Finger Lickin' Fifteen: A Book Review

A synopsis:
The next Stephanie Plum novel, in which complications arise, loyalties are tested, cliffhangers are resolved, and donuts are eaten.
Yeah, that's it. That's the synopsis as shown on Barnes and Noble. They usually go into much more detail, but I believe that this time, they gave the book all it merited. That is to say, one lousy line.

This series is fast going downhill. It's become very formulaic: every book, Stephanie will lose a car (most probably thru fire and/or explosion); every book, Stephanie's apartment will suffer some sort of damage (again, most probably thru fire and/or explosion); every book, Stephanie will end up in Ranger's bed and, although usually no actual sex is involved except in the minds of the characters, she still supposedly has hot, lusty and apparently lifelong feelings for Morelli, the other man in her life. This "torn between two lovers" schtick is getting waaaay old. And every book, Stephanie will end up losing a skip she's "this close" to apprehending and she usually loses the skip in some hyped-up, mad-cap, I-love-Lucy kind of way. The only variation from pattern that this book offers is that Ranger is now seeking professional advice from Stephanie, a concept that is so stupid as to be ludicrous. Especially when considering how inept Stephanie is at just about everything while Ranger is supposed to be the ultimate professional, stone cold killer that knows everything about anything. I will probably give Evanovich one more shot and will wait to see was Sixteen brings. If she doesn't step up her game, however, I will be done with this series. It's a shame, too, because the series started out so spectacularly funny and well written. I say read books 1 thru 8 (starting with One for the Money) and enjoy your brains out! They're fabulous. Go ahead and read 9 thru 11, too. They're pretty entertaining as well. You might want to borrow copies of 12, 13 and 14 because you'll regret actually spending money on them yourself and avoid this one, book 15, because reading it will do nothing but (in the words of author herself) cause you to end up rolling your eyes "so far back in your head you'll be watching your own hair grow".
I give this book a 1/2 star out of 5 on the Kari Hayes Scale of Readability (and I'm only being that generous because I figure I should give it something so I won't feel like my eighteen bucks was completely wasted!)