Stephanie Plum, Book 22

I Picked Up This Book Because: Continue the series

The Characters:

Stephanie Plum:
Joe Morelli:
Carlos “Ranger” Manoso:
Grandma Mazur, Lula, Connie, Tank,

The Story:

Another good one. I think Stephanie missed her calling as a detective, with some real training she could really be something.

The Random Thoughts:

#LibraryLoveChallenge

4 Stars

Stephanie Plum gets involved in on-campus high jinks and more serious crime as she continues to balance her bond management job with her two suitors. She must be attractive and sexy to have such an effect on the men around her and the novel has the usual mix of fun, nonsense and family inter-action that you'd expect from an Evanovich thriller. Well worth a read if you like silly crime novels although reading some of the previous 22 books will help to understand her situation.

I expect certain things when I read a Stephanie Plum novel... I expect Stephanie to be awful at her job, I expect her to wreck or blow up at least one car, I expect her to love Morelli and be freaked out about commitment, I expect her to be in lust with Ranger and freaked out about that, I expect Granny to do and say some things that make me cringe, and I expect Lula to be Lula. Mostly, I expect to laugh and forget my life for a few hours.

This is not great literature. This is fun, ridiculous, escapism. If you are expecting more than that, you will likely be disappointed. I see that several reviewers have been unhappy with the last few books in the series. The books are written using a pretty obvious equation and expecting it to change now, twenty books in, is likely an effort in futility.

If JE writes another fifty Plum novels exactly like this one, I'll read them all, they'll make me laugh, and I'll happily look forward to the next one

*Book source ~ Library

 

Stephanie Plum may not be a bounty hunter extraordinaire, but she does tend to get the job done one way or another. When she gets an FTA named Ken *Gobbles* Globovic, college student and member of the worst fraternity house at Kirkman College, she figures the job  will be a piece of cake. She should have known better.

 

The formula hasn’t changed for this book. Stephanie gets into her usual troubles, Lula is still funny and wacky, Vinnie is still a jerk, Morelli is an asshole and Ranger is hot. After 22 books you’d think Stephanie would have grown a bit as a character, but she’s still as she was in the beginning. Getting kinda ridiculous really. I also don’t know what she sees in Morelli other than her family would find him as an acceptable husband for her. Wow. Quite the reason to marry. If they ever do. I hope they don’t. I can’t stand him. I would choose Ranger every day of the year over Morelli. Anyway, if you’ve read the other books in the series there won’t be any surprises in this one. It’s a nice piece of entertaining fluff that doesn’t tax your brain and will occasionally make you smile. Plus, Ranger. Mmmmm…

I thought this was an improvement of the last several! She stayed away from some of the things that had become classic tropes in a plum book. There was some actual danger that was awesome. And things between Ranger/Steph/Morelli actual go somewhere. I'm actually looking forward to the next book!
Mrs. Plum is the SHIT!