Fearless Fourteen (Stephanie Plum, No. 14) (Stephanie Plum Novels) by Janet Evanovich
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Book Reviews of Fearless Fourteen (Stephanie Plum, No. 14) (Stephanie Plum Novels)
Book Review: found myself "plum" chuckling thoughout Fourteen 3 1/2 stars
Summary: 3 Stars
Fearless Fourteen is my first introduction to Stephanie Plum and I found her very appealing and funny. "In my mind, my kitchen is filled with crackers and cheese, roast chicken leftovers, farm fresh eggs, and coffee beans ready to grind." The off beat bounty hunter actually keeps her pistol in the cookie jar, her Oreos in the microwave, beer and olives in the fridge, and used to keep a birthday cake in the freezer, but she ate it. And I couldn't help liking her wheelman, Lula, a voluptuous plus sized former `ho black woman with a diamond chipped gold tooth.
The women are dispatched to pick up Morelli's cousin, Loretta Rizzi for failing to appear for her court hearing for robbing a liquor store ( the take: one bottle of gin) and drag her back to jail. But when Loretta can't bail out of jail, Stephanie is forced to care for Rizzi's gothic teenaged son, Mario (Zook), a big time gamer and tagger while working with Ranger protecting The Brenda, an aging country/rock singer, from Gary the Stalker and "the evil pizza." Morelli's house is broken into and the cop himself starts to receive anonymous threats, Plum is forced to relocate Zook to her parents' home. Grandma Mazur is completely taken in by Zook after declaring: "Zook, that's a pip of a name. I wish I had a name like that. You got an awful lot of holes in you. How do you sleep with all those rings attached to your head?" and becomes "Scorch" a fearless gamer herself to Plum's horror and Zook promptly goes back to Morelli's. A dead body is found is found in his basement and Plum begins to believe the break-ins, murder, and the threatening phone calls are linked to Loretta's brother and the bank he robbed 10 years ago, especially after Loretta is kidnapped once she makes bail. And the $9 Million taken in old bank heist may be somewhere in or on Morelli's property.
Brenda appears at the bond office looking much like the real Dog the Bounty Hunter's real wife but with red hair and inserts herself and her camera crew into the investigation and Plum and the Homegrown Security team: Mooner, Zook, and Gary the Stalker must protect Morelli's property from Dom, his lethal partners, and fortune hunter's before Loretta is killed.
The intertwisting plot lines are quirky, funny, and fast paced, possibly even silly as the other reviewers have suggested, but highly entertaining. The characters are truly funny, especially Carl the Monkey. And yes, Plum is blue for the last half of the book and Lula is determined to be a June bride. But I since I have no other experience with this author and series, I had a very enjoyable afternoon by the pool, well entertained, chuckling, and lastly imaging Mooner crusing in his mellow yellow convertible with his trusty potato gun ready to help Stephanie and Morelli yet again.
Book Review: what's to like in number 14?
Summary: 3 Stars
In the beginning Stephanie Plum was hilarious, I looked forward to having her be unable to handle one of her FTA's and spend part of the book chasing him/her down, another part would be having her car demolished. There are hundreds, maybe even thousands of ways to bang up a car, so it would be pleasurable to see how skilfully Evanovich could do the job, it would show how good an author she was. It had to be possible, both instances, it had to be logical and it had to be funny. Evidently Evanovich could not keep it up although Stephanie Plum remained Stephanie Plum. In "Fearless Fourteen" I would have loved to see that bodily naked octogenarian escape Stephanie and have her chase him down, or try to, for the length of the book. And having her car painted does not compare to having the car blown up or otherwise wrecked, having that a standard feature of the series. In addition, the humor was lacking, the book seemed to be much more serious than the earlier ones.
There were some humorous scenes but they were few and far between, mostly involving Lula and Tank. Gary was not psychic enough, Mooner was too good. Zook was treated as normal, not a criminal. Morelli, a cop. put up with all these other characters, all were, were it real life, criminals and the Trenton police were all around them and let them play, taking no notice of their misdemeanors. Murders occur, Stephanie finds dead bodies but all is glossed over, compare these instances to any other crime novel and try to realize what you are being forced to gloss over. Too high a price to pay for comedy, especially when the humor is lacking. A poor book compared to most of the others. It can be skipped.
Book Review: No Half Stars available...this should be a 2 1/2 starred review
Summary: 3 Stars
I hope Janet Evanovich is reading these reviews and taking them seriously. Her characters still have the same jobs, some of the same lines, but the spice between Stephanie and Joe and Ranger is gone. I cannot fathom why new readers don't pick up on how uninteresting this book is. I loved her books. I collected her books. But my dissatisfaction began on the 12th book and I still bought 13, and 14. I'm not buying 15 until I borrow it from the library and see if it's worth it. I don't think Stephanie has to get married per se, but she is being dishonest to Joe and the Stephanie of 1 -12 would not have done that. He used to be a pain in her butt. What happened to all that fire? Ranger has gotten a little too staid. We liked it when we didn't know a lot about him, but now the stuff we do know has made him less exciting. Give us back the tension. The stories are dying without it. Sorry, Lula, I might not be seeing you for awhile.Book Review: Quirky as ever
Summary: 3 Stars
Buckle up that seat belt and get ready for the fun - Stephanie's back with Lula, Connie, Gramma, and the guys. What Fearless Fourteen may lack in plot (though that's not half bad), it makes up for in humor. Goofy new characters (Zook, Stalker Gary, and the Moonman) help pump things up. Very amusing, silly in places (Steph gets blue, literally), witty in others. IMO, it's time for Steph and Morelli to quit fooling around and tie the knot already. He's a gem. Perhaps next time... And is Lula about to become Mrs. Tank?
Lots of fun. Peerlessly narrated by Lorelei King.
Book Review: Series Getting Boring and Repetitive
Summary: 3 Stars
Another typical installment of Stepahnie Plum -- car damage, Bob pooping, crazies following her around, Grandma getting into trouble. It's hard to believe these last few books are from the same series as the great books that started it all out.
And where was Ranger? The fact that Stephanie still hasn't made a decision between the two has gone on way too long, but I never expected either of them to practically be written out of the series...