Stephanie Plum is the sassy and feisty heroine in a series of Janet Evanovich novels following her adventures misadventures as a bond enforcement agent, or bounty hunter.  Recently having lost her job as a lingerie buyer, this plucky Jersey Girl must figure out how to come up with some cash, and turns to her dad’s cousin for work as a bounty hunter.  Clearly not well-suited to this dangerous work, she somehow has a keen instinct to know when she should dig deeper into a mystery surrounding an FTA, i.e. Failure to Appear.   Her first assignment is Joe Morelli, a vice cop seemingly turned killer who grew up in her neighborhood.  The two have a colorful history and clearly strained feelings exist, but she must do all she can to get her man.  With some help from Ricardo Carlos Manoso, otherwise known as Ranger, bounty hunter extraordinaire and mystery figure of male danger she lands herself in some rather dangerous situations along the way to getting to the bottom of things.

This series, which has a nineteenth book coming out, is funny, sexy, and lively.  Stephanie is a regular girl who takes a job as a bounty hunter out of need, and lands in deep water time and time again.  I have now read 6 books in the series and have enjoyed each of them.  They have funny characters, like Lula a former prostitute who ends up going along with Stephanie on some of her FTA missions as the series progresses.  Grandma Mazur is Stephanie’s funeral loving grandma, who seems as trouble prone as Stephanie.   Even “Big Blue”, a tank of a Buick Roadmaster that Stephanie endures driving after she continually loses cars fires, bombs, and garbage trucks becomes kind of iconic in her world.

The back and forth flirtations/relationships she has with Morelli and Ranger are endearing, because what girl wouldn’t love having two sexy guys in their life.  Watching her figure out her feelings as she goes after FTAs is amusing, because both men must continually keep her out of the trouble she seems to draw to her.  She isn’t a damsel-in-distress, but she is definitely a girl who attracts trouble, and the two men in her life have to endure a lo.

I find myself going back to this series for enjoyable, light reads, with a bit of adventure and romance mixed in.  Stephanie isn’t perfect, and that is what I love most.  She goes in, does her thing, and somehow manages to make it out in the end.  Her no holds barred approach is always amusing.  I plan to continue reading the series and see what trouble our fearless bounty hunter finds herself in next.  

K