Explosive Eighteen

Explosive Eighteen (A Stephanie Plum Novel)by Janet Evanovich

Before Stephanie can even step foot off Flight 127 Hawaii to Newark, she’s knee deep in trouble. Her dream vacation turned into a nightmare, and she’s flying back to New Jersey solo. Worse still, her seatmate never returned to the plane after the L.A. layover. Now he’s dead—and a ragtag collection of thugs and psychos, not to mention the FBI, are all looking for a photograph he was supposed to be carrying. (snipped for length and spoilers from goodreads.com)

I can make this review short and simple: I would have much rather have read the story of what happened in Hawaii than the one that took place in New Jersey.Sigh.They can't all be winners, right?I was beyond excited to find this on the rack next to the candy counter at the train station in Kingston, ON when I was coming home from visiting my parents over our long weekend (the weekend before the US long weekend in May). I didn't think this paperback was going to come out until November, so delight was mine!Sadly, this isn't going down as one of my favourite installments of the series. I don't even think I laughed out loud more than once - if that. It wasn't horrible, but I found it dull and lacklustre.I don't want to think that the Stephanie Plum series has jumped the shark just yet. I have often liked one numbered book over the other in this journey. I stick by the above cliche - they can't all be winners. I'm certain some people out there like this one more than ones I found amazing. It happens. I wasn't overly disappointed by not liking it, I was due to find one a little less fantastic than the last couple.What I am worried about is the possibility that because Ms. Evanovich is writing a spin-off series and I think still has some chick-lit happening, that she's going to be stretched too thin. I don't care for the Wicked series with Diesel. I didn't like him as a character in the Plum books, so I'm not going to read that spin-off.I shall content myself with waiting for the 19th Plum book to come out and I am still determined to re-read these all one month. Maybe over the summer. Or over Christmas. They certainly deserve a reread because this series is so much fun!That's all I'm going to say about that. Really, this is the 18th book in a series so if you don't know what's going on, I'm not going to ruin 17 other books for you and if you're behind in the series, I won't ruin that either! As always, the Plum mysteries are comfort reading and an easy, fun read when you need to just turn off your brain for a while and chill.Stephanie Plum series

1. One for the Money
2. Two for the Dough
3. Three to Get Deadly
4. Four to Score
5. High Five
6. Hot Six
7. Seven Up
8. Hard Eight
9. To the Nines
10. Ten Big Ones
11. Eleven on Top
12. Twelve Sharp
13. Lean Mean Thirteen
14. Fearless Fourteen
15. Finger Lickin’ Fifteen
16. Sizzling Sixteen
17. Smokin' Seventeen
18. Explosive Eighteen 

Stephanie Plum Between-the-Numbers Novellas

1. Visions of Sugar Plums (between 8 & 9)
2. Plum Lovin’ (between 12 & 13)
3. Plum Lucky (between 13 & 14)
4. Plum Spooky (between 14 & 15)