Date Read: 2/2/2025

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

The Stephanie Plum series is one of my all-time favorite comfort reads. I have been reading these for over 15 years and I eagerly await the new addition each November when they get published. While this one felt a little different, it was still enjoyable, as always.

Stephanie is still the same old Stephanie- never has enough money, lives paycheck to paycheck, even when to get that paycheck it means chasing down bad guys and potentially serial killers. She is still flirting with the danger of loving two very different (but also weirdly similar) men. And of course she is still mooching free dinners off of her parents, needing her own special security detail from Rangeman, and attracting the weirdest and wildest attention. For all of those reasons, this book does not disappoint. If you are a fan of this series, you will still ultimately get what you are used to (for the most part). However, being a fan of the series also means you are used to a formulaic plot and this one felt different in many ways, missing some of the usuals that make the Stephanie Plum series so enjoyable.

First, and foremost, Stephanie isn’t just battling her love for both Ranger and Morelli, but at this point she is somehow engaged to both men. What may anger some fans is that by the end of this book, Stephanie chooses one of them to marry. So if you are Team Morelli or Team Ranger, you may find yourself disheartened by her choice. (However if you are like me and are Team MorelliRanger- I love them both!, then you will just be left wondering how the next book will pick up from there in regards to this love triangle).

Secondly, one of the things I love most about this series are the consistent characters- Lula, Connie, Vinny, and most importantly Grandma Mazur. Frankly, I felt like there just was not enough Grandma Mazur in this one and in turn not enough funeral viewings with her. Though I will say, I was happy with some new character editions in this one (and I hope we see them again in the future) with Herbert. Herbert was so quirky and really made a lot of this story more interesting, even if at times he felt annoying.

Finally, although throughout the story Stephanie is recovering from her apartment being fire-bombed, I still felt like this story was missing a key ingredient- that of Stephanie either destroying another car and needing to borrow Big Blue from Grandma Mazur, an explosion at her home or office, or any other bad-luck event that you could possibly imagine. I felt like this was really missing and with every outing to capture one of her FTAs, I was waiting for something terrible (but not too terrible) to happen to her. Instead, we were given something a bit too much- a possible vampire/serial killer/stalker. Maybe its just me, but I felt this just didn’t work that catastrophe (but humorous) that we are used to.

Overall, I still enjoyed this read and recommend to anyone that has followed this series or enjoys a good cozy comfort read- a little romance, a little mystery, a little humor. Needless to say, I will eagerly await number 32, though November seems so very far away!