Book Review: Finlay Donovan Knocks ‘Em Dead

Finlay Donovan Knocks ‘Em Dead by Elle Cosimano 🎧

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️5/5 Star Rating

The Summary:

Finlay Donovan is―once again―struggling to finish her next novel and keep her head above water as a single mother of two. On the bright side, she has her live-in nanny and confidant Vero to rely on, and the only dead body she's dealt with lately is that of her daughter's pet goldfish.

On the not-so-bright side, someone out there wants her ex-husband, Steven, out of the picture. Permanently. Whatever else Steven may be, he's a good father, but saving him will send her down a rabbit hole of hit-women disguised as soccer moms, and a little bit more involvement with the Russian mob than she'd like.

Meanwhile, Vero's keeping secrets, and Detective Nick Anthony seems determined to get back into her life. He may be a hot cop, but Finlay's first priority is preventing her family from sleeping with the fishes... and if that means bending a few laws then so be it.

With her next book's deadline looming and an ex-husband to keep alive, Finlay is quickly coming to the end of her rope. She can only hope there isn't a noose at the end of it...

📚🕶

Oh, Elle Cosimano, you clever woman! Where is the petition I sign to guarantee at least a dozen books in the Finlay Donovan series? I just never want it to end!  Now, buckle upas I proceed to gush about this book.

🤷🏻‍♀️

WOW, so full disclosure, I did not really expect this follow up to Finlay Donovan Is Killing It to be quite as good as its predecessor. I mean, how often does an author publish a single perfect, genre bending novel in her lifetime - let alone TWO of them?! I have never been so happy to say I was wrong! Finlay Donovan Knocks Em Dead is just as great as - dare I say even better than - the first book! Seriously, I can't even apologize for all of the exclamation points in this review because how else will I convey MY UNDYING LOVE FOR THIS BOOK?!

🕵🏻‍♀️💻

As with the first Finlay Donovan novel, Cosimano delivers a hilarious contemporary murder mystery with enough suspense and romance to keep any reader enthralled. I listened to the audiobook and have to give narrator Angela Dawe all the heart eyes for a job brilliantly done. Thank you Elle Cosimano for knockin’ us dead with this incredibly entertaining book and added thanks to you, NetGalley & Macmillan Audio for a free audio ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Book Review: Finlay Donovan Is Killing It

Finlay Donovan Is Killing It by Elle Cosimano 🎧

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️5/5 Star Rating

The Summary:

Finlay Donovan is killing it... except, she's really not. She's a stressed-out single-mom of two and struggling novelist, Finlay's life is in chaos: the new book she promised her literary agent isn't written, her ex-husband fired the nanny without telling her, and this morning she had to send her four-year-old to school with hair duct-taped to her head after an incident with scissors.

When Finlay is overheard discussing the plot of her new suspense novel with her agent over lunch, she's mistaken for a contract killer, and inadvertently accepts an offer to dispose of a problem husband in order to make ends meet... Soon, Finlay discovers that crime in real life is a lot more difficult than its fictional counterpart, as she becomes tangled in a real-life murder investigation.

 📚💻🕶

Finlay Donovan might not actually be killing it, but author Elle Cosimano most certainly is! This book was wildly entertaining, y’all. I’d file this under contemporary murder mystery comedic thriller with a hint of romance. If you’re anything like me, you never even knew you needed a book that hits on all of those genres at the same time - but, believe me, you do!

As if the brilliant execution of this book wasn’t enough, I’ve finished it just in time for the sequel! Elle Cosimano’s follow up to this hilarious book, Finlay Donovan Knocks ‘Em Dead, was just published on February 1st.  I recommend you binge read these two back to back because when I reached the end of this story, I was not ready to say goodbye to Finlay, unlikely heroine that she may be. 

😂

Book Review: A Flicker in the Dark

A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham 🎧

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5/5 Star Rating

The Summary:

When Chloe Davis was twelve, six teenage girls went missing in her small Louisiana town. By the end of the summer, her own father had confessed to the crimes and was put away for life, leaving Chloe and the rest of her family to grapple with the truth and try to move forward while dealing with the aftermath.

Now twenty years later, Chloe is a psychologist in Baton Rouge and getting ready for her wedding. While she finally has a fragile grasp on the happiness she’s worked so hard to achieve, she sometimes feels as out of control of her own life as the troubled teens who are her patients. So when a local teenage girl goes missing, and then another, that terrifying summer comes crashing back. Is she paranoid, seeing parallels from her past that aren't actually there, or for the second time in her life, is Chloe about to unmask a killer?

😱 I… I just. 😱

To debut author Stacy Willingham, I just have to say: BRA-VO!

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

This book was a beautifully crafted psychological thriller. The story is told to us from the point of view of a convicted serial killer’s daughter who self medicates for the post traumatic stress she still suffers from, 20 years after her father’s arrest.  Needless to say, Chloe was a hot mess even before we realize there’s a copycat killer on the prowl.

😬

There are many twists and turns as the mystery unfolds - my head is still spinning- and I loved every second of it.  I must confess that I had confidently sussed out the killer twice (so I thought) but Willingham spins such an intricate web that I was nowhere near to solving the puzzle.  With such an impressive debut, I will be watching this author closely, impatiently awaiting her next novel.

🤗🤗🤗

Do yourself a favor and get your hands on a copy of this book right now!

Thank you 🙏🏻 to the author along with MacMillan Audio and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review. 💜

 

Book Review: The Christie Affair

The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont 🎧

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5 Star Rating 

The Summary:

Every story has its secrets.

Every mystery has its motives.

“A long time ago, in another country, I nearly killed a woman. It’s a particular feeling, the urge to murder. It takes over your body so completely, it’s like a divine force, grabbing hold of your will, your limbs, your psyche. There’s a joy to it. In retrospect, it’s frightening, but I daresay in the moment it feels sweet. The way justice feels sweet.” 

The greatest mystery wasn’t Agatha Christie’s disappearance in those eleven infamous days, it’s what she discovered. 

London, 1925: In a world of townhomes and tennis matches, socialites and shooting parties, Miss Nan O’Dea became Archie Christie’s mistress, luring him away from his devoted and well-known wife, Agatha Christie.

The question is, why? Why destroy another woman’s marriage, why hatch a plot years in the making, and why murder? How was Nan O’Dea so intricately tied to those eleven mysterious days that Agatha Christie went missing?

😱

This story had layers. So many layers! Not at all what I was expecting, but in the best possible way.🤌🏻

Nan is the chief narrator of this story, spinning the yarn of her own backstory and the events that led her to cross the path of one Agatha Christie.  Agatha plays the role of a secondary character in the majority of this book, - much to my surprise -  but I felt that it worked beautifully.  We will never know the truth of Christie’s mysterious but brief disappearance, but I quite liked Nina de Gramont’s take on those events.

Thank you 🙏🏻 to the author, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

 

Book Review: The Echo Wife

The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey 🎧

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5/5 Star Rating 

The Summary: 

I’m embarrassed, still, by how long it took me to notice. Everything was right there in the open, right there in front of me, but it still took me so long to see the person I had married.

It took me so long to hate him.

Martine is a genetically cloned replica made from Evelyn Caldwell’s award-winning research. She’s patient and gentle and obedient. She’s everything Evelyn swore she’d never be. 

And she’s having an affair with Evelyn’s husband. 

Now, the cheating bastard is dead, and both Caldwell wives have a mess to clean up.

Good thing Evelyn Caldwell is used to getting her hands dirty.

😱🤯😱

This. Book. Was. WOW!  I feel like I need to personally thank Sarah Gailey for sharing their brilliance with mere mortals such as myself.  This was my first time reading one of their books and now I’m making room on this year’s TBR list for more. The Echo Wife is a science fiction thriller of the domestic variety that delivers all the suspense and plot twists one loves about this genre. The story, told from Evelyn’s POV, was gripping from beginning to end. I listened to the majority of this eight hours long audiobook in one sitting (shout out to the snow day) and it just ticked all the boxes for me.

I loved, loved, LOVED this book and highly recommend that you get your hands on a copy of your own 😍