Rating: 
Summary: Visions of Sugar Plums
Review: Sooo disappointed in this book. When I read Hard Eight, and was disappointed, not only in the length--what was it, about 50,000 words?--but the with plot too, I had hoped that maybe Ms. Evanovich had expended her energy on creating a Christmas classic with the zany Plum characters. Not so. I love the Plum series, and buy the hardcovers the day they are released. I strongly recommend this series to anyone who loves humor. Plus, I'd planned on buying this book as Christmas gifts for friends too cheap to shell out for the hardcover. Guess what? I'm saving my money and hope book nine is redeeming. I think Janet needs to quit the publicity tours and get back to writing the characters and the stories we all expect.
Rating: 
Summary: Basically a short story; can't believe I paid hardback price
Review: I was so excited to see a new book by Janet Evanovich that I bought it without reading much about it (except to ensure that it did involve Stephanie Plum). It was the first day it was available, and there were no customer reviews yet. I enjoyed reading it because I love her sense of humor, but I feel cheated. Twelve dollars (plus shipping) is awfully expensive for what is essentially an extended short story.
Guess I should have paid more attention to the fact there was no number in the title.
Rating:
Summary: Fun for the holidays!
Review: Stephanie is at it again. This time, she is accompanied by a young, long haired, sexy man to help her track down the missing toy maker. Although, he's not quite human, we think, and neither are the toy maker or the cookie maker. Full of fun and 'bah, hum-bug's I think you will love this mini-novel! Somewhere along the way of fighting off mean, little elves and trying to deal with her sister's surprise, Stephanie has forgotten all about Christmas. Now, four days before the big day and Stephanie has no tree, no presents, and no spirit. And everytime she DOES try and get a Christmas tree, the poor pine is always doomed for a violent death. Full of fun surprises and adventure, I really enjoyed this novel about Christmas in 'The Berg." Because, I mean, let's face it, sometimes Christmas does take on a supernatural feeling of its own!
Rating: 
Summary: Don't Bother
Review: This is a short story, with a silly plot that involves a character who is "some sort of superman type" with non human powers. Pu-lease! It wasn't even funny, it just was dumb.
Rating:
Summary: I tried to like it, I did.
Review: After reading the excerpt from this in the last book I realized that this was going to be a fantasy, so when I picked up the book I kept in mind that this was not set in the real Stephanie Plum universe, but in an alternate. Perhaps it would even turn out to be a dream. A Christmas yarn starring Stephanie Plum and her crazy family and friends could be pretty darned hilarious.Stephanie's supporting cast are all here doing their crazy supporting cast thing, and there's even a progression (if you can call it that) on one front (is there anyone as stupid as Stephanie's formerly perfect sister?). This book would have been a short story if it hadn't been for Janet's army of characters, each (except Ranger) trotted out on cue. But they aren't enough to hold the book together. This is indeed a fantasy, but someone should have told both Janet and her editor that fantasies in particular need to be set in a world with certain rules. It must conform to its own interior logic, otherwise you lose the reader's suspension of disbelief. When you set up some kind of wishy-washy-not-sure-what's-going-on and get a character like Deisel who can do anything when it's needed, it becomes deus ex machina, one of the lowest tricks a writer can pull. My biggest disappointment was that once again, Stephanie doesn't live up to her role as hero and complete the case. Janet, please stop falling in love with your male romantic leads and let Stephanie once again be the star! By now she should also have progressed in her abilities. She should not still be starving (yet able to bribe people? and buy loads of presents?) and clueless.
Rating: 
Summary: Evanovitch is at it agian!
Review: This book is so funny! Steph really got herself into it this time! Who is this guy? This book is a little different from the others but still laugh out loud funny! I mean, with the little people thing? Man i almost peed my pants. I really hope Janet Evanovitch makes more. Like, she could title it, "Fine Nine" or something. THESE ARE GREAT BOOKS!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: a quick and fun read, even with typos
Review: The standard great Evanovich characters--Lulu, Joe Morelli, Grandma Mazur, her cop friend Constanza, her coworker Connie -- have cameo appearances but the fun for this holiday romp is her new character Diesel. A good, quick read and an easy way to get into the consumer traditions of Christmas. However, I caught three typos in my casual reading -- a question mark on p. 12 that should be a comma; omisission of "be" before "cheaper" on p. 125; and the present tense "look" on p. 136 when the past tense is called for, as in "looked more closely." I guess the story was not so captivating that I breezed right past these little errors.
Rating:
Summary: Major disappointment from my fave author
Review: I love Janet Evanovich's previous 8 books in the Plum series, but this one was a total waste of time. I liked that in the regular series, there was always a shred of plausability, like this could really happen. This "story" had none of that for me. What she was thinking when she wrote this is beyond me. Is she planning to go into Sci-Fi now?
I hope she got whatever it was out of her system and will be back on target for book #9.
And where was Ranger?
Rating: 
Summary: Not quite good enough
Review: Ok it is Christmas and it's fun to read about a favorite sleuth. This is not quite up to Evanovich's usual humorous style.
Only on good laugh in this one, can't wait for the next full length one.
Rating:
Summary: Should have waited for the paperback!
Review: I can't believe this book was published in hardcover! I normally LOVE the Plum series. This was just a bit too out there for me. Hopefully the next book will be worthy of reading. This one I'd advise you to pass by.
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