Explosive Eighteen is part of the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich.

Stephanie Plum returns from Hawaii to a murderous welcome from a shadowy source. Her exploits on vacation are enough to fill up a memoir all on their own, at least from how it sounds, but she is unwilling to answer questions about the tan lines on her ring finger. Stalked by a knife-wielding maniac, followed by the FBI (both the fake kind and the real kind) and tossed into the middle of a hot mess that includes her old nemesis Joyce Barnhardt, Stephanie must do what she does best...stay alive.

Along the way we have hilarious antics from the motley flock of Lula, Connie, Grandma Mazur and the rest of the gang, including the dynamic duo of hotness, Ranger and Morelli, who are both sporting injuries from a knock-down, drag-out in paradise. Stephanie encounters love potions, FTA's with super strength and super attitude, and many trips to the bakery, the deli and Cluck-in-a-Bucket. Can she manage to hang on to her vehicle and her life? Will she make a decision between Morelli and Ranger?

Oh, my. Explosive Eighteen is just that; it's a funny blast of all that makes Stephanie what she is...whatever that is. Janet Evanovich continues to place her quirky and oftentimes clueless bounty hunter in the strangest situations. The Hawaii details will have readers agog, and the way the author conveyed the gist of what exactly happened on vacation was quite clever. Stephanie is still suffering from a big case of the guilts over her indecisiveness about which of her men to choose, but instead of being irritating, it was almost comforting to see. I like this playing-the-field Stephanie much better. While funny, some of the plot devices seemed a bit overused, particularly the ongoing car drama and shooting someone in the foot, but overall, this book was rubber crutch funny. Lula is my absolute favorite character, with her 'ho clothes, crazy hair and her bout with a bad batch of potato salad. Watching her "assist" (I use that term very loosely) Stephanie is just priceless. Four Angels.

Reviewed by: Michelle B.