I was glad to try Janet Evanovich. I liked how well we sympathized with her character and humour definitely eased off rough subjects. However, bail bond-chasing does not interest me and I have no patience for a protagonist who is unable to choose her love interest; which appears to take up several sequels. I especially cannot abide the personality of Stephanie’s Mom. If your daughter warned you about a stalker; would you stupidly retort that he “sounded nice on the phone”? Some behaviour did not jive.

Stephanie needed to get unlocked, after Joe cuffed her in the nude. She had to trust her rescuer, who had to be game to enter a window. Later, we find out she was friends with her superintendant: a key-holder! If she were uncomfortable with the easy choice; apparently she had a sister. Most disturbingly, a sexual-assault offender should have been simple to arrest. Stephanie witnessed one woman’s duress by phone and took another to the hospital. Finally, she tape-recorded threats that Benito made to her. There was no legal uncertainty.

I give “One For The Money” three stars. I like pre-internet mysteries that take situations seriously: standard mysteries versus the cozy imitation. However I stay clear of the topic of sexual-assault and hope it is uncommon for Janet. The lynchpin was an effective surprise, although what they were involved in was told last-minute. My criticism lies in Stephanie conveniently spotting the important witness near home, in time to follow and watch what resulted.

I purchased a couple of Janet’s recent novels outside this series. However, I am eager to read thousands of actual books I already own, that are exactly to my taste. I enjoyed meeting Stephanie Plum. I was glad to sample Janet’s originality and to be privy to another famous literary character.

Stephanie certainly isnt the brightest crayon in the box, there were definitely some eye roll moments, but also lots of LOL moments as well. A fun read, I look forward to see what she gets up to in the next one :)

I was expecting something completely different from the synopsis but damn, this doesn’t mean that I didn’t enjoy reading this book.
This was SO FREAKING FUNNY. I loved the humor and the stupid things everyone seemed to be doing without properly thinking. Steph is particularly clumsy and awkward and I love it.
And the banter between Morelli and Steph OMG. I adore them!

I laughed so much I was choking when Stephanie closed Morelli into the freezer truck with three dead bodies, I was not expecting that at all! (Morelli could probably say the same thing haha)
Other hilarious moments: the shower scene, Morelli dumping the car keys in the garbage, Stephanie stealing Morelli’s car, and Morelli’s car finally exploding. I can’t stop laughing even now!

People were definitely right when they told me that the movie didn't do the book characters justice. My local library recently had the entire series donated by a local patron and I decided to try the series out for myself. I liked the "voice" of Stephanie Plum and her banter with both Morelli and Ranger, and of course, her grandmother is HILARIOUS!! Sometimes a person just needs a light-hearted book to lose themselves in. I'd be willing to read a few more books in the series.





Goodreads Review published 01/05/2016

So I've finally met Stephanie Plum. I wasn't disappointed. I read this in a matter of hours, and laughed most of the time. She gets fired from her job, so she goes to work for her cousin Vinnie as a bounty hunter. Needing big cash, she takes the case of Joe Morelli, a cop wanted for murder. She stumbles her way through everything from stealing cars, shooting guns, catching Failure to Appears. I like her because she suffers the indignities of the everyday woman--bad hair, etc.

Dribble, dribble, dribble. To amuse myself I compiled a top 5 list of things from this book that any future bookclubs book shouldn't include:

1- a herioine who regularly wears spandex shorts (I see it was wrote in 1994, still...that was past the 80's...no excuses).

2- the term "crotch wrinkles." Used in a sentence: "By five o'clock I was feeling antsy, and my rayon skirt had serious crotch wrinkles."

3- a scene where a man masturbates on Ms. Plum's door (or any woman's door)

4- the term "boinked" especially if it is used multiple times through out the book

5- sexual references regarding a cousin and a duck, and using these as blackmail (for the record any person and a duck shouldn't be allowed, regardless of blackmail)

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How could it have taken me so long to find this wonderful series?

Omg!! So funny! Can't believe I waited so long to start this series!!

I checked this out to see if I really wanted to keep the Stephanie Plum series on my "To Read" list. This was a funny book. It somewhat reminds me of Kinsey Milhone in the Alphabet series. I am hooked and will probably read the rest in hard copy.

It’s Gender Reversal Day here on Goodreads as I review One for the Money.

So Samuel Plum is an underwear buyer for a retail store who has recently lost his job. Desperate for cash, he blackmails his pervert cousin who runs a bail bonds agency into letting him go after a cop named Jane Morellie who was accused of murder and then skipped. There may be a personal revenge motive for Samuel in this because Jane is the girl who seduced him and took his virginity in high school. Since she never called him again, Samuel felt justified in running her over with a car and breaking her leg shortly after that.

Now Jane is worth $10,000. Even though he has absolutely no experience or training in law enforcement or as a bounty hunter, Samuel decides he’s going to capture her. He almost immediately stumbles across Jane who basically laughs at him and walks away. So Samuel gets a pistol he doesn’t know how to use or even load. He also allows his senile grandfather to get a hold of the gun because who doesn’t love it when the elderly start waving handguns around in a room full of family members?

Samuel’s inexperience quickly gets him into more trouble after he gets assaulted by a female boxer who tries to rape him. Rather than pull his gun on the boxer, he panics and hits her with his man purse. Things get even worse as Jane repeatedly shows up to humiliate him and then get away again. Samuel also gets another person shot when a fugitive takes away his man purse with the gun while Samuel just stands there and allows it to happen. Plus, Samuel’s failure to report the boxer to the police for the attack on him because he doesn’t want to look weak allows two innocent people to be brutally raped and assaulted.

Samuel is obviously a moron who has no business running around with a gun and hand cuffs. He also seems to be criminally negligent, and he probably should have been in prison already for running over a sex partner. He also steals Jane’s car when he gets tired of driving his own piece of shit so even though he’s supposedly on the side of law and order, he’s guilty of carrying a concealed weapon and grand theft auto.

Samuel is such a nitwit that I have no idea how I’m supposed to relate or sympathize with him. If this was some kind of comic farce, then I could see how a loser getting humiliated by the fugitives he’s supposed to be chasing would be funny, but that kind of goes out the window with the psychotic rapist boxer thing and people getting shot due to Samuel’s utter failure as a bounty hunter.

In conclusion, I’ll say that Samuel Plum is a fucktarded asshat who should be beaten with….Oh, wait. Gender Reversal Day was yesterday? And it’s Stephanie Plum, not Samuel? Oh….. I guess in that case she’s just a spunky heroine and her vehicular assault on a former lover, overall gross incompetence and insistence on trying to do a job she has no training or qualifications for is just another example of womanly independence. Girl Power!

Now, Stephanie, if you’d just step into this dark alley, there’s a few ladies who’d like a word with you. Oh, don’t worry, it’s just FBI Special Agent Clarice Starling, US Marshal Karen Sisco, Ree Dolly from the Ozarks and Lisbeth Salander from Sweden. They’d like to have a little talk regarding what you’ve done to the image of female heroes in crime fiction.

5/5 stars

This has quickly become a favourite of mine, it was recommended to me by my mum who regularly rereads the series, and spends the entire time laughing loudly to herself. And my expectations were exceeded. I am not a person who shows emotion when reading, and I never laugh out loud. Ever.



While I was reading this book, I had numerous people, including my family, ask if I was okay. I got strange looks from people on the train and in the coffee shop. No matter where it was, I ended up hysterically laughing to myself—it wasn’t a pretty sight.



This book follows Stephanie Plum, a girl from the ‘Burg as she becomes a bounty hunter out of pure desperation. Her car had been repossessed and she's barely hanging onto her apartment after she lost her job as a Lingerie buyer. She blackmails her cousin Vinnie into giving her the job, and Joe Morelli’s case.

Joe Morelli is a cop who missed his court appearance for murder, but he claims it was in self-defence. Stephanie has a past with Joe, him being her first and her later ‘accidentally’ mowing him with her father’s car.

The two are ridiculously hilarious, their banter and relationship were the highlight of the book.

Stephanie is just a typical person, she has no experience in Bounty Hunting and manages to mess up every situation she stumbles across, she's clumsy and loud mouthed and I loved her to death. She was completely and utterly normal, the only exceptional thing about her was her humour and ability to attract calamity.

She was completely and utterly awkward, and I related so hard.

Truly don’t have enough good words to speak about this book, so I’m moving straight into the second one.



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The most fun I've had reading a book in a long time, I was dying of laughter at work, on the bus and every other place where it's slightly awkward to burst out laughing.

Stephanie Plum has just gotten laid off from her job as a lingerie buyer for a company that turned out to be owned by the mob in New Jersey. Her Miata has just been repossessed, she's sold everything of value, and her refrigerator is empty. Out of desperation, she goes to see her cousin Vinnie, a bail bondsman, about a filing job. That's just been filled, but the secretary lets her know that there's an opening for a bounty hunter, and the money's good. Stephanie blackmails her way into taking a case that will pay out $10,000 if she can bring the guy in. It turns out the fugitive is someone she has a long history with who appears to be a cop gone bad. He's been arrested for cold-blooded murder. Of course, Stephanie is unbelievably unqualified for this job, but a mixture of desperation, pride, and stubborness take her a long way.

This was a quick, fun read, but there was still plenty of murder and mayhem for most mystery/thriller readers.
This was actually pretty funny. I don't think I ever laughed out loud, but I probably giggled a few times. I had expected it to be a little funnier and less violent from what someone had told me about it, but this was still a good book. One thing that did irritate me was that the author pretty much gave driving directions to every place Stephanie went in the book. That might make it more real to the people from Trenton, NJ, but to me it was just distracting fluff for me to skip over.


The characters were what really made the book. You have to like Stephanie. She comes across as just an average woman who's gotten in over her head, but she doesn't let that stop her. The dirtbag characters were really dirtbags. Some of the stuff they did made me want to go take a shower. And Joe was a hottie. What girl doesn't like a good guy with a little bit of bad in him? Or is he a bad boy with a little bit of good in him? Either way, he's sexy. I hope he shows up in other books.

So if you like your mysteries with some humor and you don't mind some blood along the way, you'll like this one.