A Stephanie Plum Book
Novel by Janet Evanovich
Umm, I'm a little embarrassed here. This is DEFINITELY not my usual book selection. If you haven't heard of Stephanie Plum, maybe you've heard of the recent Katherine Heigl movie "One for the Money." The movie is based on the first in this series of books, only I didn't know it at first. Then it dawned on me as I watched...I've bought these books for my mother-in-law before. It's one of several series that she reads. And, well, I really liked the movie. Stephanie Plum is sort of an accidental kick-ass. I like her. So I got one of the books from the library, and it turned out to be the SEVENTEENTH book. But, like any good semi-trashy series, there is a quick catch up in the beginning and bam, I felt like I didn't miss a thing in the fifteen books in between.
Here's the back story: Stephanie is an Italian-Hungarian-American Jersey girl, working as a bounty hunter for her cousin's jail bond business, always eating, somehow also always skinny, always in danger, and always rescued by one of two hot men she alternately, ahem, "dates." In this particular book (#17, remember), Stephanie is hunting for a 70-something wannabe vampire and a giant toeless thug, while dead bodies keep showing up at her place of business and her mom is trying to set her up with an old high school acquaintance. It all ties together. Somehow. And it's pretty damn funny.
At first I found myself thinking, wow, this must be what bounty hunting and New Jersey are really like, just cruising around town all day, getting take out, stumbling into the guys you're supposed to be taking to jail. Then I looked at the rest of the story line and characterization, which is just a tad unbelievable (the guys? the diet?), and thought, hmm, maybe that's not what it's really like. Who knows. I don't plan to be a bounty hunter anytime soon, so I don't really need a realistic day-in-the-life. Or if I do, I can just watch "Dog: Bounty Hunter" on TV.
Oh, and if we were sitting around talking about this book, let me tell you what the real discussion would be: who should Stephanie get together with, her cop-boyfriend Joe Morelli or her guy on the side, Ranger? I don't have an opinion at this point, but the cliffhanger at the end of #17 puts her on the verge of deciding between them... I might just have to read #18 to find out. Or maybe I'll wait until #19 comes out. Surely she'll have decided by then.
So, I'm going to finish the Percy Jackson series next, but not blog about it, since I've already done the first two. I have a big fat stack of mail order library books and a few more from my mom to read next. I also have a recommendation from a reader to check out. (Yes, I have readers. Ok, it's my college roommate, but still). Then I'm debating: what's the deal with 50 Shades of Gray? If you love it or hate it, let me know.
I'll be really interested to hear if you decide to read 50 Shades. It was one of the hot topics at my recent girls trip as 3 out of the 4 of us were reading it. I was the odd man out and while I've heard good recommendations, at this point I'm not biting. I've always been a little behind on the trendy reads, but I eventually get there and usually love them (umm Hunger Games what?). I did read a really funny list of reasons why not to read it that Jiorgia's sister posted on facebook. I'll be keeping my eyes out for the official review ;)
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'm still really on the fence. I want to hear what Elizabeth has to say about it, though! I'll let you know if I start reading it.
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