One for the Money

I read most of the Stephanie Plum series, and have laughed out loud during each one. While I've neither shot a gun nor destroyed any cars, i lived near Trenton New Jersey for many years, and i recognize the characters. These Jersey types are goofy, always hungry, loud and oversexed - Stephanie, Lula, and the hotties Morelli and Ranger. I can also picture Stephanie's exasperated mother, passive dad and gun toting grandmother vividly. Whether describing Stephanie's next bounty assignment or Trenton's gourmet scene (Cluck-in-a-Bucket or donut joints), Evanovich's writing rings true. The author makes us like Stephanie and root for her. These wacky characters and wickedly improbable tales, set in a crumbling US inner city, are truly hilarious.

B (Good).

A New Jersey woman laid off from a department store takes up bounty hunting.

This character is great. The story does what it needs to, with plenty of action and enough mystery to the mystery to not get boring, but it's the humor and the voice that I'm here for, and they deliver.

(Dec. 2025)

This is a beautifully crafted, funny, and thoroughly enjoyable read. I'd read Up to the Nines (later in the series), which tended, just slightly, towards plodding, but this was fresh and fun. A good foil to more weighty tomes. After I put the book down, I watched a badly scripted and poorly cast film version. Such a shame to remove the grit and sexual tension. What a waste!

I sat in front of the television until noon, keeping my windows closed and my curtains drawn to the crime scene below. Every once in a while I'd wander into the bathroom and stare at myself in the mirror to see if my eyebrows had grown back yet.

2.5* maybe. To be exact, it’s a bunch of unlikeable characters in a 1.5* story, but mechanically it’s well written (4*).

Reading this in 2024 and realizing it was published 30 years ago, I can that see part of the problem is so much of the story and dialogue aged like milk. But beyond that, it’s trying to be funny and cute while also being a quasi-crime fighter situation, and then there’s some in-your-face assault and beyond violent predatory behavior, and general misogyny… it’s a lot, and I imagine it was considered scandalous in its native 1994.

This was recommended to me by a friend who loves this series, so I felt obligated to see it through, otherwise it would be a DNF for me. I just don’t see much that’s redemptive show more about this book. show less

The year is 2012. Lat weekend, I broke down before a long flight home and bought this on my Kindle. Yes, I am 18 years late to Stephanie Plum, so I'm almost ready to call One for the Money historical fiction. I giggled as I electronically underlined every passage where Stephanie dresses in spandex and Reeboks (though Jeff pointed out that it's actually not such a far cry from how American Apparel models are dressed nowadays).

For years I've been recommending [b:The Spellman Files|129117|The Spellman Files (The Spellmans, #1)|Lisa Lutz|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171981639s/129117.jpg|2896642] to Evanovich fans, and I can't believe that I only just reversed the recommendation on myself. Obviously, I liked this. It was funny and show more engrossing. I was surprised by how freaking scary and creepy it got at times, but somehow (even through passages about rape, torture, murder, and brutality) the book managed to be completely entertaining.

I don't know if I'll race though all the Plum books now, but this definitely exceeded my expectations. The perfect book to make a long airplane ride (excuse the pun) fly by. show less

What a great read! Believe it or not, this was my introduction to the amazing character of Stephanie Plum and her series! I was drawn in to this fast paced story from the first page and long before I finished I had completely fallen in love with the star of this long-running series, Stephanie Plum. She is extraordinary! But, of course, what I really mean is that Janet Evanovich has done an extraordinary job of creating this multi-faceted character, to the point that we feel real empathy and compassion for her. I can now add her to my top list of literary character friends I feel I knew in real life. One for the Money is filled with humor, pathos, grisly details of murder and sexual assault (and I DO MEAN grisly), which part is very, show more very sobering and depressing. But Stephanie wears her humor like a suit of armor and not many pages go by without a good chuckle.

Her can-do attitude is a wonder to behold and gives us all hope that we too are capable of doing things we never imagined that we could. The non-stop action keeps us gasping and nail-biting (between laughs at Stephanie's antics and smart aleck comments). The twists and turns keep us on the edge of our seat. The bad guy, a boxer by the name of Ramirez, is about as sinister of a villain as I have had the displeasure of reading about (or watching, for that matter). I think he could give ANY bad guy a run for his money. He is truly the stuff of nightmares, very vividly portrayed by a talented author.

A funny experience for me was the fact that much of the time I was reading this book, I had a "tv film" type image running through my mind of TOTALLY early 90's Stephanie all dolled up in her early 90's get up amongst her early 90's decor, appliances and vehicles. That was hilarious to me! Kind of My Cousin Vinny style.......hey, wait a minute--MAYBE that's why Stephanie has a Cousin Vinny!!!! show less

One for the Money
Stephanie Plum, Book 1

I Picked Up This Book Because: Has been sitting on my TBR for a long time

The Characters:

Stephanie Plum:
Joe Morelli:
Ramirez, Jimmy Alpha, Vinny Plum(cousin), Connie (Vinny’s receptionist), Ranger (Stephanie’s Higgins)

The Story:

Stephanie’s tendency to give everyone her full name and her blazè about Ramirez concern me but overall I enjoyed this book. As I was listening to the abridged edition it got right into the story without lengthy set up.

Out of necessity Stephanie signs on with her cousin as a bounty hunter. She’s going after the big bucks Joe Morelli. She and Joe have a bit of a history, that include her running him down with a Buick. (ha!) Joe actually turns out to be a help of show more course he must prove his innocence before he lets Stephanie bring him in.

This book was action packed, a little suspenseful and overall a good story. I’m ready for book two.

The Random Thoughts:

I totally don't see Kathrine Heigl as Stephanie.

4 Stars show less