Review of "Wicked Appetite" by Janet Evanovich

 Diesel! Diesel finally gets his own book. His own SERIES even! And I.. am so happy. *Tear*

Disclaimer: This book was purchased by the reviewer for her own  enjoyment. I was not given this book (nor anything else) in exchange for a positive review. However, I am an Amazon Affiliate.. which does practically nothing for me. Just sayin'.

Type: Unmentionables, Abilities, Bad Guys Named Wulf, Good Guys Named Diesel, Seven Deadly Sins, Gluttony, Paddles, Cupcakes, A Monkey Named Carl, A Cat Named Cat.

From the book jacket: "  For centuries, treasure hunters have been eager to possess the stones, undeterred by their corrupting nature. The list is long -- Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great, Napoleon, to name a few. Now the Stones have found their way to Salem, Massachusetts, and so has Gerwulf Grimoire, adding himself to this rogues' gallery of power seekers. He's an uncommonly dangerous man, with a hunger for the forbidden, and a set of abilities that are way beyond ordinary. Abilities that he feels entitle him to possess anything he might desire.

That would include Elizabeth Tucker, the woman he needs to find the Stones. She's freshly transplanted from New York City to Boston's North Shore. With a new job as pastry chef at Dazzle's bakery and an old house inherited from her Aunt Ophelia, her life is pretty much on track …until it's suddenly derailed by a guy named Diesel, a rude monkey, and a ninja cat.
Lizzy can handle the monkey and the cat. She's not sure about Diesel. He's offering up his own set of unusual talents, promising to protect her from Grimoire. The kind of protection that Lizzy suspects might involve guarding her body day and night.
The Seven Deadly Sins are pride, greed, lust, envy wrath, sloth and gluttony. That pretty much covers everything that is wicked. Diesel thinks it also pretty much covers everything that's fun. And Lizzy thinks Diesel and the Seven Deadly Sins cover everything her mother warned her about.    "

I love Diesel, so of course I will read anything with him in it... in Plum-world, he's the mix of the sexy-ness of Ranger, with the more human-ness of Morelli, and then add a touch of Something Different. But this was far from Evanovich's best work. It was enjoyable, no doubt, but it's so like her Stephanie Plum series, it's scary. Yes, Lizzy seems to have a bit more talent than Stephanie (Lizzy has a dayjob that she's actually good at, and maintains without a problem), but there are far too many similarities to name them all.

And I love humor with my stories. I'm more likely to read something if there's some funny in it to break up all the tension, but some of this funny takes a swan-dive into Just Plain Silly. And on occasion, into Annoying. Carl the Monkey makes a return (he was in one of a Between-The-Numbers novels in the Stephanie Plum series),  and he gives people the middle finger almost constantly. I'll admit, I chuckled the first few times. Maybe more than a few. But after a while, it gets old.

This story sounded wonderful, like something I could really get into ( Has anyone else noticed the influx of Seven Deadly Sins- related books? ), but it honestly felt like just another silly Plum re-make. In fact, I had a hard time refering to Lizzy as Lizzy in my head, it kept coming out Stephanie.

That all said, I still enjoyed the book for the most part. It was amusing, almost light and fluffy, and I do plan to read the rest in the series when they are released. And I really enjoy this Bad Guy. Wulf is the big bad for the series, but he's not all bad. Or at least not yet. Oh, he's scary, and he can kill someone no problem.. but he also has a set of ethics. Frankly, I'd like to see him keep being an anti-hero. Someone that has their own agenda, and definitely has moments of evil, but in the end, they're not truly evil. The scene that gives me hope of this is near the end, so I'll put up a spoiler warning..

****** SPOILERS AFOOT******

Near the end, Lizzy has been grabbed and has a sword held to her throat by the crazy henchperson Wulf hired to help him. But both Wulf and Diesel are there, looking for said henchperson's weak points, and a way to get him off Lizzy to help her. So instead of just sitting back and letting Diesel save the damsel in distress, Wulf is lending a hand. Mind you, he knows he will need Lizzy down the road, so helping her could have been for his own selfish reasons. Right thing, wrong reasons, maybe? Either way, this scene, and a few little ones along the way, make me hope Wulf ends up being a bigger, cooler player in the series.

******END OF SPOILERS******

So... in the end, I think I'll have to rate this book a THREE out of FIVE (3/5). It wasn't awful. It wasn't great. It had good points, and bad. So because I wasn't sure how I felt about it exactly, I decided to give it a middle-of-the-road rating. Evanovich can do so much with this series, I hope she steps it up and doesn't make it just a Plum remake. She has a great story line to run with, and some interesting characters (Diesel! Wulf!) to mold into something fantastic.

But what are your thoughts? Have you read it? Tell me about it in the comments. Do you want to check it out? It's got a good (cheap!) price at Amazon.com.




Now that that's done, I'm going to curl back up in bed with a big box of tissues and a book until I have to get ready for work. Oh cold and allergy season, how I haven't missed you at all!
Wishing you all a day with no need for tissues!
~!~ Morning Glow