Review: HARD EIGHT

Hard Eight by Janet Evanovich
Book 8 of the Stephanie Plum series
Narrated by Lorelei King
Format: audiobook
Genre: crime fiction chicklit

About Hard Eight:

Fugitive Apprehension Agent Stephanie Plum has a big problem on her hands: Seven-year-old Annie Soder and her mother, Evelyn, have disappeared.

Evelyn's estranged husband, Steven, a shady owner of a seedy bar, is not at all happy. During the divorce proceedings, he and Evelyn signed a child custody bond, and Steven is demanding the money guaranteed by the bond to find Annie. The money was secured by a mortgage on Evelyn's grandmother's house, and the True Blue Bonds Bail Agency wants to take possession of the house.

Finding a kidnapped child is not an assignment for a bounty hunter. But Evelyn's grandmother lives next door to Stephanie's parents, and Stephanie's mother and grandmother are not about to see their neighbor lose her house because of abduction.

Even though Stephanie's plate is full with miscreants who missed their court dates, including old nemesis and violent drunk Andy Bender and an elusive little old lady accused of grand theft auto, she can't disappoint Grandma Mazur! So she follows the trail left by Annie and Evelyn-- and finds a lot more than she bargained for. Steven is somehow linked with a very scary Eddie Abruzzi. Trenton cop and on-again, off-again fiance Joe Morelli and Stephanie's mentor and tormentor, Ranger, warn Stephanie about Abruzzi, but it's Abruzzi's eyes and mannerisms that frighten Stephanie the most. Stephanie needs Ranger's savvy and expertise, and she's willing to accept his help to find Annie even though it might mean becoming too involved with Ranger.

Stephanie, Ranger, Lula (who's not going to miss riding with Ranger), and Evelyn's lawyer/laundromat manager set out to find Annie. The search turns out to be a race among Stephanie's posse, the True Blue Bonds' agent, a Rangerette known as Jeanne Ellen Burrows, and the Abruzzi crew. Not to mention the fact that there's a killer rabbit on the loose!

Strap on your helmet and get ready for the ride of your life. Hard Eight. The world of Plum has never been wilder.

Source: Info in the About Hard Eight was taken from at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6425.Hard_Eight on 21/10/2012.

Review:

I have to tip my metaphorical hat to Lorelei King! She's a true professional! Words are clear and distinct. Diction, pauses and enunciations perfect. I especially like the accents and voices she gives the characters! And I also agree with her interpretation of the book! I would listen and buy another Lorelei King audiobook again.

So I was a bit disappointed with the last book in this series so I stopped listening to Stephanie Plum for a while and picked up another audiobook. After sometime, I forgot my ire and re-listened to this audiobook again simply because it was already loaded into my Samsung phone. Eventually I finished the book... Stephanie's stupid factor increased tenfold in this book so much so that it is no longer believable, no matter one does, that a being this stupid could live. Not even with sheer dumb luck. Stephanie is just too stupid to live! So you go apprehend somebody, and you leave the key in the ignition?? Not once, but twice! And guess what? The FTA (failure to appear) drives away with your CRV... The stupidity is reaching new heights that it sank the believability factor down to the bottom of the ocean! If you are going to read/listen to this book, read it/listen to it for the humour, not for the story nor the story telling quality. Because otherwise you will be bitterly disappointed.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 2
Character development = 2
Story itself = 2
Ending = 3
World building = 3.5
Cover art = 1
Pace = N/A
Plot = 1.5
Narrator = 4

Overall Rating: 2 out of 5 cherries

Review: SEVEN UP

Seven Up by Janet Evanovich
Book 7 of the Stephanie Plum series
Narrated by Tanya Eby
Format: audiobook
Genre: crime fiction chicklit

About Seven Up:

In SEVEN UP, Stephanie Plum is dropped into a smorgasbord of murder, kidnapping, and extortion - a magnificent buffet of fast cars, fast men and fast food. Stephanie Plum think she's going after an easy FTA: a senior citizen charged with smuggling contraband cigarettes. But when she and Lula show up at his house, they get more than they bargained for - a corpse in the woodshed and an old man on the lam. Stephanie's mind is on other matters, however, because she has two proposals to consider: vice cop Joe Morelli is proposing marriage, and fellow bounty hunter Ranger is proposing a single perfect night . . .

Source: Info in the About Seven Up was taken from at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15459067-seven-up on 01/10/2012.

Review:

Tanya Eby is a new narrator to me and it took a bit of getting used to after having listened to CJ Critt for the last six books.

Like the previous books in this series, Seven Up also started off slow but picked up halfway through and speeded up all the way to the end. I already knew this pattern from previous books so I persevered for the first half of the book knowing that I would have a rocking good time towards the end and this book, in a way, did.

This series has never failed to give me "laugh-out-loud" moments except this book. That was a bit of a downer! This series lost a lot of brownie points because of that. Because the humour between the pages is this series' greatest asset and that failed in this book.

The cover art though, both on the audiobook and print, remained obnoxiously boring!

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 3
Character development = 3.5
Story itself = 2
Ending = 3
World building = 3.5
Cover art = 1
Pace = N/A
Plot = 3.5
Narrator = 3.5

Overall Rating: 2.5 out of 5 cherries

Review: HOT SIX

Hot Six by Janet Evanovich
Book 6 of the Stephanie Plum series
Narrated by CJ Critt
Format: audiobook
Genre: crime fiction chicklit

About Hot Six:

Low-rent bounty hunter Stephanie Plum reaches depths of personal experience that other women detectives never quite do. In Hot Six, for example, a sequence of new and hideous cars bite the dust; she finds herself lumbered with a policeman's multiply incontinent dog; and she has several bad skin days. All this when she is trying to prove her distinctly more competent colleague and occasional boyfriend Ranger innocent of a mob hit; avoid the heavies trailing her in the hope of finding him; and cope with a wife-abusing bail defaulter with nasty habits, such as setting Stephanie on fire. The peculiar joy of this series is the comic sense of place; Plum's New Jersey is one where everyone you meet, even the most dangerous of criminals, was at school with you, or stole your mother's first boyfriend, or gave your great-aunt a middling good recipe for meatloaf. Evanovich has built up an attractive cast of comic characters with Stephanie's extended family and those of her two boyfriends, the dashing and sinister Ranger and Joe Morelli (the cop whose family are only too keen on his marrying Stephanie).

Source: Info in the About Hot Six was taken from at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6858.Hot_Six on 25/09/2012.

Review:

This is the book which made me stop listening to this series. At least for a while until I got over my annoyance at Stephanie's stupidity. In previous books, Stephanie was stupid but not as stupid as in this book. Here she was just too stupid to live (TSTL)! Anyway, not much going on in this book, just another Stephanie Plum installment. More of the same. However it is in this book that we see more action between Stephanie, Morelli and Ranger. Now that love triangle alone is intriguing enough to rev up interest in this series. But I think the biggest recommendation of this book is that if you read this book then you will understand subsequent events in this series better. And that's it! I haven't got much else to say about this book.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 2.5
Character development = 2
Story itself = 2
Ending = 3
World building = 2.5
Cover art = 1
Pace = N/A
Plot = 2
Narrator = 4

Overall Rating: 2 out of 5 cherries

Review: HIGH FIVE

High Five by Janet Evanovich
Book 5 of the Stephanie Plum series
Narrated by CJ Critt
Format: audiobook
Genre: crime fiction chicklit

About High Five:

"Uncle Fred was someone I saw at weddings and funerals and once in a while at Giovichinni's Meat Market, ordering a quarter pound of olive loaf. Eddie Such, the butcher, would have the olive loaf on the scale and Uncle Fred would say, 'You've got the olive loaf on a piece of waxed paper. How much does that piece of waxed paper weigh? You're not gonna charge me for that waxed paper, are you? I want some money off for the waxed paper.'"

The speaker is Stephanie Plum, the glamorous if slightly ditzy bounty hunter from Trenton, New Jersey, and one of the most original creations in recent mystery fiction.

In this fifth entry in Janet Evanovich's increasingly popular series, Stephanie's problems are many and varied. She's not making enough money picking up FTAs (Failures to Appear) for her cousin Vinnie, of Vincent Plum Bail Bonds; her red-hot love affair with Detective Joe Morelli has cooled off; and her giant extended family is no help at all. For instance, Uncle Fred the cheapskate has disappeared, leaving behind some suspicious photographs of body parts in garbage bags and links to some really dangerous people.

When Stephanie turns to her friend and mentor, Ranger, for financial advice, he gets her involved in a gang of toughs doing instant evictions for landlords. (She complains to Ranger about the job and its dangers, prompting one of the hired thug to say, "Man, you don't like to get shot. You don't like to get arrested. You don't know how to have fun at all.")

Most of Stephanie's charm, of course, comes from her attitude--a combination of the brazen bravado that turns a failed lingerie buyer into a bounty hunter in the first place and the normal fears of a person in over her head.

Source: Info in the About High Five was taken from at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6423.High_Five on 24/09/2012.

Review:

I know that Stephanie's being too stupid to live (TSTL) is part of her character and her charm but it is still annoying. So you have a known crazy stalker recently released from the prison you helped put him in to and you don't tell the police and go into major denial, with the misguided notion that it will all go away if you work hard enough at denial. Then you proceed to ignore sensible security precautions. And when that crazy, sadistic stalker finally catches up with you, you get all surprised and ask "why me?!".... and that is our kick-ass heroine. You know, for some strange reason I find it hard to identify with this heroine... I wonder why... Oh yes, I know! Stephanie is also a doormat without a spine! An ex-FTA comes to her door insisting on rooming in at her apartment with or without her consent and she gets angry but buys him coffee in the morning. A total dumbshit TSTL is one thing. A spineless doormat to boot? Anybody can run roughshod over her... Can't be a real person. I'm sorry, but nobody is just this dumb and live to be 20-something. Drops the suspension of disbelief down to the boots! But, see... this is the thing, no matter how low the suspension of disbelief drops down to, this book made me laugh, I weed myself! I laughed so hard I can't breathe and it became painful. Now not a lot of books achieves that! And so for the humour alone, can't give this book a less than two rating! If nothing else, don't read this book for the story, read this book for the humour! Somebody wise said once that laughter is the best medicine... oh, whoever that person was, he/she must not have been too wise 'coz if I had a weak heart, I'd be dead by now. Literally! Yeah, it was that funny!!

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 3.5
Character development = 2
Story itself = 1.5
Ending = 3.5
World building = 2
Cover art = 1
Pace = N/A (9.75 hrs listening time)
Plot = 2
Narrator = 4

Overall Rating: 2 out of 5 cherries

Review: FOUR TO SCORE

Four to Score by Janet Evanovich
Book 4 of the Stephanie Plum series
Narrated by CJ Critt
Format: audiobook
Genre: crime fiction chicklit

About Four to Score:

Janet Evanovich, bestselling author of One for the Money, Two for the Dough, and Three to Get Deadly, scores big with Four to Score, her most thrilling Stephanie Plum adventure yet. Working for her bail bondsman cousin, Vinnie, Stephanie is hot on the trail of revenge-seeking waitress Maxine Nowicki, whose crimes include bail jumping, theft, and extortion. Someone is terrifying Maxine's friends, and those who have seen her are turning up dead. Also on the hunt for Maxine is Joyce Barnhardt, Stephanie's archenemy and rival bounty hunter. Stephanie's attitude never wavers - even when aided by Grandma Mazur, ex-hooker and wannabe bounty hunter Lula, and transvestite rock musician Sally Sweet - and even when Stephanie makes an enemy whose deadly tactics escalate from threatening messages to firebombs. All of this pales in comparison, though, with an even greater danger Stephanie faces, when, homeless and broke, she and her hamster Rex move in with vice cop Joe Morelli.

Source: Info in the About Four to Score was taken from at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6422.Four_to_Score on 23/09/2012.

Narrative Evaluation:

I stopped listening to this series for a bit because I actually got tired of Stephanie's antics. Yeah, after sometime it loses its funny-ness. It became more like a "too stupid to live" than funny. Or maybe I was just in a grumpy slump... Anyway, I picked this series up again after crying over The Host by Stephanie Meyer and now it is funny again. So be warned, this book made me laugh out loud but not everybody may see the humour. But it made me laugh and that's what counts! I am also finding that this is one of those serieses where it is like wine, the more books you read of it, the more it grows on you. This series seems to be ageing well!

I also like CJ Critt's narration. The words are clear and distinct. Her diction is good and not only do I like her interpretation, I agree with it! The only thing is, her breathing becomes distinctly audible specially when she gets tired (or I recon when she gets tired) which gets obvious every now and then. However, I can overlook that for the good reading that she does!

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 3.5
Character development = 4.5
Story itself = 3.5
Ending = 4
World building = 4.5
Cover art = 1
Pace = N/A (9 hrs and 36 mins listening time)
Plot = 3.5
Narrator = 4

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 cherries

Review: THREE TO GET DEADLY

Three To Get Deadly by Janet Evanovich
Book 3 of the Stephanie Plum series
Narrated by CJ Critt
Format: audiobook
Genre: crime fiction chicklit

About Three To Get Deadly:

A "saintly" old candy-store owner is on the lam - and bounty hunter extraordinaire Stephanie Plum is on the case. As the body count rises, Stephanie finds herself dealing with dead drug dealers and slippery fugitives on the chase of her life. And with the help of eccentric friends and family, Steph must see to it that this case doesn't end up being her last...

Source: Info in the About Three To Get Deadly was taken from at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6854.Three_to_Get_Deadly on 15/07/2012.

Narrative Evaluation:

I actually had to re-borrow this audiobook because I got irritated when I first listened to it and stopped listening about three quarters into the book. I know that Stephanie's stupidity is suppose to be part of her character and part of her charm, but its starting to get on my nerves. Then after a few months, I forgot my annoyance and re-borrowed this book. And I enjoyed listening to it again! I don't know whether I was just being cranky the first time around and being mellow the second time around that resulted in me enjoying it now, but, I laughed out loud at Stephanie's and Lola's antics again. Not once, not twice, but many times as I listened along. That considerably increased the rating for this book. I think the humour between the pages is this book's best feature. While the worst is the cover art. If I hadn't read this series before I would never in a million years pick this book up based on the cover alone! But at the end of it, I enjoyed this book and would continue to read more books in this series. I think I am on my way to becoming a die hard fan of Stephanie Plum!

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 3.5
Character development = 4.5
Story itself = 3.5
Ending = 4
World building = 4.5
Cover art = 1
Pace = N/A (9 discs)
Plot = 3.5
Narrator = 4

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 cherries


Thank you to RCT Library for letting me borrow this audiobook!!

FTC Disclosure:
This audiobook was borrowed from the library. No money received for this review.