Title :: Full Speed
Author :: Janet Evanovich & Charlotte Hughes
Publisher :: St. Martin's Press
Rating :: (out of 5)
Recommendation :: Just not as fast and speedy as it should be. A must-read book though, especially for Evanovich-Hughes fans

:: Full Review
Bitten by the Evanovich-Hughes bug, I went ahead and bought more of this "Full" series. The first being Full Tilt and the second being Full Speed. Last I heard, Full Blast is already out and I can't wait to get it. Clearly, I am bitten by the very uncanny humor that the Evanovich-Hughes team has.

But more so, being a sucker for series or anything remotely more exciting than crackingnuts for my kids, I want to know more about this Jamie Swift and Max Holt, you know, last I heard they were leaving their home town for another town in search for a cunning and mob-like priest. And when you end a book on that kind of note, you have the readers lusting for more. And that's precisely what Evanovich and Hughes did in Full Tilt.

But sadly, this book just isn't as exciting as Full Tilt. Full Speed is not as speedy as Full Tilt.

In this book, there are less car bombs, less office shootings, less steamy scenes between Holt and Swift, there are no crocodiles hunting them down and no madman taking Jamie hostage. It was pretty lackluster, all in all.

But I was completely taken with Jamie's new dog, though, going by the name of FLEAS. Gee, did I tell you those two authors have a really wierd sense of humor or what - but it gets me cracking. Surfing through their websites www.evanovich.com and www.charlotte-hughes.com makes me think of something. Evanovich without Hughes is pretty much the same as the other love story writers. And Hughes without Evanovich is merely a comical writer who writes funny stories. But it's only when they team up to produce their books, then and only then, the chemistry is there.

I find it absolutely amusing that Jamie was constantly feeling so satisfied knowing that she turns Max on and yet Max is totally unabashed about his affections for Jamie. It makes me feel like....yeah, gurl, go for it! And yet, Evanovich and Hughes keeps the couple away sex wise. They come close to 'doing it' but they don't. It keeps the readers panting for more, you see. Pretty smart, don't you think?

And in this book, Max's smart-ass talking car computer, Muffin, did not get the kind of attention and feature as she got in the first book. I found it totally out of this world when Muffin suffered from Menopausal symptoms after talking to Max's sister, Dee Dee. She's a computer for crissake! But accordingly, she is so smart that she can emulate human behavior and feelings. But this time round, there's no such thing.

In Full Speed, Muffin loses her cover - that is her posh looking shell. The car. The computer gets transported into a lousy old company pickup truck and although she doesn't seem to mind, it just doesn't give her the kind of edge she had in the first book. She sure looks and sounds so much more interesting when she was attached to a posh looking car that was literally indestructible.

In conclusion, while the first book kept me leafing through the pages and peeking at the ending, this book had me rolling around in laughter but I still had lots of time to knit. Interesting but it didn't keep me thirsty for more.

Go figure. I can't wait for the next book, Full Blast.

:: Full Speed - Janet Evanovich & Charlotte Hughes