Review-Sizzling Sixteen

Sizzling Sixteen by Janet Evanovich

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I remember when I first started reading the Stephanie Plum books, I couldn't finish them fast enough. I'd stay up until the wee hours of the morning because I couldn't put them down. That hasn't been the case for the past 6 or 7 books, but I keep reading them in the hopes that they will go back to the glory days of books #1-9.

This was not the book. Nothing exciting happens in this book. Stephanie is no longer the funny, kick a$$ heroine that I grew to love in One for the Money. The same things happen in all the current books:

Stephanie and Joe have a domestic dispute and are on a break
Grandma Mazur wreaks havoc in a funeral home
Stephanie and Lula go for donuts and Cluck in a Bucket
Lula wears spandex
Ranger gives Stephanie a black car
Stephanie destroys car
Ranger gives Stephanie another black car
Stephanie and Joe make up at the end, only to be on a break again at the start of the next book

I'm OVER it.

Sizzling Sixteen is no exception to the same predictable formula. I no longer care about the mystery and whether or not Stephanie will find her skips. The only parts that are interesting to me is when she's at home with her family and when she's with Ranger. I used to be a diehard Stephanie/Morelli shipper but they are so boring, I've moved on to shipping Steph and Ranger. That would make these books so much more interesting, if she would dump Joe for good and move on to Ranger permanently. Or at least for awhile. Basically, they just need to do SOMETHING. I finish reading these books, and I think back "What actually happened in this book?" because it seems like nothing of importance happens anymore.

Only 3 stars for this one. I truly hope that one day we will get back the funny, fearless, sassy Stephanie I fell in love with all those books ago, and that the storylines go back to being as cute and crazy as they once were. Now the story lines are just a little too over the top and trying too hard.



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Challenges: 100 Books in a Year, Mystery and Suspense Challenge