BOOK REVIEW: 'One for the Money' by Janet Evanovich (no spoilers)

For 2021, I committed to participating in a read-athon with a 'Friends' theme (the TV show). You can read more about it on this post. Each month, there is a different theme (based on a quote/situation from Friends) for choosing a book to read. August's theme is: 

Ross: "PIVOT PIVOT PIVOT" - Read a funny book.

This one was hard for me, because I don't know that I've ever read a funny book (other than memoirs). I'm not a comedy person--I rarely watch comedic movies or sitcoms. I like drama and suspense! So I asked for suggestions on what to read for August, and this series by Janet Evanovich seemed to be popular (it's a large series based on a character named Stephanie Plum). Naturally, I read the first book in the series, 'One for the Money'. (Amazon affiliate link)

I feel like this was a good choice for the topic for me because it's a suspense novel with a lot of humor surrounding the protagonist. Not laugh-out-loud funny, but entertaining. She says a lot of one-liners and she gets in funny situations.

The basic storyline is that Stephanie finds herself out of a job and she literally has nothing to fall back on--she's even selling her appliances to a pawn shop to get enough money to get by while she tries to get a job. She hears about a bounty on a police officer who was involved in a shooting and then went missing. The reward is $10,000, and she thinks bounty hunting will be easy money.

She knows nothing about it, so a lot of the humor is when she's trying to learn the ins and outs of bounty hunting; mostly by learning the hard way.

Likes:

- The book was published in 1999, so it's kind of nostalgic to read about the 90's. That actually added to the humor of the book, albeit unintentionally.

- The protagonist was likable. I wanted to smack her several times for not exactly having common sense in certain situations, but she's still a fun character.

- The storyline was very easy to follow--no shifting timelines or characters (I actually really like books that shift around like that, like psychological thrillers, but not for this genre). For someone who just wants to read a straight-up entertaining story from beginning to end, this is that.

Dislikes:

- The story didn't draw me in to where I just wanted to keep reading. I had to struggle to want to read it. When reading, I enjoyed it and I can definitely see why others would, but I really prefer stories that make you want to stay up all night reading.

- The situations were extremely unrealistic. I can see that fitting with the comedic part of the book, though; the book wouldn't have been funny if it had been very realistic.

I think that's about it. It was a good choice for August's theme; I doubt I'll read any more of the series, but I'm glad I read this one.

September's Friends readathon theme is:

"The One with the Football" - Read a sports themed book.

I've actually had this one picked out for several months--I'm going to read "The Running Dream" by Wendelin Van Draanen (Amazon affiliate link). I bought this book for a quarter at Salvation Army years ago and for some reason I held on to it. Now that I'm used to reading on my Kindle Paperwhite, however, I am just going to borrow the Kindle version from the library.

Here is the description from the publisher:

Jessica thinks her life is over when she loses a leg in a car accident. She's not comforted by the news that she'll be able to walk with the help of a prosthetic leg. Who cares about walking when you live to run?

As she struggles to cope with crutches and a first cyborg-like prosthetic, Jessica feels oddly both in the spotlight and invisible. People who don't know what to say, act like she's not there. Which she could handle better if she weren't now keenly aware that she'd done the same thing herself to a girl with CP named Rosa. A girl who is going to tutor her through all the math she's missed. A girl who sees right into the heart of her.

With the support of family, friends, a coach, and her track teammates, Jessica may actually be able to run again. But that's not enough for her now. She doesn't just want to cross finish lines herself - she wants to take Rosa with her.

 It sounds like it will be light and kind of fluffy (a "feel good" book) and sometimes I'm in the mood for those. It's a young adult book and looks like it will be a fairly quick read. As soon as I finish my current book, I'm going to start on it!