They say women can have it all, but maybe Finlay Donovan has had just a little too much at this point. Like, of everything. All of the things. Like, let a woman breathe, for pete’s sake.

As with every Finlay Donovan review, we begin with a disclaimer: You must start at the beginning of the series to understand anything in any book thereafter, including this one. As such, this interview is likely to only make a whole lot of sense to Finlay Donovan fans. 

BUT! If you aren’t already a Finlay Donovan fan, where the heck have you been? Under a rock? The Finlay Donovan series is the one book series I look forward to the most every year. I think I’d cry if Elle Cosimano skipped a year. 

I didn’t enjoy this installment quite as much as I did 2024’s outing, Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice, but it was great to see some of the characters (Cam!) from that book come back for this one and to see some of the loose overarching story threads that had been flapping around since as far back as the first book finally get either tied off or resolved. It was also nice to see Finlay’s relationship with Nick get out of neutral and into drive and learn more about the people who live in and around the Donovan household. 

There were some genuinely hilarious moments in this book (an eighteen-foot eggplant), genuinely relatable ones (the toilet training of Zach saga continues), the usual ones where we appreciate Vero and want her to be our bestie, and some when we really question Finlay’s sanity (I’d argue that’s pro forma, as well). 

The only thing that I felt dissatisfied with in this book was how predictable it was compared to the other books. Usually, Cosimano keeps us guessing well into the third act. It adds so much suspense to the plot that I never feel as if the tension has slacked off. This time, I felt like the tension snapped early on because there was this sense of, “I totally know what’s going on and Finlay’s smart enough that she should see it too”. 4⭐️

I was provided a copy of this title by the author and publisher through the SMP Early Readers Program via NetGalley. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: Amateur Sleuth/Book Series/Comedy/Mystery/Women’s Fiction