Book Review: One for the Money

TITLE: One for the Money
PART IN SERIES: Book 1 in the Stephanie Plum series
AUTHOR: Janet Evanovich
FIRST PUBLISHED: 1994
CATEGORY: adult
GENRE: series, mystery, chick-lit
PREMISE: Stephanie Plum is dead broke and in desperate need of a job. So her cousin sets her up with a bounty. Only it turns out this bounty is her old flame Joe Morelli...
MY REVIEW: I've heard about this series for quite awhile and people buy it a lot at work so I finally decided to give it a try when I saw a cheap copy at my book fair. Turned out to be a good buy because I ended up enjoying the heck out of this. I will admit it probably isn't terribly realistic, and the writing could be a bit better, but I still loved it.
Part of the charm are the characters. They are widespread and colorful and frank about life and if you don't like it, oh well. Stephanie was refreshing as well. For once we have a female murder mystery lead who isn't a) in the business so she automatically knows stuff and we have catch up with her, b) unrealistically smart so sometimes the reader feels stupid, and c) constantly bed hops. In fact, there's no sex in this (aside from the creepy rapist but he doesn't count). Yes, Plum is snarky and not a wimp but she's learning this stuff as she goes and thus we the readers learn along with her. I also appreciated that the author didn't wimp out on some of the less then pleasant things that come with being a bounty hunter (see dumpster hopping and naked old guy).
The side characters are also equally as great as Plum. Morelli and Ranger are hysterical (I got the feeling throughout this that Ranger was helping out for the sheer entertainment factor) as were her family dynamics (I personally loved the grandmother even if she got mortifying sometimes). The book was fast paced and interesting and all in all a fun ride. Oh, and will someone PLEASE make this into a murder mystery type tv show? Pretty please? Cannot wait to read the rest of this series.
WHO SHOULD READ: mystery fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five guns

FOR THE FOLLOWING CHALLENGES:
12 by 12 in June
One Hundred Plus Books
First in a Series