Review on Exploding with Excitement: Unleashing the Power of Explosive Eighteen by Rob Dixon

I've been very disappointed with the last few Stephanie Plum books so I didn't have much hope that this one would be any better. To my surprise, I really liked it. Stephanie finally seemed to have grown up a bit - this time she seemed noticeably more competent, or maybe I should say less incompetent. She's still a long way from being a top-notch bounty hunter, and as she says herself, luck is her greatest talent; But aside from having her car repeatedly stolen by the same guy, she didn't screw it up as much as in the previous installments. Speaking of cars - unless I'm missing something, none of their cars have been blown up, crushed, burned or otherwise destroyed! It's embarrassing to break tradition, but at least it's different. Unfortunately, there's not much that's new on the Morelli vs. Ranger frontline, and there's actually relatively little focus on romance or Stephanie's inability to make up his mind, or the guys themselves, aside from a brief explanation of what happened between the three in Hawaii . They all seem strangely content with this love triangle, which would actually be unbearable for everyone involved. The stupidity is toned down a bit in this book, which I think disappoints many readers. I thought this was a welcome change as many of the running gags were fed up and it gave the impression that Stephanie had matured a bit. She also has far fewer bad eating habits — she still eats pizza, pastries, rotisserie chicken, and her mom's meatloaf; but at least she's not eating donuts every other paragraph. As I said, the changes won't be to everyone's liking, but personally I've enjoyed this release and look forward to the next one.