In Going Rogue (aka Rise and Shine Twenty-Nine), which was published in 2022, Stephanie Plum is back for the 29th time as Trenton’s unlikely yet renowned bounty hunter. This time, Stephanie’s co-worker Connie is missing, and Stephanie is on a mission to find her.
It turns out that Connie was kidnapped, and the kidnappers want a special coin in exchange for her release. In between apprehending FTA’s, including her boyfriend Joe’s scary grandmother, Stephanie and her friends finally track down the coin and get Connie back. But the trouble isn’t over. Stephanie’s cousin Vinnie is snatched, and Stephanie also becomes a target of the kidnappers. With the help of friends old and new, including Lula, Ranger, Grandma Mazur, a pickpocket, a comic book seller, and a Sir Lancelot wannabe, Stephanie of course beats the bad guys.
Going Rogue is the first Stephanie Plum novel I’ve read in who knows how long. I stopped reading them somewhere in the teens because Stephanie’s love life began to frustrate the heckola out of me. Nevertheless, I gave Going Rogue a try, and I’m glad I did. I feel like this book shone a light that might just lead us to the end of the tunnel of Stephanie’s romantic roller coaster.
As is usual with the Stephanie Plum novels, Going Rogue, is fast-paced, fun, funny, and exciting. But, of course, Stephanie is still stuck trying to decide between Joe and Ranger. Officially, she’s with Joe. Yet, she spends a lot of time in passionate lip locks with Ranger. You wouldn’t know it from her love life, but Stephanie is becoming more self-aware. She realizes she likes being a bounty hunter and is becoming pretty good at it. Stephanie’s mother wants her to get married and quit her job. Although Stephanie doesn’t want to quit, there is a lot of talk of marriage. But not to Joe. For the first time, I think, Stephanie and Ranger talk about getting married. Calm down. They do so jokingly. But even the possibility of Stephanie and Ranger getting married will keep me reading future books. The way I see it, if Stephanie marries Joe, then the series ends because Stephanie won’t be able to be a bounty hunter again. But if she marries Ranger, the series can continue because Ranger won’t pressure her to stop working such a dangerous job. I seriously doubt Joe would ever propose to her anyway. While he loves Stephanie, he doesn’t seem to respect her choices. I feel like Joe is just stringing her along until he finds a sweet, Catholic girl to settle down with. However, Ranger seems to love everything about Stephanie. He respects her individuality and her right to make her own choices. I just see so much more potential for continuation of the series if Stephanie ends up with Ranger. She doesn’t even have to marry him. Stephanie is a modern woman, and she’s already been through a disastrous marriage. I’d be really happy for her if she dumped Joe and just had fun with Ranger, no commitment.
Team Ranger, all the way! Who agrees with me?
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