I thoroughly enjoyed the first book in this series, "The Eyre Affair", and sort of liked the second, "Lost in a Good Book", but I have to say that this series is going way too far without a plot. It is still at least as off-the-charts creative as what it's always reminded me of - "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" - and still pretty funny, but it is just scene after scene after scene with a few funny nuggets, but no discernable plot. The book ended with the heroine stuck in a bad corner, and then presto! Chapter is over, and the next chapter relates how the genie popped out of the bottle and saved everything just in the nick of time. The most blatant deus ex machina I have ever read. I actually appreciated it because I was dying for the book to just get over with.
I have already bought the fourth book in the series (I accidentally bought it before this one before realizing my error) and I sure hope it actually has a story line. Because this book is way too clever not to read, but the absence of a plot is getting on my nerves.