I enjoyed this the least of the Stephanie Plum books, and I suspect the series is taking a downward plunge from here. I do plan on reading the next one, though, just to see if there's any improvement, or if my suspicions are correct.

A lot of the elements I liked were in here, and the way Lula plays off the character-introduced-in-this-book (there's at least one per book, per the Plum Formula) was frequently funny. I found myself laughing out loud at some of the interactions.

And Evanovich does a much better job in this book of having Stephanie react in a believable and realistic way to all the craziness around her. Someone is stalking and threatening her, and, for the first time in the series, I actually believe she's really afraid, instead of merely reacting for the plot's sake.

All that said, though, the ending really let me down. Stephanie had nothing to do with the conclusion, and even her FTA was completely out of her hands. That was merely a subplot, but, with the way she was left out of the action at the end, I was hoping she'd at least get that victory. A lot of the book seemed to be Evanovich expressing that she was sick and tired of Stephanie, and so, if she had to keep writing her, she was going to make her suffer.

Overall, this was disappointing, and, if this is the direction the series is headed, I don't see myself catching all the way up.