Sizzling Sixteen/Smokin' Seventeen

I placed these two together because I read Sizzling Sixteen last year, but wanted to read it again before diving into Smokin' Seventeen, the latest Stephanie Plum novel from Janet Evanovich.  Of course, I loved Sizzling Sixteen, and Smokin' Seventeen did not disappoint!  I love love love this series.  SPOILER ALERT!!  Don't read further if you don't want to know some general things that happen in this book!

For readers of the Stephanie Plum novels, Smokin' Seventeen is definitely smokin'.  Stephanie's place of employment is undergoing construction, since in the previous novel it burned to the ground.  So the bail bonds office is being run out of an RV owned my Mooner.  Lula & Stephanie are off on numerous hilarious adventures to capture skips and try to bring home the bacon.  Grandma Mazur is up to her usual coffin lid lifting tricks, and Vinnie is his weasely self.  All the while, Stephanie is trying to sort things out in her love life.  She and her long time on again off again boyfriend Joe Morrelli are in a strange arrangement that Stephanie gets more and more comfortable with, as she delves into her attraction to Ranger.  For fans of the tension between Morrelli & Stephanie and Ranger & Stephanie, this book does not disappoint.  However, I think the "Babes" out there will enjoy this one a little more than the "Cupcakes"!

This book did make me a little uncomfortable with where Janet Evanovich took Stephanie's character.  It was sort of a little icky how easily Stephanie when from one man to the other, and something that Stephanie was never able to do before.  This time she does it with seemingly little guilt.  That was not quite true to character for Stephanie.  But as a "Babe" myself, I have to admit that I thoroughly enjoyed Stephanie's guilt free escapades.  And although Janet Evanovich claims that she has no intention of wrapping up this series ( at the thought!!), this felt like it was a prelude to an ending.  It felt like this was a novel that would set the stage for the beginning of the end.  Combine that with the fact that the eighteenth novel in the series comes out this fall, rather than the typical late June release date, and this reader is shaking in her purple pumps that the series might end soon.

For fans of Janet Evanovich and Stephanie Plum this is a MUST read.  Not the funniest, but one that furthers Stephanie's relationships a bit and certainly has plenty of action in it.

Happy Reading!

Cold Service

Cold Service is one of Robert B. Parker's Spenser novels.  This is the first book that I have read of Robert B. Parker's so I was not up on the series.  The novel worked okay as a stand alone, but I probably would have enjoyed it more if I had read the previous novels in the series.

Spenser is a private detective, who owns his own business.  In this novel, his best friend, Hawk, is exacting revenge on some bad people who almost killed him, and did kill someone who was under his protection.  Spenser always has his best friend's back, so they go about their investigation and revenge plot together.  There is plenty of action, but the revenge plot is not well explained.  It is a complicated plot, and rather than tell the reader about it, the details of the plan are glossed over and the novel is wrapped up quite quickly and succinctly.  I kept thinking that maybe I had missed something, but I went back through the book and I hadn't missed anything.  The author just chose not to include those details.  Personally, I felt those details would have further the story a little more smoothly.

For action and suspense, the novel works.  I just wish the author had given me a little more detail.  The relationships between the characters work as well, although there is a language between Spenser and Hawk that is so personal, I felt left out.  That being said, Parker is able to deliver a magnitude of feeling with just a few words and the reader is quite aware of the bond between these two men.  Maybe long time readers of the series would understand their language better than I did.  I would only recommend this one if you are a fan of Robert B. Parker, and have read the other novels in this series.

Happy Reading!