Rating: 
Summary: Stephanie Plum Character Expands Her Horizons
Review: The book is just a bit different from previous Stephanie Plum novels. Stephanie has just moved a bit into the darker side (but so has Spielberg in Minority Report). Stephanie Plum fans will enjoy the book, still has the humor and the fun characters you've come to know and love. New readers looking for mystery will enjoy the story and should appreciate the humor which is far different than any other mystery writer. If you are looking for humor and romance with a touch of mystery in the background....read one of the other seven Stephanie Plum books first.
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Summary: Stephanie Plum is Always In the Craziest Situations!
Review: Funny as usual, this book continues with more of the same crazy situations. This time, bounty hunter Stephanie Plum has a big problem on her hands: Seven-year-old Annie Soder and her mom Evelyn have disappeared. Evelyn's estranged husband, Steven, a shady owner of a seedy bar, is not at all happy. During divorce proceedings, he and Evelyn signed a child custody bond,and Steven is demanding the money guaranteed by the bond to find Annie. The money was secured by a mortgage on Evelyn's grandmother's house, and the True Blue Bonds Bail Agency wants possession of the house. Evelyn's grandma lives next door to Stephanie Plum's parents, and Steph's grandmother Mazur, and her mom are not about to see their neighbor lose her house because of the abduction. And then of course, Stephanie's plate is always full of miscreants who missed their court dates, including old nemesis and violent drunk Andy Bender and an elusive old lady accused of grand theft auto, she can't disappoint the eccentric Grandma Mazur! So she follows the trail left by Evelyn and Annie and finds a lot more than she bargained for.
Rating:
Summary: Better than #7, but fumbling stumbling Plum gets old !
Review: We thoroughly enjoyed Janet Evanovich's first six Stephanie Plum series about a bounty hunter who has trouble getting out of her own way. With a crazy supporting cast family, especially Grandma Mazur; and two male romantic interests -- Ranger, a fellow mysterious bounty hunter; and Morelli, a cop who deflowered Plum in high school, and who seems to be the best bet for her long term -- the humor and enjoyment seemed to come as a natural byproduct of the stories and the author's writing style. However, book #7 seemed so forced out it was a huge disappointment to almost all but the die-hard fans. Thankfully, Hard Eight is more of a return to the earlier work. Our only quibble is that now the ineptitude of Plum, and her tendency to burn up cars and find dead bodies all over the place, is getting a bit stale. It may be the set has little remaining life expectancy as is.
But this one continues to entertain with a light story about Plum's inability to capture one of her assignments; about a lawyer named Kloughn, the [brunt] of innumerable "clown" jokes, who follows Plum around like a puppy; and Steph's inability to resolve her own conflicts about the two men in her life and what to do about them. She finally "gets lucky" about halfway through the book, at which point we were almost relieved for her. But the book ends on some of the same querulous notes about her and Morelli as we've heard before.
A plot about a missing neighbor and her daughter was a slight shift from earlier books, but pretty much continued to pose as the excuse for the Plum goings-on throughout. In sum, Hard Eight represents a pretty typical entry in the Evanovich Plum series, but for those that have read all eight, the title may have some subtle ulterior meanings. Before we get "Nine Ball" (or whatever), perhaps somebody can figure out how to give Plum's life a facelift, as she does not seem to be growing older on us gracefully.
Rating:
Summary: Still Laughing Out Loud!!
Review: Hard Eight is a great addition to the Stephanie Plum series. It gives you everything the other seven books have. Hillarious scenes with the classic characters of wacky Grandma Mazur, Lula, and the rest of the Plum family plus unexpected new twists that break away from the romantic plot line. New involvement with Ranger and Joe, he is still in the running. This installment is about the search for a missing woman named Evelyn and daughter Annie. Evelyn's grandmother Mabel is a neighbor of the Plum family and she asked Stephanie for her help. Evelyn's ex-husband is about to get a child custody bond funded by Mabel as she put her house up for this. Mabel fears she'll lose her home if Evelyn isn't found and she fears for her great-granddaughter. So, Stephanie, our bounty hunter and her good friend Lula start snooping around and before long they have a run in with Evelyn's landlord, Eddie Abruzzi. Abruzzi, is a nasty man who adds a much needed dark edge to this story. The humor you expect in a Stephanie Plum book is still there. Stephanie is still between Joe and Ranger. Stephanie still is blowing up cars and the drama from her friend Lula is still a riot. I liked this book the least out of the series but it is still well worth the read and I still found myself laughing out loud several times. If you enjoy this series and who couldn't, this is a must read!
Rating:
Summary: Geese attack and a killer rabbit on the loose
Review: In "Hard Eight," bounty hunter Stephanie Plum doesn't just have to search for the usual bonds bail fugitives. Additionally, she tries to find the missing daughter and granddaughter of her parents' neighbor. However, she is not the only one to look for Evelyn and Annie. Dangerous Eddie Abruzzi as well as bounty hunter Jeanne Ellen Burrows also follow Evelyn's tracks. Soon Stephanie is confronted with Abruzzi's war games -- one of his fun ideas is to hire a six foot tall "bunny" stalking Stephanie.
Stephanie's private life is equally dangerous. As Stephanie is on the "off" option of the on-and-off relationship with Trenton cop Joe Morelli, her mentor Ranger sees his chance. And then there's the attorney Albert Kloughn who wants to be Stephanie's partner in bounty hunting. In true Plum chaos tradition, Stephanie has an unusually high rate of car loss again, but that's nothing compared to a geese attack in the park.
Fans of Stephanie Plum will swallow this eighth adventure just as the preceding seven books, while newcomers might want to start with "One For The Money" and work their way up to "Hard Eight." Janet Evanovich is simply great at mixing mystery with screwball comedy elements. The result is a hilarious and highly entertaining thriller with a fantastic main protagonist and many equally fantastic supporting characters who easily win the heart of the reader.
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Summary: I'll Never Tire of Stephanie Plum!!!
Review: Janet Evanovich is able to keep me Laughing Out Loud with her Stephanie Plum books. Hard Eight was no exception. It all starts when Mabel calls asking for help in finding her granddaughter and great granddaughter. This happens to be a child custody bond, a kind that Vinnie isn't into yet, so if Stephanie does this, it'll be out of the goodness of her heart:) She does! Of the people she meets, which include a bunny and
Bill Clinton, is a lawyer who she gets a job from, for her sister. All her sister wants is someone to marry. They do start dating. Like always, our little lady gets the job done but, IMO,
she could never get the job done without good old Ranger and
Morelli. I love Stephanie Plum and these books. Again I
recommend this,like all Stephanie Plum books. This reviewer gives Hard Eight a rock hard five:)
Rating:
Summary: Good listen for working out
Review: Stephanie Plum novels are terrific to listen to while working out. A walk or a run goes by more quickly while listening to these light and funny mysteries. Sure, the characters sometimes don't seem to learn how to avoid their many mishaps, but their mishaps are entertaining!
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Summary: Stephanie is beset by geese, spiders, snakes and a bunny
Review: Anyone starting the Stephanie Plum series with HARD EIGHT is sure to get hooked. It's Stephanie at her wackiest. Plum is a disaster-prone bounty hunter working for her cousin Vinnie, a bail bondsman in Trenton, NJ. In this novel, Stephanie volunteers to help out her parents' next door neighbor, Mabel, who's put up her home to guarantee a child custody bond taken out on her granddaughter, Evelyn, who had one imposed on her by the judge in a recent divorce ruling. Now, Evelyn has skipped town with her daughter, Annie, and Mabel will be tossed into the street if the missing child isn't found. But, as becomes evident in all of Stephanie's adventures, there's more to the story than is obvious. Especially after the corpse of Evelyn's aggrieved husband, Steven, is left on the couch of Plum's apartment. Steven had been sawed in half. The imagination of author Janet Evanovich worked overtime in making HARD EIGHT perhaps one of the craziest to date. It's a nice touch that Stephanie faces off against a virtual menagerie. And she's finally beginning to take her .38, usually kept unloaded in a cookie jar, seriously. And her unfortunate association with fire-bombed vehicles reaches a record high. Notwithstanding these plot devices, however, books one to eight in the series are basically interchangeable. (I'm struggling, perhaps unsuccessfully, to keep from writing the same review over and over.) Evanovich needs to mature her heroine, who seems to have a slow learning curve. I suggest that Plum finally marry, or at least permanently set up house, with Detective Joe Morelli. It might not be a relationship made in heaven, but it would supply grist for any number of new episodes. And Lula, Stephanie's sometime partner in her Keystone Cop takedowns, is growing tiresome, as is the fact that the author refuses to bring Stephanie's Dad more into the limelight. Mind you, I'm still finding the Plum novels immensely enjoyable in a mindless sort of way. But even the best of a good thing, like a premium chocolate chip cookie, begins to get stale after awhile. Perhaps I've read too many in too short a time, and should alternate with the likes of WAR AND PEACE and the works of Plato.
Rating:
Summary: Well-Worth the Read
Review: Like all of Evanovich's Stephanie Plum novels, this book is well worth the read. It's light reading, to be sure, but not without value...Stephanie is a memorable, real character with imperfections and insecurities that anyone can relate to as well as her own special variety of charm and courage. I just can't get enough of her zany adventures and the countless colorful individuals that inhabit her world. Laugh-out-loud funny, and with just the right amount of intrigue to keep your guessing. Ranger is a character that continues to draw me into the series, and all the other old favorites are a pleasure as always. I love classic literature, from "Jane Eyre" to Shakespeare, and I often scoff at the "popular" literature and "beach reads" I see topping the best-sellers chart. But from a discriminating fan of the written world, I give a round of applause to Evanovich for her fine writing...it might not go down in history, but it has a definite merit and I am grateful to her for keeping me consistently entertained. Don't miss this series...virtually guaranteed to please and amuse!
Rating: 
Summary: Just started
Review: This is the first of Janet Evanovich's novels I've read and I can say so far the style and content is superior to Crusie's in "Fast Women." I would imagine "Hard Eight" would appeal to readers from Germantown and around that area. I, personally, can't relate, and the charaters so far seem a tad "tacky." But Evanovich has an easy style and I'll read on and see how it goes...--Sophie Simonet, author of ACT OF LOVE, romantic suspense novel (Fictionwise)
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