But I'm going to blog about this anyway. I'm sure Michelle won't mind. :-)

Today my good friend emailed me about Janet Evanovich's Visions of Sugar Plums (the Stephanie Plum novella). She just finished it and wanted to let me know what she thought (warning: do not continue reading unless you have already read or do not wish to read Visions of Sugar Plums). Michelle wrote:

Let me just say that I was very disappointed in it. I really think it did not live up to the usual Plum novels. First of all Morelli was just a bit character, but he showed up a lot more than Lula who was only there for one chapter and it was an excuse to get Stephanie to do something crazy. Most of the book focused on Stephanie and Diesel in their search for Sandy Claws. Here is where I take issue with the book the most. Diesel is considered a special person. He has special powers (like unlocking doors without keys and teleporting). He is human, but he is a human with special powers and he is a sort of bounty hunter for other special humans with powers. The reason I don't like this is because Stephanie Plum and her world (while different and extreme sometimes) does not include the paranormal. I like paranormal as you know, but I do not like my regular world fiction books to dabble in the paranormal. It was like if you dropped Spike into the Gilmore Girls, very distracting.

I had not read Visions of Sugar Plums (somehow I missed it when I was tearing through the series), and after reading Michelle's assessment I was pretty confident that I had not really missed out on anything special. Then I got this next message from Michelle:

Oops. I remember you blog about book reviews... I bet you were grinding your teeth when I told you about Sugar Plums.

I wasn't. Personally, I think there is a big difference between reviews and opinion. Maybe I'm wrong, but to me when a friend, colleague, or reader offers an opinion on a book they aren't critiquing the storyline, writing, etc. (which Michelle did not do). Instead Michelle emailed me her honest response as a reader to a piece of fiction, worded in a way that gave me insight into what kind of readers would not want to read the book. For example, I would never offer this book now to an Evanovich fan who hates paranormal fiction. On the other hand, readers who enjoy paranormal books might find Visions of Sugar Plums to be an interesting (albeit incomplete) introduction into the world of Stephanie Plum.

So please, continue to send me your opinions about what you are reading. You won't offend me, I promise. :-)

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