One For The Money

In order to break up the monotony at work I usually keep myself busy by writing a blog entry, texting, tweeting, browsing various news sites or visiting facebook and myspace. On the rare occasion when it's really quiet I'll read a book or two. It's not that I don't have the time, it's just that I need to be free from distraction to really get going. My last couple of shifts have afforded me the luxury (and quiet) to get some reading done. I finished one of the two books I'm currently reading today, "One For The Money" written by Janet Evanovich.

One of our programmers at work is apparently a heavy reader. He has a bookshelf full of mostly paperback books that he's read ranging from the classics to science fiction and everything in between. He leaves the books here for anyone else in the office to borrow or read during slow times on the job. Most of the collection isn't by authors that I would normally read, mostly because I haven't heard of many of them. On a slow day last week I set out to find a book and started reading "One For The Money" on his and my cousin's recommendation.

Supposedly Janet Evanovich is a New York Times bestselling author. I had never heard of her until reading the cover for the book. Apparently she started out as primarily a romance writer publishing several books before starting a whole series based on a character named Stephanie Plum, an out of work lingerie buyer for a department store who finds work as a bounty hunter for her cousin Vinnie's bail bonding company in Trenton, New Jersey. What can I say? It's not Melville but it isn't a bad read and an enjoyable way to waste some time!

The book is a super easy read, told from heroine Stephanie Plum's perspective. It chronicles her bumbling rise and eventual success as a bounty hunter. "One For The Money" is the first in an ongoing series of 15 books to date. I highly enjoyed the humor and fast paced storytelling that was provided and if I come across the next installment I'll definitely give it a read.

From the book's jacket:

"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 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..."