Ms Evanovich lost touch with reality here
344632
The premise of this book was the seven deadly sins. I not only did not get a feeling of the deadly sins, I got the feeling Ms Evanovich decided to write a stupid book to see if it would sell. I don't doubt that it is selling because people love her lighthearted reading. I love her lighthearted style myself. I don't, however enjoy watching someone make fun of the art of writing in order to see just how stupid it could be. The setting is a bakery where people apparently eat cupcakes by the bucket. These are some of the characters and their famous lines:

  Shirley, stuck with speaking in tongues, is the stupidest, silliest, most boring character to ever find her way into a book. I will tell you something she said, but later. For the most part, what she said was not worth reading or your time trying to visualisz her.

  Gwen, who is not even struck with speaking in tongues says, "facaca". Is that a word? I spell checked it. No help. I have no idea what it means or what it was doing there.

  Diesel, the main hunk. Obviously unable to think up a name for him, she took one from a movie star. Diesel? Anyway, the main female character, who seemed to be struck with gluttony (but, only from time to time and for only certain things) is handling him erotically. His answer is, "you are scaring my boys." My boys? What a crock!

  The main female character, whose name I don't even remember, wonders what it would be like to stick her finger in an open jar of peanut butter while Diesel handcuffs her. Give me a break.

  I would have to place this under a newly named genre:  Ridiculous Pap. Or, as Shirley says, "icky, wiggle, wiggle."

  To give credit to Shirley, she said the only thing I liked in this whole book. On page 86, she speaks up and says, "Fruck". I agree, totally.
4505800
Wow, what a lame book. I've read many Britt Monteros before, and I remember them being tight, smart police procedurals. This time, we've got a whiny pregnant woman (oh, gosh, the whole pregnant woman thing always being hungry with oversized ankles has been done so many times before!) who goes off on her own throughout the country. By the end, I was just skimming page after page because the story was so farcical. If this were a Stephanie Plum by Janet Evanovich, it might have been funny. But when you've come to expect a certain level of class and smarts, making your character dumb and whiny is disappointing.
775279
I've read every book in this series, but have been very disappointed in the last few - and this is the worst.  Where I always enjoyed the adventures of Stephanie and laughed out loud at Lula and Stephanie's grandmother, the laughs have been less frequent of late, and, in this book, are nonexistent.

Maybe another sign of the series' decline was this book's inability to keep me interested; I finished reading it because it was there - not because I wanted to.

I hope Evanovich spends more time on the 22nd book, and returns to her enjoyable story-telling.  John Grisham's books got better when he slowed down, so hopefully the same thing will happen here.
2019720
Certainly was a bedtime story...put me right to sleep!  She needs to find a new job!  btw,check this link out about the author!  Seems like she's way too "enchanted" in her own mind and ego to be taken seriously!  https://maddannouncer.wordpress.com/
897956
I am embarrassed to say that I read the entire book, which is remarkable considering I was ready to give up before the end of the first chapter due to an excruciatingly slow start and the Pollyanna-esque delusions of the main character, whose name I seem to have forgotten out of some sense of self-preservation. The action did eventually pick up, but there was an odd sense of time. Mostly the timing doesn't add up. The character is supposed to stay awake for 3 days, but no one else ever goes to sleep or leaves her on her own. Prior to the climatic fight she has 15 minutes to get to the stadium. On the other side of the border. That's either 40 minutes or 2 hours away.

I have a feeling that this book is supposed to be a supernatural/mythological version of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum novels, but it just didn't work for me. Most of the characters felt very flat. Kind of like the jokes.

I'm pretty sure I read this book for free. Please let it have been for free.
401032
I have always looked forward to the June release of the newest Stephanie Plum book. It is near my birthday and one of my daughters always buys it as a gift. This year, I wish she had just given me a gift certificate instead! I am sorry that she wasted her money. The last few years I have been less enthralled with each book. Sadly, Ms. Evanovich has lost her ability to write witty, engaging stories and she needs to stop this series before she has books thrown back at her in protest.

I have been a huge fan, but these last two books are a waste of time and money. I'd like to mail it back to her. Heck, maybe I will...
284225
I only bought this book because Evanovich is the author. The storyline, however, was not up to her usual standards. I found it "talk-y", dry and dreary reading. Maybe it was the time frame in which the story was set. Whatever the reason, I would not recommend this book to anyone as their first foray into Evanovich stories. That being said, I did like the heroine's struggles against the restrictive social conventions enforced by her mother. But then to have the mother cave in so easily at the end was a bit jarring.
3380331
Does Janet Evanovich think that she has us so enthralled with her writing that she can rip us off for 15.00 to buy this ridiculously thin book? For years her books have gotten skimpier, with less pages and less words, but this? I can't believe they even put it out.
4190746
I started reading this book and it was just such a knock off of Jan Evanovich Stephanie Plum novels that I couldn't get into it.  I love the Stephanie Plum novels and have read all of them, but just couldn't get past feeling like I was reading something that was a copy because the author couldn't come up with her own ideas to write about.  It was just weird to me.
3596820
I loved Ms Plum, her misadventures as an inept bounty hunter, her love interests and sidekick Lulu.
Alas, I believe it's time for Ms. Plum to grow up. And Ms E. her creator, to move on and up.
At some point Ms Plum has to become more adept at her job....her cars can still catch fire....that's always a hoot....but that she hasn't been shot and killed a 1000 times over is stretching my Suspenion of Disbelief beyond the breaking point.
Ranger as a love interest is out of the question....lust interest maybe, but love belongs to Morelli.
And as for Lulu...perhaps a stint on What Not To Wear would help her in clothing selection. She too needs to move on.  What was entertaining and held my interest in novels 1- 15 is tired, old, and dull. I barely dragged my eyeballs through this yawner.
357497
I am a huge Stephanie Plum fan - so much so that I even read the fan fiction on a regular basis.

The high water mark of the series was Twelve Sharp, IMO.  The series has steadily gone downhill from there.  It's like Janet no longer loves or cares about these characters.

All of the characters felt flat and one-dimensional.  AND, OMG, she actually recycled dialogue from Ranger to Stephanie on the comic relief/line item under entertainment.

Not to mention that while Stephanie has previously worked for/with Ranger and for/with Rangeman - Ranger actually told her that she was "unqualified" to be hired at Rangeman?  that was just insulting and so out of character.

I was glad to see Ranger & Stephanie finally again do the deed, but it just seemed weird.  No guilt on Stephanie's part and no warmth on Ranger's.  Those scenes read like an outline that hadn't been fleshed out.

That being said, I'm looking forward to November & #18.  but really, if it doesn't improve, Janet should just hire some of the FF writers to continue the series because, some of them are outshining the original.
1354505
I have read everyone of of her 19 stephanie plum books and have to say, this one reads like a hack writer wrote it in three seconds. Most of the description of characters is picked up from other plum novels and her dialog is downright trite. What happened? Did her real writing partner quit? I have read two of her other series and this woman cannot write!!!!
4481648
I have faithfully read every book, stuck thru Books 13 - 15 thinking that she just needed some time and she would get back on track with the series, but hearing about the 2 new series she is working on and reading 16 it is obvious that Ms. Evanovich has abandoned this series. The book is 308 pages of which the first 6 pages is nothing but the sames 6 pages of the last 15 books. I think by now we all know the Stephanie is a bounty hunter. Take out all the 1/2 pages, extra wide margins and the unusually large print and you might have 225 pages of prose that seems to be cut and pasted from the last 15 books connected by the occasional original sentence. If I had to guess, I would say that Ms. Evanovich gave someone a plot outline and left it to them to write.

Stephanie is still making the same mistakes without the ability that even a 2 year old has to learn from them. Stephanie has become that relative that you remember liking 12 years ago but when you saw them recently you thought "what happened to them...they are so annoying". There isn't much in the way of Ranger or Joe and just a little too much Lula. If you have read the earlier books then you have read this book. Same destroyed cars, Ranger still handing them out like they are candy, Lula is on another diet, Steph still stumbling around and getting lucky.

Ms. Evanovich, PLEASE, set your other projects aside and at least respect your fans enough to close out the series with a book that you actually put yourself into. Maybe knowing that it is the final book of the series will allow you to give us book like the ones that hooked us. I have to say, any future books will be bought used from the half price book store.
791632
Seems the author simply took components of already existing and solid series, put them together and spit back out a terrible story claiming it was hers. Appears to be the Stephanie Plum character from Janet Evanovich and Kinsey Millhone from Sue Grafton. A crazy grandmother, pushy family, love triangle...did not enjoy the story, lacked depth, humor and entertainment. Found myself oddly offended that some of my favorite series were suddenly appearing in this imposter story. I wish the author well and am sure (hope?) it wasn't intentional but I wasn't impressed.
2243047
I have not laughed so much since last reading Janet Evanovich!
3750059
The author could have made a little bit of an effort to cover up the fact that the characters were straight out of the Stephanie Plum novels of Janet Evanovich. Really, a collection agent heroine, a cop from her past, and a hot mysterious guy? Really? Not to mention other parallels? Really?

That said, it was a funny book, although not written as well as the Stephanie Plum novels. Fortunately we don't need much character development, since we already know who these people are. Some of the situations were just too unrealistic and silly.
4085476
Stephanie Plum is in the middle of a muddle again. The office is overflowing with FTAs that need to be rebonded so Vinnie isn't out his money. Ranger doesn't take as many cases as before and he's off somewhere anyway. So they decide to hire a new bounty hunter. In the process they end up hiring bail jumping Melvin Pickle to do the filing, give Joyce Barnhardt all the impossible cases, and interview a lot of psychotic wannabe losers. But this is only a side issue as Ranger's daughter Julie is kidnapped from her parents home in Florida and a women shows up at the bond office claiming to be Carmen Manoso -- Ranger's wife. But Carmen's story doesn't ring true for the folks that know Ranger and it becomes obvious that someone has decided to take over Ranger's life. And Stephanie is supposed to complete the picture of the happy Manoso bounty hunter family, after Edward Scrogs kills Ranger of course.

As typically in a Plumian mystery, nothing goes simply, and the complexities are, as usual, absurd. Ranger moves into Stephanie's apartment and takes to following her around in disguises that include adding color to his clothing. The plan is to protect Stephanie even while they use her as bait to lure Scrogs into the open. Morelli naturally moves in to keep an eye on Ranger, which leaves Stephanie choking on the testosterone clouds. And Scrogs keeps stun gunning Stephanie every time they meet and then slipping away unnoticed.

As you can see it's the usual mix of mystery, mayhem, and comedy for Stephanie Plum, especially when you add in the fact that Lula has joined Sally's band as a lead singer, and Grandma Masur is going to be a backup singer when they play the old folk home gigs.