Review: Eleven On Top

Eleven On Top by Janet Evanovich

Book 11 in the Stephanie Plum series

Read: 25 - 29 August 2010

America's favorite bounty hunter, Stephanie Plum, is back in her eleventh adventure. Trouble seems to find Stephanie no matter where she goes, and once again she's struggling with her tangled love life, her chaotic family, and her God-given gift for destroying every car she drives. This time, Stephanie Plum has decided to quit her job as a bounty hunter. She wants something safe. She wants something normal. She's tired of creeps, weirdos, and stalkers. But just when she thinks she's out, they pull her back in! (Tanum)

Business As Usual
I'd be lying if I said this was a very engaging and unpredictable book, because it wasn't. Evanovich has obviously found a recipe that works, but after 11 books that formula starts to feel old. The only change from earlier books is that Stephanie isn't actually a bounty hunter in this one - she quits her job because she's tired of people shooting at her. Other than that there's the usual bad guy stalking her, the usual car bombings, the usual antics with Lula and Stephanie's usual inability to decide who is hotter, Ranger or Morelli. In other words, it's business as usual.

Even though this book doesn't have much new to offer, other than Ranger's work place which was interesting, I still enjoy the motley crew of characters. Despite all the crazy situations she gets herself into, Stephanie rings true to me. She gets scared, she gets angry, she finds relationships hard and she has the occational donut craving, just like the rest of us. Lula isn't hard to picture, and Grandma Mazur is hilarious (her fight with Grandma Bella is epic). I'm definitely a Morelli gal and would like to see him interact more with Steph outside of the bedroom than he has during the last few books. Seems it's all about Ranger when it comes to catching the bad guys, which is understandable, but I'd like Morelli to get in on the action too sometimes.


Bottom line: Not a very innovative plot, but great for those times when you just want some mindless fun.

My rating: 3/6


The books in the Stephanie Plum series are:
One for the Money (1994)
Two for the Dough (1996)
Three to Get Deadly (1997)
Four to Score (1998)
High Five (1999)
Hot Six (2000)
Seven Up (2001)
Hard Eight (2002)
To the Nines (2003)
Ten Big Ones (2004)
Eleven on Top (2005)
Twelve Sharp (2006)
Lean Mean Thirteen (2007)
Fearless Fourteen (2008)
Finger Lickin' Fifteen (2009)
Sizzling Sixteen (2010)