Ah, I posted this on 10/4/04, wow, three years ago. A good time to re-post it since she just wrote Plum Lovin. A Stephanie Plum, Sexual Interlude. Of sorts.
Goodbye, Stephanie Plum.
There once was a novice bounty hunter who tried to learn her trade. She was clueless about guns and her cars kept blowing up on her. She is the ever bubbly, too stupid- for- my-own good -Stephanie Plum from the ‘burg! Don’t get me wrong - this series initially was funny. You had an out of work - just laid off heroine who desperately needed a job to keep paying her rent. Cousin Vinnie whose sexual escapades are rather disturbing and dubious at best - reluctantly gives her a job - hey, she’s family. It was funny watching her make mistakes left and right - bumbling her way through her bond apprehensions. However, I did have some hope that should get better at her job. Bad me for thinking that.
The people she apprehended were interesting. Her lover and sometimes partner in crime - vice cop, Joe Morelli often has to help her out of a jam and school her on the finer points of detective work. You would think that Stephanie would get better at this bounty hunter stuff after 10 books - but no. In fact, she is even more clueless and still has cars blowing up on her. The same ole cookie cutter formula.
Now, it’s 2007…..and she’s still writing the same ole shit with an even slimmer page count. Stephanie Plum has become so popular these days that she deserves a vacation from the guys with this latest release, Plum Lovin. Glancing at the reader reviews at Amazon.com, I guess it’s safe to say that not all of your fans are so easily won over by Stephanie’s bubbly charm alone. What’s missing like character development and plot really are necessary if your trying to write a book to sell to market for $16.95 with a 175 page count that uses wide margins with slightly bigger font than usual. I know that most publishers don’t count on us noticing that kind of thing but we do.
So, Good-bye Stephanie Plum. You were funny for a little while (like the first three books).
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{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
hey, i just want to say that i love the serious. i just found this website and i was reading it and i just wanted to say i don’t agree with everything you say. for one the book plum lovin is meant to be a between the novles books so it’s suppose to be short and keep you occupated while she is writing the other real books. i understand that some of the books are similar but that is what makes them a serious so she can’t just hop around to totally different theme, from the books before. i also think all the books are great maybe 13 wasn’t the best but it was still great. anyway i just thought that people should know that the books are not that bad!so you should read them!
I quit this series after book 6, but I have bought them until book 10 I think. I guess it’s hard to just completely stop a series T_T Esp. if you liked it. I really liked the beginning, but I’m a one-woman, one-man girl and so as soon as the love triangle was confirmed, I was off… it’s way too sad… and I’m sorry to say this, but releasing books like Plum Lovin is just ripping off fans.
Heh, I stopped reading Stephanie Plum after the third book because while I DID enjoy the first three, it was during the third book that I realized I’d basically read the same story three times. Well, I at least felt like I’d read the same story three times. lol. It’s really a shame Evanovich isn’t concerned with character development because I think it could have been a really interesting series if she had been. But no matter how funny something starts out, the same story again and again, with none of the characters changing just wears on my nerves.
Well, Cindy, can you blame Evanovich for sticking with a winning formula? She makes the NYT list for each and every book. She doesn’t want to mess with the success of her series. However, the sameness and the direction of the series turned me off big time. She’s still funny but it’s just not my thing anymore. I really miss her books, too as she could really make you laugh but the story structure, character assasinations especially what she did with Ranger makes me never to want to read her books again. Evah.
Hey Kailana: well I loved Tough for the Dough and Three to Get Deadly. I thought Four to Score was mediocre, loved High Five, Hated Hot Six and the rest I just didn’t bother trying to read. Hee. More than you wanted to know, I’m sure.
First, I really like your header. Very pretty!
Second, I have only read the first Stephanie Plum book. I think I am the only one in creation anymore that hasn’t read passed that. I own book two, but I haven’t read it. Just not my thing. But I know lots of people that love them. They post pics of their bookshelves and they have them all in hardcover, while the rest of them are soft. To me, it sounds like Laurell Hamilton, she thinks that the fans are so loyal that she can do whatever she wants and people will keep buying. I guess only time will tell! I just know that I can probably take her annoying cluelessness for like a couple of books before I start wishing for some brains!
I left after Book Eleven. Enjoyed Book Ten, which was widely disliked, and then myself disliked Book Eleven, which got fairly good reviews. I would have pigeonholed them as humorous writing, rather than romance.
And if Evanovich is writing humour, I’m not sure character development is a prerequisite - Wodehouse’s Bertie Wooster springs to mind as an entirely clueless, non-aging character who remains very funny through a large number of books.
I know you know but just in case.
I just *don’t* like knowing that an author was just playing with me the whole time. cindyS
I thought books 3 to 6 (or 7) were her best in the ‘laughing so hard I couldn’t breathe’ kind of way. When I saw what Renee mentioned I was furious in that she will never have Stephany pick between Morelli or Ranger. Then WTF am I doing with my time then!!??
Ooops. Sorry, I just like knowing that an author was just playing with me the whole time. Too bad to, because I would have liked to see some sort of resolution but I’m officially done.
These series authors have to learn that phoning in the same crap day and day is going to get them burned. Okay, I haven’t read a JAK or Quick in years but the familiarity of the stories was what finally forced me to move on.
And they say romance is formulific. (Is that a word)
Sorry for spewing all my crap on your comment board - you are far better than I for leaving with dignity ;) CindyS
I started the Plum Lovin’ and put it down - I was hopin’ for not so much Bob and a little more Morelli [sigh].
Never cared for the triangle and I blame her for the lack of Ranger’s elusiveness. His character was no longer interesting to me when he started having feelings for Stephanie. Plus, I’m in the Morelli camp, too. I loved Ranger…but from afar. Oh, well. All good things must come to an end. Thanks for that bit of news Renee, as I had no idea that Evanovich stated that Stephanie would never age. That would makes things rather stagnant, would it not? For a series that was already stagnant.
I said goodbye to Stephanie in the last book Twelve Sharp. When Evanovich was interviewed at the end of that BOT she said that Stephanie will always be the same age, I realized that things will never change. She will not mature or she keep doing stupid stuff and the love triange will not be resolved. I’m done.
I’m not quite ready to give up on her yet - but - I’ll wait and get them used and I don’t want to read any of them that aren’t part of the number series. I’m afraid she’s on a bit of thin ice with me until a few things change. The triangle for example!
This is the best “I’m not reading this series no more” review evah!