Mini Reviews: Stephanie Plum Catch-Up Edition

So, since I've taken my professional reviewing down a notch and I've had some free time, I've been playing catch up with some of my favorite adult series.  One series I love that I had fallen sadly behind on was Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series. They are just SOO much fun... and since I'm driving a lot more now (back and forth to Roller Derby practice!), I decided to listen to these books which is an even more hilarious experience...

Explosive Eighteen
by Janet Evanovich
Stephanie Plum series, book eighteen

Before Stephanie can even step foot off Flight 127 from Hawaii to Newark, she’s knee deep in trouble. Her dream vacation turned into a nightmare, she’s flying back to New Jersey solo, and someone who sounds like Sasquatch is snoring in row 22. Worse still, her seatmate never returned to the plane after the L.A. layover. Now he’s dead and the FBI, the fake FBI, and guns-for-hire are all looking for a photograph the dead man was supposed to be carrying.

Only one other person has seen the missing photograph—Stephanie Plum. Now she’s the target, and she doesn’t intend to end up in a garbage can. Over at the Bail Bonds Agency it’s business as usual—until the bonds bus serving as Vinnie’s temporary HQ goes up in smoke, Stephanie’s wheelman, Lula, falls in love with their “largest” FTA yet, lifetime arch nemesis Joyce Barnhardt moves into Stephanie’s apartment, and everyone wants to know what happened in Hawaii?! All Stephanie is willing to say about her Hawaiian vacation is . . . It’s complicated. (description from Goodreads.com)

I had forgotten how much this series made me laugh.  Listening as everyone tried to drag the tale about Hawaii out of Stephanie and then finally hearing the tale, bit by bit, as Stephanie recounts how exactly things went down...So good. I love the strange balance she struggles to keep in her personal *and* professional lives with Joe and Ranger. 

Notorious Nineteen 

by Janet Evanovich 

Stephanie Plum series, book nineteen 

New Jersey bounty hunter Stephanie Plum is certain of three truths: People don’t just vanish into thin air. Never anger old people. And don’t do what Tiki tells you to do.

After a slow summer of chasing low-level skips for her cousin Vinnie’s bail bonds agency, Stephanie Plum finally lands an assignment that could put her checkbook back in the black. Geoffrey Cubbin, facing trial for embezzling millions from Trenton’s premier assisted-living facility, has mysteriously vanished from the hospital after an emergency appendectomy. Now it’s on Stephanie to track down the con man. 

Desperate for money—or maybe just desperate—Stephanie accepts a secondary job guarding her secretive and mouthwatering mentor Ranger from a deadly Special Forces adversary. While Stephanie is notorious for finding trouble, she may have found a little more than she bargained for this time around. (description from Goodreads.com)

Oooh. The baddies in this one were just plain creepy!  A "Yeti," a special forces freak-show hunting Stephanie down...and a Tiki "influencing" people into doing things they just shouldn't do... This one was very entertaining and like Stephanie, for a solid minute, I really thought perhaps she should just quit her job! Thank goodness that she always manages to escape just by the skin of her teeth. 

Takedown Twenty 

by Janet Evanovich 

Stephanie Plum series, book twenty

When powerful mobster Salvatore “Uncle Sunny” Sunucchi goes on the lam in Trenton, it’s up to Stephanie to find him. Nobody wants to turn him in—not his poker buddies, not his bimbo girlfriend, not his two right-hand men, Shorty and Moe. Even Joe's old-world grandmother, Bella, is doing everything she can to throw Stephanie off the trail. It’s not just Uncle Sunny giving Stephanie the run-around. Before Stephanie knows it, she’s working side by side with Ranger and Grandma at the senior center, trying to catch a killer on the loose—and the bingo balls are not rolling in their favor.

With bullet holes in her car, henchmen on her tail, and a giraffe named Kevin running wild in the streets of Trenton, Stephanie will have to up her game for the ultimate takedown. (description from Goodreads.com) 

Can I just say that I spent the majority of this book solely focused on Kevin. A GIRAFFE running around Trenton, New Jersey?!  Janet Evanovich you just made my reading YEAR. Love.  This was spectacularly funny and I know I have a little bit of a bias here (read that as a huge bias based on my love of giraffes) but I cannot wait to see where the bounty hunting hijinks take Stephanie Plum next. I don't think I'll ever get tired of this series. 

Full disclosure: All audio books borrowed from my Library.