opportunities practically on a silver platter. So of course, the whole mess comes to light in a very public and embarrassing way (public denouements, another pet peeve of mine), and instead of it being talked out and resolved in a way that would have made sense given the way the characters are developed, there's a big crisis.
Now I know that romance novels have to have a crisis, but I'm not into having a crisis just for the sake of having a crisis, and that's how this feels. It's just not believable to me that someone with Min's outspoken, opinionated personality wouldn't have brought this up on one of the many occasions that they are alone and talking about all kinds of other things. But of course, from the perspective of the author, if she resolves the crisis too early, there's nothing to be resolved later on. Which is why I hate this type of setup. It's just a simple misunderstanding, but you have to draw it out to the bitter end so that you can have the big drama. But I hate big drama if it's not earned, and it didn't feel earned to me in this one.
So I have mixed feeling about this book. Cal and Min are possibly the best couple in contemporary romance. They're interesting and believable and the interactions between the two of them are sublime most of the time. But then there's the whole problem of the plot. I think it still gets a A-, just because the characters are so well-drawn and the dialogue is so excellent. But I re-read it this past weekend and I just can't get past how angry and frustrated it made me that they didn't just TALK to each other.
P.S. I'm changing the grade here to an A- because I realized I was grading it against Crusie's other novels instead of against romance novels in general. It was disappointing as a Crusie novel, but still light-years better than most.
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