Fortune and Glory: Tantalizing Twenty-Seven

I LOVED this series! Laughed, cried, got others hooked on it and stayed up to the wee hours reading them. However, I truly believe these books have ran their course and have definitely run out of steam. I quit reading them and so did everyone else that I got hooked on them. Reading the description I was hoping we were finally going to work toward a final book. No such luck. Same old, same old nothing new, no humor. Janet its time to write the final book and end the series.

I am usually such a fan of these books. So much so that I stayed up until midnight for the release and read it straight through. I was sooo disappointed. I dont want to give too much away and spoil it for others, but I think the cover blurb raised my expectations and then the book failed to deliver. To the point that I feel the cover was pretty deceptive and it made me a little angry when I was done reading the book. The characters where flat…some even seemed to take a step back as far as development. The relationship triangle was flat (there was no where near the conflict or resolution hinted to on the cover). Ive never been annoyed by the triangle as other readers have been in the past, but I was with this book for some reason. The plot was pretty flat. Even the new character, Gabriela, was such a miss. I definitely wont be picking up her stand alone series.

This might be the end of the line for me and Stephanie Plum. Its time to give up on these, which makes me sad. Ive loved them for so long. Sometimes, you have to move on.

Stephanie, Lula, her two love interests, (Ranger & Morelli), a new character named Gabriela Rose, Grandma Mazur and an host of others, are fully focused on finding the treasure left behind by Grandmas recently deceased husband. In typical fashion, they bungle and eat their way thru the non-stop action with lots of guffaws and head shaking along the way.

Not so typical, at least of the last few books, theres real action, mystery and adventure in this book. The story is still largely driven by dialogue but there are car chases and destruction scenes that will rival Fast & Furious and make classic car enthusiasts groan.

The sense of determination and finality in this volume is evident from the early chapters. While I found it a welcome addition, I did miss some of the ethnic charm or tropes that usually pepper author, Janet Evanovichs writing. Trenton, NJ is in my backyard , the Italianisms ARE my yard and these have provided much of the joy from the Stephanie Plum series.

Gabriela Rose is a great foil in this story. Shes everything Stephanie is not, including the lead in Evanovichs next novel: her heritage is Hispanic, shes designer thru n thru plus shes a soldier-of-fortune that can cook; no take out cartons for this chica!

All the loose ends of Stephanies life are finally tied up. Theres no real satisfaction chapters which left me with the feeling we might see these characters again sometime. Still, the ending is typical Plum and will give a smile to fans both old and new as well as hope for what might yet return another day.

Gbye for now – Stephanie, Grandma, Lula, Joe & Ranger…see yas later

Like most readers, I have been a big fan of this series since the beginning. Yes, the books have fallen into the never ending cycle of repetition and lack of development but I stick with it because for those hours it takes me to read, I’m entertained. Nothing changes but the pacing is good and it keeps me turning the pages. But this book was painful to read. Painful. Like a 300 page newspaper article. Flat is the only word I can think of to describe it. I felt like I was reading an outline that never got developed. The characters had no spark or energy – like even they were bored and just dialing it in. And forget about a triangle/romance. Ranger and Morrelli have very little “screen” time.

While I enjoy the characters that are introduced, the plots are getting thin, and the Ranger-Morelli , who gets the girl, is the same in every book. It really needs to end and the only way to do that is have Ranger get the girl so that the series can continue with some spice. There are more ways to go with the series at that point. The way it is now, well lets just say- you are left flat at the end.

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