Bubbles All The Way

Bubbles Yablonsky #6

by Sarah Strohmeyer

The Agatha Award-winning series returns with a new tale of suspicions, steel-town secrets, and homicide by hair product.

For years the local ladies of Lehigh, Pennsylvania, have wished aloud that Debbie Shatsky would meet an untimely end-so they could get their hands on Phil Shatsky, sports-hating, dinner-cooking, massage-giving husband extraordinaire. But when Debbie gets hair extensions at the House of Beauty and dies from a reaction to the glue, it's salon owner Sandy who gets the blame. Her best friend Bubbles Yablonsky, reporter and sleuth, is determined to investigate-despite distractions from the two men in her life. And from a mysterious Santa Claus, who warns Bubbles not to cry, not to pout and not to scream...when he tries to kill her.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Romance, Humor, Cozy Mystery, Chick Lit, Adult

341 pages, Paperback

First published November 7, 2006

About the author

Sarah Strohmeyer is the award-winning, nationally bestselling author of 18 novels for young adults and adults, including the Bubbles Yablonsky mystery series, SMART GIRLS GET WHAT THEY WANT and THE CINDERELLA PACT, which became the Lifetime Movie, LYING TO BE PERFECT.
Her first mystery, BUBBLES UNBOUND, won the Agatha Award and Romantic TImes Award for Best First Mystery. THE SLEEPING BEAUTY PROPOSAL was nominated for a prestigious RITA™. Her books have been translated into German, French, Italian, Turkish, Taiwanese and a bunch of others.
BUBBLES REBOOTS - #7 in the Bubbles Yablonsky mystery series - will be published June 26th in Kindle, Nook and Kobo (pre-order now!) It is an homage to her dearly departed high-school friend, Josh Simon. So 10% of the profits will go to organizations he approved: The Cancer Research Institute & Planned Parenthood.

Reviews

[Doris · Rating 4 out of 5]

BUT WAIT!!! Asterisk those stars! I loved this whole series about a bubble-headed and yet brainy hairdresser turned sleuth/reporter. I loved the wit and wisdom and very fine mysteries. In this, the apparent conclusion to the series, I loved 98% of it, thus its 4 stars. The main mystery was cleverly and masterfully handled in typical Bubbles fashion. However, I give a big NO STARS to the last few pages where Sarah Strohmeyer slapped together a series ending that was ludicrously preposterous. Unsatisfying? You bet. Or as another reader put it, "WTF?" I just don't know what she or her editor was thinking. Were they deliberately trying to pop our bubble???? What a cheat to her readers and her characters both. That was so not the way to go.

[Tiffany · Rating 3 out of 5]

WTF!!!!! I loved the basic plot of the book, except for all the weird santa's popping up all over the place. But the last chapter? SERIOUSLY W T F !! What was Strohmeyer trying to do? Sabotage the fun of the entire series? Cause it certainly seems as if this was intent.

I keep going over to Strohmeyer's website to see if there are any updates on future Bubbles books and I'm not seeing it anywhere. I really hope this is just a dream sequence or something, because it would be (simply put) a retarded way to end a v.good series.

[Cate P · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow. Just Wow. I am so angry at the ending to this book. I really liked this series up until the ending of Book 4 where it seemed like things were going to start going downhill. I mean really the whole marriage proposal thing was random and weird.

Then starting this book with Bubbles deciding to marry Dan, her ex, because she is told her 17 year old daughter needs mommy and daddy together. Seriously? The end is what got to me the most. Bubbles - a princess? Stiletto - an interpol cop? So was anything that happened in the last 5 books between them real or not. Does Stiletto love her and want to marry her? It is hard to imagine it was all for his cover but the book just ENDS with that kind of cliff hanger and questions swimming around in your head about what just happened and what will happen next.

I am just disappointed that this is the way the series ended. I actually feel like I should mention that I read Chapters 1-3 before I started getting irate and I flipped to the last 2 chapters. Once I read the ending I shelved the book. I'm just not interested in reading a book that ends the way it does. I'll just go back to Book 5 and pretend Bubbles said yes to Stiletto and they lived happily ever after.

[Kellybeacham · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have read all the Bubbles books within about a week. I thought the first one was really cute, but they started to get a little repetative (Bubbles see murder. Bubbles run around "solving" murder. Who-dun-it is someone briefly mentioned at the start of the book that had no connection whatsoever. Bubbles kiss Stiletto. Dan be tool. Jane be coolest daughter ever. The end.). I read this book by the fire and when I got to LITERALLY the last 2 pages, I nearly threw it in the fire - and I DO NOT condone "book burning". I felt like the author had no idea how to wrap up her storyline (when - really - a fairytale ending would have been just fine with all of us, minus the princess part, add the hunk, the end) and just threw something in there to give to the publishers. I feel like I wasted a lot of time on these, although to be fair, I started the last 2 books reading the first few chapters and then skipping a good deal in the middle. These had such potential but there was no character development of Bubbles, which was the biggest shame.

[Angela · Rating 2 out of 5]

While reading this book I somehow got sucked into reading all of the reviews that people have written about it as well. I'm not sure whether these reviews ruined the book for me because it put such negative thoughts in my head about it or it prepared me for the ending which after all the horrible things I read, I thought it wasn't that bad - just rushed. Okay, it was definitely weird and unexpected but we don't want to expect what happens or we could write it ourselves right?

I will say that this was not nearly as good as the others. It made me so frustrated half the time. I was thinking "Does no one care about her to just let her ruin her life?" Also, we know this is probably the last book, but we never reach a climax of what happens with her life and we are just thrown into an ending that had nothing to do with the series. Everything we anticipated from the other books felt ignored. I just hope I'm wrong and there is at least one more book to close out the story and give fans some peace of mind.

[Lindsay · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am so mad about the ending. At first I thought I misread parts or skipped parts in general. And then I got mad. I felt like the author gave up and said "I need to end this and I don't care anymore". I have never been so happy with a series and so disappointed by its ending :( I loved everything up to the very end though of the entire series and thought Bubbles was amazing. Wish there was more

[Me · Rating 1 out of 5]

At first I thought parts of this were funny but the jokes just weren't enough to carry the mish-mash of characters and dragging out of the who dunnitness. One fourth of the way through this cozy mystery satire and I no longer cared about any of the characters.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the ending but there are so many loose ends that need to be tied up!

[Michelle Kampmeier · Rating 3 out of 5]

Um what?! That's how this ended???? There has to be another in book in this series. Those bombshells came out of NOWHERE! I can't even believe how that ended.. I'm still in shock. Anyone else who has read this.. I would like to hear from you!!! Wowee.

So Bubbles is supposed to remarry Dan in order to give Jane a nuclear family again. Please. She's 17, like she needs mommy and daddy together again. Either way, it goes back and forth, and Dan apparently has something over her head. They go to a family therapist who also thinks this is a good idea, but that's a crock! Seriously.. Bubbles, who figures out crazy murder schemes sometimes, really could have thought about this differently and realized it was stupid all along. Then there is Stiletto. There was a lot of confusing drama with that Sabina or whatever. I just feel like all of the elements in this book never meshed. Weird.

What a crazy story. The end got very strange, in my opinion. Completely disappointing, really. The end was very rushed and outrageous. If she wanted to surprise her readers, she sure did.. but not in a good way at all. This review would lose a whole star if this was a stand alone, but I enjoyed this series anyway. This was just the worst of the series, and the ending.. ugh. I'm done.

[Toni Wulfekuhl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bubbles is being forced to remarry Dan, cause Jane needs a complete "family" ??? One of the customers of the beauty salon dies when her hair dye is switched with one containing latex she is allergic to.

The last Bubbles book and a Big Time.. WTH !!!!
I liked the previous books, although mindless they were entertaining. The whole Beauty Operator turned Reporter was kinda cute. The "princess" thing is head shaker. Also left you hanging about her and Stiletto.

[Myhotstylist · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the entire series as a whole, but the ending of this last book in the series, made no sense at all. It was completely rushed and came from out of left field. Left me dissapointed. However the characters that Stohmeyer created are unforgettable, and i will never forget how much these books made me laugh out loud!

Its a great series, and i do reccomend them!

[Jana · Rating 3 out of 5]

uummmmmmmm not sure what i think

[Shadee · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not like this end to the series, predictable and too similar to the previous plots. The series started out cute, light and funny but towards the end veered into ridiculous.

[Cyndi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok. I love this series, really, but the ending? Huh? Not actually saying it was bad, but not great either. Hmm.

[Nolan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’ve read other books in this series about a seemingly shallow ultra-appearance-conscious fictional beautician from Lehigh, Pennsylvania. Bubbles may come across as shallow and dumb, but she’s not, as any of the criminals she’s helped catch would tell you.

In this adventure, Debbie Shatsky is in the chair at Sandy’s beauty salon getting her hair done. She is, as is her habit, raving about the perfections of her husband, Phil. Phil even watches Lifetime movies with her and cries at the appropriate places. But the raving ends abruptly as Debbie suffers an allergic reaction to the glue Sandy uses to install her extensions. She dies before the ambulance can get there, and Sandy, who owns the salon, becomes the chief suspect.

Naturally, Bubbles must clear Sandy. She has problems of her own. She works part-time at the local newspaper as a writer, and her domestic situation isn’t sweetness and calm. Her ex-husband, Dan, demands remarriage for the sake of their neurotic teenage daughter, Jane; Bubbles is in love with Steve, a reporter for the Associated Press, and there’s a Santa Claus in a Mercedes who repeatedly tries to kill Bubbles.

If this sounds like slapstick, mayhem, and silliness, it is. But this series doesn’t really want you to take it seriously. It’s brain candy designed to brig a smile or two, and it at least accomplishes that. So, is this as good as or better than the unparalleled Stephanie Plum? Since I despise Stephanie Plum books, I’m in no position to say. This was ok.

[Gwen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Of the many ways I expected this fun series to end, a fairy tale wasn't one of them! In the perpetual "will she or won't she" we've got: keep her job at the newspaper; marry her ex-husband, Dan (formerly known as Chip); prove that Sandy didn't murder a client by using latex glue on her extensions; tell Stiletto that she loves him; wrest control of her aloe recipe from G; and help Jane return to normal (or, what passes for normal for a teenage girl), post-kidnapping.

It helps to remember that the series takes place over a fairly short timeframe. And that Bubbles is a pretty good reporter, and detective, even if she does use her looks to disarm ("do I look like a reporter?"). Too, Santas armed with weaponry may mean that Genevieve and her trusty musket have finally met their match. No matter her title, Bubbles continues to be a good and loyal friend, a dedicated mom and daughter, and a (hopefully) passionate wife for the right man.

[Megan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hated this book. I couldn’t even get through the ending, but I did, because I wanted to know what would happen to bubbles. What a disappointment. How anticlimactic. It doesn’t even make sense that all of that could be thrown into the ending, and I feel like there were so many things unresolved. Yahoo that she has a lot of money, but she should still be allowed to be a journalist. I don’t know. I agree with other readers. Love Jane. Love the friendship. Love the camaraderie between all the ladies. But six books to lead up to this ending? No thanks.

[Tanya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once again a cute book...but left so many open ended stories. I wouldn't mind to see another couple of books in this series as it jist seems unfinished. Does she find love with stiletto? Does fan and Wendy rekindle their relationship? Do G and Jane end up together? Does Bubbles get her rightful share of the aloe Vera conditioner? Does she rule a kingdom now? There are just too many loose ends yo have the series end here...

[Katrina Mae · Rating 1 out of 5]

Why? Why end the book like that? On a whole this book hell the whole series was good. The ending though total crap. It seemed to ignore everything in previous books. Stiletto ran hot and cold. He’s an AP photographer wait no that was a cover he’s actually Interpol and he was protecting Princess Bubbles. I feel like the ending was lazy and disappointing. Let’s not even get to Jane’s miraculous turn around at the very end.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the best book of the six "Bubbles" books, but the ending was VERY unsatisfying! All the steps leading up to the end made sense, but then BAM - a surprise ending that really doesn't make any sense at all. All I wanted to know for sure is that Bubbles and Stiletto end up together, but I guess I'll just have to imagine what happened.

[Abbey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Urgh. I loved Bubbles so much. This was....well. It was one way to end a series. I don't know if I'll ever pick up Bubbles Rebooted. I wanted so much for Bubbles to just be Bubbles and have her somewhat happily, bumpy ever after. I have no idea what story would make me feel at ease with the characters again at this point.

[Shelly Spiller · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you want to just have fun and relax, this is the book for you. This was a cute, whimsical book with too much going on. There were two mysteries that had nothing to do with each other. Those characters though..... fun as hell and just as sarcastic. I enjoyed the banter between Bubbles, her mother and her daughter Janie.

[Sandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really enjoyed the twist at the end. And just like all the other Bubbles books, I didn't pick the killer!

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable to read with a cocktail by the pool. A plot twist at the end had me scratching my head and laughing out loud

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wishing for more Bubbles!!

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Light and fun! Just what I needed

[Mysterygal3 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this whole series, pls write more, shake your head Comedy have to see if you like Bumbling mystery books

[Amy L.]

Bubbles ab

[Monique Lebrocq · Rating 2 out of 5]

What did I just read?
I loved Bubbles and Stiletto.
She ain’t no Princess.

[David G · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny, but a lot!!