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Mood: Sleepy ]
[ Currently: Breastfeeding my son. ]
A.K.A. Visions of Sugar Plums – A Not So Quick Review
Janet Evanovich has made herself richer than most of us by authoring the Stephanie Plum series. In it Stephanie is a mildly competant bounty hunter who tracks down the lower level FTAs for her cousin Vinnie’s bail bond service. Usually this involves some ridiculous, over the top capture scenes, like when one of the FTAs stripped naked and covered himself in vegetable oil to make it difficult to capture him.
These books are famous for several things: the number in the title (having done Ms. Grafton one better, she can keep writing these forever!!!); Stephanie’s ongoing love triangle with Morelli, the cop with commitment problems and Ranger, the bounty hunter who exudes sex; Stepanie’s car being destroyed (usually by an explosion); and the colourful cast of secondary characters, most notibly Stephanie’s Grandma Mazur.
This novella (the publisher is trying to pass it off as a novel – but I know a novella when I see it!) has Stephanie being startled by a man who suddenly appears in her kitchen. This man is tall, blonde and good looking. We should all be so lucky! His name is Diesel and he wants to help her find her new FTA Sandy Claws.
Where your mind went is where Evanovich wanted it to go. This story takes place at Christmas. There are elves, toyshops, cookies. There is even a scene where the elves use cookies to assault Stephanie in the toy factory. And you thought that stuff only happened in your dreams.
This story also differs from other Stephanie Plum novels in that there is a strong supernatural element to the story. This book, unlike the ones with numbers, is an urban fantasy. But this genre is not Evanovich’s strength. Rather, the suspension of disbelief required is a little much. The novella didn’t work for me. Evanovich should stick with her Keystone Cop inspired romance/mysteries.
Give this one a pass. Unless you are a huge, obsessive fan.