Smokin’ Seventeen by Janet Evanovich

         Next up in my list of audio books is Smokin’ Seventeen, the new Stephanie Plum novel.  I love the Stephanie Plum stories.  I enjoy Stephanie, her parents, her coworkers, and her ongoing car issues.  I am amused by her on-and-off again love affair with Joe Morelli, the cop, as well as her ravening lust for Ranger, the security expert/bounty hunter.  And, if I had to choose a favorite character, it would be a tough choice.  Grandma Mazur and Lula are both just hysterical. 

          Lula is Stephanie’s bounty hunting sidekick and friend with an unending appetite for fried chicken and her own unique and slightly scary sense of fashion.  Not to mention a strong belief in being armed.  The ridiculous situations she finds herself in and her responses to them leave me rolling in the aisles. 

          Grandma Mazur is old, feisty, says and does exactly as she pleases and, like Lula, believes in being armed.  When I grow up I want to be just like her.  She totally cracks me up. 

          I started listening to this one a couple of nights ago as part of the bedtime unwind/relax routine.  Boy, was that a mistake.  Twenty minutes into the story, I was belly laughing, falling out of my chair, rolling on the floor, nearly peeing my pants as I listened.  While I was neither relaxed nor unwound at the end of an hour, I was exhausted from all the hilarity. 

          I certainly hope the rest of the book stands up to the early scenes and the previous books in the series.  In the mean time, I think I’ll reserve listening to the daylight hours and find something quieter to listen to at bedtime!