I do really enjoy her collaborations with Bob. I find his voice very funny and interesting as well. And while I didn’t love DLD, I do really adore Agnes. Not as good as some of her single titles, but good in its own way.

I’m going to side with Keri M and say Susan Andersen is similar. I find her characters to be more angsty in the “big problem” scenes but she’s got good humor and is very lighthearted. Baby Don’t Go is one of my favorite re-reads.

I also really like Katie McAlister’s Aisling Grey series. They’re funny and action-filled with good dialogue and out-there characters. Although sometimes I do want to kick Aisling… but the hero is worth it. I didn’t enjoy the single titles I tried, but that may just be me.

I’m currently searching some of the other authors suggested here. Thanks for all the suggestions guys! And thanks for a great Crusie run-down that makes me need to read Bet Me again : )

Kaetrin,

I’m curious… are you thinking Sizzle will be inferior reading? If so, I’m betting you’ll be very pleasantly surprised when you do locate a copy.

It’s a very good story for its kind. She did a fine job with 100 pages. It’s not profound or life-changing, but it’s definitely an excellent diversion for an hour or so, and a very satisfying read. It also has some really great lines in it, like (explaining why she dumped an ex), “because he has the attention span of a fruit fly and the morals of a mink.”

Granted, mine — I believe she does them *all* this way — is signed, “Diane, please burn this book. Thank you. Jenny Crusie,” but I always thought it’s more because of bad feelings over the way Harlequin treated her in contracts than because of any serious dislike of the story. I could be wrong, tho. Maybe she does really dislike the book. ::shrug::

But I would have to respectfully disagree with her. LOL

I'm sure there are some things in there worth tweaking, but it definitely stands on its own merits, as is.

Diane
apologizing in advance for any and all typos, since I can never see them until after the editing time has elapsed

If you like Loretta Chase and Georgette Heyer, you should definitely check out Sherry Thomas. I found both Private Arrangements and Delicious to be intelligent and entertaining.

And I couldn’t agree with you more about Naomi Novik — I love the Temeraire books.

I also disagree that her heros are Alphas. I don’t think they are, unless my idea of Alphas has been so destroyed by the thousands of rakes with giant muscles out to pummel the nearest man because he looked at the heroine. I get more than a little tired of the hero as Strongest!Man!Ever! who can beat five men with his bare hands blah blah blah. None of Crusie’s heros annoy me in this manner.

Also, if I am not mistaken, don’t all her books take place in Ohio? I think they do.

And Moth, the same goes for Georgette Heyer; as you say, she is in the same vein of wonderfulness when it comes to incorporating humor in her books. I’ve also started on Bujold and so far am liking her writing a lot.

I don’t expect every page to be hilarious, but for me a good book has to be an intelligent read, which is kind of hard to define. I’ll be checking out a number of the recommendations that have been offered above.

And one final recommendation of my own: just lately I’ve discovered Naomi Novik, who’s written a delightfully subversive series, the Temeraire books. It’s dragons fighting in the Napoleonic wars and the series is often summed up as Master and Commander meets the Dragons of Pern, but it doesn’t take any great analytical perception to see that it is fundamentally about the evils of intolerance and discrimination. And the books are just LOADED with intelligence and wit.

As for contemporary authors like her, I can’t really think of any. If you want to look at historical authors, I think Loretta Chase may come close. They have quite distinct voices, but both have strong heroines, snappy dialogue, plots propelled by both character and action, and both strike me as smart in all senses of the word.

Yay to you for suggesting Bujold! I should have thought of her.

Thanks everyone else for the great suggestions! I’m going to have to try some of these authors.

I don’t usually read contemps. They seem too unrealistic- Kwitney’s suffered from this hard core (especially Dominant Blonde)…(although the romance novel scenes in Does She or doesn’t She are spot-on and hilarious- too bad the rest of the book is a wall banger for me) but I love Crusie. Agnes, Faking It, Bet Me…these have become some of my all time favorite books ever.

I can’t recommend any comtemp authors like Crusie but I would say that if you’re looking for a similar level of satisfaction (with humor, hero, relationships, quippy dialogue, etc) you could do worse than to try some Georgette Heyer (The Unknown Ajax, The Talisman Ring and Cotillion) or maybe even some of Lois McMaster Bujold’s SF (A Civil Campaign or Cordelia’s Honor). Crusie, Heyer, and Bujold all kind of tap similar chords for me when I read them. And all of them reside with much love on my keeper shelves.

I love this thread by the way. I can’t wait to try some of these recommended reads. :D

The Quinn brothers series is SO good. You have such a treat ahead of you.

IMO, there are some Linda Howard books (To Die For, Mr. Perfect), some Rachel Gibson books (The Trouble With Valentine’s Day), some SEP books (Natural Born Charmer and Heaven Texas (esp this one!)) like Crusie’s work but I haven’t come across another author that is just like her consistently. I guess that’s why I love her so much – I can only get her from her so she never bores me. Perhaps I don’t want there to be another Crusie??

I was a bit dubious about the collaboration with Bob Mayer but I have really enjoyed both books – they were a little different to her own novels but only in how long it took timewise from start to finish. I thought it might be disjointed having 2 authors, but I found it (surprisingly) quite authentic – the male “voice” and the female “voice” expressing how guys and girls think and relate in their different ways.

I haven’t managed to read Sizzle but I’d happily get my hands on any of Crusie’s work even if it’s not her best.

I will try and look up Kristin Higgins (when my TBR pile goes down) as well as some of the other authors recommended.

I would add though that JD Robb’s novels have a similar level of banter (especially between Dallas and Peabody and Peabody and McNab) that reminds me a bit of Crusie but that’s the only part, on the whole, JD Robb is in her own “category”. I will put the Quinn brothers series on my must read list though!

Thanks for a great review Jane. I want to go and read my Crusie’s again now!!

In fact, two of her books are on my Top Ten All Time Favorite Keepers List (Manhunting and Anyone But You), and Sizzle is probably in the top 20. I quite reading the HBs on the bus, because I’d get too many odd looks when I would bucksnort and LOL while reading.

I do have one quibble with her work, tho obviously it hasn’t stopped me from reading it. LOL It suffers from what I call the ‘yeah, buts…’ It usually flows well and is enjoyable while reading, but as soon as I finish it and start thinking about it, I’ll start going, yeah, but that wouldn’t have happened, or the timeline is way too short, or how could that take place without blah blah, or whatever. Yet still I love ‘em.

I also love Freed’s old stuff, and can vouch for its quality, tho I never would have thought it to be similar to Crusie’s, other than strong independent female characters.

One author who I believe no longer writes (at least not mainstream romances) but is in that same Crusie/SEP/Gibson/fast-and-fun style is a woman named Michelle Martin. Disclaimer: I haven’t read them in years, so I am not sure how well they would hold up these days, but as I recall I thought she had a lot of potential at the time. They are about 10 years old now. The contemps are STOLEN HEARTS, STOLEN MOMENTS, and THE LONG SHOT. I haven’t read them, but she also has (had?) about six regencies and one lesbian regency as well.

Diane

I love Agnes. It sounds like Crusie but gallops full steam ahead like an action flick, and I like that her bonkers/dangerous heroine and his cold/dangerous hero find in each other someone who can accept a few murderous tendencies.

*sigh* And there were no awkward, inopportune “I love you”‘s exchanged in Agnes. I so didn’t want this book to end. Will be rereading it this weekend.

Jane: I also really liked Marianna Jameson, but it doesn't look like anything new is coming out in the contemp romance genre from her.

I see her new collaboration’s a disaster thriller. I may try it in hopes that her contribution is an interesting relationship between the “good guys”.

Orannia: it felt like [Agnes & The Hitman] hadn't been edited at all.

That surprises me. I think it feels highly worked-over and fitted-together, in both continuity and language. The first time I read it I lost track of an important detail, and I noticed a couple of colloquialisms, but I don’t recall actual errors.

Ann Bruce: am I the only person who thoroughly enjoyed Crusie's collaborations with Mayer?

I didn’t care for DLD, but I love Agnes. It sounds like Crusie but gallops full steam ahead like an action flick, and I like that her bonkers/dangerous heroine and his cold/dangerous hero find in each other someone who can accept a few murderous tendencies.

I can understand why a lot of people don’t find SEP comparable to Crusie when I think back on her earlier books, like Fancy Pants or Heaven, Texas. But some of the scenes in her later work are just as funny as anything Crusie has written, like the one in Natural Born Charmer when Blue tells Dean he owes her another hundred bucks.

Manhunting is one of my favorite books of all times. Morgan’s piece makes me want to re-read Crusie’s works.

I don’t know if I have read Jane Grave’s. I keep thinking I have and I didn’t love her work, but I don’t have any specific recollection.

I’m not a huge fan of the humor in books because humor is so subjective. I find that HelenKay Dimon’s works are great in dialogue and in that similar to Crusie.

BTW, am I the only person who thoroughly enjoyed Crusie’s collaborations with Mayer? I found his sense of humor complemented hers quite nicely. I read some readers thought his parts sounded condescending, but I thought he was just very tongue-in-cheek. And that sex scene with the actress in DLD was priceless.