FINLAY DONOVAN CROSSES THE LINE

Romance novelist Finlay Donovan, who’s never met a line she wouldn’t cross, crosses several new ones in her attempt to prove her nanny/best friend’s innocence of theft.

The good news is that Veronica Ramirez isn’t in jail despite the evidence against her of pocketing the substantial profits from her college sorority Kappa Gamma’s weekly succession of illegal gambling nights. The bad news begins with the fact that she’s under house arrest in the custody of her mother, Norma, who vociferously disapproves of Vero’s unplanned Atlantic City wedding to her boyfriend, Javi. Then there’s the fact that her sorority sisters, headed by former president and recent graduate Mia and current vice president Ava, have closed ranks in giving damning evidence against her. No wonder Vero and Norma have been the recipients of an unrelenting barrage of anonymous and often disgusting threats. Oh, and don’t forget that small-time bookie Theo Sideris, Vero’s alibi witness because they were sharing a bed at the time, has gone AWOL. Searching for him in a frantic attempt to clear Vero’s name ends up implicating virtually every other member of the cast in one crime or another and pretty much guarantees that by the time the charge of theft against Vero has finally been dismissed, she and Finn will have plenty of other brand-new charges to contend with. Fans of Cosimano’s overcaffeinated franchise can only pray that Finn will return safely to the arms of her own improbable lover, police detective Nick Anthony, so that she can concentrate on supplying her agent, Sylvia Barr, with steamy chapters of her new novel.

What provisions of the law are left for the heroine to breach in the next outrageous installment? Readers can only guess.