Publisher St. Martin’s Press
Date published June 2008
ISBN 978-0-312-34951-6
Mystery
Hardcover
Reviewed by Tammy
Trenton, New Jersey’s favorite bounty hunter, Stephanie Plum, is back with another wacky look at life and love in the Burg in Janet Evanovich’s feisty FEARLESS FOURTEEN.
When yet another bad apple on the Morelli family tree, Dom Rizzi, Joe’s cousin, is paroled after doing his time for robbing a bank, Joe’s basement is being broken into and dead bodies are piling up. Then Dom’s sister Loretta misses a court date and ends up on Stephanie’s list of skips before getting herself kidnapped and leaving her son in Steph’s temporary care. Hidden millions, a monkey named Carl, a bodyguard assignment, a stalker and a surprise engagement keep the laughs coming as Stephanie and friends plod their way through another day in the wonderfully wacky world of Jersey’s own Stephanie Plum, bounty hunter.
Like all the Plum books, FEARLESS FOURTEEN, is just another day at work for Jersey’s most famous bounty hunter, Stephanie Plum, if just another day means having severed toes in your freezer, discovering yet another dead body, stalkers guarding your boyfriend’s house with potato guns and a surprise engagement complete with a passed out mercenary.
On the plus side, FEARLESS FOURTEEN had this reader laughing out loud often while reading Stephanie’s latest adventure. And it was nice to see some personal growth in Stephanie, as her relationship with Trenton cop and boyfriend Joe Morelli appears to be on firmer ground. Sure, there were several cut and paste portions of this book from previous books. But when you need to give the same background information in fourteen books, there are only so many ways you can relate that same information, so this reader can forgive this little bit of repetition.
On the negative side, FEARLESS FOURTEEN felt sort of Plum-lite in a sense. It just didn’t have the punch that we come to expect from a Plum novel. Perhaps a big reason for this seamless lack was the oh so short and way too professional appearance of Ranger Manoso, Stephanie’s sometime love interest, occasional boss, mentor and man of mystery. In this reader’s opinion, what makes the Plum books so incredibly popular is not just the wacky adventures Stephanie finds herself in, but the incredible way Evanovich manages to balance the two sexy alpha men in Stephanie’s life, Ranger and Joe, so that at the end of each book fans are left cheering for both men almost equally. The books that this reader enjoyed the most in this series are the ones where both men got equal time and attention on the personal front from Stephanie. That is not the case in this book and this reader believes this unbalance is what has led to so much reader dissatisfaction associated with FEARLESS FOURTEEN. Though Evanovich only generally releases one Plum book each year, perhaps it would serve this talented author better if she were to skip with the rewrites of her earlier works and the in between number books and concentrate more on finding a balance that showcases the men in Stephanie’s life alongside of whatever wacky caper she happens to be involved with for book fifteen. Just a suggestion, but one that this reader feels strongly Ms. Evanovich should give some serious thought to.
If you are a fan of Ms. Evanovich’s Plum mystery series or just want to find out what all the fuss is about, her latest installment, FEARLESS FOURTEEN, will prove to be an enjoyable and fairly quick read. But maybe, just maybe, you might want to wait for the paperback version to come out or pick up a copy at your local library and save the steeper expense of a hardcover book for something that stands out from the pack just a little bit more.
Date published June 2008
ISBN 978-0-312-34951-6
Mystery
Hardcover
Reviewed by Tammy
Trenton, New Jersey’s favorite bounty hunter, Stephanie Plum, is back with another wacky look at life and love in the Burg in Janet Evanovich’s feisty FEARLESS FOURTEEN.
When yet another bad apple on the Morelli family tree, Dom Rizzi, Joe’s cousin, is paroled after doing his time for robbing a bank, Joe’s basement is being broken into and dead bodies are piling up. Then Dom’s sister Loretta misses a court date and ends up on Stephanie’s list of skips before getting herself kidnapped and leaving her son in Steph’s temporary care. Hidden millions, a monkey named Carl, a bodyguard assignment, a stalker and a surprise engagement keep the laughs coming as Stephanie and friends plod their way through another day in the wonderfully wacky world of Jersey’s own Stephanie Plum, bounty hunter.
Like all the Plum books, FEARLESS FOURTEEN, is just another day at work for Jersey’s most famous bounty hunter, Stephanie Plum, if just another day means having severed toes in your freezer, discovering yet another dead body, stalkers guarding your boyfriend’s house with potato guns and a surprise engagement complete with a passed out mercenary.
On the plus side, FEARLESS FOURTEEN had this reader laughing out loud often while reading Stephanie’s latest adventure. And it was nice to see some personal growth in Stephanie, as her relationship with Trenton cop and boyfriend Joe Morelli appears to be on firmer ground. Sure, there were several cut and paste portions of this book from previous books. But when you need to give the same background information in fourteen books, there are only so many ways you can relate that same information, so this reader can forgive this little bit of repetition.
On the negative side, FEARLESS FOURTEEN felt sort of Plum-lite in a sense. It just didn’t have the punch that we come to expect from a Plum novel. Perhaps a big reason for this seamless lack was the oh so short and way too professional appearance of Ranger Manoso, Stephanie’s sometime love interest, occasional boss, mentor and man of mystery. In this reader’s opinion, what makes the Plum books so incredibly popular is not just the wacky adventures Stephanie finds herself in, but the incredible way Evanovich manages to balance the two sexy alpha men in Stephanie’s life, Ranger and Joe, so that at the end of each book fans are left cheering for both men almost equally. The books that this reader enjoyed the most in this series are the ones where both men got equal time and attention on the personal front from Stephanie. That is not the case in this book and this reader believes this unbalance is what has led to so much reader dissatisfaction associated with FEARLESS FOURTEEN. Though Evanovich only generally releases one Plum book each year, perhaps it would serve this talented author better if she were to skip with the rewrites of her earlier works and the in between number books and concentrate more on finding a balance that showcases the men in Stephanie’s life alongside of whatever wacky caper she happens to be involved with for book fifteen. Just a suggestion, but one that this reader feels strongly Ms. Evanovich should give some serious thought to.
If you are a fan of Ms. Evanovich’s Plum mystery series or just want to find out what all the fuss is about, her latest installment, FEARLESS FOURTEEN, will prove to be an enjoyable and fairly quick read. But maybe, just maybe, you might want to wait for the paperback version to come out or pick up a copy at your local library and save the steeper expense of a hardcover book for something that stands out from the pack just a little bit more.
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