Rating: 
Summary: writing by numbers
Review: I have eagerly awaited each new book in the series but this one has almost put me off buying any more. It feels as though it was written by someone else copying the style of the last ones. What worked in the previous books - lets throw in some of that. The car thing is getting old . The ranger scene - less said the better after such a great build up.I bought the previous books as soon as they were released in hardback. The next one can wait till paperback and even then i'll read a bit in the bookshop first before purchasing. What a letdown.
Rating: 
Summary: Missing Eight
Review: Who wrote this book? Surely not the author who gave each character a heart and soul in the previous 7 books. This is little more than an outline with characters tossed in, making statements obviously lifted from previous books. Don't forget we know these people. The biggest let-down was the encounter between Stephanie and Ranger. It was shallow and not believable. Please don't judge the series by this book. But I must say that I will wait for reviews before buying the next Evanovich offering.
Rating: 
Summary: The Dark Side
Review: While this book still serves up plenty of drools and laughs, Evanovich has upped the ante in this one with some hard edges and a bit more menace. Evanovich also manages to turn up the heat as well with even more Ranger. Evanovich's writing is fluid and smooth with a great balance between the usual craziness that is Stephanie's life and the more sinister characters and situations she's put in.
Rating:
Summary: Hilarious fun
Review: I have greatly enjoyed reading all of the Stephanie Plum mysteries. The Jersey-girl-turned-bounty-hunter is a terrific character, and so are the whole cast of folks who pop in and out of her chaotic life. You'll laugh a LOT, guaranteed. I just wish the mystery in this book was better thought out. The plot and its unlikely resolution seem almost like afterthoughts. Maybe you (like me) can live with that, in exchange for the fun of this highly character-driven series.
Rating:
Summary: Possibly the worst in the series
Review: A good book is supposed to be memorable. That is exactly the opposite of what the past two books in the Stephanie Plum series have been. I read each one as it is released, and I loved the first four. Five was a bit a downturn, but 6 brought the standard back up. I don't even remember much of 7, and, I had to read the synopsis to remember anything about 8. Read any of the first four books (esp 1-3) and then read any from the last four and notice the style change. It feels to me like Evanovich has stopped really trying to make it interesting, like she would rather pump one out ever June (well, now its shortened to 1 every 6 months with the Xmas book out in November) than have a well-written mystery novel on her hands. I thought this title, in particular, was simplistic, predictable, and not mysterious. Gags were thrown in just for laughs, but they were hackneyed and overdone. C'mon, Janet, if you take a bit longer to do another re-write or two, we won't hold it against you. I mean, look at Sue Grafton: it takes her atleast a year and a half between books and it shows. When her series got formulaic, she changed it up (and it took her a bit longer to write the next couple, but man is the series great).
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I always look forward to the latest Stephanie Plum novel. While Janet Evanovich's plots are neither as complex as those by Elizabeth George or Martha Grimes nor are the novels as well-written, I'm always entertained. However, this time I was disappointed. Although the plot was darker than usual and dealt with parental child kidnapping, I found the story to be somewhat plodding and the resolution unsatisfying, almost as if the author realized it was time to wrap it up, but didn't have a good idea of how to do it. There was good tension created a very scary bad guy, Eddie Abruzzi, who is somehow involved with the abduction, and is stalking Stephanie because he believes she knows more about the mother's whereabouts than she really does. Stephanie's on-again, off-again boyfriend/fiance and cop, Joe Morelli, makes infrequent appearances, which is a bit odd given the very real danger Stephanie faces from Abruzzi. The only sexual tension is provided by Ranger, her mysterious mentor, with whom she has an unpaid "debt" that she dreads paying off. Rather than seeing more of her eccentric and always entertaining Grandma Mazur, we're stuck with the antics of "perfect" sister Valerie, who has moved with her children back home after leaving her husband, and a clown-ish attorney named Kloughn, who is just plain annoying. I don't blame Ms. Evanovich for wanting to add new life to a somewhat formulaic but always humourous series, but for me it just didn't work as well as it could have.
Rating: 
Summary: Hard Eight...the easy way
Review: I couldn't wait for "Hard Eight" by Janet Evanovich. This, her latest novel is her best, but then I've said that about each one. After starting in the middle of her then seven book series, I quickly read through all the rest, Starting with "One for the Money." No matter how I tried, I could not delay gratification.
But, back to "Hard Eight," latest in the Stephanie Plum series. Stephanie is Jersey girl who has taken a job with her cousin Vinnie as a bond enforcement agent AKA, bounty hunter. She tracks down and apprehends people who have failed to meet their court dates. This way, cousin Vinnie won't lose the bond money that he has put up for them and, he gratefully pays Stephanie 15% of the total bond amount for her work.
Evanovich not only takes you behind the scenes of the Bail Bond Business, she takes you to Trenton, New Jersey....where Pizza is still called Tomato Pie, where death cooties linger long after the body is removed, and where people follow Jersey rules. For example, if you're sitting in front of the TV, you aren't expected to talk. "Even if asked a direct question, the viewer has the discretion of feigning hearing loss".
She also takes you into the lives Stephanie's family and friends. While I'm not a hyphenated American, I do have a rich ethnicity and I feel sorry for anyone who has not experienced real life people like the ones who live in the Burg. This Hungarian Goulash/Mulligan stew section where the lines of ethnicity have become dulled over years of people intermarrying because they never move more than 5 miles from where they were born!
Evanovich's insight into these culturally diversified players can only come from first hand experience. Stephanie observes: "I'm not great with big displays of emotion. My mother and I expressed affection through veiled compliments about gravy."
And, Mothers in the Burg have never heard that you shouldn't compare your children to each other. Stephanie's mom says things like, "Why can't you have a normal job like your sister?" Stephanie thinks to herself, "Yeah, and last year she decided to be a lesbian and now she's dating a loser lawyer who looks like the Pilsbury Dough Boy."
Neighbors in the Burg never let you leave without serving you coffee cake, often homemade. Her parents' neighbor, Mabel Markowitz, "lives in a museum." She goes on, "Mabel married in 1943 and still has her first table lamp, her first pot, her first chrome-and-Formica kitchen table. Her living room was newly wallpapered in 1957. The upholstered pieces sag slightly in the middle, imprinted with asses that have since moved on...either to God or Hamilton Township."
Mabel is the one who involves Stephanie in this latest adventure. Her granddaughter, Evelyn and her child, Alice, have disappeared and Mabel is worried that something has happened to them since Evelyn and her husband were recently involved in an ugly divorce.
So, kind-hearted Stephanie is off to find the missing family members, which she thinks, shouldn't be too hard because everyone knows everyone in the Burg and how far could a woman with no money get with a kid in tow?
But, if you know Stephanie, nothing is ever simple. In her quest, she becomes the victim of a sadistic stalker who is somehow involved with the missing woman's ex-husband. And, since she's doing this missing person's job for free, she still needs to go after Vinnie's bad guys to put Tasteykakes on the table. Seldom are Stephanie's pick-ups a slam-dunk. Same with her love life, it 's on hold most of the time. She really likes Joe Morelli, her longtime friend and sometime boyfriend. He's a cop now but "they met as kids when he started looking up her skirt and never gotten out of the habit." He would even marry her, if she'd get a normal job.
Then there's the dark, mysterious Ranger, a gorgeous hunk who is always around to help Stephanie move her cases forward and to set her heart to fluttering. She calls him Batman because he has a way of appearing out of nowhere.
Through all of this, the loose ends are tied up, the bad guys get theirs, and we're left waiting for #9.
If you get the idea that I love this book, you're right. In the language of the Burg, "Hard Eight" by Janet Evanovich gets a Freakin' A.
Rating:
Summary: Another winner
Review: As usual Ms. Evanovich takes us for a wild crazy ride with Stephanie and her loveable cohorts. I've already preordered her next book.
Rating:
Summary: Fast paced and funny
Review: HARD EIGHT was my first Janet Evanovich experience and so delicious, I'll definitely go back for seconds. If you need to lighten your load, if you feel inept, if you feel that the sky is falling, you need to read HARD EIGHT. It's fast-paced, hilarious, and not a book that will help you fall asleep. Stephanie Plum is smart, insecure, and incredibly unlucky, but it's hard to feel sorry for her, when you're laughing at each misadventure. Evanovich seems to have brought out every weird or stereotypical character she's ever encountered and plopped them into Stephanie's life at just the right moments. HARD EIGHT is slapstick in print with an ending that is reached with the help of two guardian hunks.
Rating:
Summary: I started reading Plum backwards!
Review: My husband actually introduced me to this series after he read the latest book, "Hard Eight". It was a quick read, especially if you stay up late to see what happens next! I found it witty and entertaining, and as a result, have started reading the series from the first book, "One for the Dough". Being a Peace Officer myself, I can relate to Plum's character attempting a tough job in a "man's world" and making necessary compensations. Being inept at times, Plum is frustrating and yet loveable. I could have used a little steamier love scene or two, anticipating Plum's character finally acting on her primal urges, but overall, the book kept me hooked until the last page.
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