This was a fun little read during the holiday season. I've been meaning to check out one of her books for a while, but I hadn't quite gotten to it previously. When I came across this just after Thanksgiving I figured this was the perfect chance to finally check her out. Very easy, light read, which was perfect with the year we're all having. I can see her books as being perfect on vacation when you just want to snuggle into a book that drifts along easily. I look forward to reading more of her work in the future.

Santa's Workshop



This is a Stephanie Plum lite book. Most of the gang is here. There's a lot of the usual insanity that comes with her, her family, and Lula, along with some magic in a compacted setting with fewer twists.

Sandy Claws is her latest FTA (failure to appear, aka fugitive). I like her "partner," Diesel, who seems to have some... special... talents. Especially when it comes to locks. Hmm....

This series is like eating comfort food. Stephanie is NJ girl who has turned bail bondswoman constantly running into trouble. Is it possible she’s been sent to bring a toy maker in at Christmas?

First recorded read was August 14, 2009.

First in the Stephanie Plum Between the Numbers/Holiday Novels and falling in at 8.5 in the Stephanie Plum romantic suspense series revolving around a bounty hunter in Trenton, New Jersey. If you're interested, there is a chronological listing of the Stephanie Plum books on my website.

My Take
I remember the first time I read Visions of Sugar Plums. And it was disconcerting. Very little Joe. No Ranger. But a lot of Diesel. Enigmatic, mysterious, and very cheeky with a good heart.

n  

"'Diesel is an alien or something,' I said to Morelli. 'He appeared in my kitchen this morning.'

n  

'As long as he didn't spend the night,' Morelli said. He reached around me to a cookie tin, removed the lid, and selected a cookie."

n

Diesel is a new character (he now has his own series: Lizzy & Diesel) who will catch your interest if only for his forward sense of humor. He's definitely an alpha male, although more laid back than Ranger or Joe. He also has his own set of special powers. And he likes Stephanie's family!

Visions of Sugar Plums is, obviously, set during the holiday season. A time of stress and lots of family togetherness. It makes for a good peek in at Stephanie's totally disorganized background, lol.

n  

"How great is this?' Grandma said. 'If you marry Valerie we can celebrate some of those Jewish holidays. … Wait until I tell the girls at the beauty parlor that we might get a Jew in our family. Everyone's going to be jealous.'

n  

(This is followed by Stephanie's assessment of what her dad's thinking…)

n  

Not that he had anything against Jewish guys. It was that chances were slim to nonexistent that Kloughn was Italian."

n  

Which of course leads to Mom's reaction:

n  

'Maybe I need to put more cookies on the plate,' my mother said, pushing back from the table.

n  

One more cookie run and my mother was going to be passed out on the kitchen floor."

n

One review I read of this story bemoaned the lack of forward progress for the characters, that it all stayed the same. It does. This is a series that is good for laughs and its lighthearted approach. I adore how Stephanie's lower middle class life is celebrated — she's real as is her family. And Evanovich makes it too, too funny as well even as she hands out nuggets for thought.

n  

"'But she wants one. She'll hate me if I don't get her a pony. It'll ruin her Christmas.'

n  

Boy, I was really glad I had a hamster. I was planning on giving Rex a raisin for Christmas."

n

The Story
It's a different FTA than Stephanie is used to hunting down. This one causes electrical storms and melts plastic Santas.

The Characters
Stephanie Plum is a bumbling, well-meaning bounty hunter. Rex is her pet hamster. Dad tries to ignore everything around him — especially Grandma Mazur! Ellen is the perfect Burg mom and housewife: meals on the table at 6pm, complete to dessert, always a brownbag (Mom-packed, of course) to go home with her helpless daughter, and a vigilant eye out for Steph's father lunging for Grandma.

Valerie is her "perfect" sister who had to return home after her hubby absconded with the baby sitter and all their money (see n  Seven Upn, 7). Mary Alice and Angie are her daughters, well, technically anyway. Mary Alice thinks she's a horse. Albert Kloughn is an ambulance-chasing lawyer for whom Valerie works (and dates).

Diesel is a laidback hunk with "powers" including that of popping in and out and popping locks. We first met the midget, er, I mean, the little person, Randy Briggs, in n  High Fiven, 5, when he was an FTA.

Lula is her plus-size sometimes-partner with a big mouth and a blustering approach to life. She will crack you up. Connie Rosolli is the big-busted, mustachioed office manager for Vincent Plum Bail Bonds and the very efficient descendant of a Mob family. Mrs. Bestler is very retired and likes to play elevator operator in Stephanie's apartment building. Lorraine, Mr. Feinstein, and Mo Kleinschmidt are more elderly neighbors.

Detective Joe Morelli is Stephanie's on-again boyfriend with brief cameos — he's on a case. Carl Costanza and Big Dog are two cops Stephanie knows.

Sandy Claws, a.k.a., Sandor Clausen, has retired — hey, he lost his powers, so he might as well quit the game. Now he's making toys. Elaine Gluck is his cookie-making sister. Lester is Sandy's production manager. John Ring is also retired and is Sandy's nemesis. Seems he hasn't lost all his powers.

The Cover and Title
The cover of my book is bright green with raised gold lettering outlined in red for the author's name and the title with a tiny, hog-ridin' Santa ornament in leather jacket and Santa hat dangling from the "o" in Evanovich.

The title is what Stephanie has every Christmas, Visions of Sugar PlumsNow if only she could fulfill those visions…

Book 50 of my #2017readingchallenge is Janet Evanovich's Visions of Sugar Plums.

Welp.

Can't eat filet mignon every day, right? Yeah, I thought this would be campy and fun but there are questionable plot points about little people and also wth is up with the backstory of choo-choo as a 6 year old, I am seriously skeeved out.

SO. So.

Visions of Sugar Plums by Janet Evanovich is the perfect after-Christmas read. “Stephanie Plum needs to find a skip named Sandy Claws so she can buy presents for her family. A strange man named Diesel appears in her apartment. He is also looking for Sandy Claws (whose real name is Sandor Clausen) and a guy named Ring. Can Stephanie and Diesel save Christmas?”
Fans of Stephanie Plum will recognize Diesel. He appears in several of the Number books, but this is his first appearance with Plum. Lots of insane moments that we expect with Stephanie. And you know you’ve thought about parking like Lula at the mall. Another hilarious read from Evanovich.

Light, holiday read. Scenes of angry elves swarming Stephanie did make me laugh out loud.

Picked this up on a lark....very strange and dysfunctional, but funny and entertaining.

Stick to the series and not these extra books.

A cute little Christmas novella from the Stephanie Plum series. It's a quick, entertaining read, though I don't love that Evanovich changed the rules of reality in a series that, however ridiculous, normally exists squarely in the universe of the possible.

Silly and hilarious. Loved it!

This was a weird introduction to another world with Diesel. I knew Diesel and Lizzie have a series, but I didn't know anything about it. We have our usual characters. I've just finished Turbo 23 and wondering what has happened with Valerie? She is in this book, but I haven't heard about her for quite awhile now. Just trying to figure out if Stephanie is going from a triangle to a square...