I promise this is the last round of Stephanie Plum reviews for a few days! I’m was officially back on hold at the library waiting for book 13, so I thought I would get the last of my reviews up while I wait! Luckily book 13 is in and I’m finishing up another book quickly before I get started!
There are a lot of reviews that say you don’t need to read the Between the Plum books. To be honest, you really don’t. In Visions of Sugar Plums
Anyways, in Plum Lovin’
Diesel pops back into Stephanie’s life (literally) and has a mission for her. One of her FTA’s Annie Hart is a friend of Diesels and taking cover at his house. Another “unmentionable” is out to get Annie so Diesel promises Stephanie that she can take Annie in once the unmentionable is out of the way. In the mean time, Stephanie needs to get Annie’s clients (as she is a relationship expert) all settled to have a good Valentine’s Day.
In this book Morelli is out of town, Ranger is out of town but Ranger tells her he needs to talk to her when he gets back. It is a conversation we don’t see play out so I’m hoping it is addressed in book 13.
Stephanie gets the pawn shop owner to confess to faking the robbery that landed Annie in jail. She calls it into Morelli then goes on the hunt for Annie who has since disappeared.
Valerie drops another bomb (just like in the last .5 book) & winds up with a surprise ending thanks to Stephanie’s relationship expertise she is learning from Annie.
I was enjoying some of the plot twists that this book brought about when it came to Stephanie’s sister Valerie. It will develop into yet another interesting storyline with her. These definitely don’t need to be read to keep up with the series itself but I’m enjoying them because it’s a nice quick read (about half as long as the regular books… hence the .5) and you still get to continue on with your favorite characters.
Since the book was about Valentine’s Day I had hoped to see more play out with her relationships. Granted, we did get SOME answers at the end, but they did also leave a little level of mystery to them. My FAVORITE couple in the book was Lula and Tank. It resulted in my favorite part of the book:
“Thank the Lord I got you,” Lula said. “You’re not gonna believe this one, and don’t hang up because this is my one phone call.”
…What are the charges?” “Destruction of personal property and tying a idiot’s dick in a knot. And Tank’s here, too.”
…“Ranger’s not going to off Tank.” I suspected Ranger would privately think the whole jail thing was pretty funny.
Evanovich, Janet Plum Lovin’
Overall I would give it 3 stars. I love the characters and I’m grateful for the book to continue my marathon of reading from the long weekend, BUT I would prefer more detailed books and to be completely honest more Ranger/Morelli banter.
The Between the Plums are a little bit odd and a little quirky but I don’t mind them since they’re a quick and easy read. Just make sure to read the rest of the books too.