Logical Min thinks love is a fairy tale.
Rational Cal thinks forever's a myth.
Implacable Fate thinks they're meant for each other.
Bet Me
Put your money on Fate.
- New York Times, USAToday, and Publishers Weekly Bestseller
- 2005 Rita Award Winner for Best Contemporary Single Title Romance
The Story
Min Dobbs knows that happily-ever-after is a fairy tale, especially with a man like Cal Morrisey, who asked her to dinner to win a bet. Cal Morrisey knows commitment is impossible, especially with a woman as cranky as Min Dobbs. 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 are dealing with meddling friends, wedding cake, a jealous ex-boyfriend, Krispy Kremes, a determined psychologist, chaos theory, a frantic bride, Chicken Marsala, a mutant cat, snow globes, two Mothers-from-Hell, great shoes, and more risky propositions than either of them ever dreamed of including the biggest gamble of all--unconditional love.
Notes & Stuff
Story Note: I wrote the first version of Bet Me back in 1992 and sent it out everywhere. Editors were universally unenthusiastic about it, which was just inexplicable to me. Fast forward ten years and my agent, who regards an unsold manuscript the way Nature feels about vacuums, said, “Send me Bet Me. It can’t be that bad.” I dug out the manuscript and sent it to her, and she sold it to my genius editor, Jennifer Enderlin at St. Martin’s, who said, “Uh, you are going to rewrite this, right?” “Absolutely,” I told her. “It should take me a month or two tops.” “Great,” she said. “We’ll do it as a paperback original,” which I translated as “Let’s not call a lot of attention to this one, okay?”
Then I read it for the first time in ten years.
First I would like to thank the dozens of editors who turned Bet Me down in 1992, thus saving my reputation and probably my career. The original of this book stunk on ice. And since I hadn’t bothered to read through it and discover that before I went to contract, I was left staring into the abyss of my own lousy writing. I started cutting everything that was bad—my computer ran red for weeks—and then I began to rewrite, listening to the two Elvises on the stereo and eating a lot of Krispy Kremes and Chicken Marsala. Eleven months past deadline later, I had less than five thousand words of the old book left, but another hundred thousand plus of new words, better words, that added up to a story I loved. That’s very unusual for me; usually I want to kill myself when a book is done because it’s so far from what I wanted it to be. But Bet Me made me happy, it was the first flat-out, unapologetic romance I’d written in a long time, and I loved every semi-colon in it, even though I knew everybody else was going to hate because it was a Cheesy Romance.
“Well, the hell with them,” I decided, “the world needs more cheese in it,” and sent it off to my incredibly patient editor and waited for her to tell me it was terrible, it was sappy, it was stupid, it was unpublishable. Instead she called and said, “I love this book. We all love this book. It’s the Crusie-est of all the books you’ve ever written, and we’re putting it into hardcover.” Anne Twomey of St. Martin’s designed the perfect cover for it, the marketing department went all out in planning the promotion, and I’ve agreed to tour, even though I’m a wimp about traveling. As I write this, we’re waiting for the first reviews, and for the first time, I don’t care what they say. I love this book and that’s enough.
Oh, and for the record, Chapter Seventeen is not an epilogue. An epilogue is the stuff that comes after the story is finished which is why I hate them since a story should end when it’s finished. If you read the first four words of Chapter One and the last line of Chapter Seventeen, you’ll see that Chapter Seventeen is not, in any way, an epilogue. It is the end of the book. I spit on epilogues. Thank you.
Collage Editing Note: After I finished Bet Me, I began prewriting for my next book, and following the advice of pals like Susan Wiggs, Anne Stuart, Christie Ridgway and Barbara Samuel, I tried a collage. I loved the process and the insight it gave me into the book, so when the copy edit of Bet Me came back, I did a small collage for that from memory, trying to pinpoint the most important things in the story. It was tremendously helpful in ways I hadn’t dreamed of. For example, I put a large plastic baseball in the collage and it didn’t look right; when I put three small baseball stickers in, it clicked. I went back to the book and it was clear that I was making too much of the baseball games in the book, so I cut them back to emphasize things that kept repeating in the collage, such as the shoes. I highly recommend it as a way to access all that good right brain stuff that goes into hiding when the left brain/editor shifts into gear. You can see more collages in detail in the trivia section.
Snowglobe Note: I don’t know why Min collects snowglobes. I didn’t know why Nell collected art deco china, either. That’s just what the Girls in the Basement sent up while I was in the Story Zone. And then the book is over and I come out of the Zone and look around and see all these snow globes and think, “I bought WHAT?” I’ve got a lot of art deco china, too. Very perplexing.
But Min’s Minnie and Mickey snow globe really is great and I’m keeping it forever. And by the way, that’s not why she was named Min. I don’t know why she was named Min, that was something else the Girls in the Basement sent up. I did notice later that the book was about calculating and minimizing risk and the protagonists were named Cal and Min, but as God is my witness, that was an accident.
Oh, and the snow globe doesn’t play “It Had To Be You.” It plays “As Time Goes By,” a perfectly lovely song that didn’t have anything to do with the story, so I changed it. THAT I did on purpose.
Wedding Dress Note: Diana’s wedding dress is real. It’s made up of a flounced skirt and a long chiffon jacket with a bustier over it, and my mouth dropped open the first time I saw the pictures in Martha Stewart’s Wedding Magazine. I owe Martha for that one.
Animal Note: Min’s cat is based on my cat, Annie, who doesn’t close one eye but who does have eyes of different colors and is decidedly spooky (pictured here on the right).
Food Note: I became obsessed with perfecting Chicken Marsala as I wrote this book and not surprisingly, it ended up as part of the story line. (I was already obsessed with Krispy Kremes.) So click here for Min's recipe for Chicken Marsala. Your results may differ, so don't sue me, I make no guarantees.
Praise & Reviews
“Crusie gives chick-lit cliches a triple shot of adrenaline, intelligence, and smart-mouth wit. Bet you can't stop reading it. Absolutely, irresistibly hilarious.” ~Starred review; Kirkus Reviews
“Crusie has another hit on her hands with this romantic comedy, a novel in the madcap vein of the films of George Cukor and Billy Wilder -- updated with plenty of modern-day spice. Witty, sharp, and wickedly funny, Bet Me is eminently satisfying.” ~Booksense 76 #5
“[Jennifer Crusie is]… a master of fast-paced witty dialogue… [Bet Me is] a non-stop hoot.” ~Seattle Times
“Jennifer Crusie's Bet Me… knocks into a cocked hat one of the usual misconceptions about the romance novel, that "they're all the same… a twisting plot and the snap and flash of witty dialogue… Crusie navigates it with assurance and outright brio.” ~The Washington Post
“Min is bold, sassy and funny--a combination that Cal and the reader will find to be irresistible.” ~Oakland Press
“A sure bet… Jennifer Crusie's rollicking romance hits the jackpot.” ~Bookpage
“New York Times best-selling Crusie maintains her winning streak in another wickedly witty, deliciously sexy contemporary romance. Finding exactly the right balance between cynicism and optimism, Crusie deftly blends snappy dialogue; quirky, irrepressible secondary characters; and two beautifully matched protagonists struggling against their romantic fate.” ~Booklist
“…a cast of immensely appealing characters and smart dialog… enthusiastically recommended …” ~Library Journal
“…Cutesy, corny, romantic fun… Crusie's latest should delight romance readers with a penchant for sinful foods.” ~Publisher's Weekly
“…bet on fireworks--and lots of laughter…” ~Doubleday Book Club
“Utilizing her own unique brand of humor and panache, Crusie delivers yet another amazingly fun and funny novel… slightly offbeat, touching, and always hilarious.” ~A Romantic Times Top Pick