Twelve Sharp

Twelve Sharp by Janet Evanovich
Published by St. Martins

Ranger needs Stephanie for more reasons than he can say. And now, the two are working together to find a killer, rescue a missing child, and stop a lunatic from raising the body count. When Stephanie Plum and Ranger get too close for comfort, Vice Cop Joe Morelli (her on-again, off-again boyfriend) steps in.

Gosh. One more book to go before I am all caught up.
In Twelve Sharp someone has stolen Ranger's identity and kidnapped his daughter. Stephanie is helping Ranger track down the bad guy and find his little girl.

Since these moments are what keep me loving this series, here are some for your pleasure.

Stephanie's family are all talking about the new owners of Stiva's funeral parlour. They are a gay couple.

"I tell you those homosexuals are all over the place," Grandma said. "And they got all the good jobs, too. They get to be cowboys and morticians. I never wanted to be a homosexual, but I always wanted to be a cowboy. What do you think it's like to be a homosexual? Do you think their privates look different?"
"All privates look different, " I told her.
"I haven't seen too many. Mostly your grandfather's...and that wasn't a pretty sight. I wouldn't mind seeing some others. I'd like to see some minority privates and maybe some blue ones. I was listening to one of them late-night radio shows and they were talking blue balls. I thought that sounded colorful. I wouldn't mind seeing some blue balls."

Lula and Steph had gone into an adult store to bring in the woman who owns the place. Lula was able to convince Steph to buy a dildo. Ranger snooped in the bag.

He looked in the bag and let out a single soft bark of laughter. "Nice," he said
taking the dildo out, setting it on the counter, balls down, shaft up like a
giant pink rubber mushroom.
I'm not one of those women who blushes easily, but I could feel my
ears burning.
"Having problems with Morelli"? Ranger asked, the edge gone. Anger
replaced by something much softer...amusement, exhaustion, affection.

Melvin is a new character to the Plum series. He is a skip who was caught playing with his thingy (as Grandma Mazur like to call a penis) in a theater. Steph got him a job as a file clerk at the bonds office. This little tid bit happened while they were talking about what to get for lunch.

"Melvin?" Connie yelled out. "We're ordering from Pino's. Do you want
something?"
"No," Melvin said from behind the first bank of file cabinets. "I brought my lunch. I have to save money in case I go to jail. I hear if you can't afford to buy cigarettes for everyone you have to be someone's bitch."
"Is that why you didn't show up for your trial?" Lula asked. "On account of you didn't want to be someone's bitch?"
"Yeah. I know I'm a pervert and all, bit I'm not that kind of a pervert. I'm sort of a specialist. I'm like a do-it-yourself pervert."
"I hear you,"Lula said. "I've shopped in that isle".

Ranger and Stephanie spend a lot of time together in this book. A lot of alone time together. Since it takes a while for the police to figure out that the guy who stole Ranger's daughter isn't really Ranger, he is keeping a low profile. He moves in with Stephanie for a few days. One reason is to keep her safe (Because someone is always trying to kill her) Also because his safe house is being used.

Stephanie and Joe Morelli are on again in this book, and there are a few moments of tongue kissing, and a morning make out session between her and Ranger that crossed the line for me. As much as I like Ranger, I don't like that Stephanie is messing around with him on the side. I don't care when he kisses her, but when she kisses him back..thats a no no.
During the morning make out session they both end up naked, and the only thing that stopped them from having sex was the fact that Joe showed up and started banging on the door.
They weren't caught, but Joe isn't stupid. He knows that Ranger wants Stephanie. Joe ended up moved in with Stephanie as well. He says to help keep an eye on her. I think to keep an eye on her and Ranger.

In this next quote Stephanie is getting ready to go out in public to hopefully lure the bad guy out. Steph has been wearing a panic button.

Ranger had the panic button in his hand, and he was looking my dress over. If we'd been alone, he would have slipped in into my cleavage, but Morelli was watching with his hand on his gun.
"Oh, for God's sake,"I said. "Just give me the stupid thing." I took the panic button and stuck it into my super sexy Miracle Bra.
"GPS," Ranger said to Morelli.
"Probably I can find her breast without it," MOrelli said. "But it's good to know there is a navigational system on board if I need it."
I saw Ranger's mouth twitch, and I was pretty sure it was a smile. I wasn't sure what the smile meant. First guess would be he was thinking he has no problem finding my breast without the GPS either.

I liked this one very much, but I am wondering about one thing though. In book 11 Stephanie wanted out of being a bounty hunter. She went off to work for Ranger, and now in book 12 she is working for Vinnie again. There was no explanation as to why she wanted her old job back. I like that she is back to working in this job. A little explination about it would have been nice though.

Anyway, Twelve Sharp is an A for me. Joe is starting to grow on me. I didn't care too much for him in the first 11 books, but now I am starting to feel sorry for him.


Read the books in order, they are..
One for the money
Two for the dough
Three to get deadly
Four to score
High five
Hot six
Seven up
Hard eight
To the nines
Ten big ones
Eleven on top