The Grand Finale by Janet Evanovich
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
At this point we all know I love Janet Evanovich. This was again one of her pre-Plum romances. Honestly, I love them the most! They are all somewhat similar, and of course have formulas. But I don’t care. They are cute, witty, crazy little circumstances, always with a fun main character, sometimes ditsy, this one (Berri) wasn’t, and have a hunk of a man for them, with crazy supporting characters. You can definitely see the development of Stephanie Plum‘s character and story line, and supporting characters throughout these. It’s been fun to watch the development really. This was well written, there were a few disconnects though. In addition to a few times where you can see Janet started foreshadowing somethings and then changed her mind or forgot about them. I didn’t like how it ended. It was ok, but I wasn’t ready for this story to end and thought it could have had a stronger closing, this one just kind of left me hanging and saying, “Really? That was it!?”
I really found myself identifying with Berri, recently divorced from an un-loving, un-supporting, roommate type spouse and having to find her direction in life again. While Berri didn’t know where she was going or what she was doing before; I had. My difference was having to redirect my entire career, not just find one. Both she and I are working our tail ends off burning the candle at both ends and going to school (well I’m starting). All the while we still find all these opportunities to serve just because or part of our everyday actions even though we feel like we are going to burn out at any second. One thing that I noticed with Berri & Jake and the “Little Old Ladies” aka the supporting characters is that each of them were able to find love again, and relax about it! All of the love that they found actually came very quickly and easily. This is hard for me, I live in a society where everyone meets, dates, engaged and married within 3 months. I have a hard time believing that a healthy foundation can really be built in that time frame, or that you can even remotely know the person. Most of the hold back and difficulties in Berri & Jake’s relationship & romance came from Berri herself resisting it and trying not to allow love in her life, or anyone really close enough to her to throw her off her “Plan”. Sometimes life doesn’t work out the way we plan, but we have to remember that God always has a “Better Plan” for us, better than we can ever imagine, we just have to be willing to let his hand guide our lives….. in all things.
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Jennifer Adventures 
I saw the title and worried it was at the end of the Stephanie Plum series. Whew, glad this is pre-Plum even though I am rather annoyed that the story really hasn’t progressed much from book one to book ten.
-Eliabeth.
PS Thanks for the mention.
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Elizabeth,
Thank you for your reply and you are welcome for the mention. 🙂 I am glad it’s a Pre-Plum as well, it’s deceiving because they keep going on making you think that a Grande Finale will be coming someday! lol I just barely finished book 10 two days ago! Yeah it seems like the same thing over and over, but I still am addicted. I will really miss Stephanie and everyone when that time comes. I love how these characters become our dear friends, and nearly part of our lives! 🙂 For that reason, I’m glad the story carries on!
-Jen
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