Visions of Sugar Plums by Janet Evanovich

Reviewed by Gerti

Janet Evanovich has the ultimate recipe for writing success. She takes a fabulously interesting protagonist, bail bondswoman Stephanie Plum, and puts her in the craziest situations imaginable. In this book, it’s a few days before Christmas, and Stephanie wakes up to find a man in her apartment. Not just any man, but a sexy sort of superman/alien named Diesel, who has the ability to open locks and seems to know things about the universe the rest of us don’t, like why a fugitive named Sandy Claws is having a hard time making toys this season.

While she is initially shocked and scared to find Diesel has gotten into her place, he is not a serial killer, but becomes instead Stephanie’s sidekick as she visits her funny family, led by her hot-to-trot Grandma Mazur, and her unexpectedly pregnant sister, Valerie. Diesel also accompanies Stephanie to the little shop in Jersey where Claws supposedly sells toys, and to other locales, like where little people/elves are hired as toymakers. No problem if large humans can’t enter. Stephanie has a friend named Briggs who is vertically challenged and owes her a favor. She convinces him to apply for a job, and together they infiltrate the organization, only to find that some other alien/super creature named Ring is after Claws and determined to shut down his toy operation. Diesel explains how it’s an old rivalry, but I don’t really care. What it is, is funny. I especially love where Stephanie gets attacked by elves. LOL funny.

I’ve read a number of books by Evanovich now, and you don’t read them to increase your IQ, improve your manners or increase your vocabulary. But they are great fun to read because her characters are vastly entertaining and appallingly unique. Her books are easy to digest and if there is very little mystery, or at least very little mystery that can be solved using normal human logic, well, that’s part of the fun. “Visions of Sugar Plums” is escapist literature at its best, but Evanovich keeps the comedy coming, and that’s what keeps me picking up her books.