New Jersey Books

Zagat continues to give consistent, excellent recommendations. Top-rated restaurants are right on target with outstanding food, service, and atmosphere

If it was not for this annual publication, I would not have been exposed to some of what I believe to be the best restaurants in New Jersey.

This book is must for leisure travelers and business travelers conducting business in New Jersey, New York City and Philadelphia

this book was the best of them all. it told me a lot about resturants. i was acclutly pretty suprprised a bout it. i thought that it woul be a piece of junk but no i was wrong very wrong. I highly recomend it if you live in the area. ....

I love all the books in the Stephanie Plum series, but meeting Grandma Mazur (and especially Grandma's gun!) just had me laughing out loud. This is the one I revisit most often, and one of my favorite mysteries of all times.

Being a male, I am sure that I am not a member of Janet Evanovich's target audience. After reading her book titled How I Write I became curious about her fiction and gave this one a try. Reading this book was a great joy. Stephanie Plum is a lovable character who is down on her luck financially. She cons her uncle into letting her work in his bail bond office as a bounty hunter. Evanovich pulls no punches on Stephanie as she enters this tough world. The novel realistically presents the challenges faced by a woman in this brutal line of work. While things are not too easy for Stephanie, she takes it all in stride and displays a sense of humor that makes the story all the more enjoyable. There are romantic elements as well, since the person she is after for skipping out on his bail was someone that had seduced her when she was younger and then left for the military. If you enjoy action-adventure mysteries that are sprinkled with romantic tension, give this one a try. And if you are a guy, don't let the pastel colors on the cover turn you away. That being said, if Janet re-marketed her books with a little more hard-boiled packaging she may reach a whole new audience.

So i finally decided to read a Stephanie Plum book. I read a few of Janets re-published romance books and enjoyed those. Steph is pretty funny with alot of spunk but liked that she was a little scared at the same time. There were a few disturbing things in the book that i'm not use to reading like violence scenes, but that's ok. I got alot of catching up to do to get threw this whole series but should be fun.

Book 1 of course shows how it all began. How Stephanie comes to be a bounty hunter. And of course the first big job she gets is Joseph Morelli (yum), who she'll get $10,000 for bringing in. She runs into him about 4 or 5 different times without being able to bring him in. If the other bounty hunter found Joe that easy, he'd be behind bars. But Stephanie is a little wet behind the ears, and Morelli keeps rescuing her from stuff. Between you and me, even though he's a skirt chaser, I think he's got a little soft spot for her. They used to play train together in his basement when they were little kids. (And no, I'm not going to go into the finer details of what that is here.)

And then of course there was the time when they were teenagers when they had sex on the floor of a bakery behind the eclair case. hehe. One of my friends loves Ranger, and I know I haven't seen a lot of him in action yet...but I really have a soft spot for Morelli. And at this point I really want her with Morelli. He's gonna have to do something really stupid like Bill in the Sookie Stackhouse series.

The girl who recommended this series to me has really good taste in heroes, and likes Ranger, but I'm just not seeing it yet. Of course I'm told the Ranger storyline doesn't really heat up until much later. We shall see. I guess Morelli could screw it up by getting into her pants again and treating it like just another conquest. That would strike him out of the running.

He's got a prior history of that. But he's just so charming and so...Italian. Yum.

This was my first evanovich book and it was soooo much fun!!! True summer reading! I do not generally read mass market books and am I happy I did. No deep thinking, reflecting, understanding characters here. Just pure reading fun . Fast, enjoyable, a great read.

i love these books, something people can relate to and read over and over again.

Jessica 'Notso' Darling is the witty, satirical narrator of this epistolary novel. Through a series of journal entries and wistful emails to her long distance BFF, we learn about Jessica's trials & tribulations as a high school student. From being labeled a 'brainiac', being the subject of a tell-all expose, and dashing her father's dreams of an Olympic athelete, Megan McCafferty tackles all of the teenage angst that some of us have experienced and others of us are just buckling into the seat on the rollercoaster.

McCafferty has three more books in the Jessica Darling series, and I can't wait to see what's in store for her next!

I'm sixteen years old and I could totally relate to this book. I liked it A LOT. Some of the jokes, however, were a little over my head. But I love the writing style of Megan McCafferty, the author.

This book is about a sixteen year old girl who lives in Pineville, New Jersey. Her best friend moves away and she becomes angry. She deals with her angst by running and talking to Marcus Flutie. This book is written in diary format, but reads like a regular first person novel.

Jessica Darling is every teenage girl. I am a 30 year old woman I really related to her. This is a great book and a great start to a fantastic series. Great book for teen girls and their moms!

I really enjoyed this book. As someone who felt the same way that Jessica Darling felt in high school, I could completely relate to the disdain that she feels towards her classmates. The book was well-written and truly reflective of what teenagers are like and what it is like to be a teenager who does not blindly accept that high school is the best time of your life. I found myself practically hysterical with laughter at various parts. I am reading Second Helpings now as I can't seem to get enough of Jessica Darling's exploits!

I first discovered Stephanie and her crazy friends and family in book eleven and fell in love. When I realized it was part of a series I broke open my piggy bank to get the rest of them. I just finished "Hot Six" and while the charecters aren't as full out nutty as they become by book eleven, they are developing very nicely. The fixes Steph gets into are pretty predictable in "Six" but good fun none-the-less. Steph is fun to hang out with on a warm summer day at the beach or a cold winter evening in front of a fire. My piggy bank gave up it's contents for a smart investment.

Deep into the series, it is still going strong. As always Stephanie is likable in her hapless way, and you find yourself rooting for her, and not being surprised when she survives impossible situations.

The story equals any of the previous books, except perhaps for the first. Moving Ranger form ally to ally/skip was a great idea. While I love the Mazur character, her sub-plot was a little un-interesting. This however doesn't greatly take away from the overall story.

Thank you so much. The CD came before the anticipated date and it was in great condition.

I have truly enjoyed this series of books! Even reading them out of order is fine! Would buy more books from this author.

ok, I admit it, I am hooked on Janet Evanovich's books. Her style, her characters, even if the story is not always deeply intricate (whose is?), I find myself engaged, and hoping I don't finish the book too soon.
Can't wait to read more!!
Ramona

This is fifth book in the Stephanie Plum series and in this one, everyone's favourite bounty hunter is taking care of some family problems. Uncle Fred is missing and Stephanie's family enlists her for help. She is reluctant at first, but eventually gives in.

But a girl needs some money. And since the only FTA (failure to appear for a court date) is Randy Briggs, who is she is having a little bit of trouble obtaining. Stephanie ends up doing some work for her mentor Ranger. This involves taking care of some unwanted tenants, to driving a horny 15 year old to and from the airport.

In the course of the book; Stephanie will have her car blown up, a wedding to attend too, and more people will end up dead, all of them linked with the disappearance of Uncle Fred.

This is my first time anything by Janet Evanovich, but I don't think this will be my last. High Five was a fun novel with a great set of characters. Evanovich did a great job developing and giving life to her character, even the minor ones. Which is good, but I found that sometimes the minor characters out shined Stephanie. She's a good character, but there were times where I wanted to hear more from the others instead of her.

The only time where I felt that reading the previous novels would have helped, is in regards to the love triangle. I like the character of Ranger, he was mysterious and hot, but he just gave cars to Stephanie and most of the time she was thinking about Joe Morelli. So it didn't really seem like a proper love triangle, especially since most of the time, it seemed like Stephanie only wanted Ranger when she thought Joe was cheating on her.

One of the highlights, but also one of the disappointments was when Benito Ramirez was brought back. I have no idea which book he was in, all I know is that he's a crazy mofo who is scary.


When he showed up, it made me want to read the previous novels and find out why he is so scary. The book mentioned what he did to Lulu and a little bit of what he did, but not a lot to really make me know why he's so scary.

Stephanie does ends up having more encounters with him, which is a great way to bring an element of fear. My only disappointment was the way things ended with him, it made his purpose in the novel almost redundant. If he wasn't in the novel, I don't think the plot would have been affected at all. He made me want to read the other novels, but at the end of the day what exactly was his purpose in the book?

Overall, this was a fun, light novel and I now know why Evanovich is such a success. While I did have some problems, I did enjoy this novel very much. Make sure you check it out.

3.5/5

The book is used and you'd never know it. Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series is the best. Can't wait to read the next one.

I'm in love with this series and have read the first four books on my kindle - now I'm addicted and the next few books aren't available in kindle version - WHAT's up Amazon??

I absolutely love this book and the whole Stephanie plum series!! I never actually knew about the series till maybe a month or two ago but once I picked up that first book and started reading I found myself going back to the bookstore for two and three. Now I am up to the sixth book and I cant wait for the next one. I love the characters...crazy grandma muzur, butt-kickin ex-hooker and two hot sexy men to sit along side the greatest character the not so together funny as hell Stephanie Plum. its mystery, love interest, crazy antics and danger. you cannot go wrong with these books Evanovich is a gifted woman, each book makes me want more and more I just hope I dont run out of books before the next one comes out. I definetely recommend these books they are so worth the time and money.

Stephanie Plum is a bounty hunter. Ummm...a Bail Enforcement Agent. And she works for her cousin Vinnie bringing in people that skip out on bail. Trouble is, business is a little slow and the rent is due. Enter Ranger, the Superman of Bounty Hunters. He handles all the really big, dangerous criminals and when he's not out catching bad guys, he's doing other odd jobs, mostly legal and sometimes moral. He lets Steph join the group, which includes guys with names like Tank. The jobs range from "interior decorating" (security) to chauferring a shiek. And Ranger even gives her a snazzy Porsche to use as a "company" car.

Then Steph's Uncle Fred disappears and her family wants her to look into the case. But when she starts digging into Fred's things, she finds pictures of a dead body....or at least the body parts. And what does all this have to do with the problems Fred has had with the garbage company....the errand he was running when he suddenly went missing??

What can I say?? I need to read something light and funny. And High Five was certainly all that. There is just no getting around laughing at the things Stephanie gets herself mixed up in. With a cast of characters that grows longer with each book, Evanovich weaves a good mystery with lots of fun. And sexual tension. The ever-present debate over who Stephanie should end up with is big talk among Plum fans. Should it be Morelli, the sexy cop with the smoldering looks that Stephanie has know all her life? Or should it be Ranger, the dark, dangerous bounty hunter that is gorgeous and built for speed?? For the first four books, I've been solidly in the Morelli camp. But Book 5, stepped up Ranger's interest....and I have to say I may be wavering a little!!

If you are looking for some fun, light reading, this is definitely the series for you. Now that I've finished High Five, I may have Plum Fever again. I definitely can't wait to see what trouble Stephanie can get into next!!

A very interesting book for those interested in Diving, Underwater Salvage and WWII history. Language can get a bit raw at times, but it is expected with this type of environment. In all, I really enjoyed reading it.

The best work of non-fiction I've read in the past 5 years. Shadow Divers is compelling on so many levels--as a biography of men who risk their lives as wreck divers, as a look into the perils of deep wreck diving, and for the history of WWII and the German U-boat fleet. Kurson combines all of these elements to tell a gripping story/mystery that keeps you looking for answers until the end. An absolutely incredible story and masterfully told by Kurson. His journalistic instincts and writing style yield insight into the lives of the divers and why they do what they do. Highly reccomended.

Intense drama from not only the diving but the relationships between the divers. It was a bold move to include quite a bit of personal information about John and Richie's family life in the book but I felt more compassionate about them and liked them more as people. The reader went on a journey along with the divers and I felt myself holding my breath often during many of the dive sequences. This book had enough diving for the divers and history for the historians but also the drama and real story telling that you expect from a novel.

Great book, well written with exception to the beginning. The first two chapters were excruciating. The rest of the book was a great and gripping story. A real page turner.

Real life adventure at its thrilling best. This is a true tale of riveting adventure in which two weekend scuba divers risk everything to solve a great historical mystery and make history themselves.

There are few authors who continue to provide strong plots and great, long lasting characters after their first few novels. Fortunately for fans, Janet Evanovich knows how to deliver. Stephanie Plum, Jersey's wild and outrageous bounty hunter returns in the ninth novel of the series strong as ever. Once again Stephanie partners with Ranger, the secretive and sexual bounty hunter superstar to find Samuel Singh. Singh has disappeared and the chase to find him lands Stephanie in the middle of a dangerous and sinister game. With bodies piling up and startling e-mails appearing on her computer, Stephanie is caught between two protective men in her life. Ranger sends his mysteriously, muscle clad men to protect her while she seeks refuge in the home of Trenton cop Joe Morelli, also her current boyfriend. On top of everything crazy that makes up her life, her sister Valerie is ready to deliver a baby and Stephanie can not get her own biological clock to stop ticking. To the Nines take Stephanie, LuLu and Connie from Jersey to Vegas and back again in this spectacular book. Janet Evanovich's writing will leave your stomach muscles tightened from laughing out loud and you will find yourself panting and flushed from the sensual encounters between the two leading men. On top of that, you will enjoy a suspenseful mystery that will keep the pages turning and the night-light on. High praises for To the Nines.
Valerie Jones
mrsvaljones@netzero.net

This was another great book in the series. I read 1-10 in about 2 weeks. There are a great read w/action, mystery, comedy and a little romance. A great book.

I must first explain that this is my first Evanovich novel, so I had no expectations! I did like the fact that the book was a quick and easy read, and I didn't really have to think. The story was interesting and evolved into more than I initially anticipated. And there were frankly parts of the story where I laughed out loud (hint: dinner scene and conversation between future brother-in-law and grandmother).

Stepahnie Plum is a sassy bounty hunter who is trying desperately to locate Samuel Singh, a computer nerd who has skipped bail for her Boss, who fears that he will lose everything if he doesn't get him back. Following several clues and having many misadventures, a seemingly simple case has evolved into one that involved serial killings and a game, where Stephanie may be the ultimate prize. There are a host of very interesting characters, from Stephanie's pregnant sister Valarie (who refuses to marry the father of her baby); her elderly grandmother (who is overly concerned with her hair); her present boyfriend (Joe Morelli, who is a cop and who swears she will be the death of him); her partners, Ranger (ex-special forces/scary guy/hot ex-lover), and Lula (overweight ex-prostitute whose ultimate goal is to have the body of a supermodel by eating only meat); Vinnie (her cousin and Boss); and a very unstable killer.

Overall, I enjoyed this novel and probably would read another installment so that I could find out what ever becomes of the love triangle between Plum, Morelli and Ranger.

I listened to Loralei King narrate the audio version of this story. I thought CJ Critt was the best narrator for the Plum stories, but King does an amazing job with the voices and accents too. Great story that moves along quickly. Some very funny scenes, especially with Lula on her diet. Also some good scenes with yummy Morelli and Ranger. You can't go wrong with this series - very entertaining!

another fantastic stephanie adventure. these books get funnier and funnier. i am totally in love with Ranger and this book doesn't damper the feeling

This is the fourth book in the Stephanie Plum series. I really like Morelli, but I know either he's about to do something stupid in the next book or two, or Ranger is about to do something droolworthy, because aliances are about to shift. (Hey, I was spoiled, you get spoiled too. Though I don't really know enough to spoil anyone.)

The only thing I don't like about the Stephanie Plum series is all the running around looking for people. I get that's what bounty hunters do, but there's something about writing it all out instead of showing it on a big screen or something that makes it feel less exciting and less glamorous. I would make a horrible bounty hunter. I'm way too impatient to sit around and do surveillance. And run all over Hell's half acre asking people questions like a census taker.

This series is still an incredibly entertaining read though, and one of my good friends tells me, it gets VERY hot very soon with Ranger. I can't wait!

This is a fun and entertaining book to listen to. It is the story of Stefhanie Plum an unlikely bounty hunter in New Jersey. She is smart and sassy and always getting into trouble or finding dead bodies.

This book is just as much fun as the first three, maybe more,and I found myself laughing out loud more than a few times. Not only are the laughs taken to a new high, but so too are the language and sex. A definite uptick from the first three, but the emphasis remains on the mystery and the fun. A definite fun read and I'll be back for more.

I love the Stephanie Plum series of novels. I really hate reading so I purchase them both in audio for me and paperback for houseguests and friends. I'm drawn in with the excitment and adventure of the story that Janet seems to capture in every novel. It has twists, turns, Lula, mystery, wonder, and of course two very "HOT" men! Who wouldn't want a mix of both men. :} I would recommend the "Plum" series, her "Full" series, as well as her earlier novels of mixed titles. They're all great fun and keep you as a reader at the edge of your seat waiting to see if a cars going to get blown up, who's died this week, who attends the pot roast dinner, who she sleeps with next, what will burn down next, and will she get her man (love or bounty). I hope you enjoy them as much as I have. I look forward to #14 in the "Plum" series, the next "Full" novel, and the new novel Janet recently wrote with a new author being released this October. Thank you!

This one seemed to drag a bit for me. Even though Morelli was hotter than ever, the whole storyline was a bit slow.

This time out Stephanie is tracking Maxine Nowicki, who's wanted for skipping out on a car-theft charge. But of course that is not the whole story and in walks the usual cast of crazies that usually inhabit Stephanie's life. Sally Sweet, a cross dressing drag queen, Sugar his kinda roommate, the wonderful Lula, hot Joe Morelli, the very mysterious Ranger, the pot selling vegetable guy, Grandma Mazur and Joyce who just never seems to disappear.

Of course apartments are firebombed and of course another car is torched, but hey, this is Stephanie Plum and these things happen.

The romance, or whatever you would call it, heats up between Stephanie and Joe is what kept me reading this book. Their "relationship" was more interesting than the mystery, if that is what you would call it.