One For The Money

Author: Janet Evanovich
Goodreads Rating: 3.98
My Rating: 4/5 Stars
Pages: 320
Movie Release: January 27, 2012

I picked up this book because I know that the movie was coming out and I enjoy a good crime book. This was the first in a series of 15 so far (Explosive Eighteen just came out in 2011) with another sub series about our favorite New Jersey Bounty Hunter. I’m not sure if it has anything to do with having seen the trailer, but I had Katherine Heigl’s New Jersey accent reading this story in my head the whole time. Since I got this book on my Nook, I had the option of buying it in a pack with the second two and saving $5 and I really regret not having done that since I know I’m going to be reading the next 14 books.

Synopses from Goodreads.com:

Welcome to Trenton, New Jersey, home to wiseguys, average Joes, and Stephanie Plum, who sports a big attitude and even bigger money problems (since losing her job as a lingerie buyer for a department store). Stephanie needs cash--fast--but times are tough, and soon she's forced to turn to the last resort of the truly desperate: family.

Stephanie lands a gig at her sleazy cousin Vinnie's bail bonding company. She's got no experience. But that doesn't matter. Neither does the fact that the bail jumper in question is local vice cop Joe Morelli. From the time he first looked up her dress to the time he first got into her pants to the time Steph hit him with her father's Buick, M-o-r-e-l-l-i has spelled t-r-o-u-b-l-e. And now the hot guy is in hot water--wanted for murder.

Abject poverty is a great motivator for learning new skills, but being trained in the school of hard knocks by people like psycho prizefighter Benito Ramirez isn't. Still, if Stephanie can nab Morelli in a week, she'll make a cool ten grand. All she has to do is become an expert bounty hunter overnight--and keep herself from getting killed before she gets her man.

My review after the jump!

This book was a lot of good fun. The book was told as if you were following all of Stephanie Plums thoughts as she tracked down high school classmate Joe Morelli for skipping his court date for murder. Through a series of unfortunate events, Morelli and Plum work together to try to pin down what actually happened. 

It was refreshing to not read a story about how perfect and beautiful the main character was. While Plum was often called sexy, she also talked about how she had frizzy hair after being handcuffed to her shower curtain and how she had snot running down her face while she had a gun pointed in her face. It was really refreshing to not have a beautiful bodacious main character who constantly flaunted it.

I think what brought this book alive was the development of the characters, from her overbearing mother who insisted that she find a man in her life, to her eccentric grandmother who thinks its okay to dress in spandex in her 80, and who can forget the sexy and daring Morelli who seems at first amused by her attempts at bounty hunting then becomes down right annoyed after she steals his car.

Another refreshing point was that nothing came easy to Plum as she attempted to navigate a whole new world. Perhaps it was sheer dumb luck or beginners luck she seems to start to find her way while also learning a lesson or two about how bounty hunting worked. She had a perfect combination of good luck and really bad luck.

Who I would recommend this to? Everyone, it’s a lot of fun for people who enjoy a mystery without being imbedded in the cop lingo. I would also recommend this book to anyone down on their luck because Stephanie Plum has an awful lot of bad luck and can make anyone feel better about their life.