Smokin' Seventeen - Review

Title:  Smokin' Seventeen
Author:  Janet Evanovich
Publisher:  Random House

I won this in a giveaway from Book Belle!

Goodreads Summary:

Where there’s smoke there’s fire, and no one knows this better than New Jersey bounty hunter Stephanie Plum. 

Dead bodies are showing up in shallow graves on the empty construction lot of Vincent Plum Bail Bonds. No one is sure who the killer is, or why the victims have been offed, but what is clear is that Stephanie’s name is on the killer’s list.

Short on time to find evidence proving the killer’s identity, Stephanie faces further complications when her family and friends decide that it’s time for her to choose between her longtime off-again-on-again boyfriend, Trenton cop Joe Morelli, and the bad boy in her life, security expert Ranger. Stephanie’s mom is encouraging Stephanie to dump them both and choose a former high school football star who’s just returned to town. Stephanie’s sidekick, Lula, is encouraging Stephanie to have a red-hot boudoir “bake-off.” And Grandma Bella, Morelli’s old-world grandmother, is encouraging Stephanie to move to a new state when she puts “the eye” on Stephanie.

With a cold-blooded killer after her, a handful of hot men, and a capture list that includes a dancing bear and a senior citizen vampire, Stephanie’s life looks like it’s about to go up in smoke.

My thoughts:

I am having a busy jumbled up week, with different work shifts and commitments scattered here and there, which has made time for reading difficult.  This book was the perfect book to read in my sporadic short bursts of free time.  It is classic Stephanie, with the predictable car mishaps, run ins with crazy skips that are bungled by Stephanie and Lula, and then of course that little love triangle she has going on with Ranger and Morelli.  (Notice I listed Ranger's name first- guess which guy I am rooting for? ) Sometimes people say predictable like it is a bad thing- I have to disagree with that.  Sometimes you want predictable, sometimes you want things to be the same.  If I picked up the next book, and all of a sudden Stephanie had learned Krav Maga, given up doughnuts, and had no problems with apprehensions, that would be weird, and wrong.  I would feel Evanovich had finally thrown in the towel with this series.  Stephanie is not allowed to grow up that much. I guess I just don't read these books expecting them to be that different.  A little character growth might be ok, but a 360?  Maybe not.  This series is like mac and cheese- an easy place to escape back to, in my opinion, but not much more, and that is alright sometimes.

As for the Ranger/Morelli debate, I am firmly in Ranger's camp.  I just like him better - for some reason I feel he is more trustworthy.  My good friend Chrissy is a Morelli fan - and this book came with two stickers, one for each of us. Team Ranger and Team Morellli. The triangle seems to heat up a bit more than in the other books in this one as well, some of it a little surprising to me.  

If you have stuck with this series until now, I am guessing you are in it until the end.  Like me.  Its not anything new, or too different, but sometimes that is ok too.