Morelli: a rake and a straight man (+ question of the day!)

Great Moments from Last Night's Reading
Book: Four to Score by Janet Evanovich
I continue to be awed at the brilliance of Janet Evanovich. Every page has a priceless gem, usually five or six. I found this bit from a sex scene between Stephanie Plum and Joe Morelli especially fantastic--funny, hot and smart all at once:

I was on the brink. I could feel it coming...the delicious pressure, the heat and mind-emptying need for release.

And then he moved his mouth half an inch to the left.

"Go back!" I gasped. "Go back. GO BACK!"

Morelli kissed my inner thigh. "Not yet."

I was feeling frantic. I was so close! "What do you mean not yet!"

"Too soon," Morelli said.

"Are you kidding me? It's not too soon! It's been years!"

Morelli stood, scooped me up, carried me into his bedroom and dropped me onto his bed...

In her How I Write book, Janet Evanovich says that Joe and Ranger are "Bad boy heroes straight out of a Regency romance and adapted to the twenty-first century." and later notes that, to her, such a hero "is really a very strong guy whose code of conduct is based on what he instinctively knows to be right and wrong, and not necessarily what society dictates." I always found these tidbits about Stephanie's men so interesting.

Though I would add that they are also straight men, i.e. comedy foils to Stephanie and her friends. It's just such a wonderful brew!

Question of the day
Anyway, considering what Evanovich said above, about Morelli and Ranger being like Regency rakes, I was trying to think which specific regency rakes/heroes I'd compare Morelli or Ranger to. Any ideas?
Photo stolen from lisabea. Thanks, buddy! Also, Joe has longer hair. But hey, you can never have enough RC!

Breaking out the vintage Evanovich

So do you ever do this? You sort of save a book that you know you will completely love for a just-right time?

I was saving Janet Evanovich's FOUR TO SCORE like that. I've been reading this series a bit out of order, but I've heard FOUR is one of the best ones, and also, it's the one where Morelli and Stephanie finally get together.

Anyway, it's hot as hell here in Minnesota, I'm a bit more busy than I like to be, and crabby coughpmscough. And so I broke out this book. OMG. This is such a lighthearted, even silly series in a way, but I was blown away all over again by what a true master of fiction Evanovich is.

I was marveling at her descriptions last night:

If people were cars, Lula would be a big, black '53 Packard with a high-gloss chrome grille, oversized headlights, and a growl like a junkyard dog. Lots of muscle. Never fit in a compact space.

Like, the car thing? It's so smart and perfect! Her straightforward descriptions, too:

She'd been a fat kid with a terrible overbite. The overbite had been minimalized by braces, and by the time Joyce was fifteen she'd trimmed down to look like Barbie on steroids. She had chemically enhanced red hair done up in big teased curls. Her nails were long and painted, her lips were high gloss, her eyes were rimmed in navy liquid liner, her lashes gunked up with blue-black mascara. She was an inch shorter than me, five pounds heavier and had me beat by two cup sizes. She had three ex-husbands and no children. It was rumored she had sex with dogs.

Or this bit:

...he was slender and totally hairless, like a bald Chihuahua, with soft brown eyes hidden behind thick glasses...

I also happen to own Evanovich's Writing book, entitled HOW I WRITE. I was reading it over before this post, thinking I'd be like a real journalist and pull in a quote of hers on this issue of description, but then I just started reading it again and remembering why I loved it. It's got lots of super basic stuff, but also some brilliant nerdy tricks she uses, like how to get your place and weather descriptions not to boringly stick out by shoving them into the experience of the character.

Oh, Janet, you rock!

Other News:
Rebecca over at Dirty Sexy Books, a fun and hugely action-packed blog lately, featured yours truly in A Few of my Favorite Blogs post. Thanks!!

Also, she has a big monthly drawing that ends tomorrow (and as she notes in her very entertaining fine print: "If you think your odds of winning are bad, think again. My list of subscribers is minuscule, so your odds of winning something are stellar, and furthermore, I’ve guaranteed it so that everyone will win a book before prior winners have another shot. Also, you only need to enter once, and I’ll keep your name for each month’s drawing going forward."

What's more, on MONDAY the 17th, she starts a group chat/book club about Wicked Game by Jeri Smith Ready, a book I greatly enjoyed (my ramblings about it here).