Monday, June 27, 2011

"Smokin' Seventeen" by Janet Evanovich

308 pages

As usual, things are a bit wacky in bounty hunter Stephanie Plum's life. The bail bonds office has recently burned to the ground, so Stephanie and the rest of the crew are working out of a motor home that they share with a dancing bear (long story, of course). After Morelli's crazy grandmother puts a curse on her, Stephanie decides it's time to choose between Morelli and Ranger. To make things more complicated, a man from Stephanie's past moves back to Trenton. Even worse, bodies "addressed" to Stephanie start showing up, and she has a feeling that the killer is someone way too close to home for her taste. It's a crazy situation that only Stephanie Plum could get into.

I get a few laughs from Stephanie, her friends, and their bizarre adventures, but it seems like each book is the same story. Each time I finish one, I think I won't read the next, but somehow I always do. I'm pretty sure I keep coming back because of the characters. I love Stephanie's narration and that she's goofy, fun, and doesn't have it all together--that's refreshing. Grandma and Lula are pretty stereotypical, but I love them anyway. Also, I hang on because I want to see whether Stephanie ultimately chooses Morelli or Ranger. The bottom line is that this series isn't great literature, or even good mysteries (in this one, especially, it's extremely easy to figure out who the killer is), but they're good for light "fluff" reading if you don't mind a lot of wackiness.

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