Rating: Summary: Stephanie Plum Has Too Many Enemies in This One! Review: In this fifth high-octane thriller, bounty hunter Stephanie Plum sets out to find her missing unle-and along the way smacks right into: a dead body, a nasty bookie named Bunchy, and her stun-gun eccentric Grandma Mazur. On top of everything else, there's this little midget of a guy who is angry and won't leave Stephanie's apartment no matter what. Then not to mention, Ramirez, the very dangerous man who is a killer and rapist is out of jail on parole! So Stephanie has all these problems to work with at once. And there is Mr. Shempsky, the hot-shot banker, who seems so innocent. But wait until Stephanie finds out he knows more than he lets on , and it could be dangerous!! Very entertaining and fun to read!!
Rating: Summary: Love this book! Review: Every book I've read by Janet Evanovich has been spectacular, and this one is no exception. This book is pure joy to a fan of this series. I recommend starting with One For The Money and reading the whole series in order. The books are so delightfully fun, you'll devour each one in a couple days. I stayed up half the night to finish High Five. I couldn't put it down - and the ending was well worth the lost sleep!
Rating: Summary: You will laugh and laugh Review: You will laugh while reading this book almost all the time, the jokes that it has are very good and you will have to laugh. The story of the murder is a little bit disappointing because at the end of the book the "bad guy" just gives up and go to Stephanie's house to try to kill her, but if you want to have a real good time two or three evenings (it depends on how fast you read) read this one.
Rating: Summary: Fred's missing...or is Fred dead? Review: It's up to Stephanie Plum to find out. As she searches for her missing, unlamented uncle, she meets a vertically challenged computer geek, a mystery man named Bunchy, and a bratty, run-away royal. Along the way she blows up yet another car. She's hanging out at garbage business, and kissing one man too many. How's a girl to chose between two hot guys? Another fun Stephanie Plum caper that just leaves you waiting for the next one!
Rating: Summary: Funnier than Four to Score, but not as sexy! Review: I liked this one even better than the last if I had to pick, but I did miss the steaminess of Four to Score. This one definitely leaves you hanging on for number six in the series. I listened to the recorded book and am not crazy about the narrator's rendition of the characters. But I enjoy the story. Her friends are a bit over the top, first a 7 ft. cross-dresser, now a dwarf? But hey it's total fiction.
Rating: Summary: High Five is Five Stars! Review: I always judge a Stephanie Plum novel on how often I laugh out loud. I laughed so much with this book that my husband was concerned that I lost my mind! The mystery part of the book kept me in suspense to the very end and the romantic threads, whether it involved Morelli or Ranger (and of course, alot of black, be it clothing or cars) was delicious! I was sorry to get to the end of the book. Looking forward to Number 6.
Rating: Summary: Fiesty and fun Review: This is my first Janet Evanovich novel and what a trip. Her Bounty Hunting Stephanie Plum is a captivating character, fiesty, seemingly fearless, and fully believable. Cars are not safe around her in 'High Five' but she seems to have as many lives as a cat. Her action packed existance makes me appreciate my calm quiet life. "High Five" turned me into an Evanovich fan and I look forward to opening the pages of her next novel. Beverly J Scott author of Righteous Revenge
Rating: Summary: High Five Ranks High Review: Stephanie Plum, bounty hunter and crime fighter, is brave and tough - Okay, she's not brave or tough, but she is a bounty-hunting crime fighter. She is also accident-prone, sex-starved, bizarrely intelligent, and quite plucky. She sort of fell into her current profession after she was laid off from her previous career as a lingerie buyer. Her mother suggested she go see her cousin Vinnie, a bail bondsman, for a job. Stephanie readily admits that she makes a terrible bounty hunter, but the money is decent and is the biggest reason she sticks with it. Trenton, New Jersey, the book's setting, is an interesting place. Everyone, including gray-haired grandmothers, carries guns and some of them even have pepper spray and stun guns. Most people have a family member who is currently connected to organized crime or "swims with the fishes" because of their connections. Most citizens, with the exception of Stephanie, are also adept at picking locks and handling the most violent moments with disinterest. In High Five, Stephanie is hot on the trail of her missing Uncle Fred, a seventy-something year old man who disappeared somewhere between the cleaners and the garbage collecting company. And as fans of Plum know, the smallest details or most mundane situation has a profound connection to the end of the book. Of course, that connection is not obvious until you reach the conclusion, at which point you slap your forehead and say, "Duh!" Five reasons to read the Plum series: hysterical characters, complex and original plots, laugh-out-loud scenes, scenarios that make one wonder who in tarnation dreams this stuff up, and a feeling of suspense that is carried throughout the books that is so compelling you'll feel the need to rush out and grab the next installment just to see if Stephanie does what you think (and hope) she will.
Rating: Summary: Have Stun Gun, Will Travel Review: Stephanie Plum, the New Jersey bounty hunter who works for her cousin Vinnie, has hit a lull in her sometimes dangerous and sometimes exasperating career. Evidently everyone in Trenton has decided to walk the straight and narrow after the commission of whatever crime he or she is supposed to see the judge about. There are no FTAs (Failure To Appear) that will net Stephanie the cash in hand that she needs to keep her apartment rent up to date and hamster food for Rex, her pet hamster. To top it off, she's kind of flipped the on-again/off-again relationship she's been having with major crush and homicide detective Joe Morelli into permanent off. And there's not enough Rocky Road ice cream in the world to get the missed steamy nights with Morelli off Stephanie's mind. Since staying home isn't the answer to her love life and won't get the bills paid, Stephanie decides to branch out and talk to Ranger, her mentor who taught her the bounty hunting biz, about extra work. The first extra work involves clearing a crack dealer out of an apartment building in what has to be the seediest neighborhood in Trenton. In no time at all, bullets start flying. Scrambling for money, trying to keep from getting shot, Stephanie is also pulled into investigating the disappearance of her Uncle Fred who was last seen going to the local garbage company to complain about two dollars the company owed him. The bail bond recover that Stephanie agreed to involves a three-foot tall "little person" with the social disposition of the Incredible Hulk and who proves as wily and hard to catch as the Road Runner. Added into the mix is the return of Benito Ramirez, a sadistic ex-con looking for vengeance on Stephanie for putting him in prison. And then there's Bunchy, who says he's a bookie and keeps breaking into Stephanie's apartment to goad her into searching for her Uncle Fred because Uncle Fred owes Bunchy money. NEW YORK TIMES bestseller Janet Evanovich currently has eight Stephanie Plum novels in print, beginning with ONE FOR THE MONEY. Other titles include TWO FOR THE DOUGH, THREE TO GET DEADLY, FOUR TO SCORE, HIGH FIVE, HOT SIX, SEVEN UP, and HARD EIGHT. Prior to her Plum novels, the author wrote twelve romance novels. One of those novels, FULL HOUSE, has been retooled, had another 150 pages added to make the reading thicker and richer, and has been released as a paperback. VISIONS OF SUGAR PLUMS, a short Stephanie Plum novel, will be released in November 2002. Stephanie Plum lives in a wacky and wonderful world that is real enough to believe in. Beginning with the dysfunctional family that includes Grandma Mazur, who usually acts more like her shoe size than her age and has a wild sense of adventure and an imagination that is an absolute scream. Her father is long-suffering (he gets zapped with a stun gun in this novel), and her mother is always worried about what the neighbors and family friends will think of Stephanie's gun-toting and physical abuse of strangers for money (especially after she burned down a funeral home in TWO FOR THE DOUGH and gets her car blown up in this novel). Evanovich did a lot of research for the Stephanie Plum novels, primarily taking bounty hunters to lunch, and the methodology of recovering the bail jumpers comes across as dead-on. Added to the rich background that the author has built into the series over the course of the novels, Stephanie always has at least a half-dozen problems going on at once. Not in the least of which is her complicated love life with Joe Morelli (every girl in Trenton wants him, and every mother in Trenton has warned her daughter(s) away from the Morelli men). Beside the comical and whimsical twists of the book's plot, Evanovich also comments on life in general-how it is and how it should be. The touches with Randy Briggs, the three-foot tall FTA, and with her aunt Mabel are absolutely a riot. Stephanie's dealings with the garbage company that is supposed to pick up her uncle and aunt's garbage tickles the funny bone because it so succinctly reveals that bit of Americana. After all, what will the neighbors think if the garbage men won't stop and pick up the trash? Despite all the goings-on in the novel, the mystery of what has happened to Uncle Fred takes center stage even during the Mafia wedding Joe Morelli takes Stephanie to. After all, what was Uncle Fred doing with pictures of a woman hacked to pieces in one of the garbage company's bins only the day before he disappeared? Janet Evanovich is an excellent writer really hitting her stride. Stephanie Plum is the perfect mystery series for someone wanting a story that is hyper, involving, and easy to read.
Rating: Summary: A Fabulous and Funny Read! Review: "High Five" by Janet Evanovich gets a High Five Stars from me! This fifth instalment in the uproariously funny Stephanie Plum series may just be the best yet. A well-written and suspenseful mystery is blended perfectly with Stephanie's hilarious misadventures to create an all-around wonderful read. "High Five" begins with Stephanie, Trenton's "bombshell bounty hunter", in the midst of a financial depression. She is not making nearly enough money picking up FTA's to make rent and she needs to find a solution fast. It's not a whole lot of use to Stephanie when her family enlists her help to find her missing Uncle Fred the cheapskate, because there's no bond money involved when and if she does find him. But family duties cannot be ignored, so Stephanie sets to work trying to find out what happened to Uncle Fred, and why he disappeared on his way to the garbage company to settle a dispute over $2. Right at the start her investigation, Stephanie comes across some disturbing photos of body parts in garbage bags found in Uncle Fred's desk, which makes it clear that Fred had become involved in something very nasty. But searching for Uncle Fred won't pay Stephanie's rent and when she turns to her mentor and fellow bounty hunter Ranger for help, he hires her as part of Rangeman Enterprises. This leads Stephanie to a string of disastrous and dangerous jobs of dubious legal validity that will have readers laughing out loud. Add to that a very small FTA named Randy Briggs who wants nothing to do with being brought back into the system and you have the recipe for a hilarious read. But "High Five" has a dark edge to it as well. Benito Ramirez, the sociopathic boxer with a penchant for mutilating women who stalked Stephanie in "One for the Money", is out of jail and back to harassing poor Stephanie, who is justifiably terrified. On top of that, a series of mysterious murders all related to Uncle Fred's garbage company and a bomb planted on Stephanie's car, lead Stephanie to the conclusion that she is in the middle of something very serious, and that someone besides Ramirez wants her dead. Evanovich skilfully builds the suspense, and readers will be swept along with the intriguing mystery to a satisfying conclusion. All the characters we have grown to know and love throughout the series are back and better than ever in "High Five". Gun-toting Grandma Mazur and 200+ lb ex-hooker Lula are guaranteed to keep readers laughing, while the sexual tension between Stephanie and the two men in her life, sexy vice cop Joe Morelli and enigmatic bounty hunter Ranger, is sure to tantalize and fascinate readers. You just cannot miss with "High Five". Evanovich has crafted an enticing and exciting tale that will keep readers captivated and will leave them begging for more. It is downright impossible to dislike the intrepid Stephanie Plum, whose unique, sassy, and witty point of view makes this series so great. "High Five" comes very highly recommended.
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