Rating: 
Summary: A Guilty Pleasure
Review: Stephanie Plum is an unemployed lingerie buyer from Trenton, New Jersey who is down on her luck. She is short on cash and long on bills, her Miata repossessed, and the furniture in her apartment is as scarce as the food in her refrigerator. Yet she is a woman not without resources, who black mails her perverted, bail bondsman cousin, Vinnie, into giving her a temporary try as an apprehension agent. Her assignment: bring in Joe Morelli, a cop on the run who stands accused of shooting an unarmed man."There are some men who enter a woman's life and screw it up forever," writes Janet Evanovich in the opening sentence of "One For The Money," the first in her series of Stephanie Plum novels. As a teenager Joe Morelli cavalierly claimed Stephanie's virginity behind the éclair case of a Trenton bakery and then scribbled the details of their encounter on a restroom wall in Mario's Sub Shop. The next time she sited him was in the cross hairs of a Buick Hood ornament. With an old score to settle and a $10,000 pay check for added inspiration Stephanie sets off on the trail of Joe Morelli. She begins to investigate and finds him almost by accident. But Stephanie, who is after all, new to this line of work, cannot bring him in. He insists that Ziggy Kulesza was armed when he shot him even though no gun was found on the body and there is at least one witness who was in the room who can back up his story... the problem: the witness has disappeared and no one know who he is or where he went. In an effort to bring in her man and her ten thousand dollar pay check Stephanie begins to investigate the shooting herself, and soon finds herself being stalked by none other than Benito Ramirez, Ziggy's boss and a heavy-weight champion boxer, who uses women as his personal punching bags. To pay the bills Stephanie also takes a couple of other cases, but requires the advice and assistance of Ranger, a fellow apprehension agent, who takes her under his wing and shows her the ropes. Eventually Stephanie and Joe realize that they need each other's help, and Joe agrees to let Stephanie earn her $10,000 if she helps him unravel the mystery of Ziggy's missing gun and the missing eye witness. Janet Evanovich has succeeded in creating a novel of suspense, intrigue, humor and passion. That is not an easy thing to do in the crime fiction genre. I found myself laughing out loud on more than one occasion. Her characters are fully drawn and quite believable, even when their actions are outlandish. Her fast pacing and action filled plot kept me turning the pages and wanting more.
Rating: 
Summary: Fast Paced with Quite a Punch!
Review: Janet Evanovich's first book of her Stephanie Plum series delivers a fast paced story packing quite a punch, literally! Stephanie Plum is out of work, broke and almost hungry. She blackmails her cousin Vinnie into giving her a job. Not just any job, though. Gutsy, mouthy and funny Stephanie is about to tackle life as a Bounty Hunter! When Stephanie is handed her first assignment she is in for a real ride and a blast from the past because this first assignment is capturing none other than her first "sort of boyfriend", Joseph Morelli. Not only does Stephanie want to bring Morelli in for the money, but she also has quite the bone to pick with him! After finishing Evanovich's first book in this promising series, I am itching to get my hands on book number two, Two for the Dough.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book; excellent series
Review: This book is the start of a terrific series. It hooked me from the first sentence. If you like a little romance, a lot of humor and a great mystery, you've just found it.
Rating:
Summary: Plum Wonderful!
Review: My first Stephenie Plum book was 7 Up. Laughed all the way through it. After I finished I knew I had to catch up with the whole series. So I ordered 1, 2, a package deal of 3, 4, 5 & 6 and have never enjoyed a series of books so much. All wonderful. Mailed them, as I finished, to my daughter in New Hampshire who is sending them back as she finishes them so that my husband can find out what we are laughing about when we talk on the phone.
Rating:
Summary: My first Plum!
Review: The debut novel by Evanovich which introduced to us the adventures of Stephanie Plum. Plum is broke and dodging credit collectors. In desperation, she goes to her cousin Vinynie hoping to do start a filing job however the idea of the fast cash for bounty hunting is more appealing to Stephaine.
Stephanie's job is to bring in a cop accused of murder. However, Plum knows this cop he is from her old neighborhood of the 'burg' and took her virginity from her behind the éclair cupboard at the local bakery. Stephanie tries to nail Joe Morelli, while being chased by a sociopath champion boxer, having numerous run ins with Morelli and dealing with an overprotective mother.
I plan to read the rest of the Plum series to see how the new bounty hunter fares.
Rating:
Summary: Does it get any better???
Review: This was a brilliant first novel in a fast pased series. It has every thing you could ask for in a book. Once you begin to read it you won't be able to put it down until you have read the last word. Janet Evanovich has a magnificent gift that one could only dream about. The back bone of the story is that Stephanie Plum has just lost her job at a lingerie store, and her apartment is becoming furniture free. So if she can bring in a vice cop turned out law Joe Morelli, she stands to pick up $10,000. And then beings the exictment.
Rating:
Summary: WOW! A sleuth for the working schlub.
Review: ONE FOR THE MONEY is the first in the Stephanie Plum series. I was sick when I read this and could hardly keep my eyes open, but still I could hardly put it down! It reads like the adventures of a bumbling Kinsey Millhone, but Stephanie Plum is funnier. I could just picture the oddball characters. The book was tense, scary, hilarious, fast-paced, sexy! I just loved it and can't wait to pick up number 2! Where have I been?! Doesn't matter -- I'm glad I get to experience the pure pleasure of reading the series now! You won't want to miss this series.
Rating:
Summary: She is the best
Review: This was the first book by Janet Evanovich I read, and I couldn't put it down. It was funny, and well written. The characters are wonderful. You will fall in love with Stephanie Plum, and her entire wacky family. Then there are her love interests. Wow, you must read all of these books. Only read this when you have time to read it all the way through because you will not want to put it down. This book is very well written. If you don't fall in love with the characters then your heart is made of stone.
Rating:
Summary: A great change in pace
Review: I read constantly and find that these books are a great change in pace from my usu. A good story line and great characters make this book difficult to put down. You will also catch yourself laughing aloud. I also suggest buying the other books in the series at the same time because this book will leave you wanting more.
Rating:
Summary: Should be a six star comedy
Review: This is the only series for which a new six star catagory ought to be made which I normally describe as 'pants wetting funny'. I found this, the first of the series, from amazon browze, and thought I'd be getting another tough gal private eye, coroner, detective, etc. It's helpful if you just consider sugarplums to be a christmas special. In this first book you are introduced to ex lingerie buyer Stephanie Plum and the first of her cars, and many lovable secondary characters. As soon as I saw she was an unemployed lingerie buyer I almost quit, but the hysterical dinner with her family won me over. Stephanie stumbles into a job as a bounty hunger because the filing job with her cousin is taken and slogs through the adventures with a combination of guts, luck, and a scary lack of reality about how underskilled she is for the job which comes naturally to the girl who once tried to fly off the garage roof. I expected to her to toughen up as the series continued, but with a sneak peek I'll admit that by book eight she is still scared of guns if much more used to exploding cars and finding people waiting in her living room who picked her lock. The book and series would be totally unrealistic if Stephanie wasn't sel admittedly 'lucky' rather then skilled. Her relatives on the police force and her home grown knowlege of the 'Mafia retirement community' in New Jersey with its net of families and friends makes her survival more plausible. Delightfully nearly all the wonderful secondary characters grace the sequels (including her hamster), something I really enjoy. It's a good crossover of romance, comedy and mystery for those of us that like our books varied. The sicker your sense of humor, the funnier this book is. Titled numerically I don't have to include a sequel chronology here, except that 'visions of sugar plums' (a christmas special) comes between eight and the soon to be published 'nine'.
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