Review - One for the Money by Janet Evanovich

Title: One for the Money
Stephanie Plum series #1
Author: Janet Evanovich
Publish Date: June 13, 2006
Publisher: St Martin's
Paperback, 320 pages

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I walked by this book at work so many times and never even picked it up, then it showed up on our New in Paperback table with Katherine Heigl's picture on it and I stopped in my tracks. WHAT?! A movie of hers I had missed? That's crazy talk. When I looked up the movie, I realized it hadn't come out yet. I was on a mission to read the book before the movie comes out. I plan on seeing that movie.
I was so pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed these books. Granted, I did picture the ever exciting and funny Heigl as the actor in this role, but it is written so funny. Stephanie is the main character. A woman who is losing her life. She is out of a job, can't pay her rent or bills. She takes a job as a bounty hunter - just some easy grabs til she can get back on her feet. Unfortunately, she is the most unpredictable woman who ends up accidentally falling in to the wrong places at the wrong time. She meets horrible men who despise women, especially women who are as self supportive as she is. I find myself laughing out loud, struggling to control the grin spreading across my face. Janet Evanovich has done a spectacular job bringing Stephanie Plum to life.

Check out the Movie Trailer -


Summary -
Read the Dynamite Blockbuster that Started It All!

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 resort 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.

Review - The Dispatcher by

Title: The Dispatcher
Author: Ryan David Jahn
Publish Date: Dec 27, 2011
Publisher: Penguin

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I was at work, this book popped on the coutner and I immediately stopped what I was doing and read the back and the front of the book. It sounded so fabulous! What could be more of a page turner than a phone dispatcher getting the call from her daughter that disappeared seven years ago?

I hate to say it, but I should have put the book down after the first chapter. It was the most gruesome, bloody, gore-filled book I have read in a long time. I tried so hard to like this book. Heck, I read the whole thing, but so many times I got lost in the man using an axe to cut off another guy's toe or the man who uses his fist to shut up women.

But hey, to each their own. Feel free to let me know if you like this book. The reviews at B&N are 5 stars, so what do I know.

Summary -

Ian Hunt is the police dispatcher for the small town of Bulls Mouth, East Texas. Just as his shift is ending he gets a call from his fourteen-year-old daughter, Maggie.

Maggie, who has just been declared dead, having been snatched from her bedroom seven years ago. Her call ends in a scream.

The trail leads to a local couple, but this is just the start of his battle to get his daughter back. What follows is a bullet-strewn cross-country chase along Interstate 10, from Texas to California.

The riveting new novel from the acclaimed author of Acts of Violence and Low Life is a brilliantly original, blood drenched thriller, about the lengths a man will go to for his daughter.

Wordless Wednesday - Homemade Pizza

Homemade pizza dough with cheese, canadian bacon and pineapples.

Wordless Wednesday

Review - Scored by Lauren McLaughlin

Title: Scored
Author: Lauren McLaughlin
Publisher: Random House
Publish Date: Oct 25, 2011
Hardcover, 240 pages

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This book was so awesome!! I loved every minute of it. It was so cool the way it referenced the utopian books from my high school days like 1984 and Brave New World as if the new dystopian is the old utopian. It was a quick read, but very entertaining.

What would your score be if you were ranked according to the company you hold, the decisions you make and all of it was big brother caught on tape. There are kids who are scored and those who are not, those who are not will never get in to college, get a good job or live a life of stature. Those being scored can use everything to get a better score, even use each other's failings to gain more points. What if you could save someone, but hurt your score in the process, would you risk it all? What if your best friend made a decision that plummeted your score, would you disown them?

Summary -
Set in the future when teenagers are monitored via camera and their recorded actions and confessions plugged into a computer program that determines their ability to succeed. All kids given a "score" that determines their future potential. This score has the ability to get kids into colleges, grant scholarships, or destroy all hope for the above. Scored's reluctant heroine is Imani, a girl whose high score is brought down when her best friend's score plummets. Where do you draw the line between doing what feels morally right and what can mean your future? Friendship, romance, loyalty, family, human connection and human value: all are questioned in this fresh and compelling dystopian novel set in the scarily forseeable future.