Rating: 
Summary: Full of Fun- Full House Is Charming Romantic Suspense
Review: Billie Pearce is a girl next door- divorced, mother of two kids, bakes chocolate chip cookies, and the biggest problem she faces is an overbearing mom. Until she meets wealthy playboy, newspaper moghul and her polo instructer Nick Kaharcheck. Nick brings temptation and a family of zany characters that puts Billie on a roller coaster ride of feelings.One of these characters, DeeDee, moves in with her. DeeDee never rises before noon, has been married a zillion times, and is engaged to Frankie Fontana- a wrestling star. DeeDee is a vintage Janet Evanovich character and fans of Janet will love her and her cousin Max Holt. Max is a do-gooder and a genious, and he blows up things around Nick's House, mostly because he is a passionate environmentalist and wants to get Nick to support his causes. Both of these characters are so enjoyable they overshaddow at times Billie and Nick who seem mundane by comparison. While the original book by Ms. Evanovich is a simple romance, the new book adds depth and motivation to the romance, and a mystery. While, like many of Janet Evanovich's books, who dunnit is somewhat beside the point, it is never the less a gripping yet funny race to the end of the book. Both of these accomplished collaborators bring assets to the book. Miss Hughes, who helped with the rewrite has penned a number of sweet romances in Loveswept, some Maggie winning mysteries with Avon, and most recently two really excellent romantic comedies for MIRA. Her touch is in the depth and the fast pace at the end (see the pace in HOT SHOT for a similar feel). Janet Evanovich is a truly brilliant writer when it comes to developing memorable secondary characters, and she does so again here. The book's romance is still closer to the kind we would expect in Janet and Charlotte's Loveswept days, so don't expect the compelling sexual tension in the Plum series, but if a lovely, warm and fun romantic comedy is your desire, with a dash of suspense, then Full House is the book for your nightstand.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I am a huge Janet Evanovich fan and was delighted she has something on the market outside of the Plum series, however, this book was a disappointment.
Rating:
Summary: I Liked it!
Review: I will admit that it was not as good as Stephanie and her grandma, but it was cute and worth the read. As long as you are expecting a fun, quick romance, you won't be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Improved Full House Blends Two Great Comic Authors
Review: In this "bigger and better" work from the team of Janet Evanovich and Charlotte Hugges, Nick Kaharchek and Billie Pierce find their mutual attraction compelling, despite their obvious differences. He is a wealthy playboy polo teacher and she can't ride and bakes cookies and tends her two children. The "full house" results when Nick gets Billie to rent a room to his zany cousin Deedee (who is engaged to a wrestler). Along with DeeDee and another realtive, a genious teen named Max -- who is prone to making bombs -- and a pest man who can't stop the bugs in the neighborhood, and soon you feel right at home in the world of Evanovich. The "tension" comes at first from a pretense that Nick and Billie are also going to marry (supposedly to stop DeeDee from matchmaking) and later from a "mystery" about who is trying to sabotage things. A love triangle with Dheridan Flock seems tangential at best and was probably an addition to the new book that could have been left out. Full House was originally a sweet and simple romance by Janet Evanovich writing under the pen name Steffie Hall. The old version would most likely have disappointed most of her fans- at least those who have followed her recent stellar career. Smart woman that Ms. Evanovich is, she turned to her friend and fellow Loveswept Author Charlotte Hughes, and together they spiffed and polished and added depth. Ms. Hughes, Like Ms. Evanovich, has a wild sense of the absurd, and Hughes does ensemble comedy as well as Evanovich and Seinfeld (cf. HOT SHOT and A NEW ATTITUDE). The resulting book has the best of both authors: the depth, dialogue, and character of Hughes, and the warped slapstick that is the trademark Ms. Evanovich. While the romantic tension is not as well developed as in later Evanovich novels, the plot line is actually more like a mystery (albeit a straightforward one) than is typically the case in her Plum series, and the zany characters are quite memorable, and cry out for a sequel. I was on the edge of my seat for the last 1/3 of the book- and that part is all new material not in the original book. A fun and compelling book, with memorable and loveable misfits and a plot that is much improved from the original --already enjoyable -- romantic comedy.
Rating: 
Summary: bigger but not better
Review: Janet Evanovich is very honest about this book: 'I wrote and published the original in 1989....Charlotte Hughes and I now have made it bigger and better.' Charlotte Hughes may have made it bigger, but she did not make it better. Friends who have read the original smaller version liked it; no one I've talked to has liked this version. The characters are typical Evanovich and delightful; the plot seems to be going along nicely, and then the padding begins. Plot is going in all directions and the charm of the Evanovich books is no where in sight. I bought this book after reading the first four or so chapters; they were a delight. Then the book got boring; I started skipping paragraphs, then pages, then raced on to the improbable ending. My advice: save your money for the new Plum. Don't go here.
Rating:
Summary: Another Evanovich Gem In Disguise
Review: For those of you who may not know it, Steffie Hall is Janet Evanovich's pseudonym. This book is currently out of print but it's scheduled to be reissued in an expanded form in September 2002 after being rewritten by Janet Evanovich and Charlotte Hughes. It's a funny and engaging book in its original form, and I'm looking forward to the expanded rewrite. Billie Pierce is the epitomy of a suburban mom. She lives in a well-to-do suburban development, has two kids, is a 6th grade teacher, and is happy being a homemaker. The only glitch in the picture is that Mr. Pierce hit his mid-life crisis at an early age, so for the past four years Billie has been a divorced mom, too. She decides that she needs more exercise in her life, so she signs up for polo lessons, given by Nick Kaharchek, a local polo-playing, horse-farm-owning, millionaire/publisher. When signing up she neglected to mention that while she's been around horses all her life, she's never actually been on one. Needless to say, Nick usually doesn't pursue women of Billie's type, but the air of fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies that surrounds her is almost more than he can resist. She, on the other hand, can recognize danger when it's staring into her eyes and resolves to keep her distance. Uh huh, yeah, sure. Of course, since this is an Evanovich book, the secondary characters are not bland two-dimensional characters. There's Deedee, Nick's many-times married cousin, who's now engaged to be married to a professional wrestler, and who Nick cons Billie into housing; Frankie The Assassin, a professional wrestler who's Deedee's fiance; Eugene, Nick's precocious cousin who blows things up in order to get his point across; and an assortment of pro wrestlers that Deedee tries to fix Billie up with. This was a fun book with a lot of witty dialogue, well-written scenes and characters, and sexy and humorous romance. Even with the upcoming rewrite, it's a book that's definitely worth finding in its original version.
Rating:
Summary: Overstuffed and unbelievable
Review: This book took a lot of patience to complete, and I still can't believe I read the whole thing.
Stuck in midstream without a paddle, it floats between romance, mystery, mayhem and madness. Evanovich's usually quirky characters fly off the believability radar like stealth bombers, unfortunately undetected by my bad book warning system.
What starts out as a rich man, divorced woman love story in a horsey setting, becomes a comedy circus of professional wrestlers, crazy people, insects and endless (and I mean ENDLESS) repetition.
Evanovich and Hughes seem to have forgotten the KISS principle for effective writing, and I would recommend you forget this one.
Amanda Richards, February 26, 2005
(KISS = Keep It Simple, Stupid)
Rating:
Summary: Lost Interest
Review: I really look forward to Janet Evanovich's "Stephanie Plum" series, so tried "Full House". While the beginning held some interest for me, in getting to know these new characters, the second half of the book just seemed to go down hill pretty fast. Dialog dragged and the characters just weren't fleshed out very well. By the end of the book I found I just didn't care any more and finished it just out of curiosity. There just wasn't any feeling of excitement, and no real sparks between the characters. I was glad it finally ended. Very disappointing.
Rating:
Summary: --This is a boring dud!--
Review: FULL HOUSE does not deserve the time it takes to read it. It's not worth the money and I feel annoyed that I even paid for it. The story is stupid and has nothing amusing about it or the characters. I purchased it on a whim because while I was in the store someone mentioned to me that the book took place in my area of Virginia. That was a big mistake! Where it took place didn't really make much difference to the sorry plot. Janet Evanovich is trading on her success with the Stephanie Plum books, and this story has nothing redeeming about it. This is the first time in years that I've purchased something without looking it up and reading the Amazon customer reviews. I apologize to my fellow reviewers.
Rating:
Summary: Possibly the worst book I ever read
Review: This book would have been pretty ok if an unnecessary and ridiculous action sequence wouldn't have been forced in at the end. I didn't find very much humor in this book which was fine because I really enjoyed the characters, felt like they were given much more depth than the characters in the Stephanie Plum novels, and actually missed them when I was finished with the book. I don't really read romances, because I get so tired of innocent conversations between the characters resulting in internal suspicion, doubt, and questions, but if the book would have stuck with romance I probably would have gone with a 7/10 rating. Maybe if the bad guy would have been developed better he would have worked. He was just too inconsistent. There was new material and new characters added to the original 1980's version of this book? I never read the original, but I believe I know what character and scene was added and unfortunately it didn't get worked into the story well and didn't belong. However, Janet Evanovich remains a gifted writer. 4/10
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