Maybe it was the last book about a dog that made me pull Holly Jacobs' Night Calls off the shelf at the library. Look at the face on the cover. You have to be a little nuts to love that face. And, Jacobs' characters, Cassie Grant and Jonathan Cooper are both a little nuts in this enjoyable romantic comedy.Cassie Grant is the DJ on a radio station in Erie, PA, WLVH. She's on Night Calls, a radio show where she talks about her belief that true love exists, and really matters. Coming from a family where three generations eloped, Cassie expects to do the same with her fiancé, Gene. Instead, when there are glitches in her travel plans, Cassie realizes she doesn't love him, so she dumps him, and resolves to become a spinster, get a dog, and devote herself to her radio career.
Ah, that dog. Dudley, an Old English mastiff, is already enormous when Cassie brings the puppy home. And, Dudley falls hard for Cassie's neighbor, Jonathan. Cassie and Jonathan have been friends since the day she moved in, but her broken engagement causes uneasy feelings. It's not quite as easy to be pals when they start to see each other as a man and woman, not just easy-going friends that share dinner and conversation. But, Cassie wants happily-ever-after in her life, and Jonathan, a divorce lawyer, wants an eventual relationship, but doesn't believe in true love.
Suddenly, Cassie's life is becoming complicated. "As a woman who had decided to stay single and become a new millennium career woman, she had way too many men on her mind. There was her ex-fiancé who wanted to get re-engaged. Add to that her neighbor who she thought was her friend, but turned out to be a kissing fiend. And then there was Dudley, her slime factory, bed-hogging puppy who sat on people's legs and broke basement doors." And, if her social life doesn't work out, there's always that radio contest at work in which someone can win a date with Cassie.
If you haven't discovered Holly Jacobs' romantic comedies, start with Night Calls. If you love romance, humor, and dogs, it might be right up your alley.
Night Calls by Holly Jacobs. Thomas Bouregy & Co., ©2006. ISBN 9780803497641 (hardcover), 192p.
*****
FTC Full Disclosure - Library book.
