I Want It Now - Julie Dawn Cole

Wicked Appetite
The Unmentionables, Book 1

Author: Janet Evanovich
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 313

Brief Summary:
Diesel from the Stephanie Plum series gets his own spin-off series, of which this is book one. Of course, Evanovich likes her men mysterious, so the perspective is that of Diesel's love interest, Lizzy Tucker, cupcake baker extraordinaire. Diesel just shows up in her life, along with another creepier man, and tells her she must help him prevent the stone of gluttony from falling into evil hands. Lizzy, unsurprisingly, has trouble believing this, but the trouble is real, so she ends up sticking with Diesel. Helping her out (or something) along the way are her boss Clara, who resembles Cher, her coworker Glo, who thinks she has magical powers, Cat 7143, who has one glass eye and half a tail, and Carl the monkey, who also appeared in the Stephanie Plum series.

Review:
I freely admit that Diesel was not my favorite part of the Stephanie Plum series. Quite the opposite. I am a Morelli fan and Stephanie really doesn't need any more confusion than Ranger already provides. His powers, which are Unmentionable apparently, confused me then and do still. I am somehow very bothered by the cross between realistic, if silly, fiction and fantasy. I want the story to stay within the framework set within the original series. I love fantasy and I love Stephanie Plum, but I do not like the weird mixture.

However, if I pretend to myself that this series is not a spin-off, but its own fantasy series, this is a pretty fair opening. The characteristic Evanovich humor, animals and love of food are all present and accounted for (my goodness will you want a cupcake while you read parts of this book, although others will make you want never to eat again).

Differences between the Diesel series and Stephanie Plum:
1) Way less action for the main characters, as a result of some magical taboos
2) Lizzy has some conception of what she is good at (cooking) and what she is not (fighting)
3) Lizzy has only one love interest and it is obvious, by the nature of the series, that she will end up with Diesel (no, I do not consider this a spoiler). This is actually pretty neat, since Evanovich keeps stringing her fans along with Stephanie's indecisiveness.

All in all, this promises to be another great series. I do not expect to like it as much as Plum in its heyday, but I will be reading every other installment in Diesel's books. Evanovich is just too darn fun to pass up!

"Cream buns and doughnuts and fruitcake with no nuts
So good you could go nuts"