I loved Stephanie Plum's voice narrator, and I think she did an excellent job bringing her sassy personality to life. I hope to embark on many more journeys with her hilarious self in the future! Although somewhat predictable, the journey was a lot of fun.

The sexual assault and stalking could be triggering for some.

IT was tedious to have so much time devoted to Plum's weight.

4 Stars.

And thus, with this book, began my intense love affair with everything Stephanie Plum and her zany crew of friends, co-workers, lovers, and adversaries (standouts: Grandma Mazur and Lula). Oh, and by the way, I'm 100% #teamRanger

My wife and I were heading to Philadelphia for a long weekend, and decided to get an audiobook for the road trip. After a short conversation about how that "female bounty hunter movie" was based on a best selling book, I downloaded this. I was slightly curious, as I have seen the author's name on bookshelves for years now, and didn't know anything other than that she was very fond of numbers in her titles.

Eight minutes into our road trip my wife asked me to shut the book off, as she had a headache. All we heard was a childhood flashback about the main character getting tricked by a neighborhood kid into playing "train tunnel" in her pants. I was happy to acquiesce, as I thought both the book and the narrator were dreadful.

But now I feel compelled to finish what I started, since I paid for it, and I have to listen to something while commuting in rush hour traffic. So either the book is going to improve significantly, or I am going to have fun writing a scathing review when it's finally over.

UPDATE:

I finished listening to this yesterday. It was beyond awful.

The main character, Stephanie Plum, makes stupid decision after stupid decision. In fact, I cannot think of a single rational, logical decision she made at any point in the novel. And all the while, the reader is subjected to constant descriptions of her clothing, jewelry and make-up.

Supporting characters around her appear and disappear, serving only as thinly veiled plot devices. Her family, her boss and Ranger are never mentioned after the half-way point of the novel. I lost count of how many times Plum catches up to Morelli only to not even try to apprehend him.

Deus ex machina moments occur regularly. More than one character seems clinically schizophrenic. The "mystery" would have never been solved, if not for a lengthy expository speech by the villain right before he plans to kill the protagonist.

No way would I ever pick up another one of these books. Oh, and why am I not surprised to learn that Janet Evanovich is one of Stephenie Meyer's favorite authors?

I want to get the feel of the earlier books having started this series midway a couple of years ago. And no, I'm not planning to read/listen to the whole back catalog which would be about 20 books. I enjoy this series from time to time but don't think I love it enough to binge it. Nice to meet Stephanie, Morelli, Ranger, Lula, and Grandma Mazur!

These earlier books have different narrators and are not as good as Lorelei King.

This is all Jason O'Mara's fault.

I was perfectly content never having touched this series, perfectly content with the righteous indignation I felt every time I passed the display table at Barnes & Noble with the movie-tie-in editions of this book piled three-high, like some ode to Katherine Heigl's perfectly formed ass. It seems the universe had other plans for me.

*Righteous indignation fueled by I'm not sure what . . . my tastes aren't exactly Pulitzer grade.

It seems the universe had other plans for me, and those plans involved me watching the trailer (because Goodreads has it playing 24/7 right now in its sidebar ads), realizing that Katherine Heigl movie had Jason O'Mara in it too, and then giving in to my love of Jason O'Mara** by watching the trailer approximately fifteen more times. And then later, when I had stopped by Barnes & Noble to pick up my paycheck, impulse buying the mass market paperback*** and binge reading it in a single day. I am an American consumer.

**Jason O'Mara is hot, but he doesn't have great luck. Life on Mars was promising and I loved the character he played, but Terra Nova is kind of disaster, and he's so stuffy in it. But he is dead sexy as Joe Morelli.
***I tried my darndest to get the one without The Heigl on it, but all they had was the $14.99 trade paperback with the original cover, and if I was going to waste money on a splurge, it was going to be the least amount of money possible.

One for the Money follows newly divorced, newly unemployed and broke Stephanie Plum as she navigates the perilous world of bounty hunting for the first time. She had to blackmail her pervert of a cousin in order to get the job, and she’s determined to keep it. That means buying a gun, learning how to use a gun, and learning how to bend the law to her advantage (stealing cars, breaking and entering? not a big deal when you’re a bounty hunter). Her first target? Childhood friend Joe Morelli, a rascally cop who’s wanted for murder. Also, this one time she ran him over with her Buick because he took her virginity behind the pastry counter of the bakery where she worked in high school, and then never called. If she can bring him in, she gets $10,000. What follows is a violent, funny romp through New Jersey as Stephanie gets in over her head and has to find her out of a bunch of crazy, madcap adventures.

This was a quick, fun read. I’ve heard people describe it as “a popcorn book,” and that seems like the perfect description: Light, slightly substantial, full of salty zing — will probably make you sick if you eat too much of it. I liked the voices of the characters; they didn’t feel generic or idealized like characters in most popcorn books. They’re sassy. I liked Stephanie’s commitment to a job that is terrifying, and that she’s not very good at. I liked the inspired lunacy of Lula the hooker, and Stephanie’s overbearing but well-meaning family. And I love rascally Joe Morelli, probably because I read too many romance novels as a teenager, but whatever. I’m not going to analyze it. The relationship between Stephanie and Morelli is fun, because I’m a sucker for antagonistic sexually charged relationships in fiction, and because their relationship isn’t a main focus, and because the way they interact with each other is kind of hilarious, it doesn’t feel nearly as cliched as it could. This is a line from the beginning of the book, when six year old Morelli takes six year old Stephanie into his garage to play “choo-choo,” which is the New Jersey version of playing doctor. What made me buy the book is the attitude dripping from this comment:

“At any rate, it was a one-shot deal and darn disappointing, since I’d only gotten to be the tunnel, and I’d really wanted to be the train.”

There are obvious flaws with the book. Maybe it gets better as the series goes along, but Evanovich’s writing is what I’m going to call grocery store prose (again, see the popcorn thing above). Stephanie also comes off a bit dumb in her insistence at not calling the police on a rapist/stalker because she wants to be seen as just as good as one of the guys. Maybe that’s just a 90s thing . . . I don’t see this as being much of a problem if this book were set in 2012. Which brings me to my final point, that this book is laughably dated. Like literally, it made me laugh out loud. I think some of this stuff may have been dated even in 1994. Stephanie spends most of the book wearing bicycle shorts and t-shirts the way most of us wear jeans (to work! and she thinks she looks good!). She is also frequently caught wearing scrunchy socks and Reeboks, and car phones are a big part of the plot. The best part about this is that she takes great care to describe her fashion choices to us, so you know she’s proud of them. But this isn’t a serious book, and it’s not mean to be taken that way, so really all the dated stuff just kind of adds to its charm. It’s meant to be fun and entertaining, and in that it certainly succeeds.

My only real complaint is that this freaking series has eighteen books in it . . . eighteen! I don’t need this in my life.

Book: ★ ★ ½
Narration: ★ ½
I'm new to audiobooks, and at this point I'm not exactly sure how much they're for me. I can listen to whatever I want during my workday, so I figure, why not catch up on some reading while I do it? The problem is, I seem to come across more audiobooks that rub me the wrong way than those that don't. When the narrator is female and she reads the part of a male and is trying to either be sexy or menacing, I have a hard time with it. The same goes the other way as well. I've tried getting through Odd Thomas but when the narrator speaks for Odd's girlfriend, I can't help but imagine a drag queen. It's that jarring that it takes me out of the story, and the same thing happened in this book as well.

I enjoyed this story for what it was: a down on her luck Jersey girl who decides to try her hand at bounty hunting and hilarity ensues. I didn't find myself laughing all that much, although I did smile at some of Morelli's lines, but then quickly cringed at the sound of the female voicing them. It was a weird experience.

Throughout the novel, Stephanie isn't all that smart. This being the first in a very long series, I expected that going in, so I wasn't all that surprised when she decided to hit her would-be rapist over the head with her purse instead of taking her gun out of said purse and pointing it at his face. She doesn't do so many dumb things that it made me want to slap her though, and that can be a fine line to cross. I actually thought a lot of characters toed that line; her Mom was pushy but in a funny way, her Grandma was crazy but not annoying, and Morelli played sexy and dangerous in a delicious way. Ranger, I'm on the fence about because he played such a small part, and also because I think some of his lines would have been sexier in my head than out of a woman's mouth.

I was surprised at some of the darker parts of this book, although now that I think of it, this kind of reads like a Lifetime movie. Think murder, torture, rape, all that fun stuff. Throw in some prostitution and drugs and now we're having a good time! Honestly though, I think the grittier bits made me like the story more because it wasn't just fluffy chick-lit all the time, but then, I'm twisted like that.

I liked that I was kept guessing up until the end. I had my suspicions, but I was actually wrong and I enjoyed that! All too often I figure out the mystery before half the novel is over but that wasn't the case here so that was a pleasant surprise.

I don't think the narrator did a poor job for most of the novel; it was just the sexy and evil men that she was trying to do that wasn't working for me. I feel like I was missing out on some of the atmosphere with the characters by not hearing the men in my head. Maybe this isn't an issue for others that are used to one narrator doing a whole cast of characters, but it just isn't something that's clicking with me.

I will continue on with this story, but in regular ol' book form. I hear the love triangle continues on for eternity, but I think I've proved I'm a glutton for punishment since I'm still reading Anita Blake, so I'll definitely pick up the next installment of Stephanie Plum's series soon.

Excellent audiobook! I enjoyed this story a lot. It has humor and action/adventures. Stephanie Plum being new on the job and making mistakes is real and believable. I like the title of the book. The story on Stephanie, her parents and grandma were good. I liked all of the characters and this Morelli was as good and irritating as could be.

I started reading and listening to an audiobook to this series from the few books recently published. It's great to listen to the series from the beginning.

This story followed Stephanie Plum. She's in desperate need of a job and a paycheck. She has an apartment but no furniture because she sold them to make ends meet. Her cousin Vinnie has an opening at his bounty hunting office. She went there for the filing position but left as a bounty hunter. Well she fight for it. At least, she has to prove she can do this one before she's hired on. Her first major task was to find Morelli and bring him in to the police station. He took her virginity when she was in high school and left her. Did things to embarrassed her too. At one point, she ran him over with her car. Now, she's going to catch him one way or another. He's now a cop and accused of shooting an unarmed person. He's a wanted man but he's in hiding. Stephanie ran into more troubles along the way.

Thank you Simon Audio for the opportunity to listen and review.

How is it that, having been an avid reader of mysteries for much of my life, I had never picked up one of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum books? A gross oversight on my part that I have now rectified. I have finished the first one of the series.

I've been reading quite a few serious books this summer - "The Maytrees," "Falling Man," "Absolute Friends," and "A Thousand Splendid Suns" to name the most recent - and I was ready for a drastic change. This book certainly offered that.

I was captivated by the personality of Stephanie from the very first chapter and I found it hard to put the book down. I just couldn't wait to see what happened to her next. As a result, I read the book within 24 hours and most of it in one sitting.

This, of course, was the book that introduced Stephanie, her family and friends to the reading public. We get to know her as a very smart woman who has had some hard knocks but is still standing. She has a loving, if annoying and sometimes embarrassing, family.

And she has loyal friends from the "burg" where she grew up. One of those "friends," Joe Morelli, plays a very large role in this adventure and apparently in the Plum adventures to come in the series.

This book has everything one can ask of a mystery. The plot and the pacing are brisk. The protagonist is attractive and both tough and vulnerable. The repartee is engaging. All in all, a thoroughly satisfying read. On to "Two for the Dough."

UPDATE 01/26/12: This was the selection of my local Mystery Book Club this month and so I reread it - or at least most of it - to remind myself of its plot. I found it just as enjoyable the second time around.

Loved this one, read it long ago but did not keep up with the series after three or four.

This is book is okay. In fact it may be the okayest book I've ever read.
It's good for what it is. It's mildly entertaining and amusing, and aside from the author's overuse of the word "pocketbook" I have no complaints.
But as far as crime thrillers go, it's kind of bland.
It's like dairy-free vanilla ice cream. If it's all that's available, I'll eat it. Maybe I'll even enjoy it. But there are better flavors out there.

3.5 Stars
One for the money is one of those popular books that it seems everyone has read except me. So when I was going through a reading slump and couldn't get into any book that I started reading, I thought I would try this one. Its been on my to read pile for SO LONG. I decided to go the audio version. And I made it through!

Stephanie Plum gets sacked from her job and being desperate, approaches her cousin for a job at his bounty hunter business. Originally intending to go for a filing job she takes up bounty hunting when she sees that she can get a cool 10k for bringing in a particular suspect who has jumped bail. However, the subject is ex cop Joe Morelli who had a fling with once when they were teenagers. So with a trusty gun and the help of a few friends to navigate through the biz, she is on her way to catching the suspect. However she gets herself into a bit of trouble with a psychotic stalker first, and ends up relying on the very person she is meant to bring in. And of course, sparks.

I get it. I really do. Back in 1995 this would have been a great book. Amazing even. But now, in the 2010's, it is full of inappropriate sexism, sexual harassment masked as “sexual tension”, annoying characters, and bad fashion that belongs back in the 90's.

Having said that, I can look past all of that and put myself back in the 1990's and appreciate this book for what it is, an entertaining read that you can just enjoy without getting too much into it.

Sure, Stephanie Plum may be a touch on the annoying side, but for the 90's, she is kick ass.

I loved the fact that there are no mobile phones, and technology feels like it belongs back in the stone ages. And hey, it may be interesting to see what Stephanie got herself up to in the next 20 years, with the 24th instalment of the series having just been released last year.

The audio version was pretty good. There are two different ones apparently and I chose the more recent. Although reviews for the latter one seem to be better from what I have seen.

Would I recommend One of the Money?

Yes, I think so. Although you may need to ask me after a few more books.

I purchased One for the Money at my own expense at audible.com

Buddy reading with some friends at n  Buddies Books and Baublesn starting Nov 1

The Plan: Read one book in the series per month. So that's like the next 2 years. I now plan buddy reads 2 years out....no I do not have a problem...and even if I did I seem to be going to a group for it...soooooo. Don't judge me :P

Lazy Review Time - since this came out forever ago and there are a bazillion reviews

This series has 20+ books in it. I can see what it has been so popular over the years. It is just a good time wrapped up in a ball and transported to the 90s. A time when New Jersey was known for garbage and hydrocarbons and people still had answering machines and no cell phones….YES we used to live like that.

Stephanie Plum is a fun character and this was a pretty good introductory book with funny shenanigans as she tries to figure out how to be a bounty hunter. She makes some pretty big mistakes that lead to a little bit of hilarity along the way. She is easy to like and I had a good time hanging out with her as she learns the ropes Eliza Doolittle style from a guy named Ranger that I could help but picture in my head as Dog the Bounty Hunter.

A few things I liked:

① - The Nostalgia I felt for the 90s

② - The hinted at future romantic interest *crosses finger* I really liked Morelli and hope they ‘Play Train’ sooner rather than later.

③ - Crazy Shenanigans i.e. hitting the boy who took your virginity and didn’t call with your car a few years later. (don’t worry he was okay)

④ - Crazy Grandma’s. I love funny and ridiculous family members so this fit the bill well

⑤ - Totally creepy psychopaths. The messed up in the head bad guy is a bit deranged and pretty scary.

Definitely and easy fun and funny read with a little drama and suspense.