Rating: 
Summary: Full of promise that is not quite reached
Review: 'Full House' is a sweet romance. I think that you will enjoy this book if you like light-hearted romantic stories. The only comparison to the Stephanie Plum series is a group of quirky minor characters. The mystery involved is light compared to the Plum series, so understand that from the beginning. Something seems off about the story and it's probably due to the re-writing. The story was revamped (which I wasn't aware of until after I read the book) and flow was two-stepping between flowing really well and being jerky. The story begins with Billie Pearce, a single mom who is enjoying time without her kids. She is a schoolteacher and plans on enjoying her summer. She embarks on a summer of personal improvement by taking Polo lessons. Billie is a strong and caring woman. However, she is not good at Polo. Her ineptitude endears her to Nick Kaharchek. Nick is a good-hearted guy; a newspaper owner, the stable owner, and a true family man. Nick takes care of his nephew, Maximillian 'Max' Holt. Max likes to live outside on his uncle's property. He also likes to make homemade bombs and cause havoc. (He's a genius who is bored). As Nick and Billie become closer, she finds herself getting an unexpected roommate. Nick's cousin, Deedee (Max's sister), is a self-absorbed celebrity. She needs down time and is in a relationship with a professional wrestler, Frankie Fontana. Deedee and Billie form an interesting relationship. Deedee even tries to set Billie up with a friend of Frankie's, who is a professional wrestler. Needless to say, Nick is having none of that! This book was entertaining for what it was...a campy, romantic, and mildly mysterious romp. I look forward to the next in the series, if only to see if the characters develop in their full potential.
Rating: 
Summary: Full House, Empty Story
Review: This disappointing, earlier effort by Ms Evanovich is a mismatch of romance, humor, mystery and shallow characters. In her later "Stephanie Plum" stories, she found a balance of these elements that is quite enjoyable. This time out, only her most dedicated fans will be pleased. At its heart, "Full House" is a romance novel: A Cinderella story of love at first sight. But the simple charm of two people falling in love is overwhelmed by seemingly endless passages directly relating their thoughts, doubts and misunderstandings. The oddball characters that are so much fun with Stephanie Plum are jarring and distracting here. Their primary literary purpose is -- apparently -- to create gaps between the aforementioned passages about the inner thoughts and feelings of the protaganists. There is a mystery of sorts, but it's entirely incidental, simplistic and disengaging. And the resolution is not much more than "then they were all run over by a bus". All the characters are shallow, cardboard cutouts. At no time did their actions reveal a deeper, believable person. This is ironic considering the amount of ink devoted to inner thoughts. In the Plum novels, the shallow characters make the fun, fun. (If we empathized with Lulu or Stephanie, we'd cry when their cars blew up.) "Full House" was an experiment in mixing romance, screwball characters and a bit of mystery together. It failed. Thankfully, Ms Evanovich learned from her experience and got it right the next time.
Rating: 
Summary: An enjoyable book
Review: This book is written by Janet Evanovich, the author who brings you Stephanie Plum.
This is a love story about a devious man, an uncooperative woman, and a misguided genius. It is laced with fast-paced action, dysFUNctional loveable characters, suspense, and lots of laughs.
Rating: 
Summary: Ho hum...Where's Plum?
Review: This was my first Evanovich novel, and I am wondering why so many people rave on and on. Based on other reviews, I can see that I need to try again, possibly with a Stephanie Plum book. Full House is shallow, mindless, and only occasionally fun. Most of the novel's plot seemed paper thin and too ridiculous to be enjoyable. I read most of this by the pool, and my suggestion is that's where it's best enjoyed. Otherwise, just don't even bother. If you want a quick romance, try the Red Dress Ink series.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointed!
Review: I was very disappointed with this book. I bought Full House and Full Tilt based on how much I liked the Stephanie Plum novels. I thought anything by the same author had to be good. Unfortunatly, these books are just bland romance novels, like the Harlequin books I read when I was a teenager. I was so un-impressed with Full House I didn't even bother to read Full Tilt!
Rating:
Summary: Disappointment
Review: I am a Janet Evanovich fan, having read all of her Plum novels. It was exciting to find that she was reintroducing a new series, as I am also a fan of series books and have enjoyed Evanovich's style of humor and mystery. Of course, knowing the new series was a romantically based plot, I didn't expect mystery, but I did expect realism, interesting characters and unpredictable story lines. Disappointingly, what I got was just the opposite. If this has been the first Evanovich book I ever read, I never would have picked up "One for the Money" and the others. The plot is not only predictable and unrealistic, it is flat out unbelievable and immature. It could have been written by a starry-eyed teenager, dreaming of her knight-prince to come in on his horse and sweep her off her feet away from all the problems of the world. Come on, this is the real world here. The female lead, a divorced mother who conveniently has time to spare given that her children are away for the summer, falls into a rapid romance with a rich, good looking, seemingly perfect man (all the stuff we dream of, girls) who pursues her and asks her to marry him after only knowing her for a few days! The children, upon their return, welcome him with open arms, and all ends happily, despite minor tribulations from absurd characters, a seemingly early, albeit poor, attempt at the Plum style of colorful, goofy characters. (While I know the Plum novels were not entirely realistic either, most of the plot lines were believable and the characters had some depth. None of that here.) Again, I did not expect this to be a Plum novel, and didn't want it to be, but I expected it to be well thought out and believable. The bottom line: I abandoned this book on the lounge chair in Mexico, only half-read. Maybe someone else picked it up and enjoyed it, but in reality, I hope it was thrown out by the attendant.
Rating:
Summary: Boring! No comparison to the Plum Series
Review: I love the Plum books. This one is no comparison. Hard to believe it is from the same author. A boring and cheesy romance novel. A very small portion of the plot is mystery - and which is slowly dragged through the story and then crammed into the last 30 pages. As for the laughs you get from the Plum books - forget it, not here. Don't waste your time or money.
Rating:
Summary: Where's the Plum?
Review: A single mother of two becomes engaged to her polo instructor after knowing him only a few days. This is a story Ms. Evanovich had written earlier and resurrected it now that she's famous, adding some things to it for this publication. It promises to be like the Stephanie Plum novels, and it does not deliver. Characters are wooden. Dialogue is corny. There's no excitement. The only suspense is at the end, which perks up the story but it's not enough to make up for the rest of the book. Very disappointing, when this writer is capable of so much more.
Rating:
Summary: Have a hard time believing she really wrote this...
Review: This book is a collaboration with one of Janet's friends, and I have a hard time believing that Janet actually had much to do with the writing of this book! It starts out as a VERY cheesy romance (hey, I'm an avid reader and have been known to read a few romance novels) novel and it's just awful. The second half of the book picks up a bit of speed and becomes slightly more interesting, but then at the ending the speed is so fast you can barely keep up. It was as if the authors decided they'd better make this all a little more "Stephanie Plum" to keep the readers interested in the "Full -" series, and... it just made no sense. Of course I bought Full Tilt (the 2nd in this series) at the same time, so I had to read that one. That one was a touch better, but I'll review it seperately (; In conclusion, if you loooove Stephanie Plum, um... don't read these just because you feel loyal to Janet, like I did.
Rating:
Summary: Ouch! A clunker from the otherwise-sharp Evanovich
Review: Having just finished all 8 in the Stephanie Plum series, I grabbed this Evanovich novel, hungry for more of the good stuff that makes those books such page-turners. Was I disappointed! Cardboard characters, cliche-riddled dialogue, far-fetched yet predictable plot. I am not sure if this book preceded the Plum novels - if so, the author has definitely improved over time. I'm sticking with the Plum novels from now on, and so should Janet Evanovich.
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