"From the author of All the Cowboys Ain’t Gone and California Fever comes a romantic comedy about the exuberant intoxication of amore and its often hilarious antics.
Aspiring author Billy Spiers tends to fall passionately in love, but soon, finding something missing, fall quickly out again. His grandmother, who raised him, thinks he needs to settle down and find a mate. When Billy’s on the verge of ending yet another relationship, his grandmother decides to do some well-intentioned meddling.
Kari Porter is not only smart and beautiful but also a writer with passions and sensibilities similar to Billy’s. She loves the same kind of stories, quotes lines from his favorite old poems and songs, and has similar unique takes on Shakespeare—is this the kindred spirit he’s been longing for? Sparks fly, and soon the two are lingering over dinner and taking romantic sunset bike rides along the California coast. They even manage to matchmake their four closest friends.
But artistic types can be overly sensitive. As their relationship rapidly progresses, they become afraid of moving too fast—and of getting hurt. Kari becomes distant, dealing with a crisis she feels she can’t share with Billy, while Billy responds with crazy drastic actions that he thinks might salvage the relationship. Billy’s grandmother can’t help meddling again, sending all three couples to a magical mountain lodge where she and her husband fell madly in love decades before. Mayhem ensues when the enigmatic and impish proprietor of the lodge introduces passion-fueled havoc, pushing the young lovers—inadvertently—in bizarre directions.
A twenty-first-century twist on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Cupid on the Loose is a delightful romp that takes an entertaining and humorous look at the foibles of infatuation, lust, and romantic love."
"SoCal surfer Dolphin Smoote just wanted to earn quick dough for a date with the brown-eyed beauty … what he got was G-men (and G-women), ghosts, and a Colt 45.
John Jacobson’s California Fever is the compelling fusion of mystery, crime, and Southern California beach charm. Top surfer Dolphin Smoote gets more than he bargains for when he works up the nerve to ask out the brown-eyed beauty on a date. The search of quick coin without having to work will always lead a surfer to precarious places, and Dolphin is no exception. With the help of his lovable surfer crew who often have more to say about stylishness than anything else, Dolphin finds himself between conmen, ghosts, an impending storm from the coast of Mexico … and still no money for a second date. Along the ride, Dolphin finds in himself capacity for storytelling that would make P. G. Wodehouse himself chortle with laughter.
From the author of All the Cowboys Ain’t Gone comes this thrilling tale where a crime-novel writer becomes caught up in crimes, and an aspiring writer tries to outrun the crime in her bloodline—what could go wrong? Jacobson immerses the reader in the world of California’s casual-radical surf culture, where radical stunts executed with the most casual air is a practiced form of art. In this world, rival surf clans goad each other on, upping the ante on stunts until mayhem looms. It looks like the storm brewing off the coast of Southern California just might disturb the tranquility of the beach."
"All the Cowboys Ain’t Gone is the rollicking adventure story of Lincoln Smith, a young Texan living at the beginning of the twentieth century, who thinks of himself as the last true cowboy. He longs for the days of the Old West, when men like his father, a famous Texas Ranger, lived by the chivalric code. Lincoln finds himself hopelessly out of time and place in the fast-changing United States of the new century. When he gets his heart broken by a sweetheart who doesn’t appreciate his anachronistic tendencies, he does what any sensible young romantic would do: he joins the French Foreign Legion.
On his way to an ancient and exotic country at the edge of the Sahara, Lincoln encounters a number of curious characters and strange adventures, from a desert hermit who can slow up time to a battle with a crocodile cult that worships the god of death. He meets them all with his own charming brand of courage and resourcefulness."
