Lean Mean Thirteen was just as fun as the previous 12 in this Janet Evanovich series. It truly is entertaining. Lots of fun to read. What could possibly happen next to Stephanie Plum?!

I have just read the Stephanie Plum series back-to-back, enjoying them thoroughly, until I started reading Thirteen. I could not believe the same writer wrote this book. Everything from the characters to the plot felt off. It wasn't terrible, it was just so-so. Fourteen WAS terrible, so I have my fingers crossed that Fifteen will pick things back up.

This is another great offering from Janet Evanovich. Lean Mean Thirteen is probably the funniest book in the Stephanie Plum series so far. I really enjoyed it and am now looking forward to reading the next one.
Long may this series continue!

Janet Evanovitch did it again. Her "numerical" series is a riot. Stephanie Plum is my kind of heroine!!!

Another great book in the series. There are so many reviews here already - I'll just toss in my short one for the star average. These books are a great getaway when you just want to escape in some entertainment for a little while. Lots of laugh-out-loud wit and intelligence without the deep brooding conspiracy and blood and gore of many best sellers. Fun sexual tension without the anatomy lessons. Oh- the taxidermy scenes? OK - I love animals and all (yay Rex and Bob!), but the entire taxidermy thread had me practically in tears from laughter every time it appeared. I saw mention of a screenplay once. I actually hope these books don't go to screen. Most of the laughs come from Stephanie's internal wit and I enjoy every outrageous moment of it!

Okay fellow bounty hunter fans, here it is! Lean Mean Thirteen just doesn't have the "punch" that the other Stephanie Plum books had. I am an ardent fan and hate to admit it! I did like the book, but it is time for just a little bit more. The ruined car scenarios and empty Ranger/Morelli relationships are getting "tired". Again, the book is the usual which is good. But how about something to catch the readers attention? Looking forward to fourteen.

Greatly enjoyed this book as I have all of the numbered Plum Books.
I get the greatest laughs from all of the books.

I love Janet E.! Could not wait until this one was availble to read. I found it a little lean on the entertainment value vs. previous numbers books in the series (#8 being hilarious). Still love the characters and scenarios that seem so far out, but very funny.

Another great book about my two favorite guys. Joe and Ranger. Waiting on the next book Janet..

Once again, Evanovich had me laughing out loud. I love her characters. I "know" those people.

Strongly recommend this and the next one!

I have never had a problem with Amazon products before and since I do alot of long distance driving, decided to try audio books. WHAT A MESS!!!
Disc 1 is really 5, 3 duplicates on 6, and so on.
I will be returning this product.

I really enjoyed this book. I received this book in a very timely manner.

Janet Evanovich is back to the humor between the characters that was missing from the 12th book of this series. I have gotten tired of most writers switching to murder/mystery. After you have read so many, you can guess who did it before the end. That's why I like this authors books.

If you want to be entertained, you like characters that are funny, then you should enjoy reading Lean Mean Thirteen.

There's literally hundreds of reviews on this book (340 at last count) so I dont need to write anything fancy. Just know that this is one of my favourite of the 17 Plum books so far. It's got numerous sub plots all running at the same time that Stephanie's life is in danger, and that's always good for a laugh!

Many Evanovich fans will have heard book 14 was a bomb. It was (compared to her better stuff like Lean Mean Thirteen). If you're not sure you want to spend money on Book 14, just reread Lean Mean Thirteen to fill in the time- you wont regret it!

I love the Plum Series but this book just didn't do it for me at all. It was still funny in some parts but not as witty as the past editions. I used to laugh out loud with the other books but this one was sub par. I have heard that "14" is even worse. Not impressed.

This series is the only one that consistently makes me laugh out loud. Okay, the characters are very familiar and predictable, but that's what makes them so funny. I don't want them to change. I want them to stay in the burg living their crazy lives and keeping me entertained for a long, long time to come. I dearly love Bob the dog. He fits right in with all the others. Please, people, don't try to get Janet E. to move Stephanie and friends to other locations or send Ranger off for an extended vacation so that Steph can get more serious with Joe. If she chooses one of them it will ruin the triangle plot and that would be a tragedy. Steph just needs to keep on apprehending felons and dealing with her wacky family and friends and keeping me laughing all the way.

Oh, how I adore this series! Lots of laughs, Stephanie still gets herself into trouble in some way. Lots of colourful characters, old and new alike, and Grandma Mazur still knows how to make the reader laugh. Trying to figure out how Steph gets herself into these situations is still a great wonder, even though the reader gets it from A to Z.

Ranger still turns her to mush as much as Morelli, and Morelli still has it in his head that Stephanie should be doing something other than bounty hunting. If only he could accept what is, and stop forcing the issue, I bet he and Stephanie could live happily ever after.

I still like watching the banter between the triangle. While Ranger isn't looking for ties, only fun, Stephanie wouldn't mind it. However, she does have her heart set on settling down, Ranger isn't part of that plan - not by a long shot. I like what they have between them, though. You'd think that Morelli, knowing this, would put his butt in gear and think better about the situation, but I have a feeling it isn't going to happen any time soon.

I soooo can't wait to see what Stephanie gets herself into in Fearless Fourteen.

.Lean Mean Thirteen (Stephanie Plum, No. 13)
A ghost-written Plum? Oh my. All of the other Stephanie Plum 'Bounty Hunter' series have been fast, laugh out loud, one day reads. The plots are almost incidental to the fun banter, sexual tension and general silliness. A real guilty pleasure. But in this one the banter has been replaced with stilted dialogue that just seems totally out of character and the sexual tension has been replaced by crude, romance novel drivel. In any series part of the fun is getting to know the characters and anticipating their reactions to a situation. It makes the reading fast and the laughs louder. On this one, rather than the reading flowing along, I kept getting thrown off by all of the character/dialogue inconsistencies. Burg-ers of the past said 'fudge', 'frick, 'finkin' or anything else but in this one even Grandma Mazur is throwing 'f-bombs'. Morelli's playing happy housewife, Ranger's insecure about his looks and downright talkative, Lula's saying things like 'I'm considering the consequences', Tank's carrying on conversations and Stephanie's insecurities, Jersey-girl attitude and good girl dilemmas are almost totally missing. These are the same characters in name only. I can understand an author getting bored or stuck and the plot line suffering but when the basic voice of the characters is so drastically different it leads me to believe that it was written by someone else. Too bad, I'd have rather seen the series end

Our favorite bounty hunter, Stephanie Plum is back again in Lean Mean Thirteen. Stephanie is asked by her friend, Ranger to plant bugs on her ex-husband Dickie Orr. Stephanie does not like Dickie too well, so when she, LuLu and Connie give him a visit, it is no surprise that Stephanie and Dickie end up fighting on the floor. Stephanie can't help herself especially after she learns that Dickie is back in bed with her archenemy Joyce Barnhardt. The following day Stephanie learns that Dickie has gone missing, presumably dead, and their number one suspect is Stephanie. Forced into this situation by Ranger, she joins up with him to try and find out what happened to Dickie and how it ties to his law firm and its cast of suspicious partners. The plot is a little too extravagant, but Janet Evanovich provides some great characters along the way that overall make the story work. As always she fills her pages with scenes that will leave you laughing out loud, including exploding animal specimens and graveyard antics. Plus, she gives us just enough Ranger to have us begging for more or the mysterious and sexy bounty hunter. Fans of the series will not want to miss Lean Mean Thirteen. Valerie Jones mrsvaljones@netzero.net

I agree with some other reviewers that things are getting a bit repetitive, and I wish something would happen one way or another with the men in Steph's life. But these are minor quibbles with a great series. It's still laugh out loud funny and one of the best mystery series out there. It's hard to find books with genuine wit and a good plotline; the closest to this I've read recently are fantasy, Karen Chance's Cassie Palmer novels. So yeah, this is still five stars for me!

Let's face it fellow readers. Janet Evanovitch has harvested from these same fertile fields many times and she still produces a good crop. Has the time come to rotate her crops? Probably. Is the current crop as good as those harvested when her soil was fresh? No. Is it still worth your while to eat from this particular harvest. Yes. Are things getting a bit, shall we say stale, in this particular field. Absolutely! That being said, a few things are glaringly apparent.

First, I'm way past wanting Stephanie to choose between her love interests. I just want the woman to GROW UP! If she is going to remain remotely interesting she needs to change. Whether the decision to keep Stephanie in a box is made by author or publisher remains to be seen; but both would be well advised to let this 30-ish adolescent grow up just a tad.

Second, Grandma Mazur needs a new pasttime. Hanging out at the funeral home is way past creepy.

Third, please let Stephanie get a real job for a change and moonlight as a bounty hunter. Do something to get this woman a little money in her pocket.

I could go on, but the point is that this series needs to grow. From the reviews of the 14th installment that didn't happen this year. Dear Janet, a word to the wise, give your characters some growing room. Dear Publisher, let the series progress. But in the meantime, the book has a few laugh-out-loud moments and that's enough for paperback entertainment. But my days of spending hardback bucks on Stephanie have long since passed.

I thoroughly agree with all of the reviewers who say that it's time that Janet Evanovich brought the Stephanie Plum series to an end. I can't, for the life of me, understand why Ranger hasn't given up on Stephanie and found someone else; I don't see why Stephanie and Morelli don't just get married; and I want closure on the series. And yet, every time a new Plum novel comes out, I still find myself buying it, reading it, and generally enjoying it. Some of the more recent Plum novels have been less than fantastic ("Eleven On Top" was pretty terrible), but fortunately for Plum addicts, like myself, Evanovich returned to form with "Twelve Sharp" and continues at this form with "Lean Mean Thirteen".

Evanovich's trend in these more recent Plum novels seems to be, in each book, to write a mystery centered on one of her recurring characters. "Twelve Sharp" was Ranger's book, "Lean Mean Thirteen" centers on Stephanie's ex-husband, Dickie Orr, and I've heard that "Fearless Fourteen" is all about Morelli (although I have yet to read this one). I really like this idea and think it makes the mystery more interesting. It also makes the mystery plot and the inevitable sub-plot about Plum's personal life integrate better. In "Lean Mean Thirteen", Dickie Orr is missing, and as his disappearance occurred shortly after Stephanie attacked him in his office, Stephanie is the prime suspect and has to solve the mystery in order to clear her name.

I just finished reading this book about half an hour ago and now that I come to think about it, I realize that there are a number of loose ends not tied up at the end of this novel. Nevertheless, I didn't notice these while I was reading the novel and I had a good time while I was reading it. I still want to see an end to this series, but as long as the books continue to be of this standard, I'll still keep buying them.

This installment puts the series back on track. There were actually several laugh out loud passages, which had been missing from the last few books.

However, like others have said, it'd be nice to see some forward movement. After 13 books, it's time for Stephanie to make a choice between Morelli and Ranger -- hopefully Ranger, as Morelli has become nothing but a sex-crazy plot bore. At least the tension is still there with Ranger. It'd also be nice to see some of the other long-running characters developed, such as Mama Plum, Tank or Connie.

Looking forward to Fourteen!

This is.... duh.... the thirteenth book in the Stephanie Plum series. Or actually, the 15th, if you include the two between-the-numbers books.

This time, Stephanie's ex, lawyer Dickie Orr, goes missing, not long after Stephanie fought with him while planting a bug in his office for Ranger. And everyone--but most particularly Joyce Barnhardt, thinks Stephanie's responsible. Thing is, he never changed his will after their divorce, and it's not just Dickie that's missing--there's also a LOT of money missing. So Joyce becomes Stephanie's shadow, hoping Stephanie will lead her to Dickie or the money.

Meanwhile, Joe's busy on a hush-hush assignment, Ranger's keeping an eye (and a GPS tracker) on Stephanie, and Steph and Lula are busy tracking down FTAs, including a hilariously wacky taxidermist with an explosive inventory.

I agree with all the reviewers who complain about a lack of character development (or rather, character change--I think the characters are pretty well developed at this point), and the repetitive nature of the books--cars getting destroyed, the love triangle, Grandma Mazur will do something wacky at the funeral home, etc., etc. The thing is, though: I just don't care. I read a Stephanie Plum book maybe once a year (twice, if there's a between-the-numbers book), so there are generally 300 or more books in between. So if it's exactly what I expected, I don't mind. It's become a formula, yes, but I enjoy the formula--once a year. I expect if I read them all back to back, it would drive me batty. But I don't, so I'm happy.