Things are steaming up with Stephanie and Morelli in this one.
We meet a drag queen and add to the gang.
Grandma Mazur takes her .44 to Atlantic City.
Two cars one cigarette (not to be confused with 2 girls 1 cup) results in one hell of a car fire.
Oh and an apartment fire.
You just never know what you’re going to get involved in!

This is technically my second time reading this book. I read it several years ago but I never actually reviewed it. I needed a book for a Goodreads challenge and it fit so I decided to read it again.

There is just something about a Janet Evanovich book. You can't not love it.

Stephanie
Stephanie is the most unlikely bounty hunter there has ever been. She stumbles and bumbles her way around and usually does catch her man. Just not in her personal life. She has two men very determined to bed her but not marry her. I love this little love triangle that is happening. She also has this kooky family. Her mom is in denial, her grandmother is cray cray and her dad hides from it all. LOL!

Morelli
What is not to love about Morelli? The hot playboy cop is every woman's dream. He is a bit clueless about women and his feelings as well. His family is just as kooky as hers. His grandmother Bella is just as kooky as her grandmother and uses her "evil eye" to get her way.

Ranger
I am a little bit disappointed with the amount of time Ranger gets in this book. He is sexy as sin and I love his banter with Stephanie. His attempts to get her to sleep with him are legendary and I think I only read one attempt in this book. So sad. I want more Ranger!

Lula
I love Lula. She is crazy and she knows it. I love the scenes in the book where she goes as Stephanie's backup. She always has a big gun and ready to take someone down. You can't help but love her character.

Sally
Now Sally is an unusual character. He is great at solving puzzles and is always up for helping the girls track down someone. You can't help but love his character either. He is larger than life, that's for sure.

the ending
I loved the ending. The tattoos were an awesome touch to the story and I have to say those three ladies were creative. I have a few more in the series that I want to read now that my intrigue of this series has been renewed. This book is full of laugh out loud fun and you can't go wrong with any of this series.

Four to Score by Janet Evanovich is the 4th Stephanie Plum novel. Bounty hunter Stephanie Plum is assigned t bring in Maxine Nowicki who is charged with stealing her boyfriends car and becomes targeted by a crazed fire bomber as well as a counterfeit ring. Another fun, light read with plenty of action and laughs. I love all the characters and their eccentricities and various talents. Always have a fun time with this series.

Many people love this series, to me it's just one of these nice reads.

Stephanie is given a new task, she has to find Maxine, a girl accused of stealing her boyfriend's car. Seemingly easy task, turns out to be much more difficult since no one saw Maxine for few days. Stephanie will need some help from her friends while also meeting some new interesting people. Soon catching Maxine becomes only one of Stephanie's problem.

The story is okay, nothing special. I won't remember it after few weeks. The story of Maxine, as complicated as it is, isn't really grabbing. Despite lots of action, the plot is dragging on from time to time.

Some jokes seem a bit overused and already known from the previous books. And the situation between Stephanie and Morelli becomes even stranger. In fact I think I completely lost my interest in that part, I don't care any more if they will finally be together or not. The best part of this book is Sally who brings a bit of fresh air to the story. I wish he is also a part of the next books.

An average book, mice read, but nothing innovative or different from the previous ones.

Four To Score by Janet Evanovich is a must read. Evanovich is a gifted writer. She can mix laughter and murder together. When I read her books I can see Stephanie Plum's parents and grandma. Plum is bounty hunter searching for those that fail to show up for court. She gets herself into more jams than peanut butter! Her sometimes lover, Morelli, is a cop and tries to keep her out of trouble. Doing that is like holding water in a pillow case. In Four To Score, Plum gets the help from a drag queen, Sally, who is over six feet tall. The office file clerk, Lula, is a very heavy set former prostitute. She goes out with Plum on occasions to help find the bail jumper and, well, is she a brave as she talks? Plum finds a waitress that has her middle finger cut off. The mother of the jumper is found scalped. Who is the nut that is torturing these people and why? To find the answers, get this well written book. You won't be sorry. Rated R for very strong language and sexual content.

Stephanie's latest skip, Maxine Nowicki, should be an easy one. She only took her boyfriend's car for a joyride after an argument. No reason for her to not want to appear and clear this all up, right? Wrong, so wrong. Now all Stephanie has to do is find her, easy-peasy? NOT! Maxine is no where to be found and her mother and friends are showing up with pieces missing. On top of it all, Vinnie has hired Joyce Barnhardt, Stephanie's worst nightmare enemy, to find Maxine too.

On the road to finding Maxine and the reason behind all this, Stephanie meets Sally Sweet, a tranvestite rock musician code breaker, has her car blown up, again, and her apartment too, ends up living with Joe Morelli and is in way deeper than she ever wanted to be with both the case and Joe. In other words, just another outrageous outing for Stephanie Plum and friends.

Four novels old and Stephanie's aging a bit!

Stephanie Plum, New Jersey's colourful bounty hunter extraordinaire, is on the trail of Maxine Nowicki. But this time she's double-dipping. She's got her sights set on the usual payoff from her bond bailsman boss, Vinny, who wants Maxine corralled as an FTA on a car theft charge. But Stephanie's also been promised a $1000 under-the-counter payoff from Maxine's ex-boyfriend, Eddie Kuntz who says he wants to retrieve some potentially embarrassing love letters that might damage his macho reputation "with the chicks". The case ratchets up to new heights of raucous, raunchy comedy when Stephanie teams up with Sally Sweet, a hairy seven foot tall cross-dressing rock singer who's shacked up with a very jealous, very gay, very male Marilyn Monroe look-alike.

Four musketeers out on the prowl - Stephanie, Sally Sweet, Lula, the 200 pound black reformed prostitute with a heart of gold and a mouth of pure dirt plus Grandma Mazur - definitely make for some laugh out loud moments. But, for my money, this entry in the Stephanie Plum series didn't quite tickle my funny bone in the same way as the previous three novels. Evanovich's usual clever comedy and wit started to fall by the wayside and were increasingly replaced by Vaudevillian physical comedy and enormous helpings of vulgar trash talk designed to entertain by shock value.

While there was some definite warm-hearted and enjoyable movement forward in Stephanie's relationship with long-standing love interest, cop Joe Morelli (not to mention some pretty hot action in the boudoir, the kitchen, the hall and the shower among other locations), the formulaic approach to the plot line in her stories is also beginning to wear thin after only four novels. Stephanie's apparently harmless chases after low level FTAs that look like they're going to be easy-picking low hanging fruit always seem to coincidentally cross paths and mesh with Morelli's much more complex cases. This time around is no different. Morelli's hooked up with the Feds chasing counterfeiters and money launderers and it isn't long before Stephanie finds herself involved in Morelli's case and up to her neck in mayhem, murder and mutilation.

That kind of coincidence might work once or twice but to repeat it over and over again verges on silliness. Even for a series like Stephanie Plum that is clearly pure parody, it wears thin.

For new readers, FOUR TO SCORE probably is worthy of four stars as a stand-alone entertaining comedic parody of the typical PI novels and more serious mysteries out there. But for continuing fans, FOUR TO SCORE is getting tired and has probably dropped to a somewhat lower three star rating. I'll still read HIGH FIVE, the next in the series, but if it's a repeat performance of FOUR TO SCORE that will put paid to Stephanie Plum for me.

Recommended.

Paul Weiss

In Four to Score, Evanovich brings in a great new character with Sally. He’s the transvestite grandson of one of Stephanie’s neighbors who’s a genius about breaking codes and develops a real affinity for bounty hunting when he tags along. He’s also something of a local celebrity due to his rock band.

Four to Score begins with a bang, so to speak, as Vinnie hires Stephanie’s nemesis, Joyce Barnhart, in the same capacity as he tries to prevent his wife from trying to find out about certain indiscretions. The rivalry heats up between the two women as they go after the same fugitive, Maxine Nowicki. It seemed like a simple case as she’s wanted for skipping out on charges she stole her former boyfriend’s car. Like most of the cases so far, there’s much more here than meets the eye.

To read my full review, please go to: https://thoughtsfromthemountaintop.co...

What a hoot this book was! I know I’m really late to the Stephanie Plum series but these quirky books are exactly what I need for the mood I’ve been in lately. this one is hands-down my favorite so far. With all of the crazy secondary characters and the situation‘s Stephanie gets herself into I laughed out loud all throughout this book. i’ve borrowed the next book in the series from my library and audio book format and I am thinking it will be a lot of fun to listen to. I don’t know how long it will take me to get through this series but I like knowing I have so many more to read when I need a good laugh and a light read.

I've enjoyed this series up to this point. It took a turn down the sleazy and raunchy road. A cross dresser is one of the main characters and I wasn't impressed.

Lula was funny, always wanting to shoot something or someone. She shot out a tire while a lady sat in the driver's seat to get rid of the pest. "Can I shoot him," Lula argued with two others when a would be thief tried to steal their purses. Stephanie, the calm one, told them they couldn't shoot anyone.

Hopefully, the series gets back to character and plot and stays away from rated x sex scenes.

CONTENT WARNING: brief mention of bestiality, fat shaming, excessive profanity, violence, mention of infidelity, murder, gore

This series manages to toe the line between gritty detective story and light, funny cosy mystery. Stephanie is basically a hot mess in spandex, who manages to get herself into the most ridiculous situations all the time but never loses her ability to laugh at herself and find humor in everything. In short, she's incredibly lovable.

Naturally Hurricane Stephanie has another FTA (failure to appear) to apprehend, but her archenemy is also on the same case. And this woman is absolutely AWFUL! I loved how the author added in a new character (Sally), although the profanity was definitely a *bit* excessive, so beware if you're sensitive to the F word. It's used a LOT. Grandma Mazur features a little more in this story as well, and she's always a trip.

As usual, I struggled to figure out exactly what was happening behind the scenes, so the story is never predictable. And the slow-burn chemistry between Stephanie and Joe Morelli finally boils over into ... something. I liked it, and the story is never boring. This is definitely a light and fluffy series that I can always depend on for a quick and enjoyable read.

I'm really starting to have a problem with how often Janet Stephanie thinks of overweight people as "fatties." Stephanie eats like a pot-smoking college kid, she just happens to have a pretty decent metabolism so she doesn't put on the pounds. I love these books, don't get me wrong, but I find it hard to love a character who looks down at other people who share her weaknesses.

And I'll never understand why some authors feel it's fine to body-shame people of any size.

Knocking two stars off this one out of sheer frustration, which is a shame, since this is the book that introduces Sally & he's one of my faves in the series. It's also one of the most laugh-out-loud funny, but some things are pet peeves and the body-shaming is one for me.