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262 of 292 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Here We Go Again, September 16, 2010
Here We Go Again:
Tell me what series I'm talking about:
28 year old underemployed woman (who graduated in the 93rd percentile of her college class) with a penchant for attracting dirt, grime, easy cheese goo and olive oil. Prefers to wear jeans, t-shirts, and tennis shoes.
Spunky semi-narcissistic sidekick with big dreams but little desire to do the work to achieve them. Constantly searches for shortcuts and can't follow directions or a recipe to save her life. Incapable of showing up to work on time. Over the top wacky.
Monkey with a middle finger which he uses at least 3 times a chapter. If you're looking for a good drinking game, try a good shot of bourbon every time Carl the Monkey flips a naughty bird.
Eating. Lots of it. Cupcakes and meat pies and muffins and ..... well you get the idea.
Explosions - In this case, a house. Farts.
Adults with admitted attraction for each other who fondle, lots of ear kissing, ponytail tugging, warmth in the nether regions, snuggling in bed at night but nothing beyond that.
My problem is this, Wicked Appetite isn't necessarily a terribly awful book although the humor does cross the line into annoyingly silly on more than one occasion. It is however a book of gags that I've already read from this author numerous times and chances are you have also. I've read it so many times that my reaction to reading it again hovers right between irritated and annoyed. Its like hearing your 4 year old niece repeat the line to a knock knock joke for the 74th time ("Orange Ya Glad I didn't Say Banana?") No. No. No. Not funny anymore, somebody SAVE ME!!!!
The last thing I need is yet another series for me to buy every summer wondering if this will finally be the book where something different happens. Thankfully, I have absolutely no emotional investment in these characters and no reason to become invested because I already know where this series is going. The rest of this series will be .... Pretty much .... The exact same book again.
I think it is time for a new Queen of Summer Chick Lit to be crowned. Hopefully St. Martin's press is out there looking hard for her. The Queen is dead, Long Live the Queen.
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54 of 57 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Utterly Awful, September 25, 2010
This review is from: Wicked Appetite (Kindle Edition)
Wicked Appetite is just awful, a truly terrible book. The plot could have been something interesting, or the beginning of something interesting, but it is buried under a mountain of recycled characters and redundant silliness. Somewhere along the line in writing the Plum books, Evanovich lost the story + character + humor combination that was so appealing. Story was dropped or reused, characters stagnated and humor was overtaken by silliness and stupidity. Unfortunately, Wicked Appetite hasn't much story, the characters are just rehashed from the Plum books and there isn't real humor, just more silliness and even more stupidity.
Really, how many times did the monkey give the finger? Do we need more fart jokes? Come on. She's continuing her own trend, a really depressing and frustrating trend, of writing bad books.
What happened to Janet Evanovich? Was she overtaken by pod people? Did she run out of ideas? Is she failing because she's so afraid to fail? Are her publishers asking her for the same thing, over and over, not realizing that many of her fans are fed up?
Did she think we wouldn't recognize the characters from previous books? Changing names, hair color and occupation doesn't mean we haven't seen them before. And Lizzy and Diesel? Their relationship has also been seen before. Read the first couple of Plum books, when Stephanie and Joe were in the light touches and innuendo stage - it's all so familiar.
This was yet another hardcover book - they aren't cheap. And yet this book wasn't worth it, not in content and not in heft. The book is short, the pages contain way too much white space, so much so that it is very noticeable. It resembles a high school term paper written by a kid desperate to stretch the length to what was assigned.
None of us can afford to throw money away and spending hardcover money on this book was just that. Evanovich's new releases are hardcovers because of the success she had with the Plum books, but Wicked Appetite starts a new series and as yet this series just hasn't earned the right to that much of my money.
If you are a fan of Evanovich and curious about the new series, check it out of the library, buy it used or wait for the paperback, at least. Please don't throw your money away on the hardcover.
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210 of 239 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
The Forumla Is Wearing Thin...., September 15, 2010
Janet seems to be running out of gas. Perhaps she is like the rock star who after achieving great success loses the fire and spark to continue creating anew. Yet while she can perhaps rely on her backlist for a continuing stream of royalties, she can't exactly go out on tour and rake in the big bucks.
Hence she continues to churn out new product, imposing on her loyal readers and diluting her legacy.
Her Plum books are becoming way to formulaic and the stories way to thin. It's getting to be like a comedy show where they use the same jokes, albeit with slightly altered words. I guess what I really mean is that there is not enough development of the characters going on. They don't evolve, their lives never change - it seems like they are caught in the Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day.
Then there are the other projects where she exploits the characters that have become beloved and puts them into even thinner products. You get the feeling with her books that while she may not be finished filling out and developing a story, she is done with the book.
Between the numbers books are only an excuse to write short stories that she can't flesh out into real "number" quality stories so that she can financially exploit the franchise.
Wicked Appetite falls right in place in this evolution of Janet from an exciting writer into a "franchise" that, like a machine that churns out on product. This is neither fish nor fowl in that it's not a between the numbers book but it borrows familiar characters from past work. It's lazy to do that, of course and the book suffers from it. I get the feeling that Abbott and Costello are putting on a show with Laurel & Hardy popping in as extra guest stars.
The story is thin like her other books have become. It's silly and not very smart humor. Janet used to make you laugh with goofy silliness that almost seems smart. Now it seems strained and too familiar.
She needs to get hungry again and remember what made her want to write in the first place.
And she should stop ripping people off with pointless books - write the ones that matter and you'll make just as much money. You don't have to stick to a schedule. And you should STOP participating in the Great E-Book ripoff. You have the right to tell your publisher that electronic versions of your books shouldn't be sold for a couple of bucks less than a hard copy. Of all people, a franchise writer like you has clout. So stop with the ripoffs.
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