Summary: RECIPE FOR DISASTER - Celebrity chef Stanley Chipotle comes to Trenton to participate in a barbecue cook-off and loses his head—literally.THROW IN SOME SPICE - Bail bonds office worker Lula is witness to the crime, and the only one she’ll talk to is Trenton cop Joe Morelli.
PUMP UP THE HEAT - The reward for capturing Chipotle’s killers: One million dollars.
STIR THE POT - Lula recruits bounty hunter Stephanie Plum to help her find the killers and collect the moolah.
ADD A SECRET INGREDIENT - Stephanie’s Grandma Mazure. Enough said.
BRING TO A BOIL - Stephanie’s working overtime tracking felons for the bonds office at night and snooping for security expert Carlos Manoso, aka Ranger, during the day. Can she hunt down two killers, a traitor, and five skips, keep her grandmother out of the sauce, and solve Ranger’s problems and not jump his bones?
WARNING - Habanero hot. So good you’ll want seconds.
Review: There are mixed reviews of this book floating around out there which is why it took a year for this book to find itself on top of my To Be Read pile. Was I blown away by it? No, but frankly, I wasn't expecting to be. I picked it up for a nice light read with a good dose of humor, and that's exactly what I got.
I know Julie is sick or Stephanie never being able to make up her mind when it comes to the men in her life, but it doesn't bother me all that much. I think it's because I am not that invested in Stephanie as a character anymore. She's just a caricature. This wasn't always the case and I'm wondering when it happened (Was it the horrid 'between-the-numbers' books that divested my interest? I know it happened somewhere around book 12...) The series has certainly devolved a little, but not to the point of disaster.
All in all, there was nothing new in this book (cars exploded, shots were fired, Stephanie got covered in goop, FTA's were captured... eventually), but it was a good time visiting old friends, even if they are all crazy. I was laughing out loud at several points (Lula getting stuck out the window of an SUV being top on the list). It is a great summer read, as long as your not hoping for any romantic resolution...
3.5/5
It's not just that she can't make up her mind about Morelli or Ranger it's that she can't make up her mind about anything. She constantly complains but does not one thing to change her life. If she was my friend I'd tell her to @*#& or get off the pot. :)
ReplyDeleteYour review says it perfectly, although this is the one that finally convinced me I was done with the series. It's fine, but there are too many good books out there to keep reading the same story again and again and having it never end.
ReplyDeleteYour review hit the nail on the head! At this point in the game it just seems that Evanovich is recycling the same story and playing madlibs with characters and crimes. I've invested more than enough in this series, unfortunately, and won't be investing anymore.
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