Visons of Sugar Plums

As is probably obvious, I'm reading through the Stephanie Plum books and loving them.  I realized that I skipped over one of the between-the-number-novella's and skipped back to catch up.  The between-the-numbers novella's are Stephanie Plum books that center around a holiday and take place between the "real" novels, for lack of a better term.  The series is fine without them and they have their own love interest (because Ranger and Morelli weren't enough).  Personally, I really didn't like this first one.

Yes, Stephanie has to track down a bad guy and gets her car blown up.  Usually I love when Stephanie's cars get blown up, but it just felt like the same old same old in this novella.  Also, Stephanie being chased around by Little People just felt exploitative to a group of people instead of funny.

As for the romance, it just didn't work.  Joe and Ranger have a perfect balance.  I love them both and the only reason that love triangle works is because, like Stephanie, I can't choose between them.  Introducing a new love interest makes Stephanie seem like she is using both Joe and Ranger.  And that makes me not like her (especially when she lets Diesel kiss her and then doesn't say anything to Joe who trusts her).

The final reason this book just didn't work for me (at all) is that it added a supernatural element to the stories.  I feel that the world needs to stay consistent even in stories outside of the main series.  The between-the-numbers-novellas use the same characters and settings and formulas.  They should have the same rules for the world as well.

I will read the next between the numbers novella as well as keep reading the series.  Even though my love for these books has been dwindling, I'm hopeful that Evanovich got back on track in later books.  Also, I have to know whether Stephanie chooses Ranger or Morelli and since the series just won't end, Wikipedia doesn't have the answer yet.