"I looked for ironing but there was none. When something needs to be ironed I put it in the ironing basket. If a year goes by and the item is still in the basket I throw the item away. This is a good system since eventually I end up only with clothes that don't need ironing"
When I read this paragraph in one of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum books, I knew I had found a kindred spirit. I mean, what's not to like about a person who holds the above philosophy? I actually spent two, yes two, hours ironing last night and was shattered at the end of it. I have done no ironing for months now and much though I might yearn to emulate the Plum Rules I just couldn't do it. Damn, that means I'm never going to make a lousy bailbonds woman or meet a Morelli or a Ranger or blow up cars and burn down funeral parlours and have orange hair by accident and......well, the list of qualifications is a long one.
Now I had never heard of Janet Evanovich until three weeks ago. Never. And it seems she has written dozens of books and I have read nary a one until I was sent her latest, Sizzling Sixteen, to read and review. Picked it up, sniffed it, stroked it, turned it over a few times (always a necessary pre-read test of a good book) and then thought I would give it a try. Nearly gave up when our heroine was described as 'feisty' pretty early on (all books with feisty heroines should be avoided like the plague IMHO) but decided to continue as the wise cracking, bullet style delivery of narrative and chat had caught my attention. Well, two hours later when I was still sitting in my nightie, in bed at 11 o'clock in the morning and weak with laughter, I was glad I had persevered. Simply loved the book, loved Stephanie Plum, loved her kick-ass friend, retired hooker Lula, rather yearned after Morelli until Ranger came along and then decided he was The One and forgot about Morelli. Stephanie also has a mother who wishes she would get a proper job and stop getting into appalling situations, get married (preferably to Morelli who is a nice Italian boy) and have babies. Then there is Grandma who lives with them, likes a good viewing at the local funeral parlour and packs a 45.
I am sure the hawk eyed of you will have seen a whole list of the Stephanie Plum books in the left hand column of Random that I have read in the last few weeks. As you all know, I binge read when I find a series I like and this is what I am doing here. I visited my library last week and exited with ten titles in my bag, one of my readers has sent me another one on my list which she was going to get rid of and another on the way, I ordered some from Amazon and those lovely people at Headline have also sent me a couple after I emailed them screaming and yelling How Dare They Get me Hooked and they had A Lot to Answer For and the least they could do was feed my addiction....
I have had various comments both on and offblog about these books. Some of you love them, some of you dislike them and some of you got fed up about No 10 and gave up. There have been remarks about the fact that they are all the same and that there is no character development and you are right. There isn't. Stephanie Plum stays the same in each book, she stays the same age, she is still involved in an on-off relationship with Morelli and yet yearns after the enigmatic and sexy Ranger (as I do) and there seems to be no resolution in sight. She remains an inefficient and lousy bail bonds woman. She lives off junk food. She never changes. But it really doesn't matter. She is a great character (I rather suspect she is Janet Evanovich really). If you are a Plum fan you just want these stories to keep rolling out one after the other and, as a new member of the ranks, I hope they keep going as well. My problem is going to be in a week or so when I have read all of these and will be sitting waiting eagerly for No 17 to appear having gobbled up the previous 16 in less than a month. I did this when I discovered the Brunetti books of Donna Leon and read 13 in four weeks and now am reduced, like everyone else, to waiting for each new title to be published.
There are others, not in the Plum series, which I am already exploring and Headline Press sent me an early proof copy of the first of another new series due out in September, set in Salem and featuring some familiar characters from the Stephanie books, but more of that later.
I have had a few months of emotional ups and downs as you all know and I am spending the summer taking it easy with books, not reading anything much that requires deep thought or deep analysis (not that you ever got much of that anyway) and enjoying lots of crime novels and romance. These books by Janet Evanovich have really cheered me up no end and, on many occasions during their perusal, I have had to put them down as I have been helpless with laughter and could not focus on the page.
Sheer delight from beginning to end and I love them. Janet Evanovitch has a new Plum fan here on Random Jottings.
