I love Janet Evanovich's writing, funny, sexy, self-deprecating, racy and unpredictable. Stephanie Plum is a smart, spunky modern bounty hunter, with her street smart sidekick, cop boyfriend and flirty handsome business associate, and everything going for her. I've read a lot of this series, not all, but each book has been fun, and stands alone.

A little corny and drawn out but still entertaining. I've read 3 of this series and I might jump aheadto #15 or so

“Don’t worry about your grandmother; she’s like that ’53 Buick, frighteningly indestructible. Maybe even immortal.” (Joe)

I shook my head, “she’s just an old lady.” (Stephanie)

“I’d feel a lot better if I honestly believed that. But what I think we have here is a generation of women and cars that defy science and logic.” (Joe)

The way I cackled at this, and before this the mud wrestling incident. Man, these books truly just get better and wilder. If there weren’t so many of them I’d add them to my yearly reread list, but man we’re at 30 or 31 and even though I can usually get through one a day at work, that’s still 30 plus business days (since I don’t listen to audio at home except when in the car if it’ll be over like, half an hour). And I’m one of those people who can’t read a series or watch a series out of order so…

Another fun, fab, adventure with Stephanie Plum.
Mooner and Dougie return and get kidnapped. Grandma Mazur gets kidnapped. Valerie returns and turns lesbian. Ma Plum breaks plates. People keep breaking into Stephanie's flat. Oh, and Stephanie loses another car. Another normal Spring in Trenton.
I do hope she finishes her business with Ranger ;)
I recommend this book.

Io non ci credo che, alla settima avventura di Steph, io rida ancora come una matta. Al contrario di quanto accada di solito, qui procede tutto di bene in meglio :P
E in occasione di questa mia scoperta, ho fatto uscire il mio estro e mi sono cimentata nella stesura di una bella canzoncina... ok, magari non è proprio che l'ho inventata di sana pianta :'D (per l'allegra canzoncina - si prega di non aspettarsi MOLTO - aspettate che butti giù qualche riga sulla trama di questo settimo capitolo della bounty hunter più figa di sempre! :3).

Eddie DeChooch è la principale fonte di spasso di "Colpo al cuore" (per una volta mi trovo a non capire il titolo originale...).
Mezzo sordo, mezzo cieco, a suo dire "depresso", mancata apparenza e con un affare losco tra le mani. Com'è possibile che nessuno riesca a beccarlo? Per me, rimane ancora un mistero.
Ma. In quanto a comicità, non è mai da sottovalutare la famiglia Plum, stavolta al completo, nè tantomeno nonna Mazur che, diciamocelo, è diventata la portabandiera (boh, passatemi il termine) della serie.
Valerie, la sorella di Stephanie torna all'ovile con le due figlie, causa divorzio da marito fedifrago. Il suo ritorno non fa che confermare quello che già tutti pensavano: non ce n'è uno normale in quella famiglia. OO/
E poi c'è l'eterna questione Ranger-Morelli.
Io scelgo sin da subito, e già alle prime righe di "Bastardo numero uno" i miei ormoni erano devoti a Joe.
Ora, capisco che OVVIAMENTE nella vita reale non si può essere così obiettivi. Di fronte ad un Ranger metterei in dubbio persino di avere cinque dita per ogni mano (Steph, se la cosa andasse in porto... potrei perdonarti). Ma visto che non devo affrontare tali dubbi amletici, mi permetto di fare un tifo sfegatato per lui, Morelli.




C'è una donna che
rider ti farà
ogni volta che
una MC c'è
qualcosa inventerà.

Stessa melodia
un'altra armonia
semplice magia
che ti cambierà
ti scompiscerà.

Quando sembra che
non succeda più
ti riporta via
come la marea
la famiglia Pluuum.


Angolo citazioni

"Sì, siamo lesbiche" disse Valerie.
Mia madre perse i sensi. Bum. Stesa sul pavimento.
Tutti si alzarono di scatto per correre da mia madre.
Aprì gli occhi ma non mosse neanche un muscolo per almeno trenta secondi. Poi urlò: "Una lesbica! Madre di Dio. Frank, tua figlia è lesbica!".
Mio padre guardò Valerie di traverso. "Quella che porti è la mia cravatta?"
"Hai un gran bel coraggio" disse mia madre, ancora supina a terra. "Tutti questi anni, in cui sei stata normale e con un marito, hai abitato in California. E adesso che sei qui diventi lesbica. Non basta che tua sorella vada in giro a sparare alle persone? Che razza di famiglia è questa?"[...]
Mary Alice aveva cenato per tutto il tempo con la faccia nel piatto perchè i cavalli non hanno mani. Quando alzò il viso, era una maschera di purè di patate e salsa. "Cos'è una lesbica?" chiese. Rimanemmo tutti paralizzati. "E' quando una ragazza esce con le femmine anzichè con i maschi" disse la nonna.
Angie si allungò per prendere il latte. "Si pensa che l'omosessualità sia causata da un cromosoma anormale."
"Giusto quello che stavo per dire" disse la nonna.
"E i cavalli?" chiese Mary Alice. "Ci sono lesbiche tra i cavalli?"
Ci scambiammo delle occhiate. Eravamo imbarazzati.

Not as good as #6

This series never disappoints. The problem is I get nothing else done once I start reading.

Seven Up had a new tempo to the plot. A slight twist to the formula, which was getting a little monotonous, gave some relief here. Also, for the first time, we got a reappearance from some of the previous side characters! It was nice to have Dougie and Mooner back for another round of stoner fun.

The Morelli-Ranger tension reaches a breaking point, and it’s nice to get a step back to keep the options open. And yet another excellent cliffhanger in this regard.

Grandma Mazur and Lula are solid as always. It was interesting to get a window into Stephanie’s life with her sister in town, and it's nice to see her mum becoming more well rounded and a less stereotypical Jersey mum. I don’t think I’ve talked about Bob yet in a review, but he is by far my favourite, and I can only hope that this new Morelli chill will not keep Bob out of the story.

Overall, I am still enjoying this series; this was a solid instalment, and the narrative changed enough that it seemed less formulaic. However, it does still feel repetitive - FTA appears and gets away, talk to five people about it, FTA shows up again and escapes, let’s go back to those same five people and have the same conversation. Oh, and there’s the FTA again! And he got away! What should we do next?

My goal is to make it to the tenth book before needing a palate cleanser, and I think it should be easy to do if they keep being reasonably easy, enjoyable reads like this one was. Here’s hoping for a little more action and a little less non-stop fast food runs with a magical metabolism.

Other books in the Stephanie Plum series:
#1: One for the Money ⭐⭐⭐⭐
#2: Two for the Dough ⭐⭐⭐
#3: Three to Get Deadly ⭐⭐⭐⭐
#4: Four to Score ⭐⭐⭐⭐
#5: High Five ⭐⭐⭐⭐
#6: Hot Six ⭐⭐⭐
#8: Hard Eight ⭐⭐⭐⭐
#8.5: Visions of Sugar Plums ⭐
#9: To the Nines ⭐⭐⭐⭐
#10: Ten Big Ones ⭐⭐⭐⭐
#11: Eleven on Top ⭐⭐⭐⭐
#12: Twelve Sharp ⭐⭐⭐
#12.5: Plum Lovin' ⭐⭐
#13: Lean Mean Thirteen ⭐⭐⭐
#13.5: Plum Lucky ⭐
#14: Fearless Fourteen ⭐⭐⭐
#14.5: Plum Spooky ⭐⭐
#15: Finger Lickin' Fifteen ⭐⭐
#16: Sizzling Sixteen ⭐⭐
#17: Smokin' Seventeen ⭐⭐⭐
#18: Explosive Eighteen ⭐⭐
#19: Notorious Nineteen ⭐⭐
#20: Takedown Twenty ⭐⭐⭐
#21: Top Secret Twenty-One ⭐⭐
#22: Tricky Twenty-Two ⭐⭐⭐⭐
#23: Turbo Twenty-Three ⭐⭐
#24: Hardcore Twenty-Four ⭐
#25: Look Alive Twenty-Five ⭐
#26: Twisted Twenty-Six ⭐⭐⭐

n  n    n  n

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I listened to the cd of this (again) while doing yoga and almost fell over laughing! Ergo, this book could be dangerous.

Reread April 2018: Still hilarious, but I have a wee bit of problems with all the accepting of moves by Ranger while involved with Morelli. Another sign that she shouldn’t settle down with the cop.

Yowza! Life is complicated for Stephanie Plum. First there's Joe Morelli, who only has to touch her neck to send fire to her doodah. Then there's Ranger, who makes her stomach clench and her toe's curl. Though she is sort of engaged to Joe, neither of them are ready for the Big M, and now Ranger has just offered Stephanie a very indecent proposal in exchange for his aid in bringing down Stephanie's latest skip. Stephanie isn't sure what shoe will drop next, but she's about to find out.

Hi-lights include:
1. Bob the dog and his morning poo adventures
2. Mooner in his super dude suit
3. Grandma Mazur gets frisky
4. Valerie is on the turn
5. Stephanie makes her mud wrestling debut
6. Vincent enters a shoot out.
7. Ranger, no longer in the wind, is entering Stephanie's bed.

This series is mindlessly entertaining, ridiculously over the top, sexy and oh so funny. Can't wait for Hard Eight!

The first time I recorded reading this story was July 7, 2009.

Stephanie and Morelli are like the family you always wanted and Lula is my homegirl. Many of you know I found Stephanie Plum last year in the heart of COVID and I haven't looked back since. I literally read 28 years' worth of books in 3 months and then went in for seconds. These books bring me a type of joy that I typically don't allow in my fiction.

Y'all know I like to be killed softly and cry and all that other good stuff when it comes to fancy book learning. I like to cry