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By: Janet Evanovich
A Lizzy and Diesel Novel
ISBN: 9780553392715
Publisher: Random/ Ballantine
Publication Date: 6/23/2015
Format: Other
My Rating: 4 Stars

A special thank you to Random/ Ballantine and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Janet Evanovich returns with award-winning co-author, Phoef Sutton and dynamic duo, Lizzy and Diesel with #3 WICKED CHARMS — for a fun filled witty and crazy ride of adventure, and everything in between.

Evanovich fans fell in love with hot, sexy, and mysterious Diesel (Stephanie Plum series), paired with Lizzy Tucker, who lives in a small historic house overlooking Marblehead Harbor in Massachusettes. She inherited the house from her great aunt Ophelia when she was twenty-eight and shares the house with her cat. (named Cat).

A Johnson & Wales culinary school graduate, when not asked to save the world, Lizzy works as a pastry chef at Dazzle’s Bakery in Salem. She thought life was normal until Diesel popped into her life. Now weird is the new normal.

Diesel is a sort of cop. He works for a loosely organized hierarchy of People with Special Abilities. His primary job was to keep his peers on the straight and narrow. When he was assigned the task of finding the seven SALIGIA Stones, the cop part of this job became secondary.

As Diesel tells it, there are some people on earth who have enhanced abilities that can’t be explained in ordinary ways. Diesel as always had a talent for opening locks and special powers.

Each of the Wicked tales involve the search for an ancient relic mysteriously linked to one of the seven deadly sins—in this case, greed.

Turns out if two people with enhanced abilities get busy (sex), one of them will discover that their powers have gone up in smoke. Lizzy would be happy to "take one for the team"; however, not so much for Diesel. This would not be a good thing.

With the setting in spook-town Salem, built around witch hunts of the late 1600s, it only intensifies the bewitching factor. Presently, Diesel, has enlisted Lizzy for the hunt – this time it is all about a treasure map and a ship.

There is a billionaire, Martin, a publishing giant- he owns a bunch of newspaper and media outlets. He has a reputation as a devourer of companies; an eccentric, power-hungry megalomaniac. His great grandfather was Billy McCoy, a notorious rum runner during the Prohibition.

McCoy’s partner was Peg Leg Dazzle. McCoy and Peg Leg in the midst of their illegal endeavors, came across a diary and an accompanying coin. The diary belonged to a pirate name Palgrave Bellows, and it detailed a treasure he had hidden on an island off the coast of Maine. The coin was supposed to help read Palgrave’s treasure map. Unfortunately for McCoy and Peg Leg, the map wasn’t with the diary and the coin, and they were never able to find the treasure.

Lizzy and Diesel aren't the only ones searching for the lost pirate's chest. There are others who will risk it all and willing to stop at nothing to get to the fortune. One being Wulf, Diesel's deceptively charming and enigmatic cousin. Wulf desires the Stone of Avarice. He also desires Lizzy. It's hard to say how far he's willing to go to gain either one.

Now with the help of Lizzy’s crazy friends, Glo, Clara, Josh, they battle against the villain for a comical crazy, and wacky ride. As always, fun, humor, and some sexual romantic tension and a "cat-and-mouse" attraction between the dynamic duo.

I so miss Grandma Mazur, Lulu, Stephanie, Joe Morelli, and Ranger in the Stephanie Plum Series. The audiobooks have kept me entertained for years! Have read them all.

Can't wait for Tricky Twenty-Two (Stephanie Plum #22) Coming Nov 17, 2015!