I love Janet Evanovich’s work. I’ve read almost everything the woman has ever published, including her old romances. But what is with this POS series? I’m almost 100% she has very little to do with the series and that most of the work is on Charlotte Hughes.
The dialogue is just shitty. I mean, it’s so far from Evanovich’s witty dialog in her Stephanie Plum books that I can’t believe she’d ever attach her name to it. I wrote better dialogue than that in high school. The characters never sound like real people talking. I find myself skimming the dialogue, because it grates my teeth.
The characters are dull and unlikable. Max Holt, the hero, is a typical romance “super rich, incredibly intelligent, mind-boggingly handsome, and endearingly flawed” hero. He can’t seem to do anything wrong. The female lead, whose name escapes me at the moment, is ditzy and cute/sexy, and confused and all those other typical romance novel stereotypes.
At least Ranger and Joe Morelli have real flaws. Joe Morelli is not rich, and though he’s handsome and intelligent, he can be downright sexist at times. His conflicts with Stephanie seem real. Ranger is so mysterious that you’re never sure what to believe about him. You know he’s wealthy and he’s devastatingly handsome, but he’s actually a bit more bad boy than most romance heroes. He seems to really be a mercenary, as in the “go and kill Banana Republic dictators” type of mercenary (I’m only halfway through Ten Big Ones, so don’t spoil it if this changes).
All the other characters in the Full series are similar. They don’t have the personality of Lula (even the ditzy DeeDee, Max’s sister) or hell, even Connie, the office manager.
No research is apparently ever done on the series. I’ve seen shotguns shoot *bullets[/i (not slugs…bullets). As I mention below, laws are broken left and right, and the police have no concern that half of them would result in the bad guys getting off. The hero’s KITT-like car is so AI-capable that it’s literally impossible to suspend disbelief. The damn thing can have documents faxed to it and still process it.
Finally, the stories just don’t seem to go anywhere. The latest revolved around a possible serial killer. Here we have our heroine getting upset because the killer might have found his victims through personal ads run through the heroine’s newspaper. I kept wanting to scream, “Get over it! You weren’t responsible in any way, shape or form.” Of course, she breaks a million laws (including contaminating evidence) trying to find the killer. At least when Stephanie Plum breaks the law, she knows she’s doing it.
OK, now I’m beginning to wonder if this should go in the Pit. I get steamed just thinking about how bad this series is.