Jennifer Crusie specializes in fun romantic novels with plenty of character interest and good old fashioned plot. Anyone But You begins with Nina, a 40 year old recently divorced lady, picking out a perky puppy from the shelter. Luckily she spots Fred, an older beagle basset mix who is on his last day of life, before she can pick out a puppy. Fred is not perky. He is morose, fat and a little shy of love.
Nina lives in a 3 story older home converted into flats with a fire escape running outside the window. Nina decides to teach Fred how to climb down the escape to do his business by the dumpster in the back yard. Of course she meets her neighbor Alex when Fred gets mixed up on which window to climb back into and curls up next to Alex on his couch instead of with Nina on her couch.
The Plot and Characters
The plot is cute, funny, and what saves it from being contrived is the characters have real issues. Nina is worried about getting old and fears getting involved with Alex because he is so much younger. Plus Nina works for a specialty publisher that is slowly going broke due to publishing far too many serious, boring books. Nina has to decide how important the age gap is and she takes a huge risk on a funny, sexy novel that she knows her boss will deplore.
Alex is an emergency room doctor from a family of all doctors, all of whom specialize, make tons of money and all of whom what Alex to follow their career path. Alex is happy being an ER doctor, thank you very much, but he is tempted to specialize to earn the income he thinks Nina wants.
The two main minor characters, Charity and Max, have serious life challenges they must acknowledge. The characters do work things out but there is no magic wand. Each must decide something and take action that leaves them exposed and at risk.
Deja Vu All Over Again
I read Anyone But You within a week of reading The Cinderella Deal. You can read my review of The Cinderella Deal here:
The Cinderella Deal, Romantic Comedy by Jennifer Crusie
I was struck by how Crusie reuses the same plot elements, even similar minor characters, yet manages to make the story fresh and interesting. Let’s see the parallels:
Book begins with girl finding a pet. Yes.
Girl initially believes boy is completely unsuitable. Yes.
Boy is a professional, not rich but comfortable. Yes.
Girl and boy live in the same apartment house. Yes.
Girl has career difficulties. Yes.
Overall I found The Cinderella Deal a little more intricate novel with more complex secondary plots but I enjoyed the characters in Anyone But You more.
Romance Novel
Anyone But You is published by Harlequin, the imprint notable for steamy scenes more than literary quality. Anyone But You has about 10 pages of steam and is well written.
Recommendation
Anyone But You was a fun book that I enjoyed enough to continue to get more books by Jennifer Crusie. I give it four stars.
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