Customer Reviews

To the Nines (Stephanie Plum, No. 9)

5 star:		(182)
4 star:		(52)
3 star:		(34)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

Stephanie Plum is one of my heroes. She has such a cute way about her; loves her job, doesn't really care how she looks most of the time, has a personality and looks that attract the men, and is not wonder woman! Janet Evanovich, author of "To the Nines" has created characters that have me laughing and chuckling to myself. They are so real that I can see them in my mind. I have an image of Lula, the big size ex-ho, turned bonds-woman; Ranger, the ex-Special Forces turned bond enforcement; grandma, the woman who likes wigs and is as crazy as Stephanie-wonder whom Stephanie takes after; and Morelli, the cop, Stephanie's lover. Janet Evanovich has such a wonderful imagination- I want to meet that woman.

Stephanie is in trouble again. She is working with Ranger to find Samuel Singh, a missing computer nerd who is out on bail. Vinnie, Stephanie's boss will lose money if Mr. Singh is not found. Stephanie does all the right things, she looks in all the right places, asks all the right questions, and of course, she is a marked woman. Trouble seems to find her, she is left flowers with a devious message, shot at with a dart, email messages of a dark nature left on her computer. This mystery takes her to Las Vegas and has one of the funniest scenes with Lula I have read. Lula may just be taking some of the best scenes from Stephanie- Stephanie should talk to the author about what is going on:-)

Stephanie's family seems to take front page in this mystery. Her sister Valerie, is pregnant, large as a house and eating as much as she can. He boyfriend wants to marry her, but she isn't quite ready, and Valerie's two children are all living with Stephanie's mom and dad. No one is happy about this, and the house is getting too small, especially since Grand mom lives there also. What a mess.

This novel is one of the better ones. Many readers of Janet Evanovich, complain that her books tend to follow the same format-well, they do, but each one is different and so enjoyable. Ms. Evanovich lives near my hometown- I have to meet this woman who has brought me so much enjoyment, A mystery novel that brings humor to the forefront- what more could one ask? prisrob

Anyone who has enjoyed any of the eight previous Stephanie Plum novels would be very foolish to skip this one. If you haven't read any of those, you can safely start with this one . . . but don't expect the earlier ones to be nearly this good.

Stephanie Plum, the down home city girl from the Burg in Trenton, continues in her bounty hunter job, and she takes on some pretty unusual ones in To the Nines. As Stephanie describes it, her retrievals have more to do with Lucy Ricardo from I Love Lucy than with Wonder Woman. The book opens with Stephanie and Lula, her sometimes heavyweight sidekick, trying to pick up Punky Blalog. The rest of the escapade has to be read to be believed . . . but Vaseline plays a large role. When she returns to the office, she discovers that her cousin Vinnie faces an enormous embarrassment if he cannot find and bring in one Samuel Singh, a temporary worker from India, for whom Vinnie wrote a visa bond. Vinnie sends Stephanie and her mentor (and sometimes squeeze) Ranger out to find Singh. A major plot line of the book revolves around this search which takes her to Las Vegas before the book is done.

A secondary and engrossing plot involves the mystery of who is threatening Stephanie and killing people around her after she has lunch at McDonald's. Because of the threats, Ranger or his men play bodyguard for Stephanie whenever her undercover policeman boyfriend, Joe Morelli, isn't around. In many of the novels, Stephanie goes through cars like tissue paper. In this one, the bodyguards take it on the chin . . . and just about everywhere else.

A third and happier plot involves Stephanie and Morelli becoming much closer to one another.

A fourth plot focuses on Stephanie's unmarried sister, Valerie, who is nine months pregnant and the family's desire to get Valerie married and out of her parents' house.

There's also a fine and funny story line about Lula trying different diets so she can become a super model.

On top of these interesting plots and subplots, the mystery is quite engrossing. I had no idea what was really going on until about 60 pages from the end.

On top of this, the book is filled with hilarious little scenes featuring the manic members of the Burg, including her man-crazy Grandma Mazur, Morelli's Grandmother Bella who has visions of dead women all the time, the generously endowed Connie Rossolli from Vinnie's office, and even Stephanie's mother who's having trouble coping.

The pace of this book is amazing. There's something significant happening on almost every page. The scenes intersect with each other in truly inspired ways. For example, while Stephanie is finishing up her first bounty hunting gig, she gets an emergency call from her Grandmother Mazur. And you'll never guess what the problem is. The result of that scene then cuts into a woman making off-color comments about Stephanie because she seems to have an excess of Vaseline about her. And on it goes. The laughs come almost as fast.

I was thoroughly delighted with this book . . . except for one little problem. It was totally clear who the evil doer was in the last 60 pages. The attempts at misdirection seemed strangely inept. If Ms. Evanovich had cut down that section, this book would have been the perfect Plum. As it is, I think To the Nines is my favorite Plum to date.

After you finish racing break-neck through these pages, think about where your heart's desires may be leading you in contradictory directions. Then, go do something about it!

I got to Border's at 9:10 on Tuesday to get the new Stephanie Plum and raced through it. Stephanie's cousin Vinnie has bonded
Singh and he's going to lose much money if Singh doesn't show up before his visa expires. As Stephanie tracks down leads, the people surrounding Singh turn up dead...one killed right in front of her. The search takes Steph, Lula, and Caroline to Las Vegas. Will Vegas ever be the same again? Not after a confrontation between Tom Jones and Elvis impersonators brought on by our lovely ladies and a giant pink thong!
Flowers and notes from the psycho killer follow Stephanie wherever she goes. The bodyguards that Ranger assigns to protect our heroine are dropping like flies.
There are many funny food moments as Lula consumes huge amounts of meat on her new high protein diet (animals are following her everywhere) and Stephanie's sister Valerie, 9 months pregnant, consumes everything in sight.
While Evanovich has not departed from laugh-out-loud adventure, 2 things were missing...Stephanie's vehicle did not get demolished and we did not visit the funeral home this time.
I do not read this series for the plot, although this one was
a little more intricate that most of the others. I read it for
the zany cast of characters that I have grown to love.
P.S. Ranger, come see me sometime...anytime!!!

Any mystery series writer has to walk a very fine line, continuing to work the formula that made the series a success, while adding enough novelty with each volume to keep it from reading like a formula re-run.

The problem with "To the Nines" is that it's too long on formula, too short on novelty. After nine books, Stephanie hasn't grown as a character at all. She still can't remember her bullets, still can't get a skip into cuffs and down to the station. The joke's getting old.

Don't get me wrong. I love -- repeat, ***LOVE!!!*** -- Stephanie and her entourage, especially Grandma Mazur. And the scene in "Hot Six" when the guys take off with the dog in the black Lincoln is one of ten funniest things I've ever read. But I keep waiting for Stephanie to **move**, to learn how to use cuffs and charge a stun gun and move on to bigger, more complicated, more subtle mistakes (or car explosions).

I'll continue to read Stephanie novels, regardless. But here's hoping that "Ten Big Ones" breaks some new ground. Steph, I'm rootin' for ya!!!

This is ellen in Atlanta, and can think of no better read than the world of Plum! This book is a perfect blend of sex, humor, adventure, mystery, etc. Moreso than the other 8 books. The side trip to Vegas was an added treat - This book also blends the perfect combination of sexy hunk Joe Morelli and the steamy Ranger - tag teaming to take care of Stephanie - Although the murderer is suspected early on, what a ride to the last page - Only wish Grandma Mazur was featured more - her visits to Stiva's Funeral Home are legendary and any page with her and you have to dry your eyes from the tears of laughter -
Ms. Evanovich continues to impress with her wit and perfecting Stephanie's life and adventures - Love the Yellow Escape! My brother drives one and it is a fun car and perfect for her adventures, but I have a vision of an explosion coming on - Stephanie isn't too good with cars, although with this book, Ranger's (oooh Ranger) merry men get the brunt of the damage -
If there are some and I cannot see many - who haven't read all of the Stephanie Plum books, go back and enjoy them from One for the Money on to this wonderful book - This is the best! I read this book in one day and swore to myself to stretch it out but from the first page I was laughing so hard I couldn't put it down - will never think of Winnie the Pooh again without thinking of vasoline...

TO THE NINES is another mystery adventure in the fast-paced life of Stephanie Plum, Bounty Hunter. In this story, Stephanie is living with the love of her life, Joe Morelli, but still flirting with the mysterious Ranger. Stephanie can't quite make the marriage commitment yet, but does not want to give up Morelli.

Stephanie and her co-workers, Lula and Connie take a trip to Las Vegas where they are seeking Samuel Singh, an Indian man who is in violation of his bond. They meet Elvis impersonators one evening and the next day Connie shows up with a picture of herself married to one, but she can't even remember the ceremony. Lula is on a protein diet and carries pork chops and bacon around in her purse. Dogs follow her everywhere. These Stephanie Plum stories are completely outrageous and funny.

The dark side of the book is the mystery man who sends Stephanie flowers as he constantly threatens to kill her. As usual, Stephanie's life is one wild and crazy ride.

We've read all the author's books about Trenton-based bounty hunter Plum, and had feared we were tired of them when in "Seven" and "Eight" the stories seemed weak and the humor forced. "Nines" corrects that with a real pleaser  plenty of natural humor, an almost gripping plot putting Steph in real danger, and lots of sexual tension with Ranger and Morelli. The other regulars -- Bob the dog, Grandma Mazur, Vinny, the parents, sister Valerie (and father-to-be Kloughn)  especially fellow "helper" Lulu, whose dieting efforts in the story were outrageously funny, contributed to the good humor we had come to expect from the earlier books. After an opening scene in which Stephanie captures a greased up "skipper", her hunt for a fellow named Singh, secured by a visa bond (something we learned about in ths book), caught her and Ranger in a gruesome computer fantasy game gone bad: where the losers not merely failed to proceed in the game but got killed for their sub-par efforts. Soon enough, Plum herself becomes the prize in this game of hunt or be hunted. While this series is not particularly designed to create suspense, this one rated up there close to the serial killer novels of John Sandford. Evanovich even managed to work in some subtle relationship and trust commentary regarding close colleagues of the opposite gender, involving separately both Steph and her current roommate Morelli.

So -- not just a good beach book, but Plum back in her finest with an honest to goodness whodunit, with the crazy funny cast of supporting characters all in good form. Enjoy!

To be honest, I was afraid to read the latest Stephanie Plum novel, 'To the Nines', because I wasn't very impressed with the previous Plum installment 'Visions of Sugar Plums' - plus, when I read 'Hard Eight' last year, I thought I might be growing out of my Stephanie Plum phase. But having been a huge supporter of this series, there was no way I was going to pass up reading this latest one - whether I got disappointed or not. Well, I was not disappointed. In fact, I started reading the book today, and finished it just a couple of minutes ago, and I couldn't have been more pleased. I couldn't put the book down until I finished it.

It starts off with its signature humor and slapstick apprehensions, and only gets better from there. This time around, Stephanie's job is to track a missing guy who skipped bail. Nothing new about that. Only this time, it leads her to Las Vegas - momentarily. This is because she soon realizes there's a lot more to this case than she thought, and she finds herself in danger once again. Yeah, nothing new there either. However, I found this installment to be more suspenseful than most of the others, and more enjoyable than 'Seven Up' and 'Hard Eight'. This one has totally renewed my faith in the series. Now, if we can only get Janet Evanovich to write more than just one of these a year.

'To the Nines' was a fast and easy read - the perfect "beach book". It hooks you on the first page and doesn't let you go until page 312. Everyone's favorite characters are still here: Morelli and Ranger are still as hot and sexy as ever; Grandma Mazure is still as crazy as ever; Lula is still as hungry as ever; and Stephanie is still just as terrible at bounty hunting as she was in 'One for the Money'. If you've read all the other books in the series, well then you are most likely going to read 'To the Nines'. If you haven't, it can be read as a stand-alone (Evanovich is good at summarizing everything in the beginning, in case any first-timers are reading), but it is way more fun when you've been following these characters since book one. Either way, it's a great book (the best one I've read in quite a while). Just be prepared to postpone everything in your life until you're done.

My wife and I were away for a brief vacation when I ran out of reading material. Luckily, my wife had a supply of books, so I selected this one, because it looked short enough to cover the time away that we had left. Having read this book, and thoroughly enjoyed it, I am very happy that I selected it. The narration is extremely amusing, and the tale moves along quite quickly. The characters are well-drawn, and even if one hasn't read the other eight books in the series (which I have not done), there's no feeling of missing anything. The plot is solid, although the killer's identity was very clear (at least to me) quite early in the book, and all of the clues were there, but ignored by the good guys. It's a greatr romp and read, and if you have a few hours to kill and want to laugh and be entertained, I recommend this book.

I adored the first four Stephanie Plum novels. Janet Evanovich's heroine was funny, plucky, and without a doubt the worst bounty-hunter who ever crossed the Delaware River. I absolutely loved the idea of a solidly working-class character who was reasonably smart but still incompetent. Stephanie not only can't bring in her bail jumpers, she can't even get through a novel without having several cars explode.

The next four novels, however, seemed to be running on the first four's momentum. There are only so many times one can laugh at a sex-starved grandma who enjoys opening coffins at the funeral home. The feud with Joyce was getting tiresome, too. Stephanie's shtick was wearing.

In _To the Nines_, Evanovich learned to drop what needed dropping yet keep what made Stephanie such fun to hang out with. Colleague Lula is trying yet another ridiculous diet, her family is coming apart at the seems as sister Valerie is about to deliver a baby out of wedlock, and the tension between Joe Morelli and the mysterious Ranger is cranked up as both trade off serving as Stephanie's bodyguards. And I'm thrilled with what Evanovich came up with to replace the ruined cars Stephanie used to go through.

A fun read, with a thrilling chase scene at the end. While figuring out who the bad guy is was easier than usual, the strong characterizations and interesting plot turns make up for it. If you've gotten tired of this series, come back To The Nines.