Lean Mean Thirteen, Fearless Fourteen, and Finger Lickin’ Fifteen by Janet Evanovich

I love the Stephanie Plum series with its fantastic characters, great love triangle, riveting mysteries, and laugh out loud moments. Whenever I need to pick up a book to relax too and give me a good laugh, I can’t go wrong with one of Evanovich’s Plum series. While I was down and out with morning sickness back in April and May, I caught up on the series (except for the between the novels books).

In Lean Mean Thirteen, Stephanie helps out Ranger by planting a bug on her slimy ex-husband, Dickie Orr. Dickie ends up missing shortly thereafter and Stephanie is a prime suspect. Dickie’s mysterious law partners all start looking for Dickie and unfortunately Stephanie. Stephanie also has found out that Dickie has reunited with her nemesis, Joyce Barnhart. My favorite laugh out loud moments of this book pertained to Stephanie’s take down of a skip and his problems with the cable company.

Life gets a bit crazy for Stephanie in Fearless Fourteen. She is hired by Ranger to help watching aging singer Brenda who is performing in Trenton. And as if she doesn’t have enough on her hands, she is taking care of a teenager named Zook whose mother has disappeared. Rumor has it that Zook may be her boyfriend Morelli’s illegitimate child. Poor Morelli has people in and out of his house constantly looking for a missing bank robbery lout that is rumored to be buried somewhere on his property. Lula may or may not be engaged to Tank, much to his dismay.

Lula witnesses the beheading of celebrity chef Stanley Chipotle in Finger Lickin’ Fifteen. Lula decides to track down the killers by entering a BBQ contest, with the problem being that she doesn’t really know how to cook. Grandma Mazur decides to help out and they are off on an adventure. Stephanie helps Ranger solve a string of mysterious break-ins at Rangeman security properties.

I enjoyed all three of these novels, mostly because I love the humor and the colorful characters so much. Stephanie is definitely my favorite with her quirky, yet everywoman ways. Lula is a close second though. The former “ho” always has hilarious lines and I love her self-confidence. Grandma Mazur is a pretty crazy grandma, but also laugh out loud funny. I love both of Stephanie’s love interests, man-of-mystery Ranger and the bad boy turned good, Joe Morelli. My only complaint is that after fifteen novels, Stephanie still finds herself in a love triangle and unable to commit. I would really like it if she would finally make her choice and move on in life as this series continues.

I read these three books for the Stephanie Plum Reading Challenge and I am really looking forward to reading the next in the series Sizzling Sixteen. I also still need to catch up on the “between the novels” books.

The good news is I have now officially reviewed all of the books I read while I was down and out with morning sickness. The bad news is I still have a pile of ARCs that I need to read and review. Hopefully I will get caught up soon!

Book Source: All three novels were from the Kewaunee Public Library.