Love Overboard

By Janet Evanovich
Performed by C.J. Critt

     Stephanie Lowe takes on the job of being a cook aboard a Maine Schooner for a week, while her cousin Lucy goes off to get married. She has no idea just how deep she's gotten herself into by telling Lucy she'd cover for her for the week until she sees who her boss is -Ivan Rasmussen, or according to Stephanie, "Ivan the Terrible." Now she has to deal with learning how to cook in a ship galley, a hormone-driven teenager as a crew mate, and her constant feelings of confusion on whether she should kiss Ivan…or kill him. Although she honestly isn't seeing how his good looks and smooth, pirate style could make up for him selling her a house that's falling apart at the seams so quickly that it seems more like sabotage than actual old age. It's enough to make a girl go back to being a workaholic spinster…maybe…

     Ivan Rasmussen sold his house to his friend and cook's cousin, Stephanie He's always been proud of his pirate lineage, and selling the house, to him, felt like a mistake, but with the risk of losing his precious schooner, he had no choice. He thought she was rather wacky, but dealing with a mysterious killer ghost who has a pension for blueberry pie, and an overly nosy group of customers, he's starting to wonder just how much they can take before they both get committed for being insane. But with all this going on, he can't help but be even more worried about how hooked he's becoming on the clumsy, sweats-wearing woman with a past he's yet to find out about whose specialties include burnt chocolate chip cookies and fish-eye stew.

     This hilariously funny audio was music to my ears. After a long week of constant midterms, papers, and tons of the normal college busywork, being able to sit down and listen to the tale of these two insanely hysterical people was a definite treat. Stephanie and Ivan are a match made in comedy heaven. I love the twists Evanovich takes her readers on. It's absolutely brilliant.