174 of 198 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Status Quo, June 22, 2007
Accident prone Bounty Hunter, Stephanie Plum, is the number one suspect in her ex-husband's disappearance; mainly because she attacked him in his office, again. While helping Ranger search for Dickie (the ex) she has three 'skips' to find for the bond office. Lula is along for the ride when the usual zany antics 'explode' and make the fugitive apprehensions, less than smooth.
I titled this review as Status Quo, because nothing really happens. There is no character development; same old, same old. While looking for the ex had the potential to be really comical and a different spin on the Plum series, the few laughs I had in this book were all similar to the laughs I have had in the previous books; nothing terribly original.
As far as the Ranger, Stephanie and Morelli love triangle, while I once enjoyed this part of the series, it is getting a little old. How long will Stephanie continue to make out with Ranger while professing her love to Joe? This dishonesty is really bothering me.
With the previous books in the series, I flew through them in a day, pausing only to dry my eyes when my laughing had watered them. With this book it took me a couple of days of reading, I could set it down and pick it up, not really worrying about what was going to happen next. I think something's got to give in the next book, something to shake things up and get this series back on track. It's a good read, but far from the great read I am used to in this series.
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35 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Cherise said it all--or most of it ****SPOILERS****, June 22, 2007
The book does open with an interesting twist. Ranger wants Stephanie to go see her ex-husband, Dickie Orr--whose name really fits him, if you know what I mean. Ranger's job for Steph is to place a bug on her ex-cheating-spouse. Naturally, things don't go well and Stephanie ends up trying to choke Dickie.
The next day, Dickie ends up missing and presumed dead. Three guesses and the first two don't count as to who the police's number one suspect for the murder is.
Plus, Joyce Barnhart, her arch enemy, is in the picture. Seems Joyce and Dickie were 'cosy' again and he had some serious money, which he was going to leave Joyce in his will. Joyce figures Stephanie is going to be the one to find Dickie--probably her radar for trouble, I guess.
From there, the book was pretty much the same. Bungling Bounty Hunter Steph gets assigned half a dozen skips to bring in--she only manages to arrest one and that's because she worked out a housesitting deal. Failed FTA (failure to appear) takedowns are getting less funny. At some point, even Stephanie's got to learn her craft or give up.
That's probably my biggest bone to pick with the series. There is zero character development on Steph's part. She's still the worst bounty hunter ever known, she's still in a three-way with Joe and Ranger and can't decide. Well, and the fact that Joe and Ranger seem to wait almost endlessly for her? Okay, she's hot--but bailing some hot chick out of the same mistakes has got to get old even for them.
One bright spot is that Lula may have a man. Least I hope so. While her wardrobe hasn't changed, I think Lula at least has somewhat grown from her first appearance as a 'ho in the novels.
Oh yes, there are plenty of laughs, I wouldn't read Steph at all if she didn't still amuse me. But, this time, I didn't invest in the book on the first day of issue to pass along--I borrowed a copy from a friend and waited to get it. It's past time for Steph to step to the plate, make a decision about her man and her career and do something different to amuse us.
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31 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Commitophobia, June 29, 2007
I have read 1-12 too many times to count. I've forced these stories on friends, loved ones, strangers and my massage therapist. The first twelve books made me laugh aloud (and lust silently... gosh, at least I hope I was pretty quite ;-). I've pondered the Joe/Ranger/Ranger/Joe possibilities more times than would be considered healthy considering they are both fictional men. But this time, no, 13 just didn't work. Thirteen just doesn't have the same spark, style, or charm.
I knew exactly when Janet E. lost me on this one and it was early on (and I've dated more than half my life, I know early isn't a good time to lose the love). Lula was bemoaning the snake, and worried she might wet her pants and Stephanie said "too much information". Stephanie has a grandmother who talks about penises real, fake, and dead, metamucil and the big "D", so urination information is nada on the Stephanie Plum information scale! Stephanie has said it a time or two herself! It's like we're losing our Stephanie right then and there. This was a fake line, an attempt at something but I don't know what, and I don't know why Janet's editor didn't call foul but that's another review altogether... I think Janet just phoned this installment in!
Losing the Stephanie was bad, but it got worse. Now that I'm almost finished with 13 I believe that the real problem is Stephanie can't commit, and Janet can't either. They have the same issue: Commitophobia. I know the signs, because I've fot a bad case myself. I can remain commitophobic, it works for me, and it has twelve times now worked for Stephanie. It worked, though, because she, and the reader, felt truly torn. Now she just seems ambivalent about both situations but not passionate about either, much less both!. She can't commit because neither situation is so compelling that she wants it more than anything. And Janet is in the same position! She doesn't want to choose because she wants us to love both men and feel torn. But how can we feel torn when Stephanie doesn't really? She knows they both want her, she knows she can have either, and yet, she doesn't choose. And the men don't choose either, and I think real men would choose to hasta la vista at this point.
It comes to this: WE don't care that much because THEY (Janet & Stephanie) don't care that much! Janet Evanovich's job is to make us care, want, crave, hope, laugh, and wonder. She is here to supply us with the soul-wrenching-heart-spinning-dizzy-can't-think-can't-eat-can't-tie-your-tennis-shoes kind of feeling. Instead, we're all in a non-committal but familiar relationship together. Oh great. Maybe I can date my high school boyfriend again while I'm at it. Or marry a dentist (oh wait... my HS boyfriend IS a dentist now and while free dental would sure be nice...) Hello!!!. At a point, as a writer, you have to choose a path, and Janet hasn't; she is trying to keep us all perky with Ranger and Joe, and that did work when Stephanie truly seemed to want Joe terribly and Ranger was a taste treat delight, but now both Stephanie and Janet seem rather bored with Joe who is starting to seem wimpy and Ranger/Batman seems about as dangerous as Joe. What's next? They divy up the duties about who does Steph's laundry?
Now maybe Janet's trying to segue into the Ranger as stable guy thing, but c'mon if we wanted a stable guy, we wouldn't want Ranger. We'd want my ex-boyfriend the dentist. Ranger is so hot because he's the dessert we shouldn't have, not the healthy alternative with only 3 grams of fat. If you're going with the healthy alternative, why not take Joe, at least he's got Bob, AND Joe's hot, or he was till he became wimpy. So then maybe we should just take the free dental. I don't know. See, that's why I'm uncommitted. But Janet and Stephanie can't just stay in limbo, and they can't just go with Ranger because his life is nicer, that's not the way romantic comedies work.
So Janet is stuck.
And now she's left us stuck too. Janet is like the guy who's stringing us along, telling us he only needs 'time and space' and then he'll commit. Yeah, right. And I'm Dorothy in ruby slippers. Janet and Stephanie need to make us CARE and WANT again, and how to do that, well, that's their problem, but I can tell you from experience, it's not going to happen riding the fence between two equally delicious flavors. How to get Stephanie out of her malaise, and us out of ours? Well, Janet is going to have to make a commitment. And so is Stephanie. Just my opinion, but it's easy for me to say since I can still read 1-13 and have Ranger AND Joe!
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