Review: If you love Stephanie Plum, you probably will like these
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 10 12, 2013
I am a big fan of Stephanie Plum (Janet Evanovich).  I was told that Maddie Springer and Stephanie were alike and that I would enjoy these books.  Overall, this set of 5 books was a good read.  There are a lot similarities between the two--both have dysfunctional families, both have that very sexy, hot guy, and both gals (Maddie and Stephanie) seem to have trouble follow them.**Spoiler Alert***Maddie Springer is a shoe designer (currently doing children's Strawberry Shortcake etc), who is always dressed in the latest fashion. Maddie best friend is Dana, a stacked blond, who exercies and eats healthy. Also a friend to Maddie is Marco, the receptionist, at her faux dad salon. Maddie mom is a fashion disaster, who gets married to faux dad in book one. Maddie mom has her side kick of Mrs. Rosenblatt or Mrs. R.In the first book, her boyfriend, Richard, is found murdered and the LAPD question her about it. Maddie, meets detective Jack Ramirez and taboild boy, Felix Dunn in the first story. Maddie and her best friend, Dana, take it upon themselves to try to figure out who killed Richard.  Maddie can be a bit of a ditz for lack of better word.  As book one continues, Maddie is hot for Jack, the latino detective.  Eventually the murder is solved, Maddie is cleared and Jack and Maddie start seeing each other.In book two, it picks up with the same characters, here we meet Maddie father. Maddie gets a strange, message from her estragned father on her answering machine. Maddie, Dana, and Marco are off to Vegas to find out what exactly is going on.  Once in Vegas, Maddie finds a dead body. Next thing she sees is her missing boyfriend, Jack, who has been absent from her life--he working undercover in Vegas. This story had me smiling reading about the things Maddie and her friendsd were doing. Overall, it was an entertaining book and you have to use your imagination as you know there is just no way, this stuff could really be happening.In book three it starts with Maddie not happy that her boyfriend has broken their date as something had come up. Dana and Maddie decide to hit the town and wouldn't you know it..Maddie runs into him at a club--with another woman!  Next thing you know, there is a dead body and Maddie is being questioned. Soon, we find out that this story revolves around a tv series and the main female lead getting threats and people around her dieing. There is another sexy guy introduced--Ricky who is a character on the tv series, and becomes a love interest to Dana. Dana and Maddie, come up with some crazy idea on how they are going to help Ramirez by being able to solve murders that are going on.In the fourth book, Maddie accidently gets hit by a car driven by Mrs. R. and her foot ends up in a cast. In the meantime, Maddie is set to fly out to Paris to have her shoes shown in one of the famous Paris fashion shows. Because of her cast, Maddie mom, and Mrs. R. vounteer to go to Paris with her, to help her out--carry her luggage and so forth. I do not have to tell you what happens next --Maddie comes across a dead body in Paris. Mom and Mrs. R. help out Maddie with some internet research as maddie does not really seem to be good at that. Meanwhile, Jack, ends up flying out to Paris (to see Maddie). Dana also ends up flying out since one of the models was murdered and they are short one for the show---Maddie suggest to the designer that her friend would be perfect to replace the dead model for the fashion show (I am sure there are a lot more experienced models that could have replaced her--but hey, it is Dana)!  Felix already happens to be there, as he goes every year to accompany his aunt to the infamous fashion shows.  With everyone in Paris, Maddie is up to the usual--comes up with some pretty crazy ideas as to how she is going to solve a murder that she is a suspect in (again).  I will admit that by now, I shake my head and ask myself a lot, can a person like Maddie really exist? Yet, I do enjoy these books, so I continue to read on.In the last book of the box set, Maddie is planning her wedding and of course, she has found another dead body!  As Mrs. R would say, her karma sucks!  Maddie makes a bet with Ramirez that she will be able to solve this murder before he can.  In the meantime, you read about Maddie and how she goes down her list of suspects to try and figure out who committed the crime.  Maddie ends up letting Dana and Marco plan her dream wedding--can you say disaster. Even though I had figured out who had done it--I still read the story as enjoy reading them.Overall, these books are all humor filled with some murder thrown in and of course romance! A good book to take to the beach or pool.  Like other ebooks, yes there were typo and grammer errors.  The one thing, that I found a tad annoying was the fact that in every single book, I was getting the same back ground on all the characters--I was introduced to them in the first book, so I know who they are and how they met--but I understand that not everyone reads books in order and some readers may not know the characters. Maddie and Dana are referred to from time to time as Lucy and Ethel as they get themselves into some pretty unusual situations and you just have to laugh--though I wonder at times how Jack can be this smart detective yet, have a girlfriend that can act so goody-to-shoes (not sure of the word I want here).I like these books, a great way to relax, read about a little mystery and some romance.  I know that I will continue reading more of Ms. Halliday's books.