Fearless Fourteen

A Stephanie Plum Novel

By: Janet Evanovich

Narrated by: Lorelei King

Length: 6 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's summary

Personal vendettas, hidden treasure, and a monkey named Carl will send bounty hunter Stephanie Plum on her most explosive adventure yet.

The Crime: Armed robbery to the tune of nine million dollars

Dom Rizzi robbed a bank, stashed the money, and did the time. His family couldn't be more proud. He always was the smart one.

The Cousin: Joe Morelli

Joe Morelli, Dom Rizzi, and Dom's sister, Loretta, are cousins. Morelli is a cop, Rizzi robs banks, and Loretta is a single mother waiting tables at the firehouse. The all-American family.

The Complications: Murder, kidnapping, destruction of personal property, and acid reflux

Less than a week after Dom's release from prison, Joe Morelli has shadowy figures breaking into his house and dying in his basement. He's getting threatening messages, Loretta is kidnapped, and Dom is missing.

The Catastrophe: Moonman

Morelli hires Walter "Mooner" Dunphy, stoner and "inventor" turned crime fighter, to protect his house. Morelli can't afford a lot on a cop's salary, and Mooner will work for potatoes.

The Cupcake: Stephanie Plum

Stephanie and Morelli have a long-standing relationship that involves sex, affection, and driving each other nuts. She's a bond enforcement agent with more luck than talent, and she's involved in this bank-robbery-gone-bad disaster from day one.

The Crisis: A favor for Ranger

Security expert Carlos Manoso, street name Ranger, has a job for Stephanie that will involve night work. Morelli has his own ideas regarding Stephanie's evening activities.

The Conclusion: Only the fearless should listen to Fourteen.

Thrills, chills, and incontinence may result.

Jersey girl: listen to more in the Stephanie Plum series.

©2008 Evanovich, Inc. (P)2008 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"Stephanie Plum is a bounty hunter with a great sense of humor that balances out her attitude and worse luck...like Dorothy Parker with a lousy job and a Jersey accent." ( Time)
"Evanovich's series is as addictive as Fritos...Evanovich serves up consistently craveable goodies." ( People)

She's back!

I have to admit that I took a long break from the Stephanie Plum series. Somewhere around 8 or 9 I felt that the stories were getting to be too far-fetched, and the characters just too silly. It was like Evanovich was trying too hard to be funny, just for the sake of being funny. So for the last year or two I've been enjoying a couple of other series. However, when I saw that she was getting ready to release #18, I thought I might want to get caught up. I picked it back up at #13, and am delighted to report that I am enthusiastically on #16 in about one month's time! (Atlanta has a lot of traffic) Look out, boys and girls, Stephanie is BACK!

Lorelei King's performances have never faltered. She is as animated as ever with her endless store of voices and characters. Expect to see a few new ones, and don't be surprised when a few of our old time favorites pop back up!

More fun with Stephanie

See, now, I don't agree that the series is getting tired, because there is alway so much character humor. I listen to the Plum series when I am exercising, it is a fun, light listening/read. I don't expect War and Peace, I expect laughter, and Evanovich never ceases to amuse me with the funny characters and their antics. I can relate to the potato canon, my son built one and I almost died laughing when he set it off and the potato probably landed on the neighboring college campus, that sucker went as high as the eye could see. What can I say, I love slapstick, even real life slapstick. I guess I simply love to laugh. I just wish her books were longer: more words, more laughs. Come on, her Jersey jokes are a hoot. And, admit it,you all want to picture Lula squeezed into a spandex wedding gown, you just know she is going to need a shoe horn to get into her dress when and if she gets married!

Love the Plum!!

As always spectacular!!! I can't get enough Plum! Great story line. Lula as always a real Lulu!!

Great travel with good friend

I travel extensively and have followed the Stephanie Plum advertures from book 1. Now as I travel it's like traveling with an old friend who fills me in on what's going on in the Burg since my last visit. The addition of new characters keep it fresh and Gramma Mazur keeps it down to Earth. Thank you Janet Evanovich.

Favorite so far

It's unusual for me to find a book so late in a series as interesting, new, and exciting as the first couple of books, but I have to say that Evanovitch outdoes herself in this one. The characters are rich and full, the dialogue seems to be written for audio books, and Lula remains a hoot. I loved it!

Ranger in a tux...

I loved this book. Ranger was in a tux and Joes house was broken in to. Was good form start to end.

another great plum story

great story. enjoyable, fun continuation. I feel like she could be my friend and I could be another sidekick! So much fun!

Dull, downright bad entry in the Plum series

I really enjoyed the earlier Stephanie Plum books both in audio & print form, but Evanovich seems to've totally phoned this one in...& phoned it in poorly. The first 8 or so chapters are beyond dull; nothing happens, we get repeated, extended descriptions of Bob the dog tinkling & eating, Stephanie eating comfort food, Stephanie driving around Jersey endlessly, tons of Lula finding things to complain about (more on her in a moment). It's mundane crud, and even the introduction of an aging country music star with massive "quirks," which I assume was supposed to add spice & humor to the book, just provided another series of thuds.

The characters have become caricatures of themselves, or worse. All the usual suspects are here: Stephanie somehow continues to be a clueless bounty hunter --after 13 books of doing it, you'd figure she'd learn something-- yet at the same time she makes occasional near-Sherlockian leaps & bounces between a terrified & queasy newbie & a weary pro. She's just not authentic at all. And the outrageous and creative situations she used to get into are in the past, with nothing particularly inventive happening in the whole book.

Ranger, the sexy, near-ninja mystery man, has ended up in the truly unfortunate position of being uxorious toward Stephanie without actually having any kind of relationship with her --the most he gets is an occasional pat on the hand, maybe, but he acts like her lap dog anyway.

Joe Morelli has turned into a cardboard generic "cop" who adores Stephanie. Period. Yawn.

Lula gets the shortest stick in a veritable pile of match-sized kindling, though: whereas she used to be funny, quirky, and a unique character who (tho a former ho) had a considerable helping of...well, innocence or naivete may not describe it, but a rather charming sort of clueless unsophistication that made her endearing despite her volatile nature. Now Lula just seems dumb and downright mean, and her campaign against Tank verges on creepy....she's a worse stalker than the guy who's supposedly stalks the country singer, who just seems to be a harmless dweeb.

All in all, if this is the turn that the Stephanie Plum books take from now on in the series, I'm done with her. I suppose I should be happy that there were a dozen or so good ones, but it's annoying to have an author get so lazy & sure of their audience that they churn out garbage & hope nobody notices, or that their fans will be grateful for garbage if it's THEIR garbage, or however Evanovich excuses this tripe (other than the "laughing all the way to the bank" excuse). I do know that most authors get a certain number of fans who're so rabid that they will gobble up anything that author deigns to produce & they'll gush & fawn over it, no matter how wretched the dreck is (Laurell K Hamilton springs to mind as a particularly egregious example of dreck with rabid fans). I'd hope most people are more discerning & don't so enthusiastically reward lousy, lazy writing. I certainly won't. I may reread the old books, but am going to require proof of quality before throwing my hard-earned money in Evanovich's direction.

Lorelei King does what she can with this turkey, but not even her skillful reading can save it. It also seems as if the director has to pad the audiobook to get it near the requisite length; the pauses between chapters are the longest I've heard on any audiobook....I kept thinking my ipod batteries had died. I don't know how many pages the book was...however many it was, it was a waste of trees.

Funny and love it.

I thought the characters work very good together. Joe and Stephanie are on and off again boyfriend and girlfriend. They are right together, so they need to get married. Ranger is the coolest and he loves Stephanie too. It is a toss up of who gets her in the end. Marino is husband material and Ranger is every girls fantasy. The book is great, I love the series. There is action around every corner with Stephanie and you get a good picture of the people in this town.

Fearless Fourteen: A Stephanie Plum Novel

If you could sum up Fearless Fourteen in three words, what would they be?

awsome, pls read

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

yes could not wait to see what step and lulu could do next.

What about Lorelei King’s performance did you like?

she is the best i wish she could read them all i love that each charcter has thier own soul..

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

both

Any additional comments?

can not wait for the next book