Two for the Dough by Janet Evanovich

Two for the Dough

By Janet Evanovich

Book Blurb:
Evanovich follows the fanfare which greeted her New Jersey bounty hunter character, Stephanie Plum, in One for the Money with a brand-new mystery. On a mission to bring in an errant felon--whose inadvertent shooting of his best friend has set off an all-out manhunt for gunrunners and illegal weapons--Stephanie is targeted for a nasty death by the most loathsome lunatic she's ever encountered.



Two for the Dough is an excellent follow up to the book One for the Money. If Janet’s writing didn’t get you hooked on Stephanie and her amateur Bounty Hunter antics the first time around, Two for the Dough will certainly seal the deal.

Book two gives you more. More time to get to know Grandma Mazur and fall in love with all her antics. Who doesn’t die of laughter when she is at the funeral parlour and accidentally pulls off the wax finger from the body and claims that it just “fell” off?

Two for the Dough also allows the readers to get more invested into the flirtatious relationship between Stephanie and Morelli.   It’s still too early into the relationship for the permanent “Cupcake” nickname as he calls her a few different names. Janet tends to write in such a way that you melt when Morelli displays his cocky confidence as he baits Stephanie with, “You want me” or calling her a liar when she boosts a big “No” to his advances.  There are just enough sweet moments with Morelli that hooks you. He may have the cocky Italian confidence but there are moments in the story where he is starting to show his true affection towards Stephanie.

Some of my favourite Morelli/Stephanie scenes in the entire series appear in this book.
The first is when Stephanie crashes into his car at the stakeout.  I could read that scene over and over again and it never gets old. I especially break out into laughter when Stephanie looks over and can see Ranger laughing in his car at that situation. When Stephanie helps Morelli lift his bumper into his back seat, and then the bumper stays there the entire story, cracks me up every time.

I also die of laughter when Stephanie falls from the fire escape and lands in dog poop. Again that scene involves Morelli and I love how the situation unfolds. That is one of the scenes where it becomes obvious just how much Morelli is falling for Stephanie.

Okay probably the best Morelli/ Stephanie scene ever is when she leaves him naked except for socks and a shirt out on the street. She drives back and gives him his gun and then takes off. I cheer for Stephanie in these situations because she is such a strong woman. I love her gump and adore that she left him there without a second thought. This strong womanly personality is what makes me love Stephanie in every single book.

Two for the Dough brings Lula back and I am so happy that Janet did that. Lula becomes one of my favourite characters later in the series so it was interesting to go back and read the books over and over again to remind myself her beginning scenes. I wish she was is book two more but since I know that she is much more later, I am okay with how slowly she was introduced.

Two for the Dough is also a bit early in the series for the mouthwatering Ranger. He is in the book so little. The little bit he is in the book, you are getting more of an impression about him. In my opinion at this stage Janet was still trying to figure out what to do with this character. Janet already changed my impression about Ranger from the first book to this book so he is still a growing character at this stage. BTW – I adore Ranger and I am a babe all the way.

There are other scenes in the book that I adore as well. We get introduced to Joyce Barhardt and I love to hate her right away. The scene in the beauty shop is another really good scene and when all the old ladies brag about their guns and pull them out of purses and bags, I kill myself with laughter. Everyone has a gun except Stephanie and she is the bounty hunter. I just love that!
As for the villains, great story line and it kept me guessing. I had my suspicions but loved the way it eventually played out. 

All and all, I just loved the book.  My favourite in the series is still Twelve Sharp but Two for the Dough is definitely in the top 5.