Crusie, Jennifer - Tell Me Lies, Crazy for You, Faking It

[oyceter]

I did a great deal of Jennifer Crusie reading this week and as such, am now feeling the urge to run to a bookstore to get Fast Women. She makes me happy.

The spree started with Faking It. I could tell it was a good book before I even started because of the dedication: "For Pat Gaffney: for her magnificent novels, limitless patience, and unconditional friendship, and because she totally gets the Buffy the Vampire Slayer thing." ;) I actually think I may have liked Fast Women better than Welcome to Temptation because I like Davy Dempsey so much... Phin Tucker's a wee bit on the alpha male side. Besides, I loved the sex scenes -- awkwardness, good sex, bad emotional connections, and plus, they sounded like actual people having sex instead of some sort of glorified romance novel sex. I also grew quite fond of the Goodnight family and of how Crusie is good at painting quirky characters without seeming like she's doing it by the numbers, giving them silly traits just to make them quirky. Does that make sense? Too often I feel like romance authors will just throw in some random trait (i.e. heroine disregards social conventions) while not really concentrating on how it would affect the heroine's life. Although sometimes, some things were a little on the "cute" side (muffins vs. doughnuts). Plus, I really liked Tilda, described as bug-eyed and strange, not at all gorgeous, or even pretty by anyone's standards, until Davy starts to fall for her. I also liked Eve and Louise, Gwen, and especially Nadine. I really want to see what Nadine is like when she grows up. And I liked Gwen's love life and the little umbrellas. The book is also absolutely insane, with hit men and forgeries and identity disorders, and yet, it all works out for me, with enough emotional weight so even while I laugh, I still like the characters. And I'm particularly fond of the sex scene where Davy and Tilda try to top each other with whose family is worse.

Then I went on to Crazy for You, a reread. I didn't like it as much the first time round, I think because I was more expecting a typical romance. Also, I can kind of see in this book how Crusie may have been moving from more standard romances to the more quirky ones she writes now. Quinn is just a little too sweet and pretty for me in the beginning, and I perpetually want to hit Nick over the head because he's really stupid. Really. I get annoyed when characters just sit around in romances and tell themselves how they can't get together with so-and-so because of such-and-such. This goes on for a great deal of the book. But I liked watching Quinn kind of explode out of her old life and how it influences everyone around her. I like that she's older, I like that she has a friend who's been married seventeen years and is bored, and I like that her mother does things too. People from all stages of life/romantic relationships getting around deciding to do something different, to take chances. In the end, I think my favorite storyline was Darla and Max, who've been married seventeen years when Darla realizes that it's boring. They don't do anything. It's all taken for granted by now. I've always liked the romances where the couple gets married in the beginning and then has to work things out, because I've always wanted to know what happens happily ever after (one thing that can annoy me about some fairy tales). Along other lines, Bill is really, really creepy. Ick.

Then I read Tell Me Lies, which I started a while before and never got around to finishing -- tone of this book is very different, much more serious, just as Crazy for You is a little bit more serious than Faking It. CL and Maddie don't actually stick in my mind that much, or Maddie's decision to go for him. What really does is Em and her mother and grief, as well as Maddie's role in the town, how she thinks of herself, buried secrets and hurts, etc. I think I'm going to have to reread it again at some point so that there's a more coherent plotline in my head, as opposed to fifteen pages every other day, forget I was reading the book for a few months, hundred pages to the end in one night. It's still kind of resonating with me, which is always good.

Apparently there's going to be a new book by her soon too! Described as cheesily romantic... can't wait ^_^. It's hard finding romance authors I like without qualms, and so far the three books of Crusie's that I've read are all pretty good -- most authors are a little bit more up and down with me. I also love that her characters feel like actual people, not the slightly glossified people of most contemporaries.

Links:
- tenemet's review of Crazy for You
- tenemet's review of Faking It

Comments

[molly_may]

I've really enjoyed Jennifer Crusie's books, and like you I think my favorite is probably Faking It, for all the reasons you said. Some of her older books, which were originally published by Harlequin, are being reprinted now, and while they aren't as strong as the later ones some of her wit and sexiness still comes through.

Crusie also has an essay in the book Seven Seasons of Buffy: Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Discuss Their Favorite Television Show. The title of the essay is "Dating Death", and in it she discusses Buffy's love life. No suprise, she's a huge Buffy/Spike 'shipper. The book is worth seeking out just for that essay.

[oyceter]

Ah well.. I just picked up one of her older ones, reprinted by Mira, as a kind of experiment ^_^. Besides, I figure bad Crusie is probably still enjoyable.

And I just read that essay! (I dragged my boyfriend to Barnes and Noble tonight, hee.) I think it would have been an interesting essay, except I've heard the theory of Buffy's love life a little too often, with the connections between death and sex, problems with Riley etc. so they felt familiar. I'm happy she's a Buffy/Spike shipper though ^_^.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

I think FAKING IT was a quantum leap forward for her. In her series romances, the sex scenes are good, but they're all very similar. In FAKING IT, what happens in those scenes is integral to the character building and character changes, as they should be, in a perfect world.

Must go buy own copy of FAKING IT, so I can read it again...

[oyceter]

*nods* Haven't read any of her series ones yet -- I can see a sort of formula underlying what I've read of her so far, but it's not as obvious as most romance writers. Plus, with Faking It, Tilda was such an atypical romance character (imho) and the sex scenes in particular felt so realistic to me that I think it's my fav so far. You can see her sort of start to have the character developing sex scenes in Welcome to Temptation, with Sophie's bit about losing control and etc. too.

[naomichana.livejournal.com]

Count me among the people who have just been motivated to acquire a personal copy of Faking It -- I enjoyed it on the first, hurried read-through, but now think it would reward a slower perusal.

(Welcome To Temptation was my first Crusie novel, and it was great fun. I love Fast Women, though; it featured what is, in my experience, the absolutely unprecedented moment in which one of the heroines figures out something about her relationship history that isn't completely obvious to her readers. And then it happens again. Crazy For You and Tell Me Lies were okay beach books, but not permanent-collection stuff, and the few of her earlier novels I've glanced through strike me as solid journeyman work.)

[oyceter]

Hee! Reading Fast Women as of now, so am anticipating that :). Crazy for You was my first Crusie, and I wasn't that impressed at first... on the reread, I can see a lot of themes/ideas she gets into that I like, especially in her dealing with marriage and how life doesn't just end at happily ever after once you tie the knot. But the waffling of Nick still frustrates me. I think Tell Me Lies will become a keeper for me because of I really liked how she dealt with Em. And I love Welcome to Temptation -- made me laugh out loud, which I don't do that often while reading.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Awhile back, I asked melymbrosia for a list of good romance novels; the set had a couple of solid winners (Julia Quinn, Laura Kinsale), but Crusie was by far the champion. Her stuff is witty, intelligent, and hot as hell. It also stands up to rereading beautifully; there's a lot of there there. For instance, if you reread Faking It carefully, you'll notice that Davy runs several five-step cons that the text doesn't call out as such.

Everybody loves Davy, but I also love Phin because he's so intelligent. A guy with a used bookstore -- my idea of heaven.

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

while back, I asked melymbrosia for a list of good romance novels; the set had a couple of solid winners (Julia Quinn, Laura Kinsale),

Did not, because I've never read Julia Quinn. Julia Ross Ewing, maybe? Patricia Gaffney?

Should I be reading Julia Quinn?

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Uh, no, no you shouldn't. Julia Ross Ewing it was. Julia Quinn is "Romancing Mister Bridgerton", which was feh.

brain:sieve :: dog:canine.

[oyceter]

Really? Never noticed that! I overheard a conversation about her between two of the buyers at the bookstore, who look down on romance (to say the least) and wanted to pop up and tell them that yeah, it may be chick lit/romance, but it was good and funny.

Mmm, bookstore ;). I loved Phin's obsession with pool and I loved his relationship with Dillie.