Wicked Appetite (Diesel / Unmentionables Book 1) by Janet Evanovich

 

 If you are interested in Wicked Appetite, then you've probably read most (if not all) of the Stephanie Plum books. The Stephanie Plum Between the Numbers books feature Diesel in Stephanie's life instead of Morelli and Ranger, and now Diesel has his own series. Without Stephanie.

The main problem is that Wicked Appetite is trying to follow the once-successful formula of the Plum series. Unfortunately, that formula stopped working a while back.

Diesel has been turned into a white Ranger, pretty much. Can mysteriously get through any locked door. Check.  Wants Lizzy in bed, says he is attracted to her and gives the idea that's not a normal occurrence, but is clear there will be no relationship. Check. Drives a Porche Cayenne and various other Porche cars, and appears to have an unlimited supply of them with nothing more than a phone call. Check. Puts his hand on the back of Lizzy's neck to play the Alpha Male. Check.  "Angles" into cars instead of getting into them the way normal people do. Check. Can save Lizzy from just about anything without breaking a sweat. Check.

And Lizzy is an educated Stephanie who... oh, I can't do this. I really can't. After I talk about the Lizzy/Stephanie similarities I'd have to talk about the similarities between Glo and Lula, and between Clara and Connie.  Then I'd have to talk about Carl the Monkey, and Cat 7143. I'm not up for that, so I'll just reiterate that Ms. Evanovich is trying to use the same formula as the Plum series, when we the readers are wanting something fresh and new.

The sad thing is that the story could have been a good one. The plot is different enough to work if it hadn't been patched together with silly stunts and simple writing and the same old formula once again.

Here's the blurb:

Seven Stones of Power. No one knows when they were created or by whom, each said to represent one of the Seven Deadly Sins.

For centuries, treasure hunters have been eager to possess the stones, undeterred by their corrupting nature. The list is long -- Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great, Napoleon, to name a few. Now the Stones have found their way to Salem, Massachusetts, and so has Gerwulf Grimoire, adding himself to this rogues' gallery of power seekers. He's an uncommonly dangerous man, with a hunger for the forbidden, and a set of abilities that are way beyond ordinary. Abilities that he feels entitle him to possess anything he might desire.

That would include Elizabeth Tucker, the woman he needs to find the Stones. She's freshly transplanted from New York City to Boston's North Shore. With a new job as pastry chef at Dazzle's bakery and an old house inherited from her Aunt Ophelia, her life is pretty much on track …until it's suddenly derailed by a guy named Diesel, a rude monkey, and a ninja cat.

Lizzy can handle the monkey and the cat. She's not sure about Diesel. He's offering up his own set of unusual talents, promising to protect her from Grimoire. The kind of protection that Lizzy suspects might involve guarding her body day and night.

The Seven Deadly Sins are pride, greed, lust, envy wrath, sloth and gluttony. That pretty much covers everything that is wicked. Diesel thinks it also pretty much covers everything that's fun. And Lizzy thinks Diesel and the Seven Deadly Sins cover everything her mother warned her about.

As for the writing elements: The plot had promise, but the pacing, prose, and dialogue pretty much trashed any hope that the plot had of making this a good book. Which means that the pacing was horrid. I almost didn't finish the book. The prose and dialogue both had too many simple sentences and silliness. Character development was okay, for what should have been a lighthearted easy read. World-building is pretty consistent with other Between the Numbers books.

I'm going to have to give Wicked Appetite a pretty low rating.

• Book Rating: Wicked Appetite: 4 of 10

I won't give a series rating after only one book.


Janet Evanovich has posted the first two chapters of Wicked Appetite.  Click here to go to Janet Evanovich's site, or click here to download the pdf excerpt.