What is a Jersey girl?

"A love of an unpretentious good time, and a certain sense of style. Jersey girls are about attitude. They're about eating pizza, drinking beer, having great hair—and enjoying it all. She's got a mouth on her. She says what she means. And she's got a nice, cheerful laugh. Bottom line, all of them are sexy as hell" (from the Newark, NJ, Star Ledger, as published on UrbanDictionary.com).

That definition could have been written about bestselling, award-winning author Janet Evanovich, a Jersey girl who has won legions of fans with her quirky characters, fast-paced plots and snarky, west-of-the-Hudson wit.

Over the span of an almost twenty-year writing career, Evanovich has penned more than a dozen romance novels: the Barnaby and Hooker series; the nonfiction title How I Write; more than a half dozen collaborative novels; two graphic novels; and the light paranormal Wicked books, which feature a not-so-angelic hero in search of statues representing the Seven Deadly Sins, and a heroine who has the ability to detect magical charms.