Review - Hard Eight and To the Nines

Title: Hard Eight
Author: Janet Evanovich
Publishing Date:
Genre: Mystery
Rating: B+
Sensuality: Warm

My dear sweet friend Dana, who works at a Barnes & Noble in southern Florida was kind enough to send me a box of books. In it were several of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum books. Seeing as I have been in a reading slump these past few weeks, Stephanie and the gang were looking rather darn appealing. Evanovich has a great thing going with this series and it was fun reading about Stephanie's penchent for finding herself in the midst of trouble.

This time Stephanie is looking for Evelyn Sodor who has run off with her little girl. Evelyn's Grandmother and her ex-husband are looking for her. Stephanie suspects there is more going on than meets the eye when she runs into Eddie Abruzzi, who all but threatens her to mind her own business. Of course Stephanie is never one to shy away from a case.


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Stephanie and Joe are on a break in this story and Ranger calls in his marker. I'll tell you straight up, I am a Joe girl, myself. It is obvious to me that Joe and Stephanie love each other even though they can't seem to work out their differences. So when Ranger called in his marker and Stephanie and he had sex, I was actually surprised. For some reason I didn't think that they would ever do it. Then, to top it all off after all the sexual tension and leading up to the big event - it was so uneventful. I mean it was like wham, bam... see ya, Babe. I was expecting there to be fireworks and well... maybe a few more details than I was given in the bedroom. I mean, jeez - three's a crowd? I guess it didn't seem in keeping with the way the rest of the books flowed. But I do think it was necessary for Stephanie to explore her interest in Ranger, otherwise wouldn't she always wonder? Plus, THEY WERE ON A BREAK (I am channeling Ross from Friends).




Title: To the Nines
Author: Janet Evanovich
Publishing Date:
Genre: Mystery
Rating: A
Sensuality: Warm

In To the Nines Stephanie is investigating a missing man, Samuel Singh who is in America on a temporary visa. Stephanie quickly discovers that there is fowl play involved and she becomes a target in a sociopaths game of murder. Ranger and Joe team up to protect Stephanie from this creep. Meanwhile the case takes Stephanie and Lula to the Vegas strip and more mayhem and hi jinks ensue.

Aside from Four to Score, which had my favorite secondary character, the cross dresser Sally Sweet, I think To the Nines is her best yet. The mystery part of the book was very tight and extremely well executed. I figured out who the killer was, but the suspension was still gripping. There was an urgency to Stephanie's situation and I felt like something bad could really happen.

The laughs were just a good, if not better. Lula has some shining moments in this book. She was dieting to be "supermodel thin" and there were some hilarious scenes with her and a pork chop, or her and a rotisserie chicken. There is also a really fun scene when she is in Vegas at a Wayne Newton concert. It is really priceless. As I was reading it, I couldn't help but laugh out loud at some of the antics.