Friday, November 7, 2014

The Job by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg

The Job (Fox and O'Hare, #3)
3 Stars (maybe???  probably more like 2.5)
 
We’re back for Round 3 with Fox and O’Hare. The differences between this one and the first???? Well, I got this one for free because I’M AWESOOOOOOOOOOOME! (Well, okay – I got this one for free because I asked for it, but I like to tell myself it’s because I’m a special snowflake.)

The other difference?

Commercial Photography

Get the reference? Here, I’ll let The Lonely Island spell it out for you . . .

Commercial Photography

Yep, it takes place on a boat. If you’ve read the previous two Fox and O’Hare books (as well as the 14,726 Stephanie Plum books) you’re already aware that this book will follow the same format as its predecessors.

Things that work for me with this series? The “Ocean’s Eleven-ish” cast of characters (everyone from former military special ops members to thieves to actors), Fox’s proclivity to borrow the names of 1980s pop culture icons for his fake identities (juvenile, I know, but it still makes me chuckle), and the very few wasted pages (I appreciate that Evanovich, Goldberg, the editors, the publishers and whoever else it is that realize they are dealing with short attention spans when it comes to these novels).

The things that don’t work for me? The narrow focus on ONE plotline. The magic that makes the Stephanie Plum series so successful after all of these decades is the vast amount of capers that occur in each book. Knowing who the bad guy is, how they’re going to trick him, and where the bust is going to go down doesn’t make for real page-turning excitement. Also???? We’re three books in – that’s like the equivalent of 74 dates. Fox and O’Hare need to poop or get off the pot when it comes to the lovemaking.

Commercial Photography

That might be true, Ms. Evanovich and Mr. Goldberg . . . but BARELY.

Bottom line? If you like Evanovich, you’ll like this one just fine but it won’t change your life.

ARC received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 
Thank you NetGalley!!!

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