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One for the Money (Stephanie Plum, #1)

Janet Evanovich

Start date: January 16, 2012

Finish date: February 16, 2012

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Mar 07, 2013 Bev marked it as did-not-finish · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, mcpl-book, award-winner, american-mystery

So.....I'm doing this Book Blogger Bingo Challenge. And one of the categories for crossing of Bingo squares is "Read X number of books that everyone but you has read"....that led me to One for the Money by Janet Evanovich. 'Cause I've been hearing people talk about those books for-ev-er. The ladies who work with my husband all love them. When he talks about how much his wife reads and how much she likes mysteries, they all ask him, "Has Bev read any of the Stephanie Plum books yet?...No?! Oh, sh So.....I'm doing this Book Blogger Bingo Challenge. And one of the categories for crossing of Bingo squares is "Read X number of books that everyone but you has read"....that led me to One for the Money by Janet Evanovich. 'Cause I've been hearing people talk about those books for-ev-er. The ladies who work with my husband all love them. When he talks about how much his wife reads and how much she likes mysteries, they all ask him, "Has Bev read any of the Stephanie Plum books yet?...No?! Oh, she has to try them!" And up till now I've been all, "No. Thanks. Really. No." The neon covers on most of the series turned me off. I'm really picky about the more modern mysteries I read. The synopses just really didn't do a whole lot for me. So I figured I was better off in my own little world of vintage mysteries.

But....given the Bingo catergory...I thought: What the heck--if I'm ever going to try one of the Evanovich novels it might as well be now. Who knows, I might even like it. Um. Yeah. No. Thanks. Really. No. I hate telling myself I told you so--but, self, I told you so. This is SO not my kind of book. That's not to say that it's not your kind of book. And certainly there's an awful lot of people (women in particular) who love this series and can't get enough of it. One of my good friends thinks they're great and she's a pretty smart cookie, so there has to be something to these things. Just not for me.

Stephanie Plum doesn't do much for me as a heroine. I don't connect with her at all--from her trying to run over her former lover to her blackmail of her cousin about his affairs and relations that involve a duck (what the heck?!) to her taking on a job that she has absolutely ZERO qualifications for. Nora Roberts in a blurb on the back of the book wants to stick Stephanie in the ranks with Kinsey Millhone. I'm not even a major Millhone fan and I think that's an insult to Kinsey. The writing itself seems to be to be cotton candy for the brain. Too much of it makes Bev a sick girl. Too much in this case would ten pages at a time. Now, if I have to put the book down repeatedly after reading only ten pages, then something is wrong. I'm sorry, but this is unreadable for me...and therefore unratable.

This was first posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks. ...more

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Jun 01, 2013 Nika ♥Marie♥ rated it did not like it

This wasn't just floating my boat...I tried really hard and you shouldn't have to try really hard to like something. i am moving on. ...more

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Nov 07, 2012 Jirrine rated it really liked it

More reviews on www.jirrinereads.wordpress.com

This was the first time that I read a mystery novel. I have read Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series before, but I consider that to be a little bit more of a crime novel. This first book in the Stephanie Plum series was above all characterized by its humor. It was funny!

We are introduced to Stephanie Plum, fresh out of a job and on the lookout for a way to get some money. She can work for her cousin Vinnie as a bountyhunter and bring in 10,000 dollar for More reviews on www.jirrinereads.wordpress.com

This was the first time that I read a mystery novel. I have read Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series before, but I consider that to be a little bit more of a crime novel. This first book in the Stephanie Plum series was above all characterized by its humor. It was funny!

We are introduced to Stephanie Plum, fresh out of a job and on the lookout for a way to get some money. She can work for her cousin Vinnie as a bountyhunter and bring in 10,000 dollar for bringing in a guy she went to school with. From the get go I liked Stephanie. She has a great sense of humour and very down to earth. At times she makes the silly choices rather than the reasonable choices, which means that she sometimes get stuck in messy situations. She always, however, finds a way out :).

Stephanie is really new to the job and I like that this shows. She does not know how to bring someone in, or how to handle a gun. But over the course of One for the Money you see her learning and getting better. She has a realistic learning curve. I like to believe that if I’d have the guts, I could be just a though as Stephanie. She gets into some pretty creepy and scary situations but she stands her ground and is not letting anyone convince her otherwise.

Another character I would like to see more off in the coming books is Stephanie’s Grandmother. That woman was feisty! Despite her respectable age she just did whatever the heck she wanted. She only had a minor role in this book, but judging by the blurb of book 2 I might be seeing a lot more of her in Two for the Dough.

I also really enjoyed how Janet Evanovich handled the plotline. I thought that I knew where this was going after 50 pages. I was pleasantly suprise that the plot went an entirely different place. I wouldn’t have minded to have guessed the ending but not knowing made it so much better!

I give this book 4 stars because it was fun and highly enjoyable, without a very obvious plotline. I am glad that I have bought a boxset of the first three books because I sense that I’ll want to read a lot more of Stephanie Plum! ...more

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Nov 27, 2011 ~Leslie~ rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: e-book-nook

After reading this book, I finally understand what all the fuss is about. The only other Stephanie Plum novel I had read was #18 and it was okay. This was much better. The mystery was very well done, and the action was well paced. The characters were unique as was the setting. I feel like I know Trenton, NJ now. Stephanie herself was pretty funny and it was easy to root for her. Her tenacity in figuring out how to be a bounty hunter through some extreme challenges was great. And I loved Joseph M ...more

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