Fearless Fourteen by Janet Evanovich

Title: Fearless Fourteen

Author: Janet Evanovich

# pages: 310

Date published: 2008

Genre: mystery

Challenge(s): Shelfari’s Readers in Thongs TBR Makeover Challenge

Rating:

(good)

Setting: Trenton, NJ aka “The Burg”

First Paragraph:

“In my mind, my kitchen is filled with crackers and cheese, roast chicken leftovers, farm fresh eggs, and coffee beans ready to grind. The reality is that I keep my Smith & Wesson in the cookie jar, my Oreos in the microwave, a jar of peanut butter and hamster food in the over-the-counter cupboard, and I have beer and olives in the refrigerator. I used to have a birthday cake in the freezer for emergencies, but I ate it.”

Synopsis: To get her latest skip to the jailhouse, Stephanie rashly promises to pick up the woman’s graffiti-writing, computer-game addicted, teenage son, Zook from school. Unfortunately for Stephanie, it takes a lot longer for Zook’s mother, Loretta, to come up with the bond money and Stephanie finds herself stuck with the kid. When Loretta’s brother finally does get her out of jail, she disappears—kidnapped by bank robbers looking for the nine million dollars they stole years ago. Stephanie needs to find the money in order to find Loretta and return Zook. A couple of other crazy story lines, including Lula deciding that it’s time for her and Tank to get married and Grandma Mazer getting hooked on Zook’s computer game, are thrown in as well.

Random Thoughts: Chock full of Evanovich’s regular crazy characters (Grandma Mazer and Lula, for the most part), hot men (Joe and Ranger—but mostly Joe in this book) and a few other nuts added to the mix, Fearless Fourteen is a cute, funny book. I always find these books to be great fast, fun reads that often make me laugh out loud.

A lot of Amazon reviewers seem to be disappointed in this latest Stephanie Plum novel, but I’m not really sure what they were expecting. It seems to me that their main complaint (other than there’s not enough Ranger) is that the story is a little scattered and that Stephanie seems too mature. Stephanie’s new-found maturity didn’t bother me at all. Neither did the absence of Ranger. It seems to me that Evanovich has switched between the two men in the past. I like both of them for different reasons. Fearless Fourteen was just another installment of crazy Stephanie escapades, in my opinion. There’s nothing deep or substantial about the book, but I don’t think Evanovich means for there to be—it’s just for pure fun. Since I went into the book basically looking for a fun read, I got just what I was looking for—a perfect light-hearted book for a hot, lazy, summer beach day.

Favorite scene: The blue dye.

Let’s give people a variety of opinions! If you've reviewed this book (or a book by this author), leave me a link to your review in the comments and I'll link to your review, too!