One For the Money by Janet Evanovich

One for the Money by Janet Evanovich
Mass Market Paperback 352 pages
published by St. Martin’s Press in 1994
ISBN-13: 9780312990459

Type: {Airplane Read: makes time fly}
Rating: {An Unputdownable: Couldn’t eat or sleep until I finished this book}

Why You’re Reading It:

• You’re a Janet Evanovich fan
• You think easy mysteries are great
• You’re looking for a quick read
• You don’t feel like thinking too much (you’d prefer to escape) and you want a dash of comedy in your reading

What I Thought:

Hello, new favorite series! Nice to meet you. One for the Money has been waiting around for me to read for 16 years. This is a case of Always-Listen-To-Your-Mother. Mine recommended this to me this summer, and I ordered it from Paperback Swap and promptly put it on my shelf. Silly, silly me. Little did I know I had a book on my shelf that would actually be fun to read. Fun in the way that I used to curl up with Judy Blume or Ann M. Martin and have a good time reading them. Fun in the way that I would rather read my book than watch TV or go shopping. Fun in the way that the book swap is moving too slow getting me the second copy so I may just have to run to the bookstore and grab the next three. Fun in the way that my mom should lock up her Evanoviches unless she wants to find them missing sometime soon. And even better? I’m jumping on this crowded bandwagon just in time. They are in the process of filming this movie right now. Want to see who’s playing whom? Check it out here.

Granted, this first one had a bad guy in it who was B-A-D. We’re talking not nice to women in a pretty serious way. Though the descriptions are not long and don’t take up much of the book, there is that nasty bit that I didn’t savor. My mom assures me that he is one of the worst bad guys in the series, and she thinks that after reading reviews, Evanovich lightened up on the creepy/scare factor in the rest of the series. I will take her word for it as we have the same (insanely low) tolerance for those kinds of things in our entertainment. My only other complaint was that Stephanie Plum (the famous protagonist of the series) describes herself as normal and a bit stocky… at 5’7″ and 130 pounds (and later at 127 pounds), thus making me want to punch her in the face. That is only normal or “thick” if you live here in Los Angeles, which is why I am reading about people who are NOT in Los Angeles. Waifish women who call themselves fat gets old, shallow, and boring in real life, I don’t need it in my escapist literature. Literally — these are my only complaints about this 320 page (MMPB) novel.

This book was written in the early 90′s, before cell phones and many other modern conveniences, which I must say makes the detective work much more fun. The descriptions of answering machines and their tapes, of Spandex shorts, and turquoise eyeliner = priceless.

I was down to my last pair of spandex shorts. I tugged on a matching sports bra that doubled as a halter top and slid a big, loose, purple t-shirt with a large, droopy neck over my head. I laced up my hightop Reeboks, crunched down my white sox and felt pretty cool.

If that doesn’t take you back and add a pound of fun to this book, I don’t know what will. Of course, those of you who don’t remember wearing big, droopy t-shirts and crunched down socks might not get as big a kick out of it. I can’t wait to see how Stephanie progresses throughout the next 15 novels. Should be fun to see — who knows, she’s from New Jersey, maybe she’s still spraying her hair and crunching down her socks? (Just kidding, NJ people… well, sort of just kidding).

Stephanie has no job and is hocking her belongings to pay the rent when she turns to her cousin, Vinnie, to get some work. Vinnie runs a bail bond company and, fortunately for Stephanie, has a bond agent who is in the hospital and needs a sub in his absence. Desperate for money, Stephanie takes the job. What follows is an entertaining week in the life of Stephanie Plum. She’s a girly girl who now has a gun, nerve gas, and a mission. She gets more than she bargains for in getting intertwined with the creep I mentioned before, but though she is a funny lead character, she is not ditzy and learns how to hold her own. If you’ve been reading my reviews for awhile, you know I abhor annoying protagonists, who are supposed to be funny because they make mistake after mistake after mistake. I like protagonists who are funny because they are funny. Period. They say funny things and think funny things, but are not dumb with slap-jack tricks to get the reader laughing. Stephanie fits this mold. I laughed out loud at a couple of parts, and only got annoyed once, but she redeemed herself quickly. Stephanie is a likable character and the story is all that you could ask for in escapism (well, almost all you could ask for — it’s light on romance, but I hear that’s coming). And Stephanie is a woman after my own heart in many ways…

I’d stopped at 7-Eleven on the way and gotten myself a vanilla yogurt and a carton of orange juice for lunch. I was drinking and driving and slurping, and I was very comfortable in my air-conditioned splendor. I had an alarm, I had nerve gas, I had a yogurt. What more could anyone want?

I’m looking forward to the rest of this series!