Metro Girl

By: Janet Evanovich

Narrated by: C.J. Critt

Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

Buckle your seat belts. New York Times best-selling author Janet Evanovich is moving into the fast lane with Metro Girl, a thrilling, high-octane misadventure with high stakes, hot nights, cold-blooded murder, sunken treasure, a woman with a chassis built for speed, and one very good, very sexy NASCAR driver who's along for the ride.

"Wild" Bill Barnaby's dropped off the face of the earth and big sister Alex heads for Miami, Bill's last known sighting, on a harrowing hunt to save her brother...and maybe the world. Truth is, Alex has been bailing her brother out of trouble since they were kids. Not that Bill's a bad sort. More that he acts first and thinks later. Unfortunately, this time around, Wild Bill will be Dead Bill if Alex doesn't find him in time.

Alex blasts through the bars of South Beach and points her search to Key West and Cuba, laying waste to Miami hit men, dodging Palmetto bugs big enough to eat her alive, and putting the pedal to the metal with NASCAR driver Sam Hooker.

Engaged in a deadly race, Wild Bill has "borrowed" Hooker's sixty-five foot Hatteras and sailed off into the sunset...just when Hooker has plans for the boat. Hooker figures he'll attach himself to Alex and maybe run into Bill. Maybe Hooker can salvage what's left of his vacation. And maybe Hooker'll get lucky in love with Bill's sweetie-pie sister. After all, Hooker is NASCAR Guy. And NASCAR Guy is good at revving a woman's engine.

The race to the finish is hot and hard, taking Alex and Hooker into international waters, exposing a plot to grab Cuban gold and a sinister relic of the Cuban missile crises. Creative cussing and sexual innuendo included.

©2004 Janet Evanovich (P)2004 HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

Good enough

It was a Good audiobook to listen to at work, athough I have read/listened to better books by Janet. This one had It all, but somehow did not get my soul touched. Maybe it's a good thing. Comfortable, funny, action book.

Fun story!

I love the light action comedy feeling of this book and can’t wait to listen to the rest of the series! Huge fan of Stephanie Plum and find this enough similar and yet different to feel comfortable yet new!

Good story, but the reading is stilted.

I found the book hard to listen to because the reading was choppy and downright boring. I have listened to all of the Stephanie Plum books and found the readings very good and fun to listen to. C. J. Critt just does not seem as enthused as other readers like Lorelei King.

Can’t Stand the Reader

I wasn’t able to finish the book because of the narration- similar to fingernails on a chalkboard.

Bad, Very Bad

Wow, was this one bad book. From the story itself right down to the poorly chosen narrator this book was a disaster. Let me start with the story itself. The characters are one-dimensional, unexciting, and down-right stupid. The plot itself is like something out of a bad episode of Miami Vice meets The Dukes of Hazzard. I'm only a recent convert to Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series, so I went into this novel with an open opinion. Unfortunately, the book's heroine, Alexandra Barnaby, isn't likeable enough to keep your attention. Then there's the narrator, C. J. Critt, whose vocalizations for each character sounded exactly the same. Not to mention she sounds like an old woman, not a young woman in her early to mid thirties as I envisioned the main character. Unless you're truly a fan of Evanovich this book can be skipped and forgotten.

Meh

Basically a knock of her Stephanie Plum books but not as good.... almost all the same characters just the names and places have changed, just not a bounty hunter in this book series..... ok read, not worth a full credit in my opinion.

Like the book Big Trouble, Evanovich style

The Florida storyline and cast of kooky characters reminded me of a less funny version of Dave Barry’s Big Trouble (both the movie and book versions were more clever and funny than this).

Bought on sale, this is a decent, frothy listen. It’s typical Evanovich. A little too typical, with the usual male/female pairing that feels too much like Stephanie Plum. There’s even a stocky, supremely confident “Lula” in Rosa and a dog for comic release. While I liked CJ Critt’s narration of Kay Scarpetta in Patricia Cornwall’s murder procedurals, I found her the wrong fit for plucky Alexandra and I feel like she’s a bit robotic for comedy (listening at 1.5x helped). The fact that she narrates both this heroine and the first few Stephanie Plum books also made it difficult to see Alexandra as a distinct character. Indeed, I have a feeling I’d bump this up to pretty good with a different narrator.

The voice didn't match the character

If the character is supposed to be 30, why would you cast someone clearly twice that age to read it? And, every single word is said as though they were in caps.

Also, I've read enough Janet Evonovich to know this cannot be her writing. I can't imagine her writing this badly unless she just cranked it out in a week and never went back to fix it.

I'm only worried now that when I die, someone will see this in my library

Awful narration, marginal story

This narrator is horrible and makes it a chore to get through the story. The only reason I continued to listen is that I am a big Janet Evanovich fan, although this story was disappointing. The plot is somewhat formulaic and will remind you of a Stephanie Plum novel. Instead of Stephanie, it's Alex. Instead of searching for someone in New Jersey, the heroine searches for someone in Florida. The narrator's voice is too old for Alex's character, her "Felicia" sounds like Boris Badenov (although she is supposed to be Cuban) and her characterization of Hooker makes him sound like he is dumber than dirt, which makes you wonder why any bright heroine would give him the time of day. The bonus on this program is an interview with Janet Evanovich at the end, which was a pleasant surprise. Maybe this story would have been better if another narrator had read it.

English as a second language?

I like Evanovich and might have liked this book a lot more in print than audio. Great literature it isn't, but her novels are fun and light, usually providing a few hours of entertainment. I listened to this reader mispronounce geographic names, and semi-tolerated her dramatization of the hero, transforming him from Texan charmer to half-wit redneck. But Critt's main sin was making what should have been a fast-paced book proceed with such deadly sloth I could have been listening to English instruction for non-speakers. Next time get rid of Critt!!! Lorelei is a little cloying, but at least she moves the story along. Better yet, see if Jean Smart is available.