So.....I'm doing this Book Blogger Bingo Challenge. And one of the categories for crossing of Bingo squares is "Read X number of books that everyone but you has read"....that led me to One for the Money by Janet Evanovich. 'Cause I've been hearing people talk about those books for-ev-er. The ladies who work with my husband all love them. When he talks about how much his wife reads and how much she likes mysteries, they all ask him, "Has Bev read any of the Stephanie Plum books yet?...No?! Oh, she has to try them!" And up till now I've been all, "No. Thanks. Really. No." The neon covers on most of the series turned me off. I'm really picky about the more modern mysteries I read. The synopses just really didn't do a whole lot for me. So I figured I was better off in my own little world of vintage mysteries. But....given the Bingo catergory...I thought: What the heck--if I'm ever going to try one of the Evanovich novels it might as well be now. Who knows, I might even like it. Um. Yeah. No. Thanks. Really. No. I hate telling myself I told you so--but, self, I told you so. This is SO not my kind of book. That's not to say that it's not your kind of book. And certainly there's an awful lot of people (women in particular) who love this series and can't get enough of it. One of my good friends thinks they're great and she's a pretty smart cookie, so there has to be something to these things. Just not for me.
Stephanie Plum doesn't do much for me as a heroine. I don't connect with her at all--from her trying to run over her former lover to her blackmail of her cousin about his affairs and relations that involve a duck (what the heck?!) to her taking on a job that she has absolutely ZERO qualifications for. Nora Roberts in a blurb on the back of the book wants to stick Stephanie in the ranks with Kinsey Millhone. I'm not even a major Millhone fan and I think that's an insult to Kinsey. The writing itself seems to be to be cotton candy for the brain. Too much of it makes Bev a sick girl. Too much in this case would be ten pages at a time. Now, if I have to put the book down repeatedly after reading only ten pages, then something is wrong. I'm sorry, but this is unreadable for me...and therefore unratable. I'm claiming it for the Bingo challenge because I think I deserve some sort of reward for trying to read the darn thing.
I appreciate your efforts, Bev. Your suffering has convinced me never to try the series as well. It sounds horrendous. Thanks for taking the hit for me!
ReplyDeleteMy sister-in-law finds these to be enjoyable light reading and the one I borrowed from her prety much lived up to it - I found perfectly amusing but completely forgettable the second I put it away - amazing to think these are so incredibly popular though ... Thansk Bev.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I suspect this would so not be my thing -- your comments confirmed it!
ReplyDeleteMy pleasure, Steve. Glad to take the hit for you. :-)
ReplyDeleteWhen I read the first one of these, shortly after it came out, I thought it was hilarious. I even read a few more. But the series just continued to be the same plot (and often unappealing characters) over and over, so I did give up on it. Although I may read #9, since I still have it. This may be an insult to Kinky Friedman mysteries, but I compare it to that series, because they don't have much of a mystery. The supposed mystery is just an excuse for the story. Which, in the Kinky books, is a more worthwhile read.
ReplyDeleteI'm happy to see that I am not the only one to not like these books. I read all the praise and thought I was weird, well I am, but not with these books.
ReplyDeleteThanks.
I tried to read the these books, I got about one third of the way through the first one and gave up. I am glad to hear that I am not the only to not enjoy the books.
ReplyDeleteI'm the exception here I suppose since I loved these early books and often laughed until I cried while reading. One time I fell off the sofa laughing so hard.
ReplyDeleteBut then I live in New Jersey. The humor in these books is definitely of the Joisey kind.
I laughed my head off when Stephanie drove her car over her ex and broke his leg. Not because I'd laugh in real life, but realism intended here. It's all inner city fantasy and fast-talking nonsense told in a kind of weisenheimer girly way.
It either appeals to you or it doesn't as in your case Bev and reading the comments I see that many do agree with you. Just thought I'd add my own two cents to the mix.
P.S. The 'duck' thing always struck me as the sort of absurd something Cousin Vinnie might actually do. He is a lowlife after all. Ha!
I can't help it, I laughed my head off in the first three or four books. Later on they do get repetitious. True.
Oh, and I'd pick Ranger. Ha!