Romance, Fiction Subjects

Crazy for You

Name: Crazy for You
Author: Jennifer Crusie
ISBN: 9781250042330

by Jennifer Crusie

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Overview

Quinn McKenzie has always lived what she calls a "beige" life. She's dating the world's nicest guy, she has a good job as a high school art teacher, she's surrounded by family and friends who rely on her, and she's bored to the point of insanity. But when Quinn decides to change her life by adopting a stray dog over everyone's objections, everything begins to spiral out of control. Now she's coping with dog-napping, breaking and entering, seduction, sabotage, stalking, more secrets than she really wants to know, and two men who are suddenly crazy...for her.

Synopsis

Bestselling author Jennifer Crusie's Crazy for You is a deliciously sexy yarn full of secrets, gossip, rumors, romance, and subterfuge...

On Wednesday, Quinn McKenzie changes her life. On Thursday, she tries to get somebody to notice. On Thursday night, somebody does.

Quinn McKenzie is dating the world’s nicest guy, she has a good job as a high school art teacher, she’s surrounded by family and friends who rely on her, and she’s bored to the point of insanity. But when Quinn decides to change her life by adopting a stray dog over everyone’s objections, everything begins to spiral out of control. Now she’s coping with dognapping, breaking and entering, seduction, sabotage, stalking, more secrets than she really wants to know, and two men who are suddenly crazy . . . for her.

About the Author, Jennifer Crusie

Jennifer Crusie is the New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and USA Today bestselling author of Maybe This Time, Welcome to Temptation, Tell Me Lies, Faking It, Fast Women and Bet Me. She has also collaborated with Bob Mayer to write Wild Ride, Agnes and the Hitman and Don’t Look Down. Crusie earned her bachelor’s degree from Bowling Green State University, a master’s from Wright State University, and a master of fine arts from Ohio State University. Before devoting herself to writing full-time, Crusie worked as a preschool teacher, an elementary and junior high art teacher, and a high school English teacher. She lives on the banks of the Ohio River.

Biography

Don't expect to see Fabio's flowing mane on the cover of any of Jennifer Crusie's romance novels. She completely eschews the tradition of overwrought melodrama and heaving bosoms to toss a comic gauntlet into the romantic arena. Her fun, funny, and frisky books are a refreshing breeze in a genre that could easily grow stale.

Former schoolteacher Jennifer Smith got her Master's degree in Professional Writing and Women's Literature at Wright State University. She wrote her thesis on women's roles in mystery fiction before trying her hand at penning romance novels using her grandmother's family name Crusie. Despite her impressive credentials, she dismisses her debut novel Sizzle as "lousy" even as her fans clamber to gets their hands on this long out-of-print pulp romance. "That damn book is following me around the way early porn films follow actresses," so says Crusie one her web site of Sizzle.

No matter what the author thinks of her first effort, the astounding string of critically lauded bestsellers that followed it have firmly established Crusie as one of the very best writers of contemporary romantic fiction. Much of this is due to her sharp wit and ear for comedic dialogue, humor being an element often sorely missing in romance novels. From the sly private dick tale What the Lady Wants to the frantic Faking It, Crusie's books contain the perfect balance of suspense, snickers, and steamy love scenes.

What's more, the author has raked up a slew of awards, as well as spots on "best romance novels of the year" for Anyone But You, Temptation, Fast Women, and Faking It. Getting Rid of Bradley scored Crusie a RWA Rita award for Best Short Contemporary Fiction, and in 1996, she received a career achievement award for her work in the romantic comedy genre from Romantic Times magazine.

Now, after 13 crowd pleasers and award winners, Crusie is offering up her first-ever collaboration. She teamed up with hard-boiled action writer Bob Mayer (Operation Dragon-Sim) to conjure up Don't Look Down, a wacky escapade that is equal parts comedy, adventure, and playful erotica.

In Don't Look Down, movie director Lucy Armstrong goes toe-to-toe and heart-to-heart with J.T. Wilder, a green beret who serves as an advisor on a movie that is taking an unexpected turn from romantic comedy to blow-‘em-up action flick. Publisher's Weekly has declared the joint-effort "good fun," and Crusie reveals on her website that more fun with Mayer is on the way. The team is currently working on their second novel together Agnes and the Hitman.

As for future solo ventures by Crusie, there's plenty more in store. She not only has another release slotted for 2006 -- a sexy yuletide novella titled Hot Toy, which will appear in St. Martin's Press' Santa Baby anthology -- but she currently has no less than five additional projects on the burner. Among these upcoming releases are a collection of short stories and a book that Crusie is particularly qualified to create: a guide to writing women's fiction.

Good To Know

Crusie and Bob Mayer are making things a little easier for guys who want to check out their new collaborative novel Don't Look Down. All you have to do is remove the cutesy dust jacket to reveal a tough-as-nails camouflage cover design and voila! No one will ever know you're enjoying a romantic comedy.

Crusie is the proud owner of three dogs, one of which is named Lucy. Oddly, the main character of Don't look Down is also named Lucy -- and happens to be a director of dog food commercials. Coincidence?

Crusie has a few nonfiction works to her credit, including introductions in Totally Charmed, a collection of essays about Alyssa Milano's cult TV series, and Anne Rice: A Critical Companion, which the author wrote under her given name of Jennifer Smith.

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Editorials

Elinor Lipman

If your taste runs to dialogue like this — "Be as bitchy as you want, I don't care. But when you're tired of making me pay, we're going to laugh again, and then we're going to be naked" — you may relish Crazy for You.
—The New York Times Book Review

Jill M. Smith

Escape your own troubles and join the slightly wacky and wonderful world created by Jennifer Crusie. Crazy For You brings Ms. Crusie’s delightful, dizzy and unpredictable sense of humor vividly to life once again.
— Romantic Times

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Small-town life in Tibet, Ohio, is just an updated, rollicking version of Peyton Place in romance novelist Crusie's (Tell Me Lies) zany second novel about a 35-year-old high school art teacher's chance at love. Quinn McKenzie leads a prosaic, dull existence until a stray mutt crosses her path and becomes the catalyst that changes her priorities. Suddenly, her safe relationship with reliable Bill Hilliard, the school sports coach, takes a downturn when Bill forbids her to keep the dog. Crusie delves into the amatory machinations of the town through the sparkling, gossipy dialogue that takes place at the local hair parlor where Quinn's best buddy, Darla, works. While Darla tries to ignite her slumbering marriage to Max, Quinn decides to muscle her way into the heart of Max's brother, Nick, who also happens to be her sister's ex-husband. Is it possible to keep romance in a lasting relationship? That's the question that drives the droll narrative. Using zingy one-liners ("Nick is tall, dark and detached from humanity"), Cruise explores the underlying core that keeps couples together, detailing her characters without stereotypes. The local flirt is well-meaning and oblivious to her role in breaking up shaky marriages — she just wants her house taken care of; the solid, Rock of Gibraltar coach, Bill, actually goes off the deep end when Quinn moves out on her own; and Nick, the town bachelor, learns that love and lust don't necessarily cancel each other out. Crusie manages to infuse a great deal of humor about human nature into this contemporary romance, deploying as well an engaging cast of characters who progress through various contretemps to a fittingly happy ending.

High school art teacher Quinn McKenzie is bored, especially with her perfect high school coach boyfriend, Bill. Her life begins to unravel when he refuses to let her keep a stray dog and then takes it to the pound behind her back. Livid, Quinn retrieves the dog and dumps Bill. Her family is aghast, her principal appalled, her students furious, and her best friend Darla surprisingly sympathetic. Quinn revives an old attraction to Nick, her sister's ex-husband and Darla's brother-in-law. Both Darla and Quinn's mother decide to leave their husbands. Then Bill, the jilted boyfriend, becomes a stalker. The whole situation is hopelessly complicated — not at all what Quinn anticipated when she took a stand for a little black dog. The story comes together with just the right touches of humor, suspense, and some pretty darn sexy dialog. Crusie (Tell Me Lies, LJ 2/15/98) hasn't yet achieved the name recognition of Sandra Brown or Nora Roberts, but this effort proves she is every bit as good. A winner for any public library fiction collection.
— Margaret Ann Hanes, Sterling Heights Public Library, MI

If your taste runs to dialogue like this -- "Be as bitchy as you want, I don't care. But when you're tired of making me pay, we're going to laugh again, and then we're going to be naked" -- you may relish Crazy for You.
— The New York Times Book Review

A ferociously funny, sexy read.

Romance has a new star in Crusie (Tell Me Lies, 1998): if she had written Our Town, Emily Gibbs would have lived a longer life and died a happier woman. Quinn McKenzie is in a rut. Her little-town life in Tibbett, Ohio, is boring, dull, even "beige." Though she lives with Bill, Tibbett's most winning coach, she doesn't precisely love him, but went along with the idea of cohabitation simply to avoid an argument. Quinn's mother is also in a rut: she goes to garage sales with her friend Edie and waits on her husband Joe, who watches ESPN day and night. And Quinn's best friend Darla is in a rut; she thinks her husband is interested in Barbara the bank officer, who changes her hairstyle each time she sets her cap for a different married man. But Quinn's existence goes through a tectonic change when she adopts a small neurotic dog named Katie. Bill, who doesn't want a dog, takes Katie to the pound, causing a furious Quinn to leave and move into her own house, where she begins to reexamine her life. She sets her cap for Nick Ziegler, the bad-boy mechanic who was once married to her more exotic sister Zoe. Nick doesn't like to make commitments, and he fights his feelings for Quinn until the day he decides they should have sex once, to get it out of their system. But as romance fans know, one time seals his doom. By the end, Quinn discovers that her mother and Edie have been doing more than cruising garage sales together; Darla finally gets her husband's attention; and Kate has an empowering (for her) confrontation with Bill.

“Delightful . . . filled with characters who are just plain hoots.” —Los Angeles Times

“One of the few in the genre who can make you laugh out loud.” —Kirkus Reviews