Explosive Eighteen by Janet Evanovich
Before Stephanie can even step foot off Flight 127 Hawaii to Newark, she’s knee deep in trouble. Her dream vacation turned into a nightmare, and she’s flying back to New Jersey solo. Worse still, her seatmate never returned to the plane after the L.A. layover. Now he’s dead—and a ragtag collection of thugs and psychos, not to mention the FBI, are all looking for a photograph he was supposed to be carrying.
Only one person has seen the missing photo: Stephanie Plum. Now she’s the target. An FBI sketch artist helps Stephanie re-create the person in the photo, but Stephanie’s descriptive skills are lacking. Until she can improve them, she’ll need to watch her back.
Over at the bail bonds agency things are going from bad to worse. Vinnie’s temporary HQ has gone up in smoke. Stephanie’s wheelman, Lula, falls for their largest skip yet. Lifetime arch nemesis Joyce Barnhardt moves into Stephanie’s apartment. And everyone wants to know what happened in Hawaii?
Morelli, Trenton’s hottest cop, isn’t talking about Hawaii. Ranger, the man of mystery, isn’t talking about Hawaii. And all Stephanie is willing to say about her Hawaiian vacation is . . . It’s complicated.
Review:
Ok – if you haven’t read this series then first off you are missing out on an American Icon. Yep, Stephanie Plum and the gang are more like family to me than any characters that I’ve ever read. I’ve been through every adventure with them and even read all of the horrible “In Between the Numbers” books. This is the 18th novel in this series and let me tell you – things have not changed one bit in 18 novels. But you know what – I’m ok with that. To me these books are comfort reads – I know what will happen and I know how it will end. It has the same food, fart, and bad sex jokes in each novel. It has the same bombing, bad guys, and loser FTA’s in each novel but I still keep reading.
Nothing has changed in this novel – and as long as Evanovich keeps cranking one out each year and making her publisher money nothing will change. I do have to say that if you just want an easy, laugh out laugh, mindless, brainless book – these are the books for you. And with my hectic life, sometimes that’s all I need and want in a book.
Start at the beginning with One for the Money. Better yet – go to your library and see if they have them available on audio. The narrator on audio is AWESOME, and you won’t feel so guilty about reading them this way. Read these books after you’ve read a really long and intense book, you’ll like it even better.
Reviewer: Janon
Grade: C
It’s been a while since I read one of these. They are great laughter but being a big romance reader I so waited long enough for her to decide between Ranger and Morelli and too that would set a real new chapter to the series. Like you said they are good fun when you need that have some laughter (reminds me of Brenda Joyce Deadly series. The books seem to cease publishing again and Francesca never settled the HEA between Cadler And Rick Bragg).