I got my copy of Janet's new book, Finger Lickin Fifteen, yesterday!! I was good and did all my work before I started to read it, but then decided to stay up late and finish it.
I adore the Plum numbered series and own at least one copy of all of the other 14. They are the books I reread over and over again because they are funny, clever, engaging and just plain fun to read. Some are better than others, but pretty much I reread all of the fourteen now and again. I have also bought the Kindle version of a couple of them so I can take them with me.
Unfortunately, I stayed up late reading not because the book was so wonderful I couldn't put it down, but because it was so not good that I just had to finish it to see if there were any redeeming qualities in it. Happily, there were, but...
15 is bad. It's not clever, it's not witty, it's not fun. I don't even LIKE the characters - Stephanie, Lula, Joe, Ranger, Connie, Grandma Mazur. None of them are interesting, engaging, funny...nothing. All of her characters talk and act, well, completely out of character in this one. The words "vulgar" [defined: lacking refinement or cultivation or taste] and "boorish" [defined: ill-mannered and coarse] kept spinning through my mind while reading - totally the opposite of what I usually think about her dialogue, character development & story. While some of her characters are unrefined, ill-mannered and coarse, that's what makes them so great usually...they are at least funny and interesting - not so this time round! The interactions aren't believable and they're all b-o-r-i-n-g and totally feel like they aren't even themselves.
Hell, Ranger and Joe aren't even remotely sexy in this one - now that's just plain wrong.
She's also dumped the potentially fabulous gay couple who bought Stiva's Funeral Home and the new owner isn't even worth mentioning at all. The new characters that are in 15 suck. Flat, boring...don't care about them at all.
And frankly, I didn't care about the main characters either. If this was the first one of the series I picked up and read, I wouldn't bother reading any of the others.
Almost the whole book feels like someone else wrote it instead of Janet. Or it's some sort of very rough draft where the basic idea is there but she couldn't be bothered actually writing or thinking.
Some of the book looks like it was simply lifted out of previous books in the series - almost verbatim - and just stuck in there as padding.
The setting has real potential but it's treated as if "well, it has to be set somewhere so I'll plonk it here and kinda give a lick and a promise to it, ho hum, have I written enough words for my publisher yet?" There are two running storylines and both could have really pulled me in and made me fall into Evanovich's New Jersey. Instead I was bored and wondering why she even bothered. Clearly to meet a deadline and a contractual obligation coz it sure wasn't written for her fans.
There are a couple of really good bits tucked in closer to the end of the book (I think I had one minor giggle in all of the first ten chapters) and when I hit those my hope was renewed and I thought "ah, here's what I needed" ... but after a couple of paragraphs the book tanked again. These good bits did raise my rating from half a star to a full star
I'm disappointed, I look forward to her new books a lot as they usually give me a lot of pleasure and my hubby loves them, too. There was SO much potential in this book but it's a dud. Oh well, bring on 16 next year
I adore the Plum numbered series and own at least one copy of all of the other 14. They are the books I reread over and over again because they are funny, clever, engaging and just plain fun to read. Some are better than others, but pretty much I reread all of the fourteen now and again. I have also bought the Kindle version of a couple of them so I can take them with me.
Unfortunately, I stayed up late reading not because the book was so wonderful I couldn't put it down, but because it was so not good that I just had to finish it to see if there were any redeeming qualities in it. Happily, there were, but...
15 is bad. It's not clever, it's not witty, it's not fun. I don't even LIKE the characters - Stephanie, Lula, Joe, Ranger, Connie, Grandma Mazur. None of them are interesting, engaging, funny...nothing. All of her characters talk and act, well, completely out of character in this one. The words "vulgar" [defined: lacking refinement or cultivation or taste] and "boorish" [defined: ill-mannered and coarse] kept spinning through my mind while reading - totally the opposite of what I usually think about her dialogue, character development & story. While some of her characters are unrefined, ill-mannered and coarse, that's what makes them so great usually...they are at least funny and interesting - not so this time round! The interactions aren't believable and they're all b-o-r-i-n-g and totally feel like they aren't even themselves.
Hell, Ranger and Joe aren't even remotely sexy in this one - now that's just plain wrong.
She's also dumped the potentially fabulous gay couple who bought Stiva's Funeral Home and the new owner isn't even worth mentioning at all. The new characters that are in 15 suck. Flat, boring...don't care about them at all.
And frankly, I didn't care about the main characters either. If this was the first one of the series I picked up and read, I wouldn't bother reading any of the others.
Almost the whole book feels like someone else wrote it instead of Janet. Or it's some sort of very rough draft where the basic idea is there but she couldn't be bothered actually writing or thinking.
Some of the book looks like it was simply lifted out of previous books in the series - almost verbatim - and just stuck in there as padding.
The setting has real potential but it's treated as if "well, it has to be set somewhere so I'll plonk it here and kinda give a lick and a promise to it, ho hum, have I written enough words for my publisher yet?" There are two running storylines and both could have really pulled me in and made me fall into Evanovich's New Jersey. Instead I was bored and wondering why she even bothered. Clearly to meet a deadline and a contractual obligation coz it sure wasn't written for her fans.
There are a couple of really good bits tucked in closer to the end of the book (I think I had one minor giggle in all of the first ten chapters) and when I hit those my hope was renewed and I thought "ah, here's what I needed" ... but after a couple of paragraphs the book tanked again. These good bits did raise my rating from half a star to a full star
I'm disappointed, I look forward to her new books a lot as they usually give me a lot of pleasure and my hubby loves them, too. There was SO much potential in this book but it's a dud. Oh well, bring on 16 next year
