This lady at work is always asking me about books - she knows I read a lot and that my friend and I have a book club. I secretly think she wants an invite to book club but I could be wrong. Anyway, every now and then she comes by with books I "have to read". It started with Jane Austen's Persuasion. I dutifully took the book and thought the whole way home, now I have to read this boring English Class book so I can tell her I liked it. I was delightfully surprised. Persuasion is one of my all time favorite books. Next up on her list is the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich. She apparently loves them and is always trying to get me to read them. I've been hesitant for awhile (two years) - for one, this is a big commitment there are like 15 some books (at least) about Stephanie Plum (luckily enough the numbers are in the title), and two mysteries aren't really my thing.
I felt bad putting her off all the time so I finally checked out book one (One for the Money) at the library. It looked short and I figured if I read one or two it might make her happy. It's an easy read but not necessarily a good read. I could be bias since I'm not a huge mystery person but I just wasn't that into the story. I didn't think it was that good of a mystery. There weren't enough clues along the way to help the reader figure out what was going on. The ending was a surprise but everything wrapped up so neatly after the big killer's reveal, I was left thinking - what??
Parts of the book are laugh out loud funny (one scene in particular where she is trying to tell someone she is really busy but all she wants to do is buy a blender to score free daiquiri mix). Others are just a little bit predictable.
The basic storyline is that Stephanie has just been let go from her job at a lingerie company. She is broke, behind on bills and needs a job. So, she asks her cousin to let her be a bounty hunter for his bail bonds company. I could be wrong but I didn't think bounty hunting was a job you could just decide to do. Her first case is tracking down Joe Morelli, a cop who is charged with killing someone and skipped his bail. My second thought is, if bounty hunting is a job you can just start doing - would you really start by tracking down someone accused of murder? The rest of the story is about her adventure trying to learn how to be a kick-ass bounty hunter, solve the mystery of whether Morelli is guilty, all while trying to track him down and get him to the police so she can collect her reward.
The book is good for a lazy long weekend. It wouldn't be my favorite book or favorite mystery. I wished for a little bit more substance. The story is easy enough to follow and I'm pretty sure you could probably jump in and read any book from the series and be able to keep up. I did go and get the second book just to see if the story got any better... but that is another blog.
Two or three stars out of five. If you're interested I would check it out from the library before I bought it. I don't think it's something you would read twice.
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