One for the Money - Janet Evanovich

Also reviewed by Heather.

Summary:  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 keeps herself from getting killed before she gets her man...  (Summary from book - Image from www.bestsellers.about.com )

My Review:  Stephanie Plum is in deep doo.  She’s lost her job, pawned all her furniture, and still her phone has been cut off and her car is seconds away from being  repossessed.  No, wait!  Yup…there it goes.   To avoid eviction or *gasp* living with her parents, Stephanie jumps at the chance to catch bail-jumpers for her cousin Vinnie.  Soon she’s hot on the trail of former lover Joseph Morelli, a local cop wanted for murder, and money becomes the least of her problems because, while Stephanie is tracking down Morelli, a sadisitic rapist is targeting her.

To be clear, I didn’t make it more than two pages in to One for the Money before I checked it off the list of books I can recommend to my mother and quite a few of my friends.  Readers bothered by profanity, suggestive dialogue, and mildly sexual situations should probably just find something else to read or opt for the PG-13 movie version.** 

Now, questionable content aside, I thought this book was humorous and entertaining.  It’s the first in very long series of humorous crime novels that feature female bounty hunter, Stephanie Plum.  In One for the Money, Plum and her old flame/nemesis, Joseph Morelli, have plenty of chemistry in spite of their smouldering hate-love-hate relationship and the banter between them was highly amusing.   When Stephanie begins to suspect that Morelli might be innocent, their relationship becomes even more complicated and life gets a lot more dangerous.

I read this book cover to cover in an afternoon – one where my husband was watching the kids and my bedroom door was locked (Psssst….thanks babe!).  Okay, so I figured out the bad guy right around the time things started exploding, and that made the standard monologue-where-bad-guy-explains-why-he-did-what-he-did less surprising, but I still finished this book with every intention of picking up Two for the Dough the next time I see it laying around.

**Honestly, I’m pretty excited to see the movie myself, because I think it will be hysterical  and at least a little "cleaner” than the book.  There has to be less F-words.  By law.  Here’s the trailer, for those of you who’d like a peek.  One for the Money hits the big screen January 27,2011 (aka today).

*POST-EDIT* The movie was funny, but still had some swearing issues, one naked old man butt (eww), and more of Plum's body than was really necessary.  Towards the end, there was some smooshing together of the storyline that I didn't like, and overall the movie felt more geared towards humor than crime or mystery.*   

My Rating: 3.5  Stars. 

For the sensitive reader:    Probably not for readers even remotely sensitive to language or sexually suggestive dialogue. 

Sum it up:  Wildly inappropriate for sensitive readers, but entertaining nonetheless.