Book Review: Missing Since Monday by Ann M. Martin

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Missing Since Monday by Ann M. Martin follows Maggie and her older brother when their father and stepmother leave on a long-delayed honeymoon, trusting the siblings to care for their four-year-old half sister, Courtenay. When Courtenay fails to come home from daycare one Monday afternoon, Maggie and her brother are thrust into a frightening mystery. With no adults around to help, they must piece together what happened and find a way to alert their parents before it’s too late. This standalone novel for readers ages eight to twelve was one I completely missed as a kid, but as an adult and a longtime fan of Ann M. Martin’s The Baby-Sitters Club  series, I couldn’t resist picking it up. The first chapter or two felt a bit choppy to me at first, but once the story found its footing, everything began to come together nicely . Because this is a short children’s book, the characters aren’t deeply developed, which is to be expected. That said, Martin does an excellent job conveying Maggie’...
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Book Review: Twisted Twenty-Six (Stephanie Plum, #26) by Janet Evanovich

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Twisted Twenty-Six (Stephanie Plum, #26) by Janet Evanovich opens with Grandma Mazur planning a funeral for her second husband, gangster Jimmy Rosolli. Although she's receiving a lot of attention as a widow, not all attention is the same. Jimmy's business partners are emphatic that Grandma Mazur has his keys and won't stop until they get them from her. Stephanie Plum, Grandma Mazur's bounty hunter granddaughter, is sure she'll have no trouble finding Jimmy's keys, but instead, she finds herself in deep trouble.

Like the majority of the other books in the Stephanie Plum book series, I found Twisted Twenty-Six (Stephanie Plum, #26) to be very entertaining and fun to read, even with it following the same formula as all the others in the series. However, it seemed as though this particular book was possibly ghost written, and there are a few reasons that made me think so. 

Usually, Stephanie has issues with apprehending her fugitives, but right off the bat, she nabs two or three of them without incident or assistance from Ranger and his men. Stephanie also is seriously unhappy with her career as a bounty hunter and asks Ranger his thoughts on her changing careers. She also is seriously considering being in a committed relationship and getting married.  Another thing that threw me for a loop was that Stephanie had a Mac computer, and those tend to be a bit expensive, so I was surprised she'd have an Apple product with her funds being so limited. On top of that, Grandma Mazur's personality is a bit off in this book along with Ranger's because he actually eats some sweets.

With that being said, I actually liked that Stephanie was much better at her job and seemed a bit more mature. Both Joe Morelli and Ranger seemed more developed and not so two dimensional, which was refreshing. There were moments while reading Twisted Twenty-Six that I found myself laughing out loud, and I loved the fact that this edition had a small cliffhanger at the end.

All in all, I really enjoyed Twisted Twenty-Six (Stephanie Plum, #26) by Janet Evanovich, and I gave it four out of five stars.  I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

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