Rating: 10/10
Where can you find true love? Somewhere between a bunch of bets, Chicken Marsala, a jealous ex-boyfriend, a determined psychologist/ex-girlfriend, Krispy Kreme doughnuts, great shoes, baseball, a freakishly smart "mutant" cat, snow globes, and a bunch of theories. xD
Min has just been dumped by her "perfect boyfriend", David. At that same bar, her two best friends decide it's time for her to move on and dare her to talk to Cal. Unknowingly, David bets Cal ten bucks Min won't go out with him and ten thousand dollars Cal can't get Min to sleep with him. Min overhears this bet and is furious. And here is where our story begins...
I love love love this story. I couldn't put it down from beginning to end. It kept me on my toes and all the sweet little incidences made me smile and laugh out loud. This author is quite promising and I can't wait to read her other works.
Pros: The banter between the main characters are adorable. He is patient and charming while she is trying hard to be cold and nonchalant. I love the relationship between the friends. Lots of stories don't develop the supporting character's roles such as the friends. (ROFL the smacks Liza throws at Cal for kissing Min. It's hilarious.) There were lots of funny parts (such as the phone call between Cal and his mother, which I included in the excerpts below.) There were interesting theories to discover too (The butterfly effect, the chaos theory, the edge of chaos, etc.)
Cons: I honestly can't think of anything I don't like about this book.
SO many
favorite parts in the story... Here's some:
Bonnie patted Min's arm. "It's a good thing he broke up with you because now you're free for when the
right man finds you. Your prince is on his way."
"Right," Min said. "I'm sure he was on his way but a truck hit him."
"That's not how it works." Bonnie leaned on the bar, looking like an R-rated pixie. "If it's meant to be,
he'll make it. No matter how many things go wrong, he'll come to you and you'll be together forever."
"What is this?" Liza said, looking at her in disbelief. "Barbie's Field of Dreams?"
"That's sweet, Bonnie," Min said. "But as far as I'm concerned, the last good man died when Elvis went."
"Maybe we should rethink keeping Bon as our broker," Liza said to Min. "We could be major
stockholders in the Magic Kingdom by now."
"Calvin?" he heard his mother say, but even she was better than the silence.
"Mother," he said. "How are you?" His toast popped, and he cradled the phone between his shoulder
and his ear as he opened the peanut butter.
"I'm calling about dinner on Sunday," she said.
"I will be there, Mother," Cal said, thinking,I'm there the third Sunday of every month, Mother .
Definitely in a rut.
"I'd like you to pick up our guest."
"Guest?" Cal said, as he got out a table knife to spread the peanut butter.
"Minerva Dobbs," his mother said.
"What?" Cal said and dropped the knife.
"I called her because Harrison has been speaking of her often, and it occurred to me that it would be
nice for him to have her there."
Cal sighed. "What did she say when you called?"
"She seemed surprised," his mother said. "But when I explained that Harrison would be so pleased if she
came—"
"She said yes," Cal said, reaching for his toast. "However, I cannot bring her because I will not be seeing
her ever aga—" His fingers brushed the metal top of the toaster and he burned himself and dropped the
phone. "Damn it," he said and put his scorched fingertips in his mouth.
"Calvin?" his mother said from the phone.
He picked up the receiver. "I burned myself on the toaster. Sorry." Cal turned on the cold water and
stuck his fingers underneath the stream. "Anyway, I will not be seeing Minerva Dobbs again." He stepped
away from the sink onto something hard and his foot slipped out from under him and smacked into the
cabinets. "Ouch."
"Calvin?" his mother said.
"I stepped on a knife." Cal bent to pick up the peanut butter knife and smacked his head into the
counter. "Hell."
"Did you cut yourself?" his mother asked.
"No. I..." He put the knife in the sink. "I'll call you tomorrow, Mother."
"Calvin?" his mother said, and he hung up on her and considered the situation.
The Butterfly Effect, he remembered that, the idea that a butterfly flapping its wings in Hong Kong could
cause a hurricane ten years later in Florida or prevent a tornado ten years later in Texas, take your pick
because it was unpredictable. That was Min; she'd looked harmless that first night, and then she flapped
her wings two weeks ago and now he was a mess. She was a goddamn stealth butterfly.
"So how's Roger?" Min said, more than willing to have somebody else be the topic at hand.
"He is The One," Bonnie said. "He's going to propose in a couple of weeks and I'll say yes. I told my
mama to plan the wedding for August."
"He told you he's going to propose?" Cynthie said, and when Bonnie looked at her, surprised, she said,
"I'm writing a book on this. It's none of my business, but I am interested."
"Oh," Bonnie said. "Well, no, he hasn't told me. I just know."
Min tried to look supportive, but the silence that settled over them must have reeked of skepticism
because Bonnie turned back to the field and called Roger's name. When he came trotting over to them,
she said, "Honey, are you going to ask me to marry you?"
"Yes," he said. "I didn't want to rush you, so I thought I'd wait till our one-month anniversary. It's only
eleven days."
"Very sensible," Bonnie said. "Just so you know, I'm going to say yes."
Roger sighed. "That takes a lot of the worry out of it." He leaned over and kissed her and went back to
the field.
"That was either really sweet or really annoying," Liza said.
"Are you going out tonight?" Liza asked.
"Yes, but just as friends," Min said. "He's doing me a favor. We're going to my mother's so she can stop
worrying about him being a vile seducer."
Liza shook her head, looking doubtful. "I don't think meeting Cal is going to reassure your mother."
"Why not? Elvis likes him. And Elvis has very good instincts."
"Elvis?" Liza said, sounding alarmed.
"The cat. I named him Elvis," Min said.
Liza sighed. "ThankGod. I thought you'd finally cracked."
Min's father met them in the hall, a lumbering man with a shock of blond hair and heavy white eyebrows
who should have been hearty and welcoming but instead had the vaguely paranoid look of a sheepdog
whose sheep were plotting against him.
When they were in the car, she said, "Okay, give me the cheat sheet for your parents."
"There is none," Cal said. "They will be very polite but not warm. We don't have to chill the wine at
home, the atmosphere does it for us."
"I was just relieved because I thought you were never going to want to see me again. I'm positive your family doesn't want to."
Cal put the key in the ignition and started the car. "Oh, some of them do."
"Harry." Min leaned back in her seat, and tried to think about something else besides kissing him. "That's
just because I gave him my ice cream."
Cal slowed the car. "He had yours and his?"
"Yes," Min said. "He said he didn't throw up ice cream."
"He lied." Cal stopped the car. "It's sugar in general that makes him sick."
"Do we have to go back?" Min said, alarmed.
"Christ, no." Cal pulled out his cell phone. When he'd warned Bink about the imminent vomiting, he
started the car again.
"Great, I poisoned her kid," Min said. "Now she hates me, too."
"No. She knows Harry and the cons he pulls for sugar. She likes you."
"She didn't look like it."
"No, she really likes you," Cal said as he pulled out into the street. "She offered me a hundred thousand
dollars to marry you."
"What?" Min laughed. "I didn't think she had a sense of humor."
"She does, but she wasn't joking. She can afford it." Cal picked up speed as they left his parents' street
and sighed. "ThankGod, we're out of there."
"Wait a minute," Min said, not laughing. "She honestly offered you—"
"She's been going to dinner there every Sunday for ten years," Cal said. "That was the first one she
enjoyed. When you figure that my parents are in their fifties and likely to be around for at least another
thirty years, she's looking at a minimum of sixteen hundred more miserable Sundays. That's her estimate.
Add in holiday dinners, and she says a hundred K would come out to about sixty dollars a dinner, which
is a real bargain in her book." He thought about it. "Actually, that's a bargain in my book, too, although
nothing on this earth could get me there every Sunday."
"My Lord," Min said.
"Plus Harry's been singing 'Hunka hunka burning love' since we went to lunch yesterday. She said the
expressions on my parents' faces alone were worth a hundred grand."
Cal said from the couch, "The cat knows how to turn on the stereo?"
"He knows the power button," she called back. "And replay, unfortunately. I heard 'Love Me Tender'
four times last night before I took the CD out."
"What are you guys doing?" Tony said, coming up out of the dark and scaring them both into shrieks.
"Standing around waiting to get mugged?"
"And now our wait is over?" Min said, trying to get her breath back.
"Cal sent me," Tony said. "He doesn't like you walking home alone. So you get me."
"You don't have to," Min said.
"Are you kidding? I'm with two hot women in the dark," Tony said. "By the time I'm finished retelling this
in my head, it's going to be phenomenal."
"Who are you again?" Cal said. "Because you look like this woman who keeps hitting me, but you seem
to be on my side. Do you have an evil twin?"
"I'm Min's fairy godmother, Charm Boy," Liza said, frowning down at him. "And if you don't give her a
happily ever after, I'm going to come back and beat you to death with a snow globe."
"What happened to 'bibbity bobbity boo'?" Cal asked Min.
"That was Disney, honey," Min said. "It wasn't a documentary."
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