When I read Jennifer Crusie’s romantic comedy, Bet Me, when it came out in 2004, I knew I was reading something extraordinary. I’d been a Crusie fan well before that book, but with this delicious story of love and Chicken Marsala and friendship–with it’s meta narrative about romance and falling in love provided by an only sort-of sympathetic antagonist, Cynthie, who happens to be a therapist–I ranked Bet Me as my #1 prime example of what a romance novel should be/could be.
Rita Award
I wasn’t the only one. Romance Writers of America awarded it a Rita Award for Best Contemporary Single Title in 2005.
The Cherries Fan Group
The cherries on the cover of an earlier book, Welcome to Temptation spawned a fan group called The Cherries, and even when Crusie took some time off from publishing, these loyal fans continued to engage with her on the author’s long-kept blog (which is chock-full of humor, writing guidance, back-stage looks, and conviviality) called Argh Ink. Click this link to get to all connected blogs on her website. https://jennycrusie.com/blogs/
Crusie & Mayer Books
So, it was with complete and total GLEE that I learned Crusie and her writing partner for several books including Agnes and the Hitman , Bob Mayer, were collaborating on a new series called The Liz Danger novels! The first one, Lavender’s Blue, just came out in July with a truly beautiful hardbound edition as well as ebook, and I am enjoying it so much that I’m forcing myself to slow down and savor the flavor…which is lavender, of course.
There’s romance. There’s comedy. There’s a gigantic stuffed bear in the passenger seat of Liz Danger’s broken-down Camry. And there’s mystery and action, to boot. All my favorite things!
Can you tell how excited I am to have this book in my hands?
Update on Olivia Lively Series
I just hit 56,000 words on the second book in my Olivia Lively Mystery series, with a projected 80,000 words. This has been a much slower process than I imagined; however, I’ve revised and revised as I’ve gone along, so my feeling is that it will be that much faster on the back end, i.e. developmental editing, copy editing, and final drafting.
