Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Review - Hot Six and Seven Up




Title: Hot Six
Author: Janet Evanovich
Publishing Date: 2000
Genre: Mystery
Rating: B+
Sensuality: Kisses

Hot Six is book six of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum bounty hunter series. In this book Stephanie teams up with vice-cop/boyfriend Joe to find Ranger. Ranger was Stephanie's mentor when she first started her bounty hunter job. Now she is trying to find him and clear his name because he is the number one murder suspect in the death of a local gun runner. Stephanie has more problems than just finding Ranger, though. Her Grandmother has moved in with her and if that's not enough, she has a couple of goons following her around.

After the huge cliff-hanger that ended book five, thank God book six was already published and I could start reading it right away. I don't know how fans would have lasted a year between books. I would have been so mad if I would have had to wait. Anyway, on the review. Basically, this one is more of the same from Stephanie and the gang. This time readers are introduced to Mooner and Dougie, two stoners who went to school with Stephanie. She also gets stuck with Bob, the dog. There were some pretty funny scenes involving Bob. Grandma was in rare form too. I have to say, Hot Six was another solid read.




Title: Seven Up
Author: Janet Evanovich
Publishing Date: 2001
Genre: Mystery
Rating: B
Sensuality: Kisses

Seven Up starts about a month after Hot Six ended. Stephanie is on the case to bring Eddie DeChooch in after he skipped bail for trafficking stolen cigarettes. Eddie turns out to not be such an easy catch. He keeps just one step ahead of her, even though he's her Grandmother's age. He a crazy old coot and Stephanie is getting tired of him shooting at her. Dougie and Mooner go missing and Stephanie knows that something else is going on. Valerie, Stephanie's sister come to the Burg for a visit.

I am beginning to see a pattern developing. Each book in the series has a self contained mystery. A new character or two to add to the zany chaos that always surrounds Stephanie and then the book ends at a big cliff-hanger regarding Stephanie's love life. While I do enjoy the silliness and crazy antics of Stephanie and the gang, it might not be such a good idea to read four of the books back to back. Grandma and Bob, the dog are still cracking me up. There were some pretty funny parts in this book, typical of Evanovich's style. Stephanie's relationship with Ranger and Joe is starting to get complicated and I can see why fans want some sort of closure. Now it looks like it is going to get messy and again the book ended on a big cliff-hanger. I am going to wait at least a week before I start on book eight.

4 comments:

Kristie (J) said...

I love these books to pieces and pieces - but I agree - they are probably best enjoyed with other books in between them to break up the sameness.
And I am getting such a laugh at work. They are making the rounds amongst six people at work right now (and I started them all on them *g*) and log jams are beginning to form. I have One for the Money which one person is reading. I also have a three in one book of the first 3 books. One person has the single book and another the 3 in 1. But the person who has the 3 in 1 wants to switch books with the person who has just the one because she is going on a cruise soon and doesn't want to take the bigger sized book - makes her luggage too heavy as it is a hard cover. So they are working on a switch. Also - 3 people are bunched at up at Seven-Up now and there is a mad scramble to exchange books due to the different speeds at which they are all reading them.

nath said...

I think the beginning of the series was highly enjoyable. However, I stopped at 9... I mean, the love triangle relationship between Joe, Ranger and Stephanie just killed it for me. Especially since I'm rooting for Joe... Seriously, what is Stephanie thinking? The choice is like obvious to me ^_^;

That and the fact that the books were getting redundant and darker. Hope you keep enjoying them :)

Jill D. said...

Kristie, That is so awesome that you got so many people interested in those books. You go girl! I haven't started eight yet. I am going to wait until next month.

Nath, LOL, I think it is so obvious Steph needs to be with Joe too. We shall see about the rest of the books. I am going to wait a little while before I read the next one. I don't want to burn out!

Kristie (J) said...

*grin* Just yesterday everyone got the books straightened out. The two copies of One for the Money were exchanged and the faster reader skipped ahead. At lunch yesterday two of them were sitting across the table from me - next to each other - one reading Seven Up, the other reading Hot Six. Made me happy I tell you :)