I became acquainted with the Stephanie Plum series waaaaay back in high school during my junior year. A friend of mine lent me the first book, One for the Money, with the promise of a sexy love triangle and a laugh-out loud story line.
Being a somewhat prudish teenager and finding myself undeniably curious about reading something a little naughty, I couldn’t pass it up. At that time (and to this day, really), I was fully embracing my half Italian-American, Jersey (by association) roots, and that’s a huge theme throughout.
And Jersey Shore was hella relevant then too.
Not only is this series set in Trenton, New Jersey, but Stephanie Plum is a half Italian, half Hungarian Jersey girl, whose the epitome of a quirky, hot mess. In One for the Money, she finds herself entering her thirtieth year of life freshly divorced, unemployed, and lacking any fundamental talents or skills that could better her unfavorable circumstances.
Fortuitously, her cousin Vinny is in need of a bounty hunter for his bail bonds agency, and with no qualified personnel applying for the job, he resorts to hiring Stephanie. What she lacks in skill and finesse, she makes up for in dumb luck and humor.
In the first book we’re introduced to all the pivotal players that are featured through out the series: Joe Morreli, an Italian Stallion bad boy turned Trenton cop, whose on-again, off-again romance with Stephanie leaves the readers simultaneously weak in the knees and frustrated with their inability to commit. Ranger, a sexy Cuban American, former special ops agent, turned bounty hunter, who Stephanie finds herself in multiple compromising positions with. Lula, a Trenton hoe/sidekick to Stephanie, who struts her doughnut and Cluck-in-a-Bucket lovin’ stuff in brightly colored and bedazzled spandex, with a Glock to accessorize. And my all time favorite character/personal role model, Grandma Mazur. Spunky, sprightly and spicy, the reader can always count on Grandma Mazur for a sexual innuendo, scandalous story and all the hot gossip in town.
Sassy AF.
All the books (25 in all, if you haven’t caught on to the title theme), follow the same basic plot line: crazy criminal skips court date, Stephanie’s assigned to apprehend them, she enlists the help of her trusty homegirl Lula, and sometimes her sexy sidepiece Ranger, she visits the funeral home with Grandma Mazur, eats plenty of doughnuts and pot roast, gets whatever vehicle she has blown up, has earthshattering sex with Morelli (and sometimes Ranger), and somehow manages to apprehend the bad guy.
And that’s that.
But honestly, there’s just something comforting and nostalgic about the predictability in all these story lines. I will never pass up a Stephanie Plum book because I love the characters and the easy plots. I recommend this series to anyone who enjoys a funny book with an uncomplicated cast of characters and messy situations they find themselves in.
This isn’t a review specifically about Look Alive Twenty-Five, but I can tell you this: This time, Stephanie finds herself managing a deli where all of her predecessors have mysteriously disappeared, leaving one shoe behind and Grandma Mazur leaves us with a crazy cliff-hanger.
If you’ve already hopped on the Plum Train, you’ll want to check this out.
If not, I recommend you start with One for the Money. You won’t be disappointed.
To check out the newest Stephanie Plum book, you can find it here:
For One for the Money, check out this link:
And for Two for the Dough:
Happy & healthy reading!
Alexis
