REVIEW: Knock Off by Rhonda Pollero

Title: Knock Off (Finley Anderson Tanner #1)
Author: Rhonda Pollero
Publisher: Kensington
Publication Date: February, 2008
Paperback: 320 pages
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Rating: 10/10

Description: Meet Finley Anderson Tanner. FAT to her enemies. A West Palm Beach paralegal, who hates the gym, still rents her condo and loves two hour lunches with her friends. But what really gets Finley hot is hunting down deeply discounted designer goods she can wear at her upscale law firm.

Too bad work isn't all about fashion. Especially when a grieving widow is sitting in your office, convinced that her husband's accidental death wasn't. Investigating murder isn't really Finley's bag (that would be Prada, 75% off), but the deeper Finley digs, the stranger things get, and this discount shopper knows slightly irregular when she sees it. Kind of like sexy Liam McGarrity. Everything about the hot, hunky P.I. screams, "Get out while you still have your underwear!"

For a girl whose biggest ambition is take-out Moo Shu at 5:01, life is taking some exciting, unpredictable, and decidedly dangerous turns. Someone doesn't like Finley's new work ethic. And if this paralegal wants to bring home the real goods, she'll have to keep from becoming a killer's total knock off...

My Thoughts: An important thing you need to know about me when it comes to reading is I don’t read very fast and am not like some of my book buddies out there (you know who you are) that read hundreds of books a year. The next thing you need to know about me is I read this book in 2 DAYS!!! I could not put this book down, literally. You’re probably saying “you’re kidding.” I kid you not. Everywhere I went, I had this book with me reading, watching television, making dinner, sitting on the toilet…this was not one of those stories that I would pick up and read a paragraph or a page and be able to put it down. This book made me miss my program, burn dinner and cause pins and needles in my legs from lack of circulation! But it was so worth it!

When we first meet Finley, she is working as a paralegal for a firm handling estates and trusts. She gets pulled into a murder case when she inherits a client whose husband died and the client is convinced it wasn’t an accident. The client is very overbearing but Finley begins to look into her husband’s case. Finley isn’t your stereotypical airhead and she quickly learns that things about her client’s husband’s death aren’t adding up.

I really liked Finley. She’s not afraid of getting a little dirty and even receiving death threats don’t deter her from digging. Not having any murder investigation background at all, she manages to put her paralegal education to good use and begins researching. I was impressed at how tenacious she was since the client was a real pill.

Liam McGarrity is everything Finley’s not. He’s a former police officer who is carrying some secrets and it will be interesting to see how long before he opens up. Finley is convinced he has a wife, possibly an ex wife, that he is still sleeping with so I expect she will be digging into that scenario at some point.

There’s major attraction chemistry going on with Finley and Liam. I’m looking forward to seeing where that goes. Finley has a very difficult mother and their relationship is tense at best so I am curious to see how Finley responds to her mother’s criticism. Finley is in a relationship that the reader understands very explicitly is not the exciting love fest that Finley craves. It will be interesting to see if Finley stays with him in the second book. I have to admire Finley that though her relationship isn’t what she is hoping for and she is feeling major attraction vibes for Liam, Finley doesn’t jump into bed with him. I’m strongly hoping that the relationship issue gets resolved soon because Liam is yummy.

The plot moves forward at a great pace and the identity of the killer came as a surprise but not a shock. This is a great start to what I hope will be a very entertaining series. I am looking forward to seeing what Finley gets into next.