Review: Anyone But You

Jennifer Crusie's Anyone But YouYesterday, DH needed to visit a bookstore to prepare for an overseas flight. This might sound strange to some folks, but he’s a voracious reader. He has been known to finish a 300 page book on an hour and a half flight.

My other errands finished, I met up him at the bookstore. I didn’t want to buy another thick, historical romance. I’ve still got a couple here on my TBR pile that are feeling unloved and neglected. I needed something light and quick.

Now, I’ve read Janet Evanovich‘s old romances along with the Stephanie Plum series, but I don’t usually read contemporaries. Nothing wrong with it, it’s just habit to look at the historicals.

The comments on yesterday’s Thursday Thirteen and my recent forays into contemporary short stories got me thinking. I decided to check out Jennifer Crusie. The one that caught my eye was Jennifer Crusie’s Anyone But You. How can anyone resist picking up that adorable, sad basset face?

I finished it at midnight. I’m not as fast a reader as DH and I usually have other demands on my time. Still not bad for 8 hours in my possession with interruptions for homework, laundry, dinner and about 3 hours of television.

In the preface of the new edition (it was originally published in 1996), Ms. Crusie mentions how the dog, Fred, steals the book. Yes, I thoroughly enjoyed Fred’s Book too. The opening scenes when the heroine picks him out and brings him home were fabulous. Part basset, part beagle, part scene-stealer. Awesome!

The biggest conflict in the book centers on the age difference between the hero (Alex) and heroine (Nina) — he’s ten years her junior. The subplot of the Nina’s best friend and the small press for which Nina works was extremely well done. In the end, both friends learn the importance of accepting unconditional love. There were times when I wanted to smack Alex and Nina’s heads together and tell them to wake up and smell the coffee, but Crusie managed to string along the relationship in a plausible fashion. The ending felt a little rushed and neatly tied up, but the ride was worth it for me.

Jennifer Crusie is definitely on my “to buy more of” list of authors now.

Critical Reading

Clip art licensed from the Clip Art Gallery on DiscoverySchool.comReading isn’t quite the same, purely enjoyable experience any more. Heck, even watching movies with DH isn’t. I find I can’t just sit there and passively let the story wash over me. We were watching Akeelah and the Bee when DH turned to me and says, “This is a great study in how to effectively portray secondary characters for you.” Funny, I thought it was a great movie about a girl not being afraid of her talents and learning to use them to better herself, but ok.

I just finished reading, Stephanie Laurens’s Beyond Seduction (the latest in her Bastion Club series) and I found it very difficult to just sit back and enjoy. I kept looking deeper beyond the surface to see how she accomplished certain details or how she structured the book. The Bastion Club books are still holding my attention with only one more promised installment to the series compared to The Cynster Novels which seem to just keep on coming. I hope she comes through with an implied eighth book: Dalziel’s story. He’s the one who’s captured my interest and held it through all of them so far. Seems kind of odd to have a seven book series (doesn’t break up very evenly when you go to put them in gift sets) when the author has featured eight specimens of hero material…

I’ve never been one to mark in my books, but I know I’m going to be sitting down with a notebook and rereading some old favorites and taking notes on things I think worked well or how specific issues were handled by the author to get the effect she wanted. We’ll see if I get to Heather Sellers‘s recommended 100 books or not, but I’ll try to write up my impressions as I go and I’ll start a new “reviews” category.