Amazon.com: Customer reviews: One for the Money: The First Stephanie Plum Novel (1) (A Stephanie Plum Novel)

Top positive review

One for the Money, Two More After That, and 20 Plus Plums More

Reviewed in the United States on November 25, 2018

This was a gift for my wife to whom I frequently gift books. I had heard of this series in the past and the new movie was coming out at the time. We got this reprinted large paperback edition for the movie's release. She had never read any of the books in the series.

She's read many more of them since then, and states that she can't really remember how the series started. As with any good series, your memories of the characters tend to change over time with the story so it's understandable. Obviously this means that it's a worthwhile series and a recommended read.

4 stars for the book, and 4 stars for the product. I hate stickers that don't come off clean and the back right corner has a sticker that will leave the book needing some TLC so -1 star.

10 people found this helpful

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IBuyTooMuch

Don't waste your time or money.

Reviewed in the United States on April 25, 2019

After seeing reviews comparing almost every series I've ever liked to Stephanie Plum, I figured I would love this series. Nope. I tend to enjoy a bit of a bumbling, but likeable, character mixed in with a twisty and interesting mystery - this is not that. Stephanie's behavior is just plain idiotic. I found her to be completely brainless, spineless, and annoying. The "mystery" part of the book was predictable, suspenseless, and I only finished the book because I really, really, REALLY wanted to like it. Unfortunately, I really, really hated it.

48 people found this helpful

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IBuyTooMuch

Don't waste your time or money.

Reviewed in the United States on April 25, 2019

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48 people found this helpful

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Full of Shenanigans

Reviewed in the United States on November 5, 2015

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Lazy Review Time - since this came out forever ago and there are a bazillion reviews

This series has 20+ books in it. I can see what it has been so popular over the years. It is just a good time wrapped up in a ball and transported to the 90s. A time when New Jersey was known for garbage and hydrocarbons and people still had answering machines and no cell phones….YES we used to live like that.

Stephanie Plum is a fun character and this was a pretty good introductory book with funny shenanigans as she tries to figure out how to be a bounty hunter. She makes some pretty big mistakes that lead to a little bit of hilarity along the way. She is easy to like and I had a good time hanging out with her as she learns the ropes Eliza Doolittle style from a guy named Ranger that I could help but picture in my head as Dog the Bounty Hunter.

A few things I liked:

① - The Nostalgia I felt for the 90s

② - The hinted at future romantic interest *crosses finger* I really liked Morelli and hope they ‘Play Train’ sooner rather than later.

③ - Crazy Shenanigans i.e. hitting the boy who took your virginity and didn’t call with your car a few years later. (don’t worry he was okay)

④ - Crazy Grandma’s. I love funny and ridiculous family members so this fit the bill well

⑤ - Totally creepy psychopaths. The messed up in the head bad guy is a bit deranged and pretty scary.

Definitely and easy fun and funny read with a little drama and suspense.

34 people found this helpful

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sixthreezy

One for the Money, Two More After That, and 20 Plus Plums More

Reviewed in the United States on November 25, 2018

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10 people found this helpful

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Roni Jaure

One was enough

Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2017

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One was enough. Filthy language from beginning to end. A gun is fired twice in her apartment , someone new at shooting nails five shots to a heart. This is same apartment a women is almost killed and hung on fire escape. Cops find one bad guy on the same fire escape. A car is bombed outside. Stephanie didn't need to go looking just stay home most of it showed up at her place anyway. One was enough I won't be buying another.

17 people found this helpful

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Great fun

Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2017

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With fast scene changes and a main character that is both frivolous and fun, this book is a good one for pure enjoyment, for just kicking back and going with the flow. Stephanie Plum makes decisions on the fly, with not much concentrated intellectual effort, but that suits the environment and job function she finds herself in. She is a Jersey chick that finds that she must sometimes do things that are totally out of character and in steep contrast with her upbringing. Her breaking of tradition, her negation of her past regimentation, makes this story fascinating and worth the time for its perusal.

Adapting to frightening situations with sometimes bold innovation and an absence of timidity, Stephanie is both a risk taker and one who hedges her bets along the way with subtasks that assist in sustaining her financially as she seeks to attain her major goal. This goal is to capture an acquaintance, a guy she ****ed in her younger years, and who has skipped bail on murder charges and seemingly wants to prove his innocence.

Along the way Stephanie steals his vehicle, discarding the jalopy she started off with, and encounters unsavory and purely evil characters that make the reader want to enter a bathroom for a date with the commode. But Stephanie deals with the creeps and bums that enter into her circle of protected space and decrease its radius with skill and daring, and for readers who admire such traits in a woman, especially male readers, a voluntary sharing of their personal space would be both natural and desirable.

14 people found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

A Must Read

Reviewed in the United States on August 12, 2017

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Fabulous series. I've read every book and can't wait for the next one. I recommend starting with this one and going through the entire series in order. Stephanie Plum and her family are wonderful. I bought this so I would have it on my Kindle as well as in hard cover. Worth rereading. Stephanie loses her job and can't find another one. Just about broke, she blackmails her pervert cousin, Vinnie, to hire her as a bounty hunter. She is the most inept bounty hunter and also the luckiest ever. Her first big assignment is bringing in Joe Morelli, her former flame and the guy she ran over when he didn't call. Add in her Granny, who looks like 90 and acts like 20 and her mentor, the super hot bounty hunter, Ranger. Mix this all in with Jersey attitude and you have an amazing result. I hope Evanovich keeps writing. I need my regular fix.

16 people found this helpful

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J. Gabrielson

The book that began a great series

Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2019

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I read the original in hard cover years ago so this is a reread. I think it is the best of the series. Evanovich managed to bring humor to what is the gritty reality of life in working class New Jersey. Her portraits of the various characters who inhabit this world are a hoot! She can sketch a person's personality in two or three short phrases and the reader can see this individual in toto with all warts and idiosyncrasies exposed! What can I say? Evanovich has a gift!

11 people found this helpful

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First Stephanie Plum Novel, Starts Slow, Picks Up At The End, Not As Mature As Sue Grafton

Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2019

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"One for the Money" is a first of a series novel by Janet Evanovich. The protagonist is a female who has lost her traditional civilian type job and becomes a "bounty hunter" without any prior training or experience. The setting is Trenton, New Jersey. The style is modern conversational American and is an easily comprehended light read. The novel seemed to start slowly, but picked up the pace at the end. I liked it as an easy recreational style light reading experience.

Among my reading interests are the reading of early detective novels of various authors, past and present. One of my favorite modern American Detective Authors is Sue Grafton. This novel, and the protagonist, Stephanie Plum, reminds me somewhat of Sue Grafton and her protagonist, Kinsey Millhone. In that this is only the first Stephanie Plum novel that I have read, I have a completely open mind on the following, but thus far I prefer Sue Grafton. I suppose I should also mention that Sue Grafton has passed away and I feel a certain amount of loyalty to her.

Comparing the two first novels, "One for the Money", with "A is for Alibi", both protagonists are younger, but not completely inexperienced females. One series is set in New Jersey, the other in California. Kinsey Millhone is a former police officer. Stephanie Plum has no similar experience. Accordingly, Stephanie Plum makes almost mind numbing mistakes compared to Kinsey Millhone. There is more popular style of humor in this novel. Sue Grafton's humor is more subtle. Sue Grafton seems more of a mature and sophisticated writer. There is almost no obscenity in Sue Grafton's novels that I have thus far read. (I have read "A" thru "H".). This novel has much more common street language. There is as much, or more, vulgarities in this novel as in all of the eight Sue Grafton
Novels that I have read, combined.

As is common for me, I purchased the Kindle and the audiobook and read and listened simultaneously. The audiobook is completely faithful to the Kindle. The story was at times slow enough that I sped up the reading speed on the audiobook. I would then slow it down when there were any detailed narrative. I also read the climax of the story twice. Once at a rapid speed and then at a slower speed. I liked the way the ending of the story was structured.

In summary, I liked this first "Stephanie Plum" novel. I see potential for enjoying future novels in this series. Of all of the modern American female detective authors that I have thus far read, Janet Evanovich and Stephanie Plum puts me most in mind of Sue Grafton and Kinsey Millhone. I always take a break between novels of the same author. In a few months I look forward to reading "Two for the Dough". Thank You....

One person found this helpful

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Linda Mount

Reading it again is just as engaging as the first time!

Reviewed in the United States on September 6, 2018

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This slice of a Trenton NJ girl falling into a career as a bounty hunter is funny, realistic, far-fetched, gritty and charming. Stephanie Plum is out of work, out of appliances and finds herself "employed" as a bounty hunter by her seriously disturbed cousin, Vinny. Going after the big bucks finds her face-to-face with her old flame/nemesis and while she is lucky, she doesn't have the skill to bring him in. Caught up in investigating a murder, and stalked by an insane boxer who likes to hurt women, she is over her head. Let the chaos ensue!

8 people found this helpful

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Karen S

Not my style

Reviewed in the United States on March 24, 2020

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Recommended by a friend who enjoyed reading the book giving it a 5 Star rating with thoughts I would enjoy it also. I do enjoy light, mystery crime stories laced with humorist language along with surprise endings. Although there were many cute humorous quotes & a hard to predict ending, the actual story line did not blend well with them. I found it more disturbing with graphic description of harm. There were many times I felt fearful more than appreciating the funny witty parts of the characters. Just not my style of a read.

4 people found this helpful

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