Customer Reviews

Notorious Nineteen: A Stephanie Plum Novel

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"You shall eat the old harvest, and clear out the old because of the new." -- Leviticus 26:10 (NKJV)

Series that depend on the appeal of the characters can become dull and faded if the characters don't grow and adapt. Stephanie Plum's nineteen outings prominently display that problem. She ends up in different fixes in each novel, but she's very much the same. The stories until now mainly varied in how she arranged to pick up those who skipped their court dates. Outrageous scenes and humor originally added a freshness. But after so many outings, Ms. Evanovich tries to outdo herself by scaling up the humor and the confrontations, but it's too predictable to work well.

In Notorious Nineteen she chooses instead to inject a half-way decent mystery for Stephanie to solve. A series that provides interested puzzles can last a lot longer, even if the characters stay frozen in time. I hope Ms. Evanovich will do this again. It helped.

I'm skeptical about this series. I asked my wife to read the book before even considering opening it. Her thumbs up was more vigorous than my own, so perhaps you'll like Notorious Nineteen better than I did. It's a solid humor novel, but not an above-average one.

I have been reading the whole series. For the most part they are fun. AS with most series, some books are better than others, and, as the series goes on, they can get a bit repetitive. The funny shticks are all there but do start to wear thin. Stephanie gets a bunch of vehicles blown up, gets more serious with Morelli, and the tension between Stephanie and Ranger is still very much there.

What stood out for me in this book was that in addition to the quick pick ups, there were two story lines that kept up through the whole book: The disappearance of Cubbin, and an old associate going after Ranger, and an old service buddy.

The Cubbin story is really interesting. He is charged with stealing five million dollars from the retirement home he works at. He goes to hospital for an operation and is then missing. Stephanie looks for him, and looks into the other people also gone missing from the hospital.

In the meantime, someone is out to get Ranger and an old army friend who is about to get married. Ranger and Stephanie work together on security at the rehearsal dinner and the wedding. Poor Stephanie has to wear a pink bridesmaid dress.

Of course, as any astute reader of these books can predict, by the end there is an overlap between the two, even though they are actually two distinct plot lines.

Because of these developed plot lines I found this book a bit more interesting than some of the other more recent books in the series.

Janet Evanovich and the Stephanie plum series are wonderful! The whole series is hilarious! It is a great light read that is sure to give you a chuckle!

If you have read this series at all you know that you want to read the next book! Why? Because you want to laugh. I am a visual reader so every time Stephanie and Lula get into something, which is inevitable, I have a giggle and, at times, I've laughed so hard I've cried!

This series is great holiday reading as it is not too intense.

It would be really nice if we could have a few more in this series to see where eveyone ends up.

Loved 18 &19! After being disappointed the last 4 books, 18 & 19 felt like the old janet! Good reads.

Its okay but not near as funny as her other Stephanie Plum Series. I used to laugh myself silly when I read this series, but somehow I missed that on her last two to three books . Starting at Sizzling Sixteen.

Notorious Nineteen, in my opinion, is the best thing Evanovich has written in years. For me, the Stephanie Plum series started going downhill several books ago, and I only continued reading them out of a sense of loyalty and curiosity. With each new book, I was shocked the series hadn’t come to an end, and I was getting extremely frustrated; the characters never changed, the jokes were always the same, and it seemed to me like Evanovich had become a very lazy writer.

I went into Notorious Nineteen with a healthy amount of trepidation. I vowed that if things didn’t begin to progress in this book, I would give up on the series until the final book, at which time I would see if Stephanie had chosen Ranger or Morelli. Since, at one time, this series was my absolute favourite, I am very pleased to say I actually enjoyed Notorious Nineteen.

It felt like the story was infused with a new light that’s been missing from the last few books. There was actual character progression, which has been lacking for a long time. We got some insight into not only Stephanie’s character, but also Ranger’s. There were new jokes, new problems, new characters, but at the same time, the story carried all the things that once made (and hopefully will now continue to make) the Plum books such a great series. The mystery held my attention and kept me guessing what would happen next, and there was the right amount of tension and humour.

Overall, Notorious Nineteen was very enjoyable. I know many people who have given up on the series altogether, or who are undecided on this book, but I say if you’re a fan of the series, you should definitely read this book. It was nice to be reminded why I loved this series so much when I started it several years ago. I hope Evanovich keeps it up since the series doesn’t look like it’ll be ending any time soon.

Another hit with Notorious Nineteen. My mother introduced me to these books many years ago and now I anxiously await the release and read it before you know it. My husband doesn't understand why I don't take longer to read them and I explain that it is not possible to only read a page or two at a time.

I have read all of Janet Evanovich's books and Notorious Nineteen was not a let down. These books are a fast read and enjoyable. I did find with this book there was a softer side to Stephanie that we really haven't seen in the other books, so maybe are we going to see a wedding in the near future? Looking forward to number Twenty.

Remembering with pleasure Smokin’ Seventeen, Sizzling Sixteen and other Evanovich audio editions read by Lorelei King - For this listener she simply is Stephanie Plum. Hearing her voice deliver one of these stories is very much like hearing the voice of an old friend on the phone - enjoyable, rewarding and somehow just right. So it is with Notorious Nineteen.

This time bounty hunter Stephanie Plum has her eyes out for an unusual and lucrative catch, namely Geoffrey Cubbin. He’s an embezzler who’s about to be tried for filching millions from an assisted living facility. Problem is he disappeared from a hospital after an emergency appendectomy. (Ouch!) There are no clues to his apparent vanishing into thin air so did someone help him pull this off or is he really still alive?

When Stephanie comes up with nothing her Grandma Mazur goes into the facility undercover to see what she can find out. But there’s little time as another crook has disappeared from the same hospital. So Stephanie hooks up with great looking cop Joe Morelli to try to solve the mystery.

As if this weren’t enough to keep her busy (plus she needs the money) Stephanie takes on another case that involves protection from a Special Forces enemy who is out not to capture but to kill.

There’s never a dull moment when Stephanie is around, so enjoy as she almost goes from the frying pan into the fire.

- Gail Cooke