Since I began working at the bookstore, I have had a particular author recommended to me over and over again.

She is a prolific writer who has been praised as funny and clever, and yet I hesitated to pick up one of her novels since her various series (one of which has 16 books and counting) did not seem like they would be my cup of tea. Yet this author has recently released a new book, and it fits in well with the Halloween month theme.

It is a story involving a pastry chef with supernatural abilities, a book of spells that causes nothing but trouble, magical stones that embody the Seven Deadly Sins, a reincarnated monkey with an attitude, and a one-eyed ninja cat, all of which come together in the infamous town of Salem, Mass. This is just a fraction of what makes the delightfully bizarre tale of "Wicked Appetite," by Janet Evanovich, an entertaining read.

The story is told by our protagonist, Elizabeth Tucker, who moves to Salem from New York after she inherits a house from her late Great Aunt Ophelia. She is content working at the modest pastry shop in town until her life is thrown for a loop by a man simply known as Diesel.

He informs Lizzy that she is an Unmentionable, a person with the ability to sense enchanted or supernatural objects, and he needs her to locate seven stones.

The SALIGIA stones each represent one of the Seven Deadly Sins, and each stone is in the possession of "guardian" families who have inherited the stones through the generations. But Diesel's cousin, Gerwulf Grimoire-or Wulf, for short-is out to collect all the stones so he can unleash an evil power on the world (which makes you wonder why someone would create stones like these in the first place).

So Diesel and Lizzy become partners, which Lizzy can't decide if her forced cooperation is good or bad. While Diesel constantly gets on her nerves, invades her home without permission, and even sleeps in her own bed against her wishes, she can't help but feel physically attracted to him. Lizzy and Diesel must confront the dark and dangerous Wulf, his minion who believes he is a medieval knight and an assortment of memorable characters.

"Wicked Appetite" is the first of what I am sure will be at least seven books in the series, one dedicated to each of the Seven Deadly Sins-this book, as one could guess from the title, centers around the stone of Gluttony. It is a solid, crisp start to the saga, and I enjoyed Evanovich's quick pacing, wry humor and unpredictable turns.

There were moments where I felt she could have utilized a little more description so I could understand the full setup of certain scenes, but the novel tries to maintain a sense of unrelenting madcap action, so the brisk writing keeps the reader engaged and packs a lot of various plots into a brief book.

I imagine the subsequent novels will elaborate more on points that were introduced, but not fully developed at this stage. Some of my favorite side stories included a temperamental broom that one of Lizzy's coworkers bought from a witchcraft shop, and Lizzy's unexpected adoption of the one-eyed cat that she finds out belonged to her Aunt Ophelia, and may or may not be an actual ninja. I hope we learn more about each of these subplots in the following books.

Fans of Janet Evanovich won't be disappointed with her new series, and "Wicked Appetite" will be fun for readers who may not be familiar with her work. She blends the magical concepts with real every-day scenarios very well (Lizzy somehow manages to balance going to work and her daily routines while handling the disasters that Diesel keeps throwing into her life).

You can tell that Evanovich was having a blast writing this, and her sense of excitement and fun is infectious. For Halloween month, "Wicked Appetite" is a tasty treat with a few amusing tricks, and I am looking forward to the future installments.

Alison Reeger Cook is a Gainesville resident whose Off the Shelves book review appears every other week in
Sunday Life. Know of a good book to review? E-mail her to tell her about it.