Janet Evanovich can always be depended on for a good time. Her heroines, whether covered in muck, fighting off the latest round of villains, or just trying desperately to deal with the men in their lives without losing their minds, have a sense of humour and determined attitude that make following their stories laugh out loud funny and oddly reassuring. No matter how fraught real life gets, it rarely involves a temperamental flying broom or a ninja cat (not that the ninja cat wouldn’t be welcome, on occasion).

Wicked Appetite is the start of Evanovich’s newest series and lands her readers right in the action. Welcome to Marblehead, Massachusetts, close to the infamous Salem, home of the historical. And the weird. And what sounds like the world’s most amazing bakery. And Elizabeth Tucker (Lizzy to everyone except her mother), a heroine who may make unbelievable cupcakes, but only barely has a handle on the rest of her life.

Of course, the rest of her life currently involves two men (one dark and mysterious, one blonde and mysteriously helpful), a possibly ninja cat, and a co-worker who wants more than anything to be a witch, with the expected disastrous results. Lizzy really just wants to be the best baker in the town, and is well on her way, but life intervenes, and it turns out that she is not only a baker but also an Unmentionable,  able to sense specific magical objects.

Luckily, her entre into this magical life is smoothed over by Diesel, tall, blonde, and apparently oblivious to the hilarity that his mere presence inspires. (Seriously, the man works for a topic secret agency whose acronym spells… BUM.) Lizzy and Diesel must team up against the (yet again hilariously named) Gerwulf Grimoire (equally hot, but tall, dark, and a bit scary) to seek out the collections of artefacts that represent the seven deadly sins, and when you add a Renaissance Faire loving henchman to the mix, the search turns… pointed.

Evanovich does an excellent job keeping the humour and the pace at fever pitch. Lizzy doesn’t so much walk through life as tumble, and her exploits and the sheer comedy of the situations she finds herself in create a sense of irreverent hilarity that carries the story through its more ridiculous sections. This is a quick read, and, though the first in the series, leaves a lot to be explored of the characters it introduces (not the smallest question of which is: where in the word did Diesel meet the monkey? Also, a monkey?). Wicked Appetite is time well and humorously spent.

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