Book Review: Smokin’ Seventeen – Janet Evanovich

So last year Good Reads prodded me to challenge myself to read X number of books. That number could be anything I wanted. So I bit and chose 12. Well… here we are in the next year. By the way, I challenged myself to 12 books last year. I’d like to brag on myself and say I surpassed that. Yey! Go me!!

So this year it encouraged me to do the same challenge. I thought, well… last year I read 17, so how about challenging myself to 13. Ha! Yup, that was my thought process. I challenged 12 last year so I just added one… why not. There really wasn’t a real reason behind my thought process… But we are remodeling our house so I didn’t know if I would even have time. I mean I have the next year, but how long this remodel will take is anyone’s guess.

Anyway, this one started like December 28 or something… but since I finished it this year, hello, it counts as 1/13 books.

Smokin’ Seventeen – A Stephanie Plum Novel

Where there’s smoke there’s fire, and no one knows this better than New Jersey bounty hunter Stephanie Plum.

Dead bodies are showing up in shallow graves on the empty construction lot of Vincent Plum Bail Bonds. No one is sure who the killer is, or why the victims have been offed, but what is clear is that Stephanie’s name is on the killer’s list. Short on time to find the murderer, Stephanie is also under pressure from family and friends to choose between her on-again-off-again boyfriend, Trenton cop Joe Morelli, and the bad boy in her life, security expert Ranger. Stephanie’s mom wants her to dump them both for a former high school football star who’s just returned to town. Stephanie’s sidekick, Lula, suggests a red-hot boudoir “bake-off.” And Joe’s old-world grandmother gives Stephanie “the eye,” which may mean that it’s time to get out of town.

With a cold-blooded killer after her, a handful of hot men, and a capture list that includes a dancing bear and a senior citizen vampire, Stephanie’s life looks like it’s about to go up in smoke.

Thoughts

I love Stephanie Plum. In fact, I’ve mentioned before I want to be her… but gosh I wish she’d just choose a boyfriend and get married. haha. Oh, by the way, team Morelli. Anyway… if she would have picked one or the other of them, I guess she couldn’t have dated the guy her parents wanted her too… although if you think about it… she would have avoided some of the messes here. I’m trying to not give anything away. I do though wish she’d just get over it and make a connection.

I’m pretty sure that book 1 was written in like 1994 or something like that. I started reading them in either 2005 or 2006, I can’t quite remember… And for a while, I plugged through these books like no body’s business, but now it sometimes is difficult. Yes, I still love Stephanie Plum, but I get tired of them… the back and forth between Ranger and Morelli. Etc, etc. But don’t worry, I’ll eventually get caught up on the books and have them all read. I just sometimes have to take a break. I did that during Grad School fo’ sho’.