Metro Girl Unabridged [Audiobook] [Audio Cassette]

 

 

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Janet Evanovich is best known for her Stephanie Plum series ("One for the Money", "Two For the Doe", "Three To Get Deadly", etc) featuring Stephanie Plum: A so-so bounty hunter with big hair, a big mouth and a gun. Each of the novels has rocketed to the New York Times Best Seller List and has made her a publishing phenomenon. The books are laugh out loud funny and Evanovich has amassed herself quite the loyal fan base. Myself included.

I for one love her Stephanie Plum novels, so I was extremely excited at hearing she would be starting a new series. I wondered if the new series would be as funny, if the main character would be as wonderful as Stephanie and if the mystery would draw me in from the get go. I am happy to say that I was not disappointed. In fact, I was overjoyed. "Metro Girl" is an incredible read!

In it, we meet Alexandra Barnaby, or Barney to her friends and family. Though she hails from Baltimore instead of New Jersey, she is just as funny and endearing. Working in her father's garage over the summers has instilled her and her brother "Wild" Bill with a love of cars. But, as she says: "Just because I know how to change a guy's oil doesn't mean I want to spend the rest of my life on my back, staring up at his undercarriage." Barney wants the quiet life, which is quickly shattered when her brother goes missing.

Things heat up when Barney flies to Miami to try and find her brother. She has no idea where to start, but quickly finds out that he disappeared on a boat named the Happy Hooker belonging to Sam Hooker, famed NASCAR race driver. Things are complicated, however, when Sam Hooker tags along with Barney to help her find her brother; he wants his boat back. Barney at first doesn't want anything to do with the handsome racecar driver. He's arrogant, suave and sexy and that is a dangerous mix.

But "Wild" Bill isn't just missing. He's mixed up in something that goes beyond fixing engines or a busted carburetor. When Sam and Barney finally do find Bill, what he's involved in will blow their minds and get them all in some really hot water. Barney and Sam become involved with a plot so incredible that their very lives may be at stake. Perhaps this is one race that Sam Hooker won't win?

I enjoyed every single word of "Metro Girl". It was fast, furious and funny and had a lot of heart. While Stephanie Plum is kind of klutzy and dumb and the humour in the books is more slapstick funny, the humour in "Metro Girl" is subtler. There is also more of a focus on the budding relationship between Barney and Sam Hooker. With a plot that covers gay men, exfoliating, weapons of destruction, women in distress and fast cars, this is one summer read that keeps the reader guessing until the final pages.

While my love for the Stephanie Plum books runs deep, it looks like I have a new heroine to look forward to! I can't wait for "Motor Mouth" out in October 2006 to read her next adventure. Pick this one up, it's well worth the read and you'll laugh yourself silly.

Despite being a rather average book in all aspects, plot, characterization, dialogue and overall tilt, (and as such it would be perfectly acceptable) it is a book that not only failed to pull me in, but it actually managed to annoy me.

Why? Not because of the premise. If anything it was not used to its full potential. The basic idea was great, but there was little follow through The main reason I disliked this book was because of its insanely self conscious writing. It's like the author actively set out to create characters that would be cooler, zanier, funier, just plain better than Stephanie Plum and company. In doing so, she forgot that the readers have to be able to relate to her characters. This is why Sam Hooker and Barney feel so flat, because they are just over the top.

Also, it's all nice to use NASCAR as a backdrop for Sam Hooker, but if it's not going to add anything to the plot, then you shouldn't have that character keep repeating over and over that afterall, he's a NASCAR driver. It got annoying the fourth or so time, never mind the many times it was repeated after that.

All in all, I'd say, trying to hard is just as bad as not trying at all.

This is a fun happy romance adventure story of how Alexandra "Barney" Barnaby is forced out of her drab routine life in order to rescue her baby brother "Wild" Bill. Along the way she runs into a cast of eccentric and interesting characters, including the very attractive "Nascar Guy".

The dialogue was snappy and the story moves along quickly. If your looking for a light hearted romp, with a bit of wit, this is the book for you.

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4.0 out of 5 stars It could be a Plum adventure
This book was O.K. not great. It could`ve been a Plum adventure, In saying that I think that is why I can not give it five stars. Read more

Published on Dec 29 2004 by Chantal Gendron

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