I've heard there are no more original ideas but is this what it's come to?

Not be negative or anything but I want to discuss a book I recently read.

It was about a woman who'd recently found herself looking for a job and the only one she could find had her doing "investigative" type of work. Her boss is a sleazy man who only pays her when the job is done (and only gives her the low paying jobs because she's still "in training"). One of the office workers has a colorful past (think illegal), but they're still friends.

Because she's so new to the job (and totally inept), a man, who has been doing the job a long time and is quite good at it, helps her out from time to time. She can call him day or night and he is there for her. And although she's out of her element in this job, she keeps plugging along because she's notoriously behind on her bills.

Her family would like to see her settle down, and thinks she should get a "normal" job. She goes to her parents house quite frequently for dinner and whenever she brings home a young man (which happens from time to time) her family assumes it's her latest boyfriend and try to progress the relationship. Her parents live in a nice neighborhood and have an elderly quirky relative living with them. This elderly quirky relative wants to help out on the "investigations" and often finds themselves in the middle of it. And she has a small "rat-like" pet at home.

Then there are the two men she's drawn to. One she works with who helps her out when he can and one who is a bit mysterious. He works in the law enforcement field and always seems to be assigned to the cases she's on but is unwilling to share the information he has with her. And he always seems to show up just when she needs him...bails her out of a lot of scrapes.

As for love scenes, every time she decides to get intimate with one of these hunky men, something really bizarre happens and the mood passes.

And this is a series.

So, think you know what I'm reading? I'll give you a hint: It's NOT Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series.

Shocked? So was I.

Now here's the deal. Last summer I came home from Reno with two of these books in this series (I got another one in Atlanta). I read the first one shortly after I got home from Reno and wasn't overly impressed (I hadn't read any of Evanovich's stories at this point). As a result, I wasn't motivated to pick up the second one any too quickly.

But then, a couple of days ago, I was situating all my books in my linen closet (yeah, don't expect towels in there if you come visit me) and came across the second book by this author. I was trying to decide what book to read next and narrowed it down to this book or Hot Six by Evanovich (whose series I started reading a couple of months ago...LOVE IT!). I decided to go with this other book, having forgotten the details of the first one (only remembering that I wasn't overly impressed by it, but wanting to give the author another chance).

As I read this other book, all I could think was it was stolen from Evanovich! I mean, it's one thing to decide to write mysteries or to take an idea and write your own story (for example, say the story has to be set at a B&B and a murder and mayhem happens) because if you give a million people the same thing to work with, you'd get back a million different stories. But this? I felt like this author took all the same characters, the same premise and only slightly changed it (ie names). I mean, who wouldn't want to be the next Evanovich or Nora Roberts but this is a bit much if you ask me.

Oh, and for what it's worth, I liked this book better than I did the first one although, I don't know if I will be able to get past the fact that I feel like the idea was a stolen one.