Love Overboard: A Hilarious Vacation Romantic Comedy on a Cruise Ship

Love Overboard: A Hilarious Vacation Romantic Comedy on a Cruise Ship

She's been called "side-splittingly funny" ( Publishers Weekly ), "a blast of fresh air" ( Washington Post ), and "a winner" ( Glamour ). She is, of course, Janet Evanovich, the award-winning, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Stephanie Plum mystery series. Now available for the first time in more than a decade comes Love Overboard , the hilarious story of a sinfully handsome schooner captain and the spirited woman who agrees to work on his cruise ship. It's a classic novel of comic mayhem from the incomparable Janet Evanovich. “Evanovich is the master.” - San Francisco Examiner “Her humor and witty observations . . . are contageous.” - Chicago Tribune Dear Reader: In a previous life, before the time of Plum, I wrote twelve short romance novels. Red-hot screwball comedies, each and every one of them. Nine of these stories were originally published by the Loveswept line between the years 1988 and 1992. All went out-of-print immediately and then could be found only at used bookstores and yard sales. I'm excited to tell you that those nine stories are now beingre-released by HarperCollins. Love Overboard is second inthe lineup, and it's presented here in almost original form. I've done only minor editing to correct some embarrassing bloopers missed the first time around. And I changed the title because I thought the original title ( Ivan Takes a Wife ) was boring! Love Overboard is a romantic tale about a handsome ship'scaptain; a wary wench from Jersey City; a hundred-year-old, two-masted schooner; and an entire town of shoemakers. There's some getting naked, some blueberry pie, more getting naked, and at the end . . . Okay, I won't tell you about the end, but it's really good and it'll make you feel happy. I took my family on the road trip from heck to research this book. When we finally got to Maine it was all worthwhile because we fell in love with the boats and the people who sailed them. Enjoy! Janet Evanovich is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Stephanie Plum series, the co-authored Fox and O’Hare series, the Knight and Moon series, and the Lizzy and Diesel series as well as twelve romance novels, the Alexandra Barnaby novels, Troublemaker graphic novel, and How I Write: Secrets of a Bestselling Author .  Love Overboard By Janet Evanovich HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. Copyright © 2006 Janet Evanovich All right reserved. ISBN: 0060598840 Chapter One Ivan Rasmussen swirled the last of his coffeearound the bottom of his mug, looked past theprow of his ship to the sloping green lawn ofCamden Harbor Park, and wondered for thehundredth time in the past two hours what thedevil had happened to his cook, Lucy. She was never late. Until now. Now she was beyondlate, and because she was his friend as well ashis cook, he was worried. He squinted at a flash of color and movementtoward the top of the hill, and unconsciouslylet his mouth fall open at the sight of ayoung woman rolling down the grass embankment.She came to a spread-eagled stop whenshe reached the cement footpath at the bottom,and she uttered an expletive that carried acrossthe short span of shoreline, bringing the firstsmile of the day to Ivan's lips. Stephanie Lowe, the woman Ivan had beenwatching, struggled to her feet, adjusted herbattered backpack, and scowled at the grassstains on her knees. She was looking ahead to awhole week of cooking for Ivan the Terrible inexchange for free plumbing repairs to her bathroom.And if that wasn't awful enough, shewas the one who had to bring Ivan the goodnews that his usual cook was taking an impromptuvacation. "Lord, I'm such a dope !" Stephanie muttered,smacking herself on the forehead, broadcastingher thoughts to all watching. Nothing likemaking a memorable entrance. If one morething went wrong, she was going home. Theheck with it all, she thought. She wasn't crazyabout this deal anyway. She'd seen Ivan onlyonce, but he'd made a lasting impression onher. He was over six feet with gray-green eyesand strawberry blond hair. And at the time oftheir meeting he'd been all packaged up in acustom-tailored, navy pin-striped suit that hadmade him look more like a chairman of theboard than the captain of a schooner. Stephanie searched the crowded harbor forthe Josiah T. Savage , gasping when she realizedit was directly in front of her, tied to a floating dock at the end of the cement path. It would bethe last of the windjammers to leave the harbor,she thought with an inward groan—late toleave Camden because it was waiting for itscook. Unfortunately, its cook had suddenly decidedto get married. Double unfortunately, itscook was her cousin Lucy. Lucy had provided her with a few vital statisticson the Savage . It was a windship. A tallship. A hundred-year-old, two-masted, coastingschooner with seventy feet of deck length,carrying twenty-two passengers and four crewmembers on six-day cruises along the islandstrewncoast of Maine. Lucy's description of hercaptain h