Once Upon a Bookshelf

One for the Money is the first book in a mystery series, written by Janet Evanovich. After being out of work for a long period of time, Stephanie Plum somehow manages to stumble into a job as a bounty hunter. The first person she’s supposed to bring in also happens to be a man who grew up around the corner from her, giving her all sorts of trouble as a child and teen.

Okay. People have been at me for years to read this book, and I have had absolutely no desire to. No desire at all. Mysteries aren’t my thing, and I already have a couple of fluff authors that I tend to stick to. However, as I said, certain people have been at me for years to read this, and I can only put things off for so long.

When I started this book, I figured that when I was finished, I could say that I had attempted the series, didn’t enjoy it, and be done with it. Boy was I wrong.

I started it two days ago, didn’t get any work done, and finished it last night after school. It didn’t feel like a page turner, I didn’t need to know how the book ended, I just didn’t realize that I was reading it quite so fast. It was also very funny, and when Stephanie wasn’t annoying me (and oh how she annoyed me at times!), I found her quite endearing.

I wasn’t surprised about the ending at all, but the book wasn’t really about figuring out who killed who, but more about the main characters themselves.

And now that I’m finished the first book, will I continue with the rest of the series? Part of me can’t wait to get my hands on the second book, while the rest of me knows that if I get my hands on it, I won’t be reading anything other than this series for the next month or so.

I’m sure I’m like a number of other people around the web who have been eagerly anticipating this book for many months now. In fact, I was looking forward to it so much that I couldn’t wait until it was published here in North America to get my hands on it, and had it shipped here from the UK.

Like most people who had been awaiting this book, I stumbled upon Movies in Fifteen Minutes at Cleolinda Jones’ LJ Community, where she parodied a number of movies that I absolutely adored. That’s the thing with her parodies - you can tell that she loves the movies, and the way she writes about them is exactly what we are thinking while we’re watching the movie, without even realizing that we’re thinking it at the time.

As I mentioned, this book parodies movies - 10 blockbusters, to be exact, including (but not limited to) Titanic, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and Lord of the Rings (yes, all three of the LotR trilogy).

It was a perfect book for reading on the bus, as it kept me awake and made me feel like my half hour bus ride was only about 5 minutes. I’m sure there were a number of people who turned to look at me when I would start giggling, but you can’t really help it at times.

This will be a book that I go back to time and again just to read certain parts of certain movies when I’m in the need of a good laugh.

Of course, she gets extra cool points because she mentions Horatio Hornblower in the Titanic one. Extra cool points there. (Not that I’m biased or anything. Nope. Not at all.)