Eleven on Top (Hardcover)

In Eleven on Top, Janet Evanovich has created a memorable scene and laugh every page and a half. That's very tough to do, but she's done it!

Although most will not want to put the book down (who wouldn't want to laugh almost nonstop to the end of a book?), you can read this book before going to sleep knowing that you'll reach a naturally breaking point every page and a half.

Much of the humor is visual. It's a remarkable strength of the writing in this book that you can so easily see the slapstick. Few writers can capture slapstick in writing. Eleven on Top marks a new high in Ms. Evanovich's talent in this regard.

If you don't know Ms. Evanovich's writing, it's very much on a par with the very best scripts that Lucille Ball used in her shows with Desi.

Oh, yes, there is a plot. But it's there mainly for people who cannot enjoy a book without a plot. Almost any other plot would have done as well.

Stephanie finds that bounty hunting is just too disgusting for her . . . and quits Vinnie. For the first half of the book, she lurches violently from one job-related adventure to another. In between, Lulu persuades Stephanie to "assist" in capturing a particularly recalcitrant scofflaw. In the second half of the book, she finds a job she likes . . . but it has other complications that you'll love reading about. Someone is also stalking Stephanie and threatening her life. Morelli is obsessed with Stephanie's body . . . and Stephanie finds she "likes" the attention. Under duress, Stephanie swears off sugar . . . with sexy consequences. The sexual tension in this book is really hot! In her spare time, Stephanie also plays "maid-of-honor-to-be" for her sister with more humorous consequences.

The story has a better balance between the Ranger and Morelli sections than many of the others in the series. I generally like the books that have lots of Ranger in them better than the ones that are all Morelli or crime fighting. Ranger's mystery is more appealing to me than Morelli's lust.

If you like sexy humor, I thought that Eleven on Top was a new high for Ms. Evanovich as well. The flirtatious comments are wonderful!

Smile while you laugh and laugh through your smiles with Eleven on Top!

Don't miss this book!!! It's the fun read of the summer of 2005.

Thirty seconds into ELEVEN, Stephanie quits her job as a bond enforcement agent working for her cousin Vinnie in Trenton, NJ. True to form, however, brief gigs in the local button factory, Kan Kean Dry Cleaners, and Cluck-in-a-Bucket just don't work out. And it shouldn't be a surprise to any series aficionado when Cluck-in-a-Bucket goes up in flames while Stephanie is on duty.

Everything Plum fans have come to love about Stephanie's personal and public comic misadventures are present in ELEVEN in satisfying excess: explosions, fires, accumulating corpses, tumbles into messy organic debris, and her dysfunctional relationships with Trenton cop Joe Morelli and the hottie Ranger.

Yeah, it's incredibly sophomoric, but great fun. And Plum reveals a new side to her personality when she attempts to quit sugar intake cold turkey. Indeed, the man in Stephanie's life witness to her to voluntary abstention from cookies and donuts had better have the sexual stamina of an eighteen year old. A Plum Assignment if you ask me. Is Morelli up to the task, you think?

I'm perhaps overreacting with five stars. But I'm just so ecstatic that Stephanie is back. I only wish that Evanovich would sign a Hollywood picture deal with Sandra Bullock in the lead role. Janet, work with me here, will ya!