Sunday, December 19, 2010

Plum Lucky by Janet Evanovich

Book Details
Plum Lucky by Janet Evanovich
Hardcover, 176 Pages
2008, St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 0312377630
Series: Book 13.5 of Stephanie Plum

Synopsis
Looking to get lucky?

Stephanie Plum is back between-the-numbers and she’s looking to get lucky in an Atlantic City hotel room, in a Winnebago, and with a brown-eyed stud who has stolen her heart.

Stephanie Plum has a way of attracting danger, lunatics, oddballs, bad luck . . . and mystery men. And no one is more mysterious than the unmentionable Diesel. He’s back and hot on the trail of a little man in green pants who’s lost a giant bag of money. Problem is, the money isn’t exactly lost. Stephanie’s Grandma Mazur has found it, and like any good Jersey senior citizen, she’s hightailed it in a Winnebago to Atlantic City and hit the slots. With Lula and Connie in tow, Stephanie attempts to bring Grandma home, but the luck of the Irish is rubbing off on everyone: Lula’s found a job modeling plus-size lingerie. Connie’s found a guy. Diesel’s found Stephanie. And Stephanie has found herself in over her head with a caper involving thrice-stolen money, a racehorse, a car chase, and a bad case of hives.

Plum Lucky is an all-you-can-eat buffet of thrills, chills, shrimp cocktail, plus-size underwear, and scorching hot men. It’s a between-the-numbers treat no Evanovich fan will want to miss! 

Review
I think the Stephanie Plum series works so well for me because I was born and raised in New Jersey. Even when the story gets a little repetitive (blown up car anyone?), Stephanie's always going somewhere I know. Janet Evanovich's descriptions of these places are so funnily (and occasionally sadly) accurate that I get sucked right into the story, sometimes despite the less than thrilling mystery.

In Plum Lucky, Stephanie heads down to Atlantic City on a hunt for the missing Grandma Mazur. The first half of this short book, set in Atlantic City, was wonderful. Grandma's doing the senior in a casino thing. Lula has a potential career as a plus sized model. Diesel is incredibly lucky, or just really good at cheating. Even Randy Briggs is back and doing pretty well with the ladies.

Once the gang returns to Trenton, the story starts to feel like same old, same old. Grandma Mazur is kidnapped (as opposed to it always being Stephanie) and the search for her lacks the humor we've come to expect from the Plum series. More and more often the situations Stephanie finds herself in are mob related. Perhaps this is the Sopranos effect, but not everyone in Jersey has an interest in or can relate to the mafia angle.

Stephanie doesn't have the kind of chemistry with Diesel that she does with Ranger and the scenes that should be hot feel forced. There is no will they or won't they possibility between them.

Plum Lucky is a good book, but I probably would have liked it more if the characters remained in Atlantic City the entire time. There's a limit to how much stuff you can blow up in Trenton and I think Stephanie may have finally hit it.

Rating

Links
Janet Evanovich's
Website
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