Book Babblings

One for the Money by Janet Evanovich

The Nitty Gritty: Stephanie Plum is an out of work lingerie buyer. Hocking her furniture for hamster food is as low as hse is willing to go. When her mother mentions that her cousin Vinny (yes I realize the inside joke) is hiring Stephanie is reluctant to take the job.

When $10,000 and the prospect of getting even with Joe Morelli is dangled in front of her she can't resist getting in the bounty hunter game.

Well she should have read the job description because she is ill prepared when the great Trenton boxer Benito Ramirez starts stalking her and leaving half dead hookers on her fire escape.

To top of it Morelli might be innocent or he might just be a really good kisser. Plum can't decide which one, but she does want that ten grand. A girl needs furniture in her life.

Opening Line: "There are some men who enter a woman's life and screw it up forever."

I've seen this books laying around the library for years. Even during the semi-annual book sale I've bought a couple of them. Hey when you can get all the books you can squeeze into a plastic shopping bag for $3 you grab anything that looks interesting. I actually had Two for the Dough and Three to Get Deadly for nearly a year before I decided to sit down and actually read the books. So I started at the beginning.

The Good: First I love Grandma Mazur. She is funny as all get out just because she can be. When she shot that chicken I had tears streaming down my face. Anytime you can make a old person cool you got my vote.

Is it bad that I sort of want to meet Morelli in the flesh? Not sure if its to slap him or kiss him, but I wouldn't mind a sit down with the man. He walks a fine line between charming and revolting.

I can't remember the last time I laughed so much reading a mystery. True be told I'm not well versed in the genre. I've read James Patterson, Dan Brown and John Grisham, but that's about it. Mystery just isn't my bad, sorry. I'm a fantasy nerd. Sue me. The book itself wasn't laugh out funny, but there were certainly funny parts. Yeah I know the guy getting blown up in the car wasn't supposed to be funny but Stephanie running around without any eyebrows is pretty darned funny.

Living in the south I can understand how certainly parts of the county seem like foreign countries and I love how Evanovich sets up Trenton as something to be avoided because only Trenton should spend any amount of time in Trenton. I know Evanovich isn't a fantasy writer but I love her world building. Even if she is using a real place.

I'm still debating whether or not I like Stephanie. She just doesn't seem to have a back bone most of the time, but she does face down her fears like a champ. She's just so much of a girly girl that I find her annoying at times and other times I'm applauding her gall. Locking up a man in a refrigerated truck to collect his bounty took balls and I like that.

The Bad: Obviously this book is old school. It was written in 1994 so all the car phone references, chicks and grandmas running around with spandex shorts are slight irritating. I grew up in the 80s and 90s and don't remember women wearing that much spandex.

Ok and the whole tunnel job in daddy's garage was a tad gross. I mean come on what six year old is playing that filthy game. And if I ever caught my child doing anything remotely like that I would beat their tails till the chickens came home to roost.

I really hate that the big bad black guy had to be the villain in this book. I mean come on this book is set in Jersey why couldn't Guido be the bad guy? Yeah I know that is just as bad as a black guy being the villain but forgive me for being partial.

The plot was a bit sluggish and half of it could have been cut out. She could have lost 100 pages and the book still could have been good

My Final Thoughts: Well this was a great introduction to the Plumeverse and I think I will continue the series.