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Originally Posted by worktolive
I saw that One For the Money is on sale right now for $2.99. I was debating getting it, but have always been kind of put off by the fact that Stephanie apparently doesn't ever grow or change (I like the characters to evolve if they are in a continuing series).
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I agree that humor is subjective. For example, I can't stomach Sandra Hill at all. I think Evanovich's early Stephanie Plum novels are utterly silly funny...slapstick funny...Lucy-and-Ethyl-in-the-chocolate-factory slapstick silly.
But I had to stop reading because the author won't let Stephanie grow up...or even grow in skills beyond a certain point. Plus, I hate unresolved "love triangles".
For the rest, I have to do a spoiler...so if you don't want certain plot "twists" exposed, don't click the "Spoiler" button (or read below, if you're on the mobile site - which apparently doesn't handle the Spoiler tags right):
Spoiler:
Personally, I believe that Evanovich originally intended Steph to end up with Joe. So everything in the books in maybe the first dozen books did show a growth in their relationship, with Ranger just being a teaser, a temptation, a way for Steph to not commit yet. But she increasingly relied on Joe for her emotional strength.
I think in the early books, there *is* a progression in Steph's knowledge of being a bounty hunter. She went from being totally clueless (but damned lucky) to developing a certain level of skill (not enough for a "real" bounty hunter, but not an utter idiot either!) In addition, she was getting more and more exposure to the "dark side" of bounty hunting (and the fact that it's a job that could actually kill her).
Finally, in book 11, she quit the bounty hunting job, tried a few ridiculous jobs, but ended up working for Ranger. I don't remember what the book called her job, but she was a researcher online, like a skip-tracer. And - amazingly - Evanovich actually let her be good at it! I was cheering for Steph!
When I bought book 12 and it was back to the same clueless slapstick humor and will-she-or-won't-she with Ranger, I stopped buying the books. I read the next couple from the library in the hopes she'd be allowed to go back to the woman who'd actually learned and grown a little...but no luck. And IMO, I thought the humor was broader and more slapstick than before...leaning toward what I think of as "dumb-and-dumber" humor. So I'm done.
Finally, as I mentioned before, I think Evanovich really intended for Steph to end up with Joe originally, and Ranger to just be a distraction/temptation while she was coming around to that. But when her fans came down pretty much 50/50 on whether Steph should end up with Joe or Ranger, she had to backtrack. I feel like she'd led the reader into seeing growth in her relationship with Joe, though, so it started to feel like (and did eventually turn into) Steph's "cheating" on Joe (although Evanovich wrote an "off-page" argument that caused Joe and Steph to break up - which again IMO felt very forced to allow her to write the Ranger storyline).