Reviews with content warning for Murder - Finlay Donovan Knocks 'Em Dead

After thoroughly enjoying "Finlay Donovan is Killing It", I was so excited to pick this up in preparation for the Literally Dead Book Club discussion.
"Finlay Donovan Knocks 'Em Dead" picks up immediately after the conclusion of the first book. Finlay is struggling to continue writing her book and is still trying to navigate how to coparent with her ex-husband. Someone has ordered a hit for Steven, Finlay's ex-husband, so on top of worrying about his parenting, Finlay is worried to leave her children alone with him. At least she has her partner in crime, Vero, but Finlay quickly suspects that Vero may be hiding something from her...
Although I did not enjoy this quite as much as the first one, I am still enthralled by Finlay as a character. The plot of this series is going off the handle a little bit, which is highly entertaining, but makes it feel less realistic. The situations Finlay and Vero find themselves in are wild, and I do not think the average person would be able to get out of them quite so well. Although this is fine for a novel, what I love about Finlay is how relatable she feels, so for me as a reader, I want the story to feel more realistic.
I love how close Finlay and Vero are. Their friendship is something to aspire for and they are the epitome of "ride or die". Having the support of another woman does make it more probable to me that Finlay is navigating this situation more sanely.
The love triangle between Finlay, the law student, and the detective was something lighthearted and fun to read about. I think it again makes it more realistic that Finlay might know what she is doing because she has the advice of two different people with criminal knowledge. I am excited to see her relationships develop more in book three!
I love that Finlay remains a powerful, strong woman who is taking on her situation head on. I also really love that her novel she is writing is loosely based on her current predicament. Having to write out what is going on I think is helping her process her crimes and uncover the bad guys.
I am still enjoying this series and I am so excited to see what antics Finlay gets up to next!

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caughtbetweenpages's review against another edition

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funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This was a fun sequel to the first book in this series, though I think the suspension of disbelief ratcheted up significantly in this volume. It gets harder to believe all the hitwoman, forum for

having men in your community offed

hijinks as Finlay gets deeper into actual organized crime. She can barely keep her life as a single mom and an author in order, so it takes a big stretch to imagine she could fool cops, let alone career criminals at their own game. On the other hand, I do like the discourse about women, and particularly moms, being pigeonholed into the role of Nurturer of Children Only by society at large, so there was a satisfaction to watching Finlay get underestimated by most of the men around her and just barely scraping by through that.

Finlay is easily my favorite part of this series; she's an easy character to root for, being as in over her head and yet ultimately good as she is. She definitely falls into the "relatable protagonist" bucket, but that sort of works because of the story's genre conventions. Competence at real-life crime would be too much to expect and make this comedy-thriller far less funny. I digress. Finlay is great. Her love for her children, her arc of self-assertion and self actualization despite her asshole manchild ex (even to the extent of

saving his life because as bad a husband as he was, he's actually a good father and her kids deserve that

), and her loyalty to Vero make Finlay someone I want to see succeed.

With small exceptions, the cast around her is a little charicature-ish at times so she's allowed to be less fleshed out/more Flanderized because she's still a solid character comparatively, but that's okay because this story isn't really about character exploration so much as it is about the plot. (Though the moments of in-depth characterization we DO get play against this idea; Finlay has some Opinions about

Theresa and Aimee, and ends up recognizing in the two of them a depth of relationship and a ride-or-die-ness akin to the sort she has with Vero. Aimee literally helps Theresa bury a dismembered body and escape her house arrest.

I was happy to see that, because dismantling the idea that women can be typecast as just one thing is one of the best parts of this series for me.)

All that said, gripes about suspension of disbelief and characters aside, I think what really took this book down a notch from the previous for me was the romance angle. I'm not a fan of cop love interests, or pushy love interests who "won't take no for an answer," so the blend of the two in Nick the Shithead was Not It for me. He seemed like a greater threat to Finlay during their ostensibly romantic moments than Felix the Literal Mob Boss did... ever. And Felix killed people. I don't know that I preferred Julian the Law Student to Detective Shithead by any wide margin, but at least he knows when to back off when Finn tells him to. Frankly, I think this series as a whole would be best served by Finlay being happily single or taking it super slow with Julian instead of cuffed to either these guys (but especially Nick.) (Frankly, her relationship with Vero is more developed than either of the romantic relationships.)

I'll be reading the third to close of the trilogy for sure!

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danileah07's review against another edition

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funny mysterious medium-paced

4.0

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lucual20's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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kaitlynnnng's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I want to know more about Vero and her full story.

I don’t know if I fully trust Julian, Parker, or Joey.

This book’s ending was much less of a cliff-hanger than the first book’s was.

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ashleycmms's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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leahisdudish's review against another edition

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3.5

these books are so fun but how does finlay get away with all this stuff??? she def should get with nick.

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