Twelve Sharp

I believe that books are like food: too much sweet Romance and you can’t wait for a meat-and-potatoes novel you can get your teeth in. Too much prose, and you reach for poetry. And after a heavy diet of Important Books Other People Decided You Must Read, you crave something light and fluffy.



Like Janet Evanovich, for example. I honestly don’t know when I read her latest Plum novel, “Twelve Sharp” - all I remember of the last two weeks is a blur of short stories and non-fiction book chapters I had to complete for various deadlines, and that's on top of my usual duties as a professional in two companies, a mother and a home maker.

And yet read “Twelve Sharp” I did. I can’t claim to remember the plot very well or what the title had to do with the book, but I do remember liking the overall experience. There was a lot of female bonding, not too much slapstick, no annoying characters. Best of all, there was plenty of sweet dark sexual tension with Ranger.

For those of you who don’t know the series: Stephanie Plum is kind of going out with Morelli, her childhood sweetheart, who used to be deliciously bad and is now boringly reformed and committed and good for her. Now, I’m all for guys who are good and soft on the inside, but outside I want them to be bad. Ergo, enter Ranger, who is definitely bad for Stephanie. He will never marry her, but he will rescue her from embarrassing or dangerous situations, and he will give her the s3x of her life... if only she lets him.

Come to think of it, s3x is a lot like food too: you need your meat and potato, but from time to time, you really feel like dessert.