Review: Explosive Eighteen by Janet Evanovich

Genre:
Mystery

Format:
Audio

Publisher:
Random House Publishing

Release Date:
November 2011







Synopsis from Goodreads:

Bounty hunter Stephanie Plum’s life is set to blow sky high when international murder hits dangerously close to home, in this dynamite novel by Janet Evanovich.

Before Stephanie can even step foot off Flight 127 Hawaii to Newark, she’s knee deep in trouble. Her dream vacation turned into a nightmare, and she’s flying back to New Jersey solo. Worse still, her seatmate never returned to the plane after the L.A. layover. Now he’s dead, in a garbage can, waiting for curbside pickup. His killer could be anyone. And a ragtag collection of thugs and psychos, not to mention the FBI, are all looking for a photograph the dead man was supposed to be carrying.

Only one other person has seen the missing photo—Stephanie Plum. Now she’s the target, and she doesn’t intend to end up in a garbage can. With the help of an FBI sketch artist Stephanie re-creates the person in the photo. Unfortunately the first sketch turns out to look like Tom Cruise, and the second sketch like Ashton Kutcher. Until Stephanie can improve her descriptive skills, she’ll need to watch her back.

Over at the bail bonds agency things are going from bad to worse. The bonds bus serving as Vinnie’s temporary HQ goes up in smoke. Stephanie’s wheelman, Lula, falls in love with their largest skip yet. Lifetime arch nemesis Joyce Barnhardt moves into Stephanie’s apartment. And everyone wants to know what happened in Hawaii?

Morelli, Trenton’s hottest cop, isn’t talking about Hawaii. Ranger, the man of mystery, isn’t talking about Hawaii. And all Stephanie is willing to say about her Hawaiian vacation is . . . It’s complicated.


My thoughts...

Like I said last week after I listened to Smokin' Seventeen, I'm finding myself getting hooked on the series again. Kind of silly since I'm listening to #19 now #20 won't be released until November. I'll have to wait for the library to get in the audio of that one.

I really thought I'd stop reading this series, but I kept at it and feel like I'm listening to an episode of a TV show each time.

There's not much of a review to write as - even though I'm enjoying it - the plots pretty much remain the same - cars blow up, people go missing, Stephanie's life is always in danger and she can't choose a man. I'm still loving the things Lula and Grandma Mazur say. They are fun characters. I admit I'm still annoyed that Stephanie can't choose either Morelli or Ranger. I guess the part that makes me nuts is that she seems to be in love with Morelli but doesn't have a problem sleeping with both of them. Somehow that just isn't a quality for a heroine to have in my eyes.

Have any of you seen the movie One for the Money with Katherine Heigl?  I haven't seen it yet, but I can't see Heigl as Stephanie.  Eventually I'll get around to watching it but I'm not all that anxious.  I always thought of Sandra Bullock in the role. 




For reading challenges:
2013 Finishing the Series Reading Challenge
2013 Library Books Reading Challenge
2013 A to Z Reading Challenge


Disclosure: I took the audio book out of the library to listen to for my own enjoyment. All opinions are my own.