Bound & Determined to Find a Good Read: Review: One for the Money by Janet Evanovich

Description:
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 keep herself from getting killed before she gets her man.

Details:
Audio CD
Published 1995 by Recorded Books LLC (first published 1994)
ISBN: 140253938X (ISBN13: 9781402539381)
Series: Stephanie Plum #1
literary awards: The Crime Writers' Association New Blood Dagger (1995)

Review:
I have eyed the Stephanie Plum books for a long time. I found a paperback copy in our favorite used book store. Then, in desperate need of a new audiobook, I looked at my library, and found this. So, instead of reading it, I got to listen to it. I have reviewed a newer release by Evanovich (Wicked Appetite) that I really enjoyed, so I had an inkling that the Stephanie Plum books would tickle my reading bone. I was right.

Stephanie is desperate to make some money and the last resort is working for her cousin’s bonding company as a bounty hunter. First of all, the way Evanovich describes Stephanie is so real, so genuine. Second, it’s believable. This is not one of those books you have to suspend reality to buy into. From the get-go I was all-in. Last, it’s just fun.

Stephanie at times seemed to go out of her way to get into trouble. And Morelli kept coming to her rescue. But she never let it stop her. She picked herself up, learned, and moved forward. She didn’t figure out the bad buy until I did, and that was when he revealed himself. I never saw it coming.