narfna’s #CBR4 Review #29: Two For the Dough by Janet Evanovich
This series is silly, silly fluff.
It’s been a while in between reading the book and writing this review, but the basic plot of the second Stephanie Plum novel concerns Stephanie hunting down a goon who shot a buddy of his in the knee (and later in the head), and who also happens to be Joe Morelli’s cousin. This leads to all sorts of hijinks in funeral homes (Grandma Mazur is obsessed with going to viewings), with missing coffins and junk popping up all over the place, and Stephanie laughably being hired to “bodyguard.” And of course somebody threatens Stephanie’s life, and she goes through about five cars a day.
The good? Morelli is still delicious, and Stephanie can’t resist him. Afterwards, she’s disgusted with herself, of course, and at one point she leaves him naked in a cold street and drives away, but he’s a good sport. Their antagonistic sexually charged relationship continues to hold my attention. Two For the Dough is also funny and disturbing. I can’t decide if the part where Stephanie has an honest to god penis mailed to her was wonderful or awful, but either way, it’s entertaining.
I didn’t enjoy this one as much as the first or third ones. There was too much plot, and the plot was confusing to boot. I wanted more character stuff. Part of the reason I liked the first book so much was Stephanie’s musings on life and her past, and there was basically none of that in Two For the Dough. Just wacky caper after wacky caper. It wasn’t a bad way to spend an afternoon, but it could have been much better.
Final verdict: 2.5 stars.
