Reads & Reds Book Club - Bet Me & Primitivo

I love a good book and I love a good bottle of red so I thought why not combine the two together with a monthly feature 'Reads & Reds'

Every month I'm going to pick a book to read and feature here, and select a bottle of red wine to drink while I'm reading it, and then share what I think of both with you.

The first thing you probably need to know is what kind of reader I am - I'm shamefully obsessed with romantic reads and an eternal lover of young adult fiction…..yes I am looking at you Twilight, as I said shameless!. But I like to dabble in biographies and modern literature too. You definitely won't find murder, mystery or thrillers it's just not my bag baby.

I wanted to start off this month with one of my absolute favourite books of all time - Bet Me by New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Crusie. I bought this book about 16 years ago for 99p in Tescos and it is without doubt my favourite read…. I've just finished my yearly read and I feel like this is a good one to start with.

The story follows risk averse, Elvis Presley loving Minerva Dobbs who thinks happily-ever-after is a fairy tale and risk taking, commitment averse, Elvis Costello listening Calvin Morrisey who likes his life exactly as it is, hassle-free.

The story is a classic one of girl needs date for sisters wedding, meets boy in bar over hearing him making a bet with her ex boyfriend about bedding her, and decides to mess with him by getting him to take her to the wedding to make her Mother happy…. Happens to the best of us right.

They have dinner, Min decided that he is too much and Cal thinks Min is just too cranky (even if she does have unexpectedly sexy shoes) and so they agree never to see each other again, but fate and the particularly well written support characters intervenes and the pair are thrown together again and again in a series of fun and charming scenes that left me virtually speed reading to get to their next encounter.

This is a funny, sarcastic, charming, slightly odd love story which is classic Jenny Cruise writing.

To pair with my favourite book I had to pick a favourite wine - Primitivo.

I went for the Ruminat Primitivo - Abruzzo, Italy. App £15.

Normally I like really heavy reds that are so thick they could almost pass as cough medicine however this light but intense red really won me over. It’s slightly acidic but then after a few sips it lifts and becomes juicy, with cherry notes coming through. This is a super easy to drink red.