The Heist by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg

***

Nicolas Fox is an international con man, famous for running elaborate scams on very rich and powerful people.  He knows that the FBI has been hot on his trail for years - particularly FBI Special Agent Kate O'Hare.  But just when it seems that Fox has been captured for good, he pulls off his greatest con of all: He convinces the FBI to offer him a job, working side by side with O'Hare.  

Their first assignment takes them to the side streets of Berlin, the California desert, and remote Indonesian islands as they team up to catch Derek Griffin, a corrupt investment banker charged with stealing millions from his clients.  Finding Griffin on his private island is going to test O'Hare's patience and Fox's skill.  High-speed chases, pirates, and Toblerone bare are all in a day's work... if O'Hare and Fox don't kill each other first.

Fans of Stephanie Plum may be in for a bit of a shock with this series.  It definitely has hints of Stephanie's ridiculous hilarity, but O'Hare and Fox are definitely more put together than Stephanie and Lula when they go to work.  There are plenty of laughs, imaginative cons, a fascinating story, but The Heist lacks the heat and romance of a Plum novel.  This is definitely more mystery than romance and it works.  It's sort of a more con-based White Collar.

For a fun mystery, I definitely recommend The Heist.  

~Shel

Sizzling Sixteen by Janet Evanovich

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From Evanovich.com:

Trenton, New Jersey, bounty hunter Stephanie Plum has inherited a “lucky” bottle from her Uncle Pip.  Problem is, Uncle Pip didn’t specify if the bottle brought good luck or bad luck….

BAD LUCK:
  Vinnie, of Vincent Plum Bail Bonds, has run up a gambling debt of $786,000 with mobster
Bobby Sunflower and is being held until the cash can be produced.  Nobody else will pay to get Vinnie back, leaving it up to Stephanie, office manager Connie, and file clerk Lula to raise the money if they want to save their jobs.

GOOD LUCK:
  Being in the business of tracking down people, Stephanie, Lula, and Connie have an advantage in finding Vinnie.  If they can rescue him, it will buy them some time to raise the cash.

BAD LUCK:
  Finding a safe place to hide Vinnie turns out to be harder than raising $786,000.  Vinnie’s messing up local stoner Walter “Moon Man” Dunphy’s vibe and making Stephanie question genetics.

GOOD LUCK:
  Between a bonds office yard sale that has the entire Burg turning out, a plan that makes Mooner’s Hobbit-Con look sane, and Uncle Pip’s mysterious bottle, they just might raise enough money to save Vinnie and the business from ruin.

BAD LUCK:
  Saving Vincent Plum Bail Bonds means Stephanie can keep being a bounty hunter.  In Trenton, this involves hunting down a man wanted for polygamy, a Turnpike toilet paper bandit, and a drug dealer with a pet alligator named Mr. Jingles.

GOOD LUCK:
  The job of bounty hunter comes with perks in the guise of Trenton’s hottest cop, Joe Morelli, and the dark and dangerous, Ranger.  With any luck at all, Uncle Pip’s lucky bottle will have Stephanie getting lucky—the only question is . . . with whom?

Sizzling Sixteen . . . so hot, the pages might spontaneously combust!

Sizzling Sixteen finds Vinnie being held for a debt owed to a bad man, who owes money to an even worse man.  Stephanie, Lula and Connie set out to find and rescue Vinnie.  Vinnie may be a turd, but they need their jobs and they do not necessarily want Vinnie to die. 

I am feeling a little blah about the last two Plums.  The story was better in Sixteen, but I am just not feeling that old Plum magic.  Ranger and Morelli have taken a back seat in the last two books, though Ranger has had more time than Morelli.  This would be ok if there was something making up for the absence, like a great mystery or the typical Plum antics.  Some of the scenes with Stephanie and Lula seem forced, but others are completely hilarious.  In Sixteen, Lula is on the "one" diet, meaning she can eat just one of anything and Lula's interpretation of the rules is exactly what you expect and will have you giggling (this is where I should apologize to the people sitting near me on the train while I was reading - I'm sorry, I just couldn't keep the laughs in!). 

Sixteen was a funny, enjoyable read, I just miss that "can't get enough" feeling I had with books 9 through 12...

~Shel

Finger Lickin' Fifteen by Janet Evanovich

***

Stephanie’s working overtime tracking felons for the bonds office at night and snooping for security expert Carlos Manoso, aka Ranger, during the day. Can she hunt down two killers, a traitor, and five skips, keep her grandmother out of the sauce, and solve Ranger’s problems and not jump his bones? 

I have made no secret of the fact that the Stephanie Plum series is one of my all time favorites.  I have also stated that the one-year wait between books kills me.  For this reason I have been saving up Plum books for this weekend, Books 15-18.  I kicked off this Weekend of Plum with Finger Lickin' Fifteen.

In Fifteen Stephanie finds herself single, working for Ranger and Vinnie and trying not to kill Lula, who has moved in to Stephanie's apartment.  Stephanie is working for Ranger who is having a problem with breakins at the homes of his security clients.  Lula is crashing at Stephanie's place because she is the only witness to a murder and Grandma and Lula have decided to try their hands at making barbeque sauce...

I know, I know - a perfect recipe for Plum silliness.  There were plenty of laugh-hysterically-out-loud moments in Fifteen, but I was disappointed in some of the story lines.  The whole Ranger can't figure out the breakins so he needs Stephanie storyline just did not work for me.  Also, the Ranger scenes left much to be desired...  Yes, I am a Ranger girl.  He is my main imaginary boyfriend and I accept no substitutes (I even wore my Rangeman hat the other day for fun!).  In Fifteen, Morelli and Stephanie have broken up - and that is fine with me my favorite Plums are the Ranger-centric ones.

Despite the deficits in the story, Fifteen was definitely funny and worth a read if you are a Plum fan.  Next up, Sizzling Sixteen! 

~Shel

New Books & Torture

Everyone knows the feeling.  You are lost in a book.  You come to the end, the climax of the story and then it's over.  Still exhilarated and riding the high of the book, you hop online to see when the next book in the series is going to be released (because pretty much all books are part of a series these days) and you see it, your heart plummets, you are overcome by disappointment.  The book will not be released for a year... 

This draconian practice in the publishing industry is torture, pure torture.  I am not a patient person.  Nope, no one has ever said that patience is one of my virtues.  I love seeing a movie or reading a book as soon as it is released.  When everyone is excited about the release and there is a buzz in the air.  Being a fan of instant gratification, waiting a year for a book is hell for me.  It has gotten to the point that I go against my nature and do not read the books from my favorite series or authors as soon as they are released.  I save them, so that I can read one book and then the next.  I currently have three books in the Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series saved up to read.  Luckily, Explosive Eighteen is releasing early (11/22/11), so we get two Stephanie books this year!  I will have four books saved up for November!

And, because I have the attention span of the average 16 year old, unless it is a book/author I truly love, in the year between books, I often lose interest or move on to other books/things.  My books shelves are full of partial series' of books.  Publishers and authors have apparently taken Psych 101 and combat my attention span by offering "sneak peeks" and "teasers" for the upcoming releases.  For someone like me, this practice is even more tortuous than waiting the year for the next book.  When I start to read a book, I want to keep reading it.  Giving me a few sentences, pages or even a chapter or two is just plain mean. 

Did you all read City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare?  It released April 5, 2011.  I had just finished the other the Mortal Instruments books (an excellent series and BiblioJunkies favorite), so it was natural to move directly to reading COFA.  The ending of this book is probably the best cliff-hanger I have ever read.  I needed to read what happened next.  Of course, I jumped online to Cassandra Clare's website and was horrified to find that City of Lost Souls will not be released until May 2012.  Yep, that's right - more than a year after COFA was released.  I wanted to scream - not exaggerating.  I love your writing Cassie, so please do not take my pain as criticism!  I bring this up because Cassandra Clare is the queen of sneak peeks and teasers.  In fact, she does one per month (for each series, the Mortal Instruments and Infernal Devices).  While I appreciate that she wants to keep the buzz around her books given the obscene length of time between COFA and COLS, it is like opening a old wound every month...

I have been fortunate this year in that most books I have come across have the next in the series releasing soon - as in next week or in the next few months.  This makes me very happy.  Which brings me to one of my favorite things - telling people what I am looking forward to reading in the hopes that they will love the books as much as I do. 

Here goes:

July 26 Releases:

I Am Number Four The Lost Files:  Six's Legacy by Pittacus Lore

Supernaturally by Kiersten White

Alex Van Helsing: Voice of the Undead by Jason Henderson

Wolfsbane by Andrea Cremer

Tonight, the BiblioJunkies will be heading to Anderson's Bookstore in Naperville, IL to meet Maggie Stiefvater, author of the Wolves of Mercy Falls series, Shiver, Linger and Forever.  Check out Nat's reviews from last week. 

~Shel