Review of PLUM LOVIN' by Janet Evanovich (see her website)

A STEPHANIE PLUM BETWEEN-THE-NUMBERS NOVEL

St. Martin's Press, January 2007

Morelli is undercover on a case, Ranger is out of town, but Stephanie Plum isn't alone. Diesel, the man who makes every woman stop and look, is in her kitchen and trying to get into her bed. But Diesel isn't interested in Stephanie because of her sparkling personality, he needs help and has decided Stephanie is the person to help him. Annie Hart, who is to Valentine's Day what the Easter Bunny is to Easter, will only stay in her safe house if someone will handle her matchmaking. While Diesel hunts down the guy trying to hurt Annie, Stephanie is supposed to arrange matches for Annie's clients.

The love-lost clients are definitely a difficult bunch. There's a vet who's been dumped by his much-younger girlfriend and desperately wants her back, a butcher with a crush on a coffee-server across the street who thinks he's a crazy stalker, a DMV staffer with more children and pets than the woman who lived in the shoe, and finally Albert Kloughn, her sister's fiance who just can't seem to marry Valerie no matter how much he wants to. Hunting down dangerous criminals just might be easier.

As always, Stephanie has the help of her ex-Ho friend Lula, the questionable support of her family, and another hot guy hanging around wanting to make time with her.

Author Janet Evanovich (see more BooksForABuck.com reviews of novels by Evanovich) aims these 'Between the Numbers' books for those who want more of Stephanie Plum than they can get from their annual fix. PLUM LOVIN' is more than a little silly with characters of dubious superpowers, a growing affair between Lula and Tank, and a Mafia-style badguy who sort of gets forgotten in the midst of resolving the various Valentine's Day romances. PLUM LOVIN' is short--164 pages of widely spaced large print, and at $16.95, you've got to be a real Stephanie Plum fan to go for it--but hey, I'm a real Stephanie Plum fan and PLUM LOVIN' had some nice laughs and the long-awaited resolution to the Albert/Valerie romance.

Three Stars

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