I discovered Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series when the eighth book ‘’Hard Eight’’ was released in paperback. I read book eight and nine and then went out and bought books 1-7 to catch up on the series. The books can be read out of order but they’re more fun if you start at the very beginning.With the release of Janet Evanovich’s 14th book, I was really excited. I loved books 12 and 13 and I was hoping for more Ranger in this story. I know some people like Joe Morelli but for some reason in my opinion his character is kind of bland and boring. Ranger is much sexier and openly flirts with Stephanie all the time. Morelli just doesn’t do it for me.
So when I read on B&N’s forum during a discussion with Janet Evanovich on there that she considers this ‘’Morelli’s Book’’ I was dissapointed. She said that she likes to alternate one book for Morelli, one for Ranger, and back and forth. So does this mean I will only read every other book, only the ones that feature Ranger? No but I just wish Ranger was in every book more. This book was definetely more of a Morelli book with Ranger only having a tiny part in it.
After reading the cover flap, this sounded like a book that involved bank robberies and lots of excitement. Well the robbery already happened and doesn’t play out in the book so there goes that. There is some action but it takes a while for it to happen. The print is large in this book, like all the Plum books are. There are blank pages inbetween chapters making the book even shorter. So even though the book is 310 pages if you take out the blank pages and made this normal sized font, I would say this book is 250 pages at the most. It retails for $27.95 in hardcover which is a lot of money for such a short book. I paid $16 and kind of wish I’d waited for it to land on the discount table for cheaper.
Well I enjoyed this book. This isn’t an official review since I just read this for my own enjoyment so I am just giving my opinion on it. There are funny parts that actually made me laugh but I just didn’t think this one is as good as book 12 or 13. I will be happy when Ranger’s book comes out next year and I am guessing it will be a lot better then this one.
Overall I would grade this book a C+. There is barely any romance and the mystery isn’t that exciting and there’s not much suspense. So that is why a C+.
This series was amazing to me when I first discovered it but I hadn’t read as many books back then as I have now. Now that I have discovered authors like Jackie Kessler (who is now my favorite author), how can I sit here and say Evanovich’s is great? It’s not. The series is a fun thing to discover if you’ve never read her but after 14 books, I am getting dissapointed. There isn’t any big shakeups in the love triangle, and nothing ever changes. So if you are looking for tons of Ranger, you might be dissapointed with this one. There are funny moments so if I were you I’d borrow it from the library or try to get it cheap from Costco or Walmart.
UPDATE:
Janet Evanovich was on B&N.com on the message board to answer fans questions last week. It's rather ''interesting''. LOL Some people got very testy with her. Check it out. You have to read pages 8, 9 and 10 on the forum. OMG the fans went crazy on her! I just got done reading those pages. Too funny. I feel bad though because she hardly ever does chats online and now she won't want to ever again.
Dang. I really like Ranger. Maybe 15 will finally be a Ranger book, because he wasn't around much in 13 either.
ReplyDeleteI can't remember what book had tons of Ranger.. Was it book 12? My copy is buried on my bookshelves behind like a million other books so I cant get to it to look. :(
ReplyDeleteI love Ranger too. I think Evanovich writes his character better so of course we're gonna like him more. Morelli is so boring and does absolutely nothing for me. I dont get it.
I really, really hated this book. I thought it was boring and poorly executied, and I'm with you that wasting pages (and trees!) to bulk up the product (and the price) is just rude. Either do your job or make way for someone who will, you know? Evanovich said in an interview in April that she was nervous about the reception of this book. Now we know why.
ReplyDeleteMust. Not. Read. This. Post. Am halfway through the book and will type up my thoughts tomorrow and then read this one. I'm not feeling this one though. I've got a LONG post planned already. I cannot imagine how much editing I'm gonna have to do after I finish this thing.....
ReplyDeleteBe back once I've typed up mine :)
Doesn't it suck to look forward to a book and have it be a real stinker? I didn't like Fearless Fourteen at all. No Ranger is not a good thing and judging by the reviews and blogs we're not alone. JowBlow is boring!The book was boring. I'm really feeling let down.
ReplyDeleteI haven't followed this series, but you all seem to have the same opinion. I'm surprised because I thought the series was generally well loved. Thanks for the heads-up Rachael....if I ever get around to it I'll have to try every other book. :)
ReplyDeleteCharity dont worry, there's no spoilers you can read the post! :) I didnt summarize it or give anything away.
ReplyDeleteI didnt HATE this book but I was dissapointed. It took me 3 days to read it, that's how you know it's not that good. Usually I read these books in one day.
Have you guys seen the Evanovich interview on B&N.com? There's this one part where she says ''Less is more'' and a fan went balistic! LOL I am going to try to find the link to it. She answered sporadically and just in one sentence answers. Some fans said dont you think we deserve a shake up or SOMETHING to happen already, and she completely avoided their questions after that.
I put the link up for it on the bottom of the My Thoughts on Fearless Fourteen page.
ReplyDeleteHi Rachel,
ReplyDeleteYes, I followed the BN centerstage with Janet. I was a little surprised with her attitude in a couple of places. Here's my bit gripe. They really manipulated the Ranger fans with the excerpts and the book cover copy. I'm feeling grumpy about that. LOL
Hi Geo
ReplyDeleteI just double checked my book flap summary to see what you mean. I try not to read excerpts or summaries before reading the book because of possible spoilers. I do see the part on the back cover flap where it mentions Stephanie having to do a job for Ranger and it sounds like something serious. Yea that's funny since it wasn't really. The cover flap does make it sound really exciting. I love anything with bank robberies and thought we would see that play out, but nope. I wonder if she will not write a ''Ranger book'' now just to be spiteful. LOL
Oh and about Evanovich's attitude on the forum, omg yes I saw that too. She threatened to sue her fans if they bought an ARC of the book on Ebay. She said there were only 15 review copies and anyone else got theirs illegally. I know it is hard to get one of her books since I review for 3 sites and none of them offered a copy. She was kind of nasty to her fans.
ReplyDeleteI was just reading the B&N thread and whoah! that's crazy, lol.
ReplyDeleteI've never read any of her books but I don't think I'm gonna be reading this one anytime soon. The one you sent me was the first one right? When I read it, if I like it, I'll probably read more of her stuff.
I dont want to turn you off to her books now Wendy! :( They really are fun books, especially the start of the series was great. We're just frustrated because nothing ever changes in the series after 14 books. It's the same thing and they're fun and all but all her fans want a shake up in the story already.
ReplyDeleteYes the one I sent you is book one.
ReplyDeleteI went back and reread the Centerstage posts and I'm irritated with her remark about 15 being a Ranger book. I think it's real manipulative and witchy on her part. There seem to be a lot of people who agree with us. Did you see the reviews at Amazon? She's getting slammed and that's a first. Joe's not the most interesting guy. Kind of boring and a book about him is just that, boring.
ReplyDeleteHi Geo
ReplyDeleteThanks, I just read through those reviews on Amazon. Do you think she's saying 15 is a Ranger book so people will stick with the series? I think she has lost millions of fans with this last book. I just read on Amazon that she has a page count at 300 pages. So if you count the 30 or so blank pages in between chapters, large font and big margins, I bet it wouldnt be 300 pages. They should do a word count instead. Don't you think there should be some kind of rule that a hardcover book that is $27 HAS to be at least so many words? You know?
Hi Rachel,
ReplyDeleteI do think she's talking out of her hiney. I think she was caught off guard with the fan opinion on this. I read on a blog somewhere that there have been polls at the signings where they're asking which man is preferred, Ranger or Morelli. Isn't that odd? Who knows. I started reading the 5 star comments and some of them are pretty funny. They're more reviews of the negative reviews than they are actual positive reviews of the book. LOL. Amazon and BN have the book at 320 pages. Makes you wonder what happened to the missing ten. How bad were they? St. Martins must be having a cow since the print run was 2million and they've got a fan revolution happening. LOL
Hey Liz,
ReplyDeleteDo you happen to know what her minimum word count would have been?
Thanks,
Joanna
Geo her minimum is 300 pages. That's why the font is so big probably and that's also why there's blank pages inbetween chapters. She counted those pages as part of the 300 which isnt fair to us. There's about 25 pages right there that were blank.
ReplyDeleteI tried to leave a comment yesterday and it was, like, novel length, dude! And I hit submit and stupid blogger ate it and laughed as it told me Blogger was down!
ReplyDeleteAnyhoo, in short, it said that I read your review right after posting mine (and yeah, I cheated and skimmed it) but I was loving how our thoughts were so close. That whole blank page thing got my blood to boiling. I think I was just so mad about being disappointed by the book that I was ready to be mad at anything, though.
And as far as the Ranger/Joe book thing. I've never noticed how she does that. With the exception on 12, I don't think we've actually had a Ranger book.
And while I don't read them for the Ranger/Joe love thing, I still feel betrayed on them playing the Ranger fans that DO read them for that, with the BCC.
I'm gonna see if I can find an e-mail link for you, because I have an idea I want to run past you... If I can't find one, e-mail me at novelreads at gmail dot com
Hi Charity
ReplyDeleteThat's funny how we thought the same things. Alot of people were ticked by the blank pages I noticed. I read on your blog about Evanovich supposedly not finishing this book. That is insane.