Wicked Business: A Lizzy and Diesel Novel

I had forgotten about this series. Glo is a secondary character, but she steals the show for me. Every man she meets "might be the one" and Broom...!

Wicked Business by Janet Evanovich is the second romantic-mystery in her hilarious new Wicked series. The books follow Diesel, the man with unmentionable powers that was first introduced to use in the Stephen Plum books, and his partner Lizzy Tucker, a cupcake baker that also posses the power to detect enchanted objects, as they roam Salem in search of the 7 SALIGIA stones that represent the 7 sins. Their search for the stones get complicated by Diesel's cousin Gerewulf Grimorie (Wulf), who also has unmentionable powers and is searching for the stones; Steven Hatchet, Wulf's minion that also has the power to detect enchanted objects; Lizzy's job at the bakery and life in general.In this book we find Lizzy enjoying a day off from work when Diesel appears in her house set to sweep her off onto their last adventure. He whisks her away to a murder scene where Diesel's pet money Carl finds the first clue setting them chase to track down the Luxuria stone (lust) before Wulf can get his hands on the stone. To find the stone they must unravel a set of magically set clues that can only be deciphered by someone one with a certain purity. The problem is that neither Diesel nor Lizzy have what it takes to decipher the clues. They are forced to enlist the help of Lizzy's co-worker Glo, who think she has wizard tendencies, since she can decipher the clues. Involving Glo makes matters more complicated with her spell casting that usually doesn't work out the way they are intended. If dealing with Glo's spell-casting and trying to stay ahead of Wulf and Hatchet wasn't enough now they have the mysterious Anarchy, another person with unmentionable powers, vying for the stone.Anyone that enjoys mystery, romance, fiction or just a good humorous book will enjoy reading Wicked Business. You will find that once you pick up the book you will have a hard time putting it back down. The action is fast paced and the situations will keep you laughing. The only problem you may have with the book is that is over way too soon and leaving you wanting more.Once again with this book Ms. Evanivich shows why her style of mixing mystery, romance, humor and eating has kept her at the top of the bestseller list.

Another lesson I need to learn: do not trust the best-seller lists. If someone is a best-selling author, it means absolutely nothing. I know I'll be learning English all my life, and there's no better way than reading acclaimed authors, who are famous for their writing skills and vocabulary. So, when I saw that best-selling author Janet Evanovich's book was on sale for just $1.99, I thought I couldn't lose an opportunity to learn from her. She has so many bestsellers, she has to be great, right?Right?This book was painful. So painful I had to force myself to keep reading. Do it, I told myself. Even if you don't like the plot, just keep reading it as a textbook. But that was hard. I have long stopped enjoying Stephen King novels, but I still read them as textbooks. But reading Wicked Business wasn't giving me anything. I wasn't learning anything, I wasn't becoming better, wasn't writing down new words into my notepad, wasn't stumbling upon great sentences. This book only wasted my precious time. Letting it abuse my mind, I reached the 50% point and knew I couldn't keep going. Nothing was happening. There were just some random characters talking, sleeping, eating, cooking, talking, walking, eating, shopping. I swear I'm not exaggerating. I know this was the second book in the series, but it's not like something was happening there, and I couldn't understand what because I hadn't read the first one. Absolutely nothing was happening in this book apart from talking, sleeping, eating, and talking again. But how is this even possible? How could this book become a best-seller?There was a cat named Cat. There was a monkey named Carl. Sometimes they hissed and leered at each other. There were some women doing something. Yes, doing something. There was a Lizzy, who couldn't decided if she had to sleep with a guy named Wulf or a guy named Diesel. They discussed it a lot. They went to places, they talked, they ate, they went to places. At 50% point I knew I couldn't keep reading. Life was flowing out of me. I can't remember ever doing this, but I skipped. Yes, I skipped. I thought I'd just read the last two chapters to see if anything exciting would happen. And you know what? I skipped them, too!There was a very, very lame action scene, some fire, and some more lame action that happened while our protagonist was unconscious and we saw nothing of that. I honestly think it was for the better. Reading this book, I felt like Miss Evanovich had a deadline, had to give a book to her publisher, so she patched up some words and sentences, and thought she had a book to publish and sell. I don't know how this book is a best-seller, along with other books by this author, but I know I will never in my life touch a Janet Evanovich book. Not even if my life depends on it. Just no.

I have always loved her books, I have cancer now and have been taking her Lizzy and Diesel books (kindle that I love) with me to my treatments and all my doctors appts, people look at me like I am crazy when I bust out laughing, but hey we all need a little humor in our lives , so I tell them why I am loling,thank you so much for the smiles , and when I get stuck waiting its no problem, I always have my kindle it keeps me sane, sure hope she writes more of this sries .and soon please lol

I didn't think I'd like Diesel working with anything but Stephanie Plum, but I was so wrong! Lizzy is a fantastic main character along with sidekicks at the bakery she works at. I love the character who has the broom that she's positive has thoughts and feelings. So many parts made me giggle out loud when I really needed a good giggle!

Following on from  Wicked Appetite , this is the second in the Lizzy and Diesel series. As we discovered in the first book, there are Seven Stones of Power, the Saligia Stones, each representing one of the Seven Deadly Sins. In the first novel, Diesel was trying to stop his cousin Wulf discover the Gluttony Stone. Now, their search turns to the Lust, or Luxuria Stone. Frankly, Lizzy already has enough lust for Diesel, but they both have special powers and if two people with such powers become romantically entangled then one of them will lose their abilities - and it might be Diesel.Half the fun of a good series is the enjoyment of meeting old friends again and the author not only reintroduces us to the gorgeous Diesel and smart, witty Lizzy, as well as the dark and dangerous Wulf and his hilarious sidekick Hatchet, but gives greater prominence to Glo and introduces some new characters in the form of the elderly Sandman and the, more than slightly insane, Anarchy. This search includes the death of a Harvard Professor of Elizabethan Literature and the work of poet John Lovey, sonnets, spells, secret tunnels and, of course, cupcakes. Great fun and I think I enjoyed this book more than the first, as the series is settling down into something quite special and I look forward to reading about the next deadly sin. Wicked Appetite

Diesel (Stephanie Plum's unmentionable friend) has found another girl, Lizzy, who it turns out is also possessed of powers!They get together to find the mysterious Luxuria Stone which is thought by some to produce lust in some people (and certainly seems to here)! But Diesel's Dracula type cousin Gerwulf Grimoir (who can brand people with a touch from his hand!) is also after it and here is where the touble begins! Lizzie does a good deed for Gerwulf and that changes things - the stone begins to lose its lustful properties! But now they are after another stone - Saligia - and the black-leather clad Anarchy is also after Lizzie as the stone has not done what she wanted. And there are more stones to source and more people involved and more trouble and fires and explosions!

Lizzy and her crazy entourage are back, with another Saligia stone to hunt for. Though Evanovich can still occasionally make me laugh out loud, the reason this book gets a 3 rather than a 4 star is the formulaic plot line. Slightly ditzy girl, some crazy pets (although Cat and Carl are handsdown two genius characters), strangely accommodating friends, and two drop-dead gorgeous guys fighting over the heroine. Okay, so no one quite knows what goes on in Wulf's head, but the love triangle can be spotted from a mile away. As I read this book, it felt not much different from reading a Stephanie Plum novel. But I guess that's the reason for Evanovich's success: people know exactly what to expect when they pick up one of her novels.

It was nice to find the fun from the earlier Stephanie Plum books (One for the Money etc) which have become repetitive and predictable ( but clearly a money spinner as I think the've reached no 22). Unfortunately, judging from the time between books and the fact that the later ones are co written Evanovitch (perhaps understandably) prefers to put her time into Plum. This is an entertaining book but the seven planned in the series have only resulted in three books so far.

I've read all the Stephanie Plum books pretty much when they were published. When I got tired of waiting, I turned to this series. They're not great literature, but I really enjoy everything she writes. It was nice to have a change of scene and characters, but even better to find the humour intact. As always, there are some exceptionally funny scenes.