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Plum Lovin' (A Between-the-Numbers Novel)
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|  | I bought this book at a drugstore while on vacation with nothing to read. The alternatives were several variants on "How to Flatten Your Abs," a few Sue-Grafton wannabe mysteries, and romance novels with the authors' names in raised gold lettering.
The only excuse for buying this book is if you're on vacation wtih nothing to read.
I've read a couple of Stephanie Plum books (Janet Evanovich's self-effacing, Jerseyed-out bond agent), and they were OK escapist mysteries, fluffy with some light humor. Unfortunately, Plum Lovin' has a wildly improbable plot, stereotypic characters, and and an unsuccessful mix of science fiction, romance, sex without the sex, and a little mystery. The plot, such as it is, involves Ms. Plum helping a hunky bond agent named "Diesel" (how manly!)find a guy named Beaner who's out to get a matchmaker he's protecting jumped bail and is wanted by Beaner. Diesel will turn over Annie (the matchmaker) if Plum will help Ms. Hill finish five people find love (or just a good dinner companion) by Valentines' Day. The result is a contrived mishmosh with pasted-on characters and a facile resolution.
OK, so the plot's just a vehicle, right--it doesn't matter if it's convoluted as long as we're in for a fun ride. Too bad the characters are unbelievable, buffoonish stereotypes or the expected testosterone-laden men with a heart of gold. There's a strange device in which Diesel and Bean are among the "Unmentionables," people who lurk among we innocents with strange, powers. Evanovich hints at these darkly, using them to portray Beaner's menacing danger and elusive movements, and Diesel's sexually-charge and unsuccessful moves for Stephanie.
Again, excusable if this jokey implausibility served as a backdrop for quick-witter satire, or any real sense of mystery or suspense. However, Beaner's power is the ability to spread hives (hives!) without skin contact, and Diesel's brutish sexuality consists of lam-o repeated suggestions to Stephanie that have all the subtlety and wit of a junior high bathroom wall. The pursuit of Beaner and Annie (and a Jersey gangster inserted to make the story make sense) all take a backseat at times to deal with the five lonelyhearts, who, of course, "comically" find their Valentines with the same kind of dumb luck and convenient fortuity as Stephanie and Diesel.
Although there are some clever lines, and one or two of the heartbroken "Marty-like" lovebirds have interesting trajectories, this is the literary (if one may use that word here) equivalent of Muzak. If the contrived teasers had been pruned, and some real excitement and adult sexuality generated (along with some sleuthing that didn't rely so heavily on a drunken informant), there might have been enough substance to hold up the froth.
| | | ok so I got this book as a freebie and I love the Stephanie Plum series. The thing is: this takes familiar characters out of the realm of reality and gives them a whimsical twist. Not together unpleasant, but not the Sephanie Plum series I adore. The familiarity gives it something to bond to, but I was afraid it would detract from the series when I went back to it. It didn't and for this reason alone I am saying it was a good little read. Fortunately it is brief and easy to read. The between series is 'cute', but I still think overall it detracts from the main series. That being said I also bought the next one before I started the between series. I do not completely regret them, however I would not go out of my way to buy them either after having read them. The Series is another story..those are well worth the laughs.
| | | I ended up reading this out of order--mostly because I forgot about it. Whoops.
But that's not that much of a problem, because these between-the-numbers books (meaning Visions of Sugar Plums and this one, though I suspect there'll be more forthcoming) are just a wee bit off the series' track. The cast balance is shifted--Ranger and Morelli, and even Grandma Mazur and Lula are relegated to the sidelines, and the focus shifts to mystery man Diesel (we learn in this book that he's an Unmentionable--it's been a while since I read Sugar Plums, but I don't remember that being... er... mentioned). It's also where most of the plot developments with Stephanie's sister Valerie occur. And it's got a touch of the supernatural.
So, I'm a wee bit confused by everybody who was screaming that Ranger and Morelli were missing, and why was Evanovich changing the series, etc., etc. It's really the same format as Sugar Plums, and it's obviously not a regular series book, or the title would have a number. I'm guessing it's short memories.
Anyway. Knowing what to expect, I wasn't disappointed.
Stephanie's job collides with Diesel's when her FTA, Annie Hart, turns out to be somebody Diesel is keeping under wraps. So they make a deal: Steph will help Diesel do Annie's job, then Diesel will turn her over to Steph.
The job: relationship expert. They have to ensure that Annie's three clients have happy Valentine's Days. Of course, this being a version of the Plum-verse, it's not all that easy. It gets more complicated, and more personal, when it turns out that the third client is none other than Albert Kloughn, who would be Stephanie's brother-in-law if marriage didn't terrify him. So now it's up to Steph and Diesel to get Albert to the altar with Valerie.
Lots of fun, lots of laughs, short quick read. Between-the-numbers. Remember that. You'll enjoy the book a lot more that way.
| | The return of Diesel, the supernatural bounty hunter | |
| | Diesel, the supernatural bounty hunter first introduced in "Visions of Sugar Plums", is back and this time he wants Stephanie Plum's help to track down Bernie Beaner, an "Unmentionable" with a rather unfortunate super power, and to fill in for relationship expert, Annie Hart (another "Unmentionable" with Cupid-like talents).
This is the second of Janet Evanovich's "Between the Numbers" novellas (chronologically, it comes between "Twelve Sharp" and "Lean Mean Thirteen") and although it is a lot shorter than the regular Stephanie Plum books (and consequently lacks a lot of the detail and depth of these), I liked this book and "Visions of Sugar Plums" very much. In these two books, Evanovich takes a side-step away from reality and moves into a parallel universe where ordinary people and "Unmentionables" (those with supernatural powers, although don't expect the sort of superhumans that you find in comic books) co-exist. Given the larger than life nature of the Stephanie Plum books, this works really well and both of these books are a lot of fun (you can tell that Evanovich had a great time writing these books). In fact, in many ways they are better than the regular Plum books. I have felt that, recently, the Plum books have been running out of steam a bit, but these books bring something new to the series. I now eagerly look forward to reading Evanovich's next novella.
| | | This is a between books, novel. It may not be absolutely necessary to read this to complete the Stephanie Plum series, but it does give us insights into Stephanie's character as well as a deeper insight into other characters who are regulars in the series. It is a "stand alone" book, but I would recommend that it be read in the order in which it was witten.
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