My favorite romance novel of all time is available in Kindle on Amazon today (December 4th, 2018) for $1.99: Bet Me by Jennifer Cruisie
Now I’m second-guessing myself, though — is it really my favorite of all time? There have been others I have loved along the way. There was an Elspeth Thane book, sadly not available as an ebook, that I adored as a teenager. (The fact that it is about ghosts might have had something to do with my future leanings.) There’s a Lois McMaster Bujold, A Civil Campaign, that doesn’t call itself a romance but really is. There are definitely books outside the romance category by Robin McKinley and Sharon Shinn and others that might be slightly higher on my favorites list.
But you know, now that I’ve analyzed this question deeply, I’m going to say yes, Bet Me, still my favorite romance novel of all time. I love the relationships between the characters, the representation of male friendship, the way that the hero/heroine support each other in stressful family situations, the way the hero encourages the heroine to enjoy food, and absolutely the humor. So much the humor. Also, though, the actual romance — the attraction between the characters is fun. So much “romance” these days feels like obligatory lust followed by insta-amazing sex and I find that seriously boring. Cal and Min are attracted to one another, wish they weren’t, still are. It’s appealing. And now I’m going to go read a good book all morning. 🙂
Thanks for the heads-up! I used to own the paperback, but got rid of most of my books (except for reference books, like cookbooks) in an effort to downsize. Since then, I’ve been getting ebook versions of old faves.
Me, too! I got rid of all my books when I moved into my van and have been slowly but steadily collecting the ebook versions. I’m really delighted to have this one.
I clicked on your link and bought it… and then remembered that I told myself I will check to see if I can borrow the ebook from the library before buying. And sure enough when I did go and look, it was available on Overdrive. Doh. Oh well, it was only two dollars and now I can read it at my leisure.
$2 is definitely my irresistible price point for books. I wish Kindle had better tools for organizing books, that’s the one thing about it that I truly don’t like, but I like owning books so that I can stumble across them in my Kindle library. I’m a big re-reader, too, though. Sometimes I like just revisiting a book’s world, even when I know what’s coming!
I also re-read a lot. I clicked on your Elspeth Thane link and it took me to Bet Me. I love Bet Me but I was curious about the Thane book.
Currently I am reading Sweet Salt Air by Barbara Delinsky. It is good so far. I hope it has an HEA or a happily for now ending. My daughter is still not doing well and I bruise easily these days.
Oh, I’ll check my link, thanks for the heads-up. The book is Tryst, and the hero is a ghost. I haven’t read the book in thirty years, probably, so I can’t tell you whether it’s actually any good or not, but I loved it when I was a teenager. (Link is fixed.)
And I’m sorry to hear about your daughter. I hope she starts feeling better soon!