1st to Die (James Patterson)

Summary:
Lindsey is a homicide detective in California who just got assigned the case of a double murder, a husband and wife on their wedding night, in their honeymoon suite, no less. It's brutal, and there's defilement and Lindsey has to fight to keep herself together. Cindy is a young reporter, trying to make it to feature writer. Claire is the city medical examiner, stuck at the bottom of the totem pole in her field. Jill is the assistant district attorney with nerves of steel. These four women band together to solve the Bride and Groom murders, of which two more cases come along, through sharing information and doing the big research outside their usual jurisdictions. Lindsey also has to deal with the added stress of having a seriously debilitating disease ravaging her body. Will they be able to find the deranged murderer before he kills another set of newlyweds before they get the chance to start their lives?

Thoughts:
Really, really good. This really held my attention. I listened as I drove to and from work for a few weeks, (my ride is maybe 10 minutes on a bad day) and there were a few days where I almost was late for work because I didn't want to get out of the car. The story is gripping, and the characters are really well fleshed-out. It makes total sense that this story is fantastic. It's James Effing Patterson. That said, I was riveted, and I'm definitely going to keep going with the series.

Book 20 of 50

Pages: 488, read as an audio book.
Genre: Mystery
Grade: A
Would I Recommend?: Totally. It's Patterson. He's been a best-selling author for years for a good reason, people.

Bridesmaid Lotto (Rachel Astor)

Summary:
Everyone who knows Josie is telling her that she should enter the Bridesmaid Lotto. The lotto is a contest that gives four women the chance to be a bridesmaid to a well-known celebrity whose hunky future brother-in-law the movie star has just announced that he's single and looking to settle down with the right girl. Josie thinks the whole thing is a ridiculous idea and refuses to enter, though she's always had a crush on the movie star brother-in-law. When the winners are announced, Josie wins a spot in the bridal party, thanks to her overbearing, meddling mother who wants nothing more than to marry Josie off and have more grandchildren in the family. Josie has to deal with her fellow bridesmaids as they get ready for the big day. Rebecca is a snobbish, little-known model, Bobbi-Lynn is a sweet but talkative girl-from-the-sticks, but thankfully Jennifer is a normal IT chick. Josie is all the more anxious about the whole predicament thanks to her incurable klutziness. She even keeps what she calls her "Disaster Diary," filling it with her embarrassing moments, to keep herself grounded as she spends more and more time with New York's "glitterati." Her best work friend makes her his newest styling project, making sure she looks presentable at all the necessary functions, and her long time friend and roommate is completely supportive, despite desperately wanting to win the contest herself. But how will she ever get the hunky movie star to fall for her?

Thoughts:
A tip for those wanting to self-publish: PROOFREAD YOUR WORK BEFORE YOU MAKE IT AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.COM. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I wanted to pull out a red pen on this book. Thankfully it was on my Kindle so I could resist the urge. One of the worst offenses was when she spelled the movie star's name (Jake Hall) with a 1. It was at the end of an exclamatory sentence, so it turned out to be "Jake Hal1!" I can't even do that when I'm TRYING to do it! If you want to really be respected in the literary world, even in the cheesy realms of romance novels, you absolutely must edit your work. Don't just read it a couple of times yourself. Have a friend proofread it. Step back from your work and read it 3 months down the road, after you've forgotten what you were intending. There were so many is/if/in/us errors, and the "Jake and me" vs. "Jake and I" issues, it was truly distracting. Now, don't get me wrong. The story idea is pretty fun, especially for a romance/chick lit type of book. And it reads VERY quickly. I think I managed the whole thing in a matter of four or five hours at most. But the characters are walking cliches, the plot has more holes than a Dunkin Donuts, and the writing is atrocious. Astor is clearly Mary-Sue-ing her way through this series. Come now, Miss Astor. After clearly stating in your Amazon author bio that at least one of Josie's Disaster Diary entries from each of the three books in the series are real instances from your past, you can't think that you'll hide the fact that your childhood nickname was most likely "Rachel Astor the Disaster." They say right what you know, sure, but at least make it a little less obvious. Please, Miss Astor, stop while you're behind. Thankfully, I downloaded the Kindle version when it was on a free promotion, which looks like it might be a constant thing, as the book was still listed as free the last time I checked, but no guarantees. At least I didn't spend any money on this crap.

Book 19 of 50

Pages: 230, read as an e-book
Genre: Romance/chick lit
Grade: C-
Would I Recommend?: Meh. If you have absolutely nothing else better to read, the book is on free download, and you're not a grammar Nazi, then sure. Otherwise, find something else better that's also free at the moment. I'm sure there's plenty!

Murder for Choir (Joelle Charbonneau)

Summary:
Paige Marshall is an opera singer by trade, and very good at what she does, if only she could land herself another job. Between opera gigs, Paige has accepted a position at North Shore High, as the director of their top glee club, Music in Motion. During their summer choir camp, which is a week-long gearing-up for the choir members and directors where they start learning basic choreography and music for the season, one of the rival glee clubs' directors is murdered, and one of Paige's students is arrested for the crime. She can't believe that the boy did it and takes it upon herself to start her own investigation, which leads her to becoming the killer's next target.

Thoughts:
Solid plot, fun characters, and a light-hearted writing style come together in this first book of a new series, both for me and for the world at large. Charbonneau started the series last year, and has gotten two books into it so far, and I'm hoping she'll have plenty more where this came from. (After a quick web search, she's already through with the second revision of the third in the series. Awesome!) Paige is a strong character, with plenty of spunk and a great personality. The cop is hunky (as usual in these books!) and the friends are great characters too! I won't lie, I called the murderer early, as well as a few other plot details, but there were plenty that were a surprise too. My other half actually stumbled upon the series on a visit to Barnes and Noble recently, and I couldn't deny getting the first in the series. My lack of restraint payed off. I'll definitely be looking into more from this author. She's got a fun voice, and can spin the story just right, so that you don't care that you've figured it out already. It's fun to see all the in-betweens. So getting my hands on other stuff from Charbonneau. Try not to hate me for it!

Book 17 of 50

Pages:
Genre: Mystery/romance/chick lit with a dash of comedy for good luck!
Grade: A
Would I Recommend?: Heck yes. Jump in while it's still young, and we can enjoy it together!

Spying in High Heels (Gemma Halliday)

Summary:
Childrens' shoe designer Madison Springer is late. Her boyfriend, Richard Howe the lawyer, is avoiding her phone calls and Maddie is late. Her last attempt at talking through the situation with Richard begins and ends with him having a meeting with a very dressed-down, un-Richard-looking guy and then immediately cancelling his lunch date with Maddie. Several days later, she still hasn't spoken to him, and winds up searching Richard's empty apartment. Mr. Un-Richard shows up, does a search of his own, and leaves with nothing. Only after Maddie runs into him again does she find out that Mr. Un-Richard is Jack Ramirez, hunky cop in charge of Richard's case, and that Richard was probably involved in some creative accounting, and possibly a couple of murders. Maddie can't believe that Richard is involved with any of that and sets out to prove that he's not who Ramirez thinks Richard is. The only trouble is, Maddie doesn't really know much about Richard, and Ramirez is a total stud muffin. Will Maddie be able to keep her head straight, while trying to get the courage to find out if she's actually pregnant?

Thoughts:
Ramirez is delicious. Maddie is fun, though a little scatterbrained and naive. The book follows Maddie as she finds out exactly how little she knows about Richard, and while it's slightly depressing for Maddie herself, her life is the train wreck you can't look away from. Halliday writes it in a way that you can't help but feel for Maddie as her world crumbles around her. Granted, I guessed as much on a lot of the outcomes of the story, but the story was engaging enough that it didn't bother me to know exactly who the killer was, or how the Richard situation was going to play out. It's a series that I'll be delving into more, as soon as I can get my hands on the books, that's for sure.

Book 16 of 50

Pages: 250, read as an e-book
Genre: Mystery, comedy, and romance, in nearly equal parts
Grade: A-
Would I Recommend?: YES. It's fun, funny, and it sucks you into Madison's world pretty darn easily.

Sizzling Sixteen (Janet Evanovich)

Summary:
Vinnie Plum, Stephanie's jerk second cousin who runs the bail bonds office she works out of, has gone and gotten himself in debt up to his eyeballs with some bad people. And then he's kidnapped. Stephanie and the gang have to try to get Vinnie back alive and in one piece so they can pull the bond office out of the hole he's dug for them. Meanwhile, Steph and Morelli are in their off-again phase, and she's feeling herself tugged toward Ranger, and she's trying her damnedest not to succumb to his immeasurable talents in the bedroom. Oh boy.

Thoughts:
Really good, as is the norm for Ms. E. Of course, you're constantly wanting to kick Vinnie in the ass for being so completely stupid, but that's no different from usual. And of course, the ladies of the bond office are getting themselves into more trouble than they can really handle, but again, it's kind of the norm. And Lula never ceases to elicit at least one good giggle every book, if not more. It usually comes from her sneeze-fart-"Oh, excuse me." combos, and I will never say no to that. There's just something about a good fart joke, y'know? Ah, but I've digressed yet again. Sixteen is just one more in the now very long list of fantastic books in the series. Including the betweens, we've rounded ourselves out to a solid twenty books, with another three to go for me. I can't imagine what I'm going to do once I've finished this series. It's going to take something really special to take Evanovich's place in my constant book rotation. We'll have to wait and see, won't we?

Book 12 of 50

Pages: 320
Genre: mystery
Grade: A-/B+
Would I Recommend?: Start from the top and work your way through the series. You won't be sorry. I promise.

Finger Lickin' Fifteen (Janet Evanovich)

Summary:
Stephanie Plum, bounty hunter not-so-extraordinaire, gets wrapped up into yet another murder investigation when Lula rushes into the bail bonds office exclaiming about having seen a man's head getting chopped off. She won't speak to any other cop but Joe Morelli, Steph's on-again-off-again honey, and forced Steph to call him, even though they were in the off-again stage. Turns out, the dead guy is the current Emeril/Guy Fieri/Gordon Ramsey-type in town for a big barbecue contest in Trenton. Lula decides that she's going to be the best person to try and find the guys that did it because she was an eyewitness, and the best way to do that is to enter the barbecue contest, and Stephanie has to help her. Oh, and Lula can't cook. Meanwhile, Ranger, the hottie that always has his eye on Stephanie, is having trouble at his super-high-tech security company, and wants Stephanie to help find where things are going wrong. Will Steph manage to juggle murder, barbecue, and Ranger, all at the same time? She usually does.

Thoughts:
Another fun one from Evanovich, as usual. She really has the right kind of voice for Stephanie, Lula, and most of her Jersey characters. There are very few times that she builds a character that doesn't read exactly the way he or she should. She's got the voice, the action, everything is perfectly built, and the story is always a fun time. I'll be sad to see the end of the series. Only a couple more books in this series.

Book 5 of 50

Pages: 352
Genre: Mystery, comedy, with a little romance.
Grade: A-/B+
Would I Recommend?: Yup, but start from the beginning. It's good for you.

Metro Girl (Janet Evanovich)

Summary:
Alexandra Barnaby, known to her family and close friends as Barney, is a former grease-monkey, raised in her father's garage in Baltimore. Now she's an insurance adjuster whose brother calls her from Miami in the middle of the night to say that he'll be away for a while, and don't worry. She flies down to Miami, worried sick, and finds herself wrapped up in a fight to the death over Cuban gold and a Russian bomb. Will she be able to save her brother's life?

Thoughts:
This book SCREAMS Janet Evanovich. Barney reads very much like Stephanie Plum, to the point that I had to remind myself every few pages that this was Metro Girl not Plum Fourteen-and-Three-Quarters. Her partner in finding her brother is Sam Hooker, a horndog racecar driver that feels very much like a young Joe Morelli. She even has a heavyset sidekick type called Rosa who is so Lula-esque, it's hard to read Rosa as "gutsy-but-nuts Hispanic lady" and not "gutsy-but-nuts black lady." It's a fun read, don't get me wrong. But I've read better from Ms. E, and I'm a little disappointed in the not-really-different-ness of this. This is one of those books that you read when you've got nothing else left. Onward and upward, I hope.

Book 3 of 50

Pages: 296
Genre: Chicklit with a dash of mystery and a dollop of comedy
Grade: B-/C+
Would I Recommend?: Meh. You've got better choices.

Build a Man (Talli Roland)

Summary:
Serenity is an American in London for the first time. She found a job at a Botox clinic, and started hooking up with the doctor. She moved in with Peter, and has been living with him for nearly all of her stay in London so far. She's a budding writer, hoping to get into the world of tabloid writing. Yes, really. She pitches story after Botox-related story to the London tabloids she adores, getting shot down every single time. But when Jeremy walks into the office for a complete overhaul, she knows this is her time. She sends a pitch about a man going under the knife to every tabloid she can think of, including the Daily Planet (yup, Roland ripped off Superman's day job and made it a tabloid), the biggest, raunchiest tabloid paper of them all. She lands the column, writing for free in the hopes that she'll get the staff job that's opening up at the Planet. If she does a great job with her column, called Build a Man (shocker!), the job is hers. But she can't tell Jeremy she's writing the story, nor Peter, and she'll be writing under a pseudonym so she's not found out. Piece of cake!

Thoughts:
Ugh. Seriously. UGH. This book is not worth the download time, let alone the price it might cost you. (A measly 99 cents for the Kindle as of this writing. I downloaded it when it was free, thank God.) As a product of the Fan Fiction world, I've read some roiling piles of crap before. This is one of them. One of the terms from that world that has stuck with me is the "Mary Sue." A Mary Sue is a character that is very much like the author, and she's thrown into a fandom world like the Potter series or the Lord of the Rings series, and she's paired with the most attractive of the series' characters, as though Harry Potter would turn up his nose at Ginny Weasley in favor of Mary Sue Smith, an American transfer student that showed up in the middle of fifth year. Why, of course! (The male equivalent was "Gary Stew/Stu," if I recall correctly.) I bring all this up because the Serenity character is so very much a Mary Sue, she's even NAMED horribly. Serenity is one of those names that you only WISH you could have, because it's so pretty and wonderful... So very Mary-Sue-ish. Oh, and the worst part is that when I checked the Amazon website to see exactly how many crappy pages this sad, slow, horrible death of a book were, I read the words that confirmed my Mary Sue suspicions in the "From the Author" section: "This novel holds a special place in my heart, since the main character, Serenity, experiences many of the same feelings I did when I first moved to England from Canada. Everything seemed so different and strange, yet exciting -- a whole new world of potential opening up. Like Serenity, I also worked as a receptionist in a place where London's wealthy women flocked for Botox, and I couldn't help being shocked at the amount of money they shelled out each visit." She openly admits to the Mary-Sue-dom of the story, and is completely unapologetic about it, even going on to say that she identifies with the character's feelings. Hello!! You wrote the damn thing! Of course you identify with it! This book is entirely predictable. Of course she's going to get the guy in the end. She's the book heroine. It doesn't matter that she wrote a story about him without his knowledge, or that she made him a laughing stock, or that because he went under the knife, (despite having serious reservations on the day of the surgery) he wound up having some brain damage. None of that matters, because they love each other and love will out in the end. Oh yes. That she lied to him through most of their existence together is no big deal, right? Ugh. And somehow, this book actually got a sequel. So not even bothering! DO NOT waste your time on this pile of horse manure unless you're only out for annoying protagonists who wound up getting a happy ending, no matter how horrible a person she is, or if you're looking for the stupidest, most predictable plot line that hundreds of romance writers have followed for decades. SKIP IT!

Book 57 of 70

Pages: 308, read as an e-book
Genre: chick lit, romance
Grade: F-
Would I Recommend?: No. Don't even waste the download time when the book is free. Seriously. Don't bother.

When Girlfriends Break Hearts (Savannah Page)

A quick note to those few readers that I've got: First, thanks! I appreciate you checking out the blog! I've noticed that there tends to be a lot of traffic on Saturdays, so going forward, please keep an eye out for posts on SATURDAYS at 12pm Eastern Standard Time. (That's -5 hours from GMT, for anyone who doesn't know.) This will be the final Sunday post. Thanks for your time, and for reading this silly little blog! On to the good stuff! Summary:
Sophie's whole world crumbles one day when she finds out that her boyfriend of several years cheated on her. What's worse, he cheated with one of her dearest friends. The boyfriend breaks up with her saying that he just doesn't love her anymore. She can't except that, and presses for a real answer, and learns of the affair. Worse than the affair itself is that another dear friend knew the whole time and kept the secret because she was closer to the cheater friend than Sophie. Sophie has to deal with her crumbling world, and get over her heartbreak over two friends' deceptions.

Thoughts:
Not great. It's all about a woman's bond with her dearest friends, and comes around to the female version of "bros before hos." Sophie has to get herself to a place where she can accept that the affair happened, and try to mend herself enough that she might be able to mend fences with the friends that hurt her so deeply. She couldn't care less about the boyfriend. It's her besties that hurt her more for lying about the whole thing. She's stuck in a bitter, unforgiving place. If I were in her shoes, I'd probably be stuck for a lot longer than she was, but I've been known to hold grudges for a very, very long time. If the writing were a little better, I wouldn't have minded the story so much. But it's not great. It's boring, and the story drags. I have a very hard time putting a book down for good without finishing it, and I plodded through this one, but it was a chore. Reading to me is a release, a joyful and happy experience where I get to see more of the world around me, and not just the tiny little corner that I know. This book made reading feel like a homework assignment. Not worth the several weeks this took me to finish it, or even the thirty seconds of download time it took me to get the book. (I downloaded it when it was free, as it still is as of this writing.)

Book 56 of 70

Pages: 251 read as an e-book
Genre: chicklit
Grade: D-
Would I Recommend?: Bland. Don't bother.

Fearless Fourteen (Janet Evanovich)

Summary:
One of Joe Morelli's distant cousins(of which there are seemingly thousands), Loretta, is a bondee that Stephanie's got to pick up. Thanks to Stephanie's good nature, she agrees to take care of Loretta's teenaged son until she gets out of jail. The only trouble is that Loretta's got no cash and can't bond herself out. Then, when she finally is out, Loretta gets herself kidnapped. Loretta's big brother, Dom, is slightly unhinged, and thinks that Loretta's kid is the product of Loretta and Morelli himself, and doesn't like that his nephew is staying in the home of a cop that used to be a total womanizer. Meanwhile, Ranger asks Stephanie to help him out on a private protection thing with him, for a crazy has-been singer named Brenda, who decides she wants to go into reality TV as a bounty hunter, following Stephanie's every move. Also, Morelli's house keeps getting broken into thanks to news that there might be buried treasure in or around it. Just another regular week in downtown Trenton through the eyes of Stephanie Plum.

Thoughts:
Completely silly as always. It was another fun one. The reappearance of Mooner (the stoner dude that Steph went to school with, and who still hasn't grown up, probably because of the stonerdom) is always a fun time, and the teenager, who calls himself Zook, is a pip too. But as I've been saying from early on with this series, you really need to start from the beginning. There's just too much going on to jump in halfway. Or, in this case, six books from the most recent, including the one Between-the-Numbers edition. The series is fun, and engaging, and I love getting my hands on another of these books, because I know it's going to be lots of fun, even if I do sail through them like they're children's books!

Book 54 of 70

Pages: 310
Genre: Mystery, romance, and we'll add comedy to this one...
Grade: A-
Would I Recommend?: Start from the beginning, and the ridiculous fun in this book will make all the more sense.

Plum Lucky (Janet Evanovich)

Summary:
Another Between-the-Numbers book in the Stephanie Plum series. This comes between Thirteen and Fourteen, and it's the St. Patrick's Day book. Diesel appears again as Stephanie is completely out of the holiday spirit. Grandma Mazur gets her hands on a duffel bag that was left on the sidewalk by a short guy wearing green. Of course that means he was a leprechaun and she found the pot of gold. Stephanie finds all this out the hard way, when the little guy comes after her, wanting his money back. He's stolen it from a mobster who wants it back in a bad way. Grandma Mazur, being the crazy grandma she is, has taken the cash to Atlantic City, where she's playing the slots and gambling it all away. Stephanie takes Lula and Connie with her to AC to try to get Grandma Mazur and the money back before anybody gets hurt.

Thoughts:
With Stephanie, if you put together Lula the ex-hooker, Connie the busty no-nonsense bond office assistant, and Grandma Mazur the old lady who thinks she's a teenager, all hell is going to break loose, and hilarity will ensue. Evanovich really knows what will make the most ridiculous thing happen, and goes out of her way to make it so. As always with the Between-the-Numbers books, this one is centered around Diesel, a magical-ish guy who kinda has a thing about Steph, rather than being completely in line with the rest of the Numbers. No matter what, though, this is a fun time, and if you're in the series, don't miss the Betweens, because they're just as much fun as the regular books, if not more.

Book 53 of 70

Pages: 256
Genre: Mystery, comedy
Grade: B+
Would I Recommend?: Only if you're reading the Plum series. But heck yes.

Hot Six (Janet Evanovich)

Summary:
Stephanie Plum has only been a bounty hunter for a little while. Maybe a year or two at this point. And she gets handed the hardest bounty she's ever had to bring in. She has to bring in Ranger, her mentor and friend, who has helped her out of countless scrapes, and who she kind of has the hots for, though don't tell Joe Morelli... Stephanie doesn't want the job, but gets pulled into Ranger's mess anyway. He is wrapped up in a mob deal, and everyone is after him. Stephanie gets sucked in because she can't leave well enough alone, and has two goons tailing her, along with Joyce Bernhardt, her least favorite person ever. And as a bonus, Grandma Mazur pisses off Stephanie's dad, and decides to move in with Stephanie, putting a crimp in her suddenly a little more active sex life. Not to mention that Ranger has started setting his sights on Steph too. What a pickle.

Thoughts:
They really just keep getting better. Stephanie has to deal with a slightly loopy mob boss, a very horny almost-boyfriend, and a hot co-worker on the run. These books just keep getting funnier and hotter under the collar! They feel so familiar, too, thanks to their setting in New Jersey. I feel like I know Stephanie and her whole family. Maybe not the crazy people she hangs with thanks to her less than desirable job, though... I just keep wanting more from this series, and not in a bad way. Thank goodness there's another twelve books to go!

Book 29 of 50

Pages: 336
Genre: Mystery, romance, and chicklit in equal parts
Grade: A
Would I Recommend?:

High Five (Janet Evanovich)

Summary:
The bounty is almost nil during the hot and sweaty summer of [whatever year this is supposed to be...] and Stephanie Plum is hunting for something to do, and some way to pay the bills. Her mother begs her to help find her uncle Fred who has gone missing during his morning errands. She soon learns that there's far more to the disappearance than just a wandering old man. Stephanie gets one little bounty to go after, though, and I do mean little. Her little person FTA bounty is not coming quietly, and winds up living in Steph's apartment thanks to a broken door at his place. In the wake of the waning bounties to recover, Stephanie's mentor, Ranger, throws a few "small" jobs her way to help her get by, and she winds up developing more than a passing interest in Ranger himself.

Thoughts:
I don't have to keep singing Evanovich's praises if you've read any of my previous reviews of her other three books, but I will say this: High Five was the hottest book so far, and there wasn't even major action in the romance department. The tension, however, was incredibly high, in every respect. HEL-lo! The ending leaves you hanging, too, and I fought like hell to not pick up number six, especially considering how addicting this series is, and the fact that I already had six in hand! Whooooo, boy! The story line is a great one, with another great twist. I might be the most clueless reader, but I never really guess who's going to turn out to be the bad guy with Evanovich's work until she reveals the last clues. Highly suggested, as usual.

Book 27 of 50

Pages: 340
Genre: A+
Grade: Mystery, romance, chicklit, and a whole lot of all of them, too!
Would I Recommend?: Yesyesyesyes! Go start the series. Read it. Love it! GO!

Four to Score (Janet Evanovich)

Summary:
Stephanie Plum's latest FTA (Faiure to Appear) bounty is a waitress with an ass of a boyfriend. She swiped his car because she was pissed at him, and he pressed charges. Maxine and her family take Stephanie on a wild goose chase thanks to her clues for her dumb-ass boyfriend. Of course, Stephanie has to figure out what all the clues mean, because they might lead her to her bounty that much faster. She enlists not only Lula, a former prostitute turned secretary and sidekick, but her Grandma Mazur, a seventy-something lady with time to kill, and a drag queen named Sally Sweet. It doesn't help that she can't figure out what the hell is going on with her hunky almost-boyfriend Morelly, or that her cousin has brought her least favorite person in the world (the woman she found screwing her now-ex husband on their dining room table) on as a fellow bounty hunter after the same bounty, or that someone is once again trying to kill her. Just another day in the life of a Jersey girl.

Thoughts:
I straight-up love this series. It's addictive, and I am so totally hooked. It takes everything in me to hop to another book after finishing one, so that my blog doesn't look like a Janet Evanovich love fest! (Currently, I'm in possession of the books up to number nine, but I'm trying to take my time... You'll see in the next few weeks how well it's working out!) This particular installment sees Stephanie fighting several different wars as usual, including a few of the heart. I love that Stephanie's forced to stay with Joe Morelli, thanks to a tiny little thing called a fire bomb... I like their dynamic. I have a friend that's a fan of a certain other gentleman in the series, though we'll get into that situation further when Stephanie's travels put her more in his way. For now, I love this series like a fat kid loves cake. Keep it coming, Evanovich.

Book 26 of 50

Pages: 313
Genre: Mystery, romance, and a whole lotta chicklit
Grade: A
Would I Recommend?: Definitely. Love this series. Enjoy!!

One for the Money (Janet Evanovich)

Summary:
Stephanie Plum is a woman living in Trenton, NJ, and she's just lost her job. She can barely pay her rent, let alone car payments or anything else. She's dying for any job she can get her hands on. When she goes to her cousin's office to interview for a filing job, and finds the position filled, she is willing to do anything. That's when her cousin's secretary tells her there's an open spot for a bounty hunter. Stephanie jumps at the chance when she hears how much she'll get for the job. The added bonus is that she'll be bringing in the one guy that's humiliated her all her life. Little does she know that she's way over her head in the bounty hunting business, and there's more to her case than meets the eye.

Thoughts:
Oh my God, I loved this. I read it two sittings, because I couldn't put it down. (The only time I did was because it was well past midnight, and my eyes were more closed than open.) It's not only a fast read, but it's funny as hell. I will say that it is very dated, considering it was originally written in 1994, when the eighties were only slightly uncool, and car phones were the new rage (Forget cell phones. Those weren't even thought of yet!) The fashion described for poor Stephanie sounds like a girl getting ready for an 80's party. But if you take all that in stride, and remember a time when cell phones weren't available to call for help from a dark alley, you'll be fine. I will admit that when Stephanie first gets into trouble when she's out and about in the city, and she needs help, my first reaction is "use your cell phone and call someone," but then I checked myself, checked the publishing date, and laughed. But it really is a fun read, and I look forward to getting into the series. As a girl from Jersey, I appreciate and understand a lot of the "New Jersey attitude" that Stephanie and the rest of the characters exude. And even 18 year old jokes about Jersey's lack of gardens make me smile. I highly suggest this book, and probably the series. Besides, although I plan to see it no matter how bad it supposedly is, I hear the book is way better than the movie. I just hope it's set in 90's Jersey, not 2010's Jersey. It would be so much more interesting! Be warned, once I start really getting my hands on these books, you'll be hearing about them endlessly until I'm through, just like the rest of the series I've powered through.

Book 19 of 50

Pages: 352
Genre: Mystery
Grade: A-
Would I Recommend?: Definitely. And it doesn't hurt that it's the first in the series either!

The Secrets Sisters Keep (Abby Drake)

Summary:
Four sisters, Ellie, Amanda, Babe, and Carleen, are brought together for their uncle's seventy-fifth birthday party. Carleen, the third child and black sheep of the family, hasn't been seen since her trial for burning down the family home ended. She was eighteen at the time, and is now in her forties. Babe, the baby, is an aging Hollywood starlet who hasn't been home since she was a teenager either. Ellie, the eldest, has lived with Uncle Edward at his Long Island lake house since her marriage ended in her twenties, and Amanda, second eldest, lives in nearby Manhattan with her husband and three children. The day before Uncle Edward's big bash, which will welcome back 200 of his oldest and dearest friends to the lake house, Uncle Edward goes missing. The book follows the sisters as they hunt for Uncle Edward, and try not to spill the beans on all their deepest and darkest secrets.

Thoughts:
Honestly, I kind of hated every character, in one respect or another. Amanda's a haughty bitch who needs to get her priorities straight. Ellie is scared of change, and everything that could make her life more meaningful. Babe is too wrapped up in herself to know anything. And Carleen, while being the most well-adjusted of the sisters, is bitter and feels the need to fix everything she may or may not have broken all those years ago. The story, overall, is an interesting one, but the players are just... Boring. Uninspired. They're cliches of the worst sort.

The book was fairly short, with big type, but I still had to push myself to get through it. At 100 pages, I was ready to be done already. The only good developments came along at page 250 or so, and went from there. Unfortunately, it was too little and too late for me to really care. I'm sorry, Ms. Drake, but you did not hook me at any point. The only reason I finished the book was that I truly hate starting a book and not seeing it through to the end. Thank goodness I got this through one of those "book of the month" clubs as one of the introductory books, so I didn't have to pay more than a few pennies for it. Otherwise, I would have been more upset.

Book 34 of 50

Pages: 301
Genre: Chicklit, kinda
Grade: D-
Would I Recommend?: Skip it. Boring, uninspired cliches aren't worth your time.

Because She Can (Bridie Clark)

Summary:
Claire is having a crazy day. She's just gotten news that her mentor is leaving the publishing company she works for, and now the little bit of attention she'd been getting for her projects will be practically null. Her best friend Bea asks her to come to a gallery opening, and when Claire arrives, she finds the man she crushed on as a college student. And now he's interested in her! And he's going to get her a job with the best publisher in the city! The book follows Claire for a year after this fateful day, all the way to her wedding day, where she's about to marry that man, Randall. But is it normal to have this many doubts on your wedding day?

Thoughts:
It's a poor man's Devil Wears Prada. Quite literally, it's the same story, as Claire gets crapped on at every turn, and the boss is an unholy bitch. Only it's a book publisher, not a magazine publisher. Pretty much most other things in the story are the same. This was just written three years later, and it has a wedding in the mix. It was vaguely amusing, and not really much to talk about compared with DWP. I feel like I liked this book better than DWP, but only a little. I vaguely remember being annoyed by DWP when I read it. Past that, I wouldn't bother with this one if you've read the original. No wonder this was on the bargain rack.

Pages: 274
Genre: Chick lit
Grade: C
Would I Recommend?: Eh. Could go either way.

32 down, 18 to go!

Fairy Tale Blues (Tina Welling)

Summary:
Forty-something (or fifty-something) AnnieLaurie is married to a sweet, funny man named Jess. He's self-absorbed and careless, and for their anniversary, he gets her the same pair of blue topaz earrings that he got her for Valentine's Day. This brings Annie to the realization that she needs a break. A break from her life with him, from the store they own together, from everything about their life in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. She leaves the anniversary dinner abruptly, and hops a flight to Florida, nothing with her but the clothes on her back and her purse. She decides she's taking a "marriage sabbatical."

Thoughts:
The book feels like it's Welling's way of working through her own issues with her marriage. The main female character even is named like a fanfic "MarySue." It's written alternatively from Annie's and Jess's points of view. While Annie describes her world and her "awakening" and all that, I kind of wanted to reach into the pages and smack her around. Yes, Jess has issues. But you're not without them either. I wanted to put it down so badly because it just wasn't GOOD to me, but I hate stopping a book in the middle, so I usually tough out even the worst books. (Case in point: Raiders of the Low Forehead. Worst book I've ever read, bar none, but I actually finished that flaming pile of- ugh. Awful.)

What makes me sad about this book is that Jess works on himself, yes, and so does Annie, but the only real actions that go on during the book are when Annie meets Daniel, a former drug runner, on the run from his former boss and the cartel they work (or worked, in Daniel's case) for. That's the only real fun in this book. It was wholly depressing, and a waste of a week or more of my reading time. And this was one of the books from Paperback Swap that I had been waitlisted for. And I didn't even like it. Waste of time and a PBS credit.

31 down, 19 to go!

Pages: 312
Genre: Chick-lit, self help
Grade: D
Would I Recommend?: Not unless you're a 50+ with serious marriage issues.

Making Mischief (Elizabeth Young)

Summary:
Abby saw something at 16 that she very much shouldn't have. The boy her cousin, Rachel, had a crush on was getting busy with one of her cousin's best friends right in Rachel's backyard. She never told Rachel, though she did tell another cousin, Fleur. Once they grew up, the boy has become a man (named Guy) and has started dating Fleur (not Rachel). Fleur begs Abby to keep an eye on Guy for her while Fleur couldn't be around. Abby found Guy to be very upstanding, and began to rekindle the tiny crush she had on him from when they were teens. But what's a girl to do when the guy she's got the hots for is dating family?

Thoughts:
A fun, easy read. Sure, the author's lazy for naming the main guy GUY. (Really? There's NO other names that would have fit this man??) But it's one of those stories that you hope she figures out the right way to go about things, and when she does, it's great. And the nice thing is that this one didn't just end when the romance bit resolved itself. It had a little bit of a happily ever after tagged on in the last chapter, which made me happy.

Pages: 332
Genre: Romance/chicklit
Grade: B+
Would I Recommend?: Sure, it was fun.

27 down, 23 to go!

She Went All the Way (Meg Cabot)

Summary:
Lou Calabrese and Jack Townsend board a helicopter to get to the set of the movie that Lou wrote, and Jack is staring in. They hate each other, but figure they can handle a few minutes stuck in a small moving vehicle. Little do they know there's a plot against Jack's life, and the helicopter pilot has been hired to kill Jack. They fight off the pilot and the chopper crashes. Oh, did I mention that this is in the wilderness of Alaska? For the next few days, they fight to stay warm and alive. Will they ever figure out who's out to get Jack? (Or how to get themselves back to some sort of civilization.)

Thoughts:
Awesome, as always with Ms. Cabot. I have loved Ms. Meg for many years now, since the first Princess Diaries book, (no, I haven't read them all. I got bored with them about four books in) and have loved just about everything I've ever read of hers. I have about six books of hers to cover still. I want to hold off, though, because I don't want to kill all the Cabot joy and never have more from her to read. Ah, but back to this one.

Lou's an awesome character. Jack too. It is, of course, the classic romantic comedy plot line. Girl hates boy. Girl and Boy get stuck in some sort of situation where they have to be in close quarters for an indeterminate length of time. They both start falling for each other, but won't tell the other one. They fall into having sex eventually. They get back to their regular life, having to avoid each other because it's just "too weird." One does something daring to win the other's heart for good. The end. The thing about Cabot is that she makes you actually want to get to those points. She makes you want to see them fall in love. Plus, she's fun about it.

Pages: 354
Genre: Chicklit, Mystery, Romance
Grade: A
Would I Recommend?: YES. Anything Meg's, I'll recommend it, except the Queen of Babble sequels. Those were surprisingly bad.

18 down, 32 to go!