Monday, October 20, 2014

Book Review: Four To Score by Janet Evanovich (Stephanie Plum Series)

THE DETAILS:
Pages: 313
Genre: Adult Fiction, Mystery/Crime
Release Date: 15/06/1998
Publisher: St Martin's Press
I bought it.
Book 4 in the Stephanie Plum series.

THE SYNOPSIS:
Stephanie Plum, the trash-talking New Jersey bail bondswoman of this popular series, is tracking Maxine Nowicki, who's wanted for skipping out on a car-theft charge lodged by her ex-boyfriend. Now the ex-boyfriend's very interested in getting back the love letters he supposedly wrote to Maxine.

 But what he's really looking for is the secret on which Evanovich hangs her screwball cast of colorful minor characters, including Sally Sweet, a cross-dressing drag queen; Lula, the 250-pound ex-hooker who works for Steph's boss; Cousin Vinnie, the bail bondsman; Grandma Mazur, who packs a Glock and is always looking for a little action; and Joyce, a wannabe bounty hunter who's been cramping Steph's style since she played pass the salami with Steph's ex-husband. 

The action doesn't get much farther from Trenton than the Jersey Shore, but when Steph's apartment and car are blown up by the others on Maxine's trail and she moves in with Joe Morelli, the handsome, arrogant cop she's been hung up on since high school, it gets hotter than the craps table in Atlantic City. Plum's fans won't be disappointed in this fourth outing in the series, and they're likely to be even more interested in the snappy patter and sexy shenanigans than in the mystery that holds it all together. --Jane Adams

MY REVIEW:
So my Stephanie Plum books turned up in the mail and after I got through the other book I was reading I couldn't wait to pick this up. I never even bother to read the backs of these books anymore, because all I know is that I think Stephanie Plum is awesome and I want to read more. Before I reviewed this I actually bothered to read the Goodreads description and I must say that the description doesn't actually do a great job of promoting the book.

So it took me a while to find the most accurate synopsis on Goodreads to post here, but one of them actually described Stephanie Plum with the words "condom carting" and most other descriptions make the book out to be some cheap erotic romance with some bounty hunter drama on the side. I hate to disappoint you but if you are after erotica then you are going to have to read a few books to find any. I actually really like that this book is more about the cases with only a little bit of personal stuff on the side, because I actually find the mysteries interesting.

This book is definitely more risque' than the others I have read so far in the series, but it's not overly descriptive or anything. To be honest, I'm not exactly a prude, but I prefer minimal-none sex scene description in the books that I read. Like I said, I prefer to read about the mystery , to read the funny bits and to read the more romantic stuff where they actually talk to each other.

I'm not really sure how to talk about this book without spoiling things, but there was definitely more of a romantic aspect to this book. While it wasn't a conventional relationship (if you could call it a relationship) It was interesting to see the characters in this situation. I felt like Stephanie was questioning everything because her failed marriage was still on her mind.

We also got to meet a new character Sally who was very colourful. I'm not sure if we will get to see more of him, but it's always fun to meet a new character in a Stephanie Plum book.

I felt like this book was probably the strangest of all the ones I have read so far. The connection between the crimes was just a little unsuspected and it just seemed a little random. Having said that, their were some aspects that were really predictable...

Overall, I think this book is worth 4.5 out of 5 stars. While I really enjoyed the novel and couldn't wait to start the sequel, I didn't like it as much as the other books in this series. I hope I didn't spoil to much for you guys. I would have liked to talk about more but I wanted to avoid spoiling it for you all. I highly recommend this series and think the blurbs are quite misleading...

Your Favourite Blogger,
Natalie

1 comment:

Witchcrafted Life said...

Ohhh, isn't that miffing? You'd think that publishers would want to be as spot on accurate with their descriptive book jacket/back cover blurbs as possible, but alas, sometimes they hit the mark rather severely (and/or focus on things that have, in truth, little to nothing to do with the focal point/points of the book). It's great that reviews like yours here can help give those who may be curious about such things a far clearer picture of what the story is really about.

♥ Jessica