Book Review: What's a Girl Gotta Do

Reading the last five, six or seven books in the Stephanie Plum series made me sad for the main character. The books didn't make me feel good for the heroine. I wanted more for Stephanie Plum, more than it seems Janet Evanovich wants to give her, and don't think she will ever find it.

After reading Sparkle Hayter's “What's a Girl Gotta Do,” I was reminded again of how stagnant Stephanie Plum has become.

Hayter's book is about a television journalist, Robin Hudson, who for better or worse, cannot get out of her own way. Every time something good happens in her life, it seems as though she does something to sabotage that.

That's not to say she's not an endearing character. The book opens with readers feeling a bit bad for her because we quickly learn her husband has left her for a younger, prettier news anchor at her own station.

Even though she's dealing with these problems, Hudson is still taking steps to rectify many of the issues in her life.

Hudson made me think this is the character I hope Stephanie Plum could grow into. Sure, Robin's career is sort of in a decline, but she continues to work and doesn't just have her sights set at the bottom on her career field. She doesn't accidentally go through life. Hudson is actually good at what she does, but has moments of embarrassment – unlike Plum who has never gotten better as a bonds agent.

In Hayter's first installment of the series – which was written in the early 1990s, but has been re-published in eBook format – the workers of ANN, a 24-hour cable news network, have to figure out who killed a private investigator in the hotel where a company New Year's Eve party was being held. The death sparked a chain of events and the goal is to get to the bottom of the death of this PI, who happened to be blackmailing several people at ANN.

Sparkle Hayter – that is really the author's name – has a good writing style. She sets the books in a first-person format and writes with a somewhat stream on consciousness, as we tend to think.

The first of a series that has five books and I plan on checking out the others in the series. I appreciate Hayter making these books available for a new ebook audience. Her second book is available as an eBook,  Nice Girls Finish Last. I'll be patiently waiting for her to convert the others. 

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

I finished this book in a night. It was a quick read, but entertaining. Hayter's wit shines through but not in a slapstick kind of way. There is a more dark humor involved. My only concern is there I wish there was more investigative work by the main character being that she is a journalist, and not just epiphanies.