As I mentioned after finishing Smokin’ Seventeen I very quickly needed to pick up Explosive Eighteen thanks to a cliffhanger. In true Janet Evanovich style it takes about 1/3 of the book until we get our answers.
When we left off, Stephanie said she was taking one of her men to Hawaii. Unfortunately we didn’t know which man. The book kicks off with a discussion about a tan line that looked like she had been wearing a ring throughout her stay in Hawaii. In order to keep readers interested, the book takes awhile to play the full story out of who went to Hawaii with Stephanie and what really happened on vacation.
Without giving too much away, the book description from Amazon explains the book in half of a paragraph:
Morelli, Trenton’s hottest cop, isn’t talking about Hawaii. Ranger, the man of mystery, isn’t talking about Hawaii. And all Stephanie is willing to say about her Hawaiian vacation is . . . It’s complicated.
I’ll spare you the spoilers but I highly recommend reading it to find out.
Once back in Trenton Stephanie discovers an envelop in her purse that has a photo of a mystery man. She thinks nothing of it and tosses it in the trash. Suddenly the FBI (and fake FBI) are showing up at her house demanding the photo. Mix in the fact that a man she sat next to on the plane has been found dead in LA shortly after he put the photo in her bag on accident.
While hiding from the fake FBI, corporating with the real FBI Stephanie attempts to figure out what is going on and why the photo is so important. Ranger is involved to help her track things down while Morelli encourages her to corporate but at the same time knows that Ranger will protect her.
“It’s good to have a Ranger,” Lula said. “He’s like a personal Spidey.”
Janet Evanovich – Explosive Eighteen
Stephanie continues to sort out her relationship with both men while sorting through the FBI mess. In other words, it was a typical Stephanie Plum book. As usual, things blew up, cars were destroyed and only a few buildings were burned down in the process.
I sent Hal and Rafael to keep an eye on you, and I went to check on a commercial account in Whitehorse. Rafael called to tell me Lula went in with a rocket launcher, so I skipped Whitehorse. I pulled into the lot seconds before you destroyed Billings Foods.” Janet Evanovich – Explosive Eighteen
This was another book that I found myself highlighting quotes throughout the entire book. I always find happenings between Lula and Stephanie (also known as Lucy and Ethel) amusing but this book was filled with new adventures.
As I had mentioned, I quickly picked this up to see who Stephanie chose to go to Hawaii with. I actually read about 80% of the book Sunday morning before anyone in the house was awake and finished it in about 3 hours total.
While the books got repetitive for awhile, I found that Explosive Eighteen was one of the books to pick up and read again if you were starting to question your love for Stephanie Plum. Enough back story is filled in that you could pick it up without missing too much of the last few books in the series.
As usual I finished this book mad that the ending I thought was coming, hasn’t happened yet. Oh well, onto Notorious Nineteen!