Another laugh out loud adventure!

The series is wobbling a little!

The Plum family's next door neighbour, Mabel Markowitz, needs Stephanie's help. Her grand-daughter, Evelyn Soder, has disappeared with her daughter and Evelyn's husband is threatening to collect on a child custody bond that would leave Mrs Markowitz homeless. The husband is a rather mean dude who lost his bar in a business deal with local nasty Eddie Abruzzi who doesn't hesitate to make overt threats to Stephanie when she begins to investigate Evelyn's disappearance.

The fat, unflappable and still on the tarty side ex-hooker Lula, together with Grandma Mazur and a new addition to the cast - outrageous nerd lawyer Albert Kloughn who fancies himself a man of action and gent about town - are all good for some great slapstick belly laughs! But Stephanie herself, over-sexed and under-satisfied, carrying around lots of personal angst and torn between her affection for cop Morelli and her lust for Ranger, the hot muscled Cuban bounty-hunter extraordinaire, is getting tired. Not only is her self-doubt becoming a drag on the series but she seems to be devolving into a stereotypical weak-kneed female who cries out for Ranger's or Morelli's help at every opportunity!

Setting aside the silliness of having one of the bad guys trail Stephanie around wearing a bunny suit as a disguise, the plot of HARD EIGHT is actually darker and a little more substantive than most of the preceding seven titles in the series. So if we've got a better plot with a little weaker main character, I suppose that leaves us with a series that still has plenty of legs. But the legs are getting a little wobbly and only reading TO THE NINES, the next title in the series will reveal whether Evanovich can pull a rabbit out of the hat and rejuvenate the flash and magic that was so charming in the earlier novels.

Recommended.

Paul Weiss

This book was a hoot! And I've never used that word to describe anything before but it fits 'Hard Eight' perfectly.

I jumped in at book 8, this was my first introduction to Stephanie Plum and it makes me want to go back and read the rest of the series. Even jumping in this far through doesn't matter so much as I felt caught up in her life pretty quickly.

Stephanie is extremely likeable as the bounty hunter who doesn't seem to have much luck in any aspects of her life but is surrounded by an amazing cast of family, friends and lovers, oh and some bad guys!

This was a fun book!

This was a good recovery from the last book for me. I laughed quite a few times in this book and was getting the evil eye from my husband for it again so that's a good thing.

What is it with Stephanie and picking up every stray in the Burg? Kloughn just cracked me up, Lula, God... what a team the three of them make. Misfit Ragtag, but damn funny to read. The dryer scene, I nearly pee'd my pants on that one. Very funny.

And Psycho's? What's up with every psycho in the Burg wanting a piece of her! I swear she attracts them like bears to honey.

Sweet Jesus... the Geese? I was kicked out of the bed room over that one.

Ranger... well, at least they've done it now and at least she wasn't cheating on Morelli when she did. I'm happy about that, but I'm still not loving the Ranger/Steph couple as much as Morelli/Steph. Ranger will not commit, I think he's made that abundantly clear and deep down I know Stephanie wants to commit, she's just too damn stubborn to accept it.

I'm glad that there is still a Morelli / Stephanie and I hope they resolve things in the near future, because I love them together.

Really enjoyed the suspense and the action in this one. Great series and funny cast of vibrant colorful characters.

Finally more action from Ranger in this book!

I was a little disappointed of Steph and Ranger's one night stand, it needed something more. After all the suspence towards it in the last books, I was expecting something.... more.

What would really make me love this series is if there were some POV from Morelli and Ranger... God I would really love to know what is going on in their minds behind all those intense stares and sexy grins!!

So, I guess she is back with Morelli again at the end of this book. Shame.... I wanted more Ranger, wanted to see if he would lose his controlled mind set with Steph and surprise us.

Loving the "love triangle" in this series but wished Ranger was more present in the books as most of the time he just pops up gives a couple of remarks with babe at the end and thats that.

This series is funny and silly and sometimes stupidly predictable but it really lacks character development and Steph's life hasn't really changed much since the 1st book.

I just noticed that this series has 23 books but hasn't ended yet... OMG... I really hope they get better and evolve.

Any book with a giant rabbit gets at least three stars from me. Also, I love that Valerie got in on the action :) I really like the idea of her new relationship haha I felt bad for him. A totally failed lawyer with no luck in any department. Honestly, though I liked him as a sidekick more than Lula. The horse races were fun, though. Lula winning was so great with her reactions. She deserves some luck.
However, there were definitely lost stars here too.
Ranger giving the little girl props for getting that medal was funny. I love his mixed morals. And that he got the kill at the end was perfect. Everyone should know better than to mess with him.
The plots are getting pretty repetitive. Ranger and/or Morelli save Stephanie when she gets herself kidnapped at the climax. Ranger makes sexual innuendos. Grandma Mazur acts crazy and makes wild comments about men. Eh

Well, I think I am done with Miss Plum. Eight books and she is still terrible at what she does. People are always asking her why she doesn't get a new job, and I have come to the conclusion it's because she has an undisclosed death-wish, why the hell else would you do a job you're bad at where you are constantly putting yourself in danger? She doesn't take it seriously at all. ACK. I'm so annoyed. I've read reviews for books later in the series (17, 18) and it appears nothing changes between now and then, so I am just not going to bother. I might pick up the LAST book in the series to see what happens, but until then, they are all much the same.

Again, eight books and she is still back and forth with Morrelli, I'm really over this 'love' triangle, not only is it annoying, but it's not real. She loves Morelli, she knows she wants to be with him, and she could have him, but again she is stubborn and won't give up the job she doesn't enjoy that much, is crap at and would get her killed if she wasn't constantly getting bailed out by one guy or another (or in this case, her mother and sister!). It's the only thing standing in the way of her having a real relationship with the man she loves, and maybe, actually, finding some happiness.

If there had been any laugh out loud funny bits in the book, I might not feel so annoyed, but it all felt flat for me. I'm disappointed as these have been a go to light weight, fun read until now.

I have to say this book was a little more scarier than the previous ones. But it also had me laughing when Stephanie's mother hit the rabbit.

Janet did it again, this one made me laugh out loud a lot of parts. This series is so addicting

Finally, after seven books, Stephanie has fornicated with Batman, aka, Ranger. Major kudos go to Janet Evanovich for making my stomach flip without a whole lot of information. I've never even seen this Ranger, or Joe Morelli for that matter, and yet all I have to do is read a line and somehow they can send heat straight to my doodah, Jesus. I have no doubt that men everywhere would give their right arm for such a skill. The plots remain rather over the top, but I have come to find the ridiculousness endearing. And finally, my fear of geese has been validated. I have long since suspected that they were in fact the spawn of satan and my suspicions have been confirmed. Thank you Janet!

As per usual, hi-lights include:
1. Stephanie's mother kills a rabbit
2. Andy Bender alludes capture, and heists Stephanie's car.
3. Fornication with Batman
4. When geese attack, how Stephanie discovered the power of the Cracker Jack

This one by far is my favorite! I was laughing non-stop from the beginning to end. Lula is hilarious and Stephanie continues to get herself into trouble, it amazes me how much luck she has to survive especially in dealing so much with the mob type of men. This was the first time one of her FTA's escaped her as well. And finally, she payed Ranger some of her bill...it seems to me that the author Janet prefers Morelli for Stephanie. She seems to describe their interactions with more detail and when Ranger and Stephanie finally "paid" up, it seemed a little flat to me. Maybe I'm prejudiced because I'm over Morelli and Stephanie. LOL. To me he is her first love, her first everything and I feel it's time to move on. I understand the intense feelings being that he is her first love, but I guess Ranger seems to fit into Stephanie's lifestyle more being that he doesn't give her a hard time about what she does. Interested to see where this triangle goes