#Finlay Donovan Knocks 'Em Dead - Elle Cosimano
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BR duration: <t:1684281600:D>-<t:1688083200:D>
BR leader: @dense prism
Link: #buddy-reads message

guess i will have to reread this now 
I'm really looking forward to this now omg :D
it's just as good as the first one imo, i was actually considering rereading this anyway because i feel like i missed so much while reading it the first time, while i wait for the 3rd book
it's just so fun to read 
the first book really was pure entertainment!!
This book made it!!!! I was so sure it wouldn’t and was going to start reading on my own 
also it has Lae approval so I’m really looking forward to starting it soon 

@rustic wyvern @dull hinge @neon linden @dim nexus @silk hemlock @viral tiger @twilit raven @thin onyx @loud minnow
Hello lovelies! Welcome to the buddy-read of the second book in the Finlay Donovan series. The duration of this BR is long-ish because I’d wanted to give those still reading the first book enough time when they get to this one.
Spoilers from Finlay Donovan Is Killing It
In the first book, ||Finlay and Vero seemed to be quite a pair of partners in crime. Do you think their relationship will deepen in this book? Or will they have a fallout? ||
||With two accidental murders, mediocre-ish writing, the first book surprised me by not being what I expected it to be. How do you feel about light-hearted mystery novels like these?||
||Finlay Donovan is Killing it ended on quite a cliffhanger. Given how crude Steven as a character seems to be, should Finlay take up the job? Any predictions? ||
Happy reading! 
||i do imagine some kind of conflict for sure, something has to go wrong at this point :D||
||tbh while i don't think it's a great piece of literature, to me the first book was just peak entertainment which is why i rated it so high - there's a lot of things you might critique but i had a great experience with it so i didn't think too much about everything else||
||i think she might take it but not with the intention of killing him, but more to see what's behind it all||
gonna start reading today in the evening and, knowing myself, i'll probably binge-finish it tomorrow, i'm very excited 
||well im not sure. but if they do have a fallout, im pretty sure they'll make up by the end of the book||
||i actually really like it. you can have a good laugh, and you dont have to take the book seriously||
||if there were no kids involved, i would say yes. but i wouldnt want to leave a four-year-old and a two-year-old fatherless on purpose||
Are we thinking book #3 next month?
I’m hoping the br goes through though
We barely made it to this one 
well if we have 10 people reading it this time as well, we could make it an official one 
I hope so, I hope no one DNFs and plans not to read the series anymore 
They won't dare 
Ch 2 ||this made me realise again that i really don't like Finlay
but at least she doesn't send the kids off to someone who's threatened to be killed so plus points for that, i guess :D||
Ch 3 ||those poor kids, just handed around like toys...||
right?? idk why I'm enjoying book so much but still don't like the protagonist lol
Mood 
Ch 7 ||and now how exactly do you plan to remember this fantastic story you just pitched, Finlay, i didn't see you taking any notes - no way you remember all that and put it into writing
||
Ch 15 ||honestly they're so complicated sometimes, like...why||
Ch 19 ||more dead people??
that is one very weird family/"friend" group||
ch 22 ||i'm sorry but how can she be so stupid
why post in a forum about killing someone before you're sure it's not traceable?? and then even tell someone else to dig into that forum?? like, what do you expect
||
ch33 ||omg how can she still let vero live in her house?? she's literally going through her personal stuff all the time, spending her money, writing emails in her name...like
||
why is this br so far just me complaining about ||Finlay ||omg 
ch 35 ||UHM WTF NO?? yes he‘s not the best guy but you can‘t just lock him up somewhere? WTF||
lol lae
ch 36|| "you're feeling guilty. don't." uhm no?? please do??||
||steven is not a good guy but he also doesn't deserve that ||
||also what kind of magic wigs do they just have lying around that they can apparently make them pass for anyone and everyone even if they're a completely different type
||
i love how i can just let out my whole frustration i built up during the day on these characters
very cathartic
but they really do be frustrating :D
ch 42 ||yesss, great idea, bury even more corpses in a place where they already were found once
||
I think I’ll be starting this tonight so you won’t be alone
i finished!
It's funny how little Finlay seems to know about Vero
finished thoughts: ||i have to say, while i still enjoyed the book and found it quite entertaining, it frustrated me a lot more than the first one
also to an extent where it did impact my enjoyment of the book - but overall, it still had me hooked, and i also still really want to know what happens next sooo yeah, not as good as the first one because the characters were just a bit too...stupid for my liking, but still glad i read it and i will continue the series (with y'all, hopefully)!||
||I think their relationship will deepen and we'll see more of their dynamics and partnership.||
||It's good to have something light-hearted! Not every crime book has to be super intense or have a complex storyline. I like that it's a bit more 'basic' and is more about having fun then trying to figure out the ending.||
||I hope she does take the job and I think she will, but not to kill him. She'll want to know more about him and maybe possibly get blackmail to ensure she gets the kids.||
ch 3 ||I feel like the love interests haven't been developed enough for me to care||
ch 4 ||fin in her slut era, good for her|| (not derogatory I promise)
||can we PLEASE get rid of steven? praying that she will just decide to murder him 🙏 ||
ch 21 is major 👀
||she truly has zero brain cells sometimes||
||Honestly one of my biggest complaints about this series so far is how they treat the romance aspect. They randomly ship off Julian and she spends most of her time with Nick. She's basically dating Nick and banging Julian but in denial about it. The balancing of it is just totally off and I don't get why I should be invested in her and Julian when he's not about 90% of the time, so I'm just not. ||
||they really were 😭 honestly, I ignored all of that bc I already didn't like Finlay and her being so slow with everything, so I was able to enjoy it anyway. but I gotta say, keeping that torso..? for who knows how many days 🤢||
||Yesss right...i also ignored it for the most part but some things were just...too much||
I'm somewhere between finding that hilarious or very annoying lol
ch 26 ||Julian has a thing for smart women? Why does he want Finlay then?||
ch 41 ||they're getting shot at in a fancy car now? WILD.||
||it's like they've gone 'readers probably aren't going to be interested in the mc so let's make everything else exciting to make up for it||
Finished. ||I didn't enjoy it as much as the first one cos I think my tolerance of Finlay is waning and she's quickly going to just fully annoy me. It also wasn't as engaging as the first imo but that could be because I'm not really invested in any character. I still like how fast paced it is and would read the third book though.||
I just realised I've been misspelling Steven's name the whole time 
the reason why I am rereading is bc I have so many questions
Lmk if you get answers because same 
ch 8 ||idk why they were so worried about anyone tracking them, like it's from a public WiFi connection and she never said anything explicit about killing her ex also i doubt anyones really interested in finding out who she is||
very main character energy of her
lmaoooo yes
ch 10
||idk Aimee seems to care more about the children than Finn or Steven tbh like she actually wants to spend time with them
||
ch 14 ||using a credit card, really? that's the dumbest idea ever 🙄 ||
Right?? ||like if there was an investigation or sth doing it like this would also be better than from their home ip address
||
Very understandable tho!
at this point I think the kids ||are just plot devices or something, like are they even children and not just a reason for Steven and Finlay to fight over?||
Omg so true!! ||they're always mentioned but they have zero characterisation, no personality at all ||
||you also really get no insights into their lives/thoughts etc other than when they are needed to stir conflict...||
||maybe they should've been pet parents instead of child parents||
ch1 ||reminder: finlay killed their goldfish||
yes it must affect them somehow like ||they've been around people who have been hiding corpses, this should be enough to alert something like child services or whatever thats called right?||
ch 17 ||Finlay said that Julian understands her and that's why she likes him.. but she never really gave Nick the chance right? she just assumed that because he's a police officer he won't. its because of her thinking she should deal with it on her own and not actually consider the criminality of it all that she keeps getting into this mess i feel like. she could just report it and we'd perhaps get Nick and her investigating it and circumstances creating hilarious chaos around her||
argh I can't remember the names right
ch 18 || I hate how they're all calling Julian a kid, like he's an adult, come on||
ch 20 ||question was this really necessary??? this is so disgusting and like that poor guy?||
ch 20 ||i'm sorry, are we jumping to conclusions now? so what Aimee helped theresa with a dead body and knew how to make him disappear - so does Finlay. If that makes Aimee EasyClean, then Finlay isn't much better, how many bodies has she hidden
||
ch 21 ||how could they miss a torso?? Isn't the torso like the biggest uh piece???||
||I'm sorry the emphasis on those words is totally not suspicious and especially right in front of Nick a police office||
ch 22 ||this is why you should not take Finlay with you, Nick smh my head||
ch 23 ||Nick is so considerate, taking Finlay out for dinner to a place owned by Feliks even though he should remember that time when Feliks threatened her in Ramon's garage like, why are you putting her into more danger??||
ch 24 ||okay about Julian.. maybe he doesn't tell her much about his life because she doesn't tell him anything? He doesn't even have her home number like even if you only use your own phone to contact him, at least he'd have another way of reaching you.. this whole what are we, are we dating, is this a serious relationship annoys me LOL I used to like Julian but now he's annoying me too. I like Georgia the most i think
||
ch 28 ||I'm sorry, are there only stupid people in this book? Finlay is being so extremely suspicious rn and none of them notice or care about that? also hate how stereotypical everything is, like calling Julian a kid and her a cougar? i hate that||
Right!! ||it's like all of them share about 1 braincell||
||i feel like it was kinda...quirky/funny in the first book but i thought there'd be a little more characterisation and depth in the second one to build on the first one but no||
lol yeah i didnt expect much, it's still a nice read but I didn't love the first one already soooo
expectations were low
ch 33 ||it is confirmed, Nick is not a police officer who follows the laws to a T ||
ch 33 ||her conversation with Julian... it's awful, like what's her obsession with insta all of the sudden? and then "You're right it's a hot freaking mess" - I don't recall him saying anything like that? he just wanted to know why she needed an lawyer and she won't tell him. I really don't see why she's blowing up on him
||
ch 37 ||they couldn't be any stupider could they? it's like they're trying really hard to be quirky and funny and instead they're just being very annoyingly stupid||
ch 40 ||i've got a question.... Officer Ruiz??? I don't get it?||
ch 40 ||i've
got a question.... Officor
Ruiz??? I don't get it?||

||like Finlay found an acceptance letter to a School of Business, how is she Officer Ruiz all of the sudden???||
ch 41 ||okay but when your ex is like repeatedly telling you someone is trying to kill you.. how stupid do you have to be to ignore it all?||
ch 42 ||"Delia and Zach have really missed you" but you're the reason why Steven wasn't allowed to see them?
also really did they? when was the last time you even talked to them instead of shipping them to your parents or your sister?||
||falling forward doesn't sound that great either?||
||i kinda get not trusting her fully but also...why would she make that up
also so persistently...||
||i get it too and it would make sense at first but when the police tells him the same, like even if that's Finlay, he should at least be worried about his own life right? at the very least think about the kids, which he doesn't of course...||
||yes right? Especially if there've already been several attacks
||
do you understand what the deal is with ||Officer Ruiz?|| 
because that's like the question i've had and i was hoping rereading it would help but i got nothing
ch 43 ||hoping Finlay chooses Nick because as a student, Julian has a lot to deal with and i feel bad for him if he needs to deal with Finlay's problems too ngl||
ch 47 ||huh so Nick is not that stupid after all
idk if i should like him or not||
Epilogue ||what's the big deal about instagram ugh
||
ngl the epilogue ||here is not as intriguing as the first one||
finished 
Should I put in a request for the third book? are you guys still in for it?
If yes, how does June 1 to July 1 sound?
I'm in!
yeah sure
I’m also in and have my copy ready
i didn't understand that either
i was hoping it would maybe be cleared up in the third book :D
2 off the next br being approved 
So um, I started and finished this over the last weekend but haven’t had the time to share anything here yet. I shall do it soon! 
why the pensive
i hope you didn't hate the book 
Hoping to start this soon!
hAte would be a strong word but I did dislike it a little more than the first? 
Oh and mostly pensive because "why did I get myself into BR-ing a book when I'm so bad at engaging, sharing my thoughts 'while reading' etc"
it's okay you dont have to be a good contributor to be a good BR leader lol
the double

uptil chp 8: ||this whole ‘someone is trying to murder steven’ business is frustrating. yes, i dont want the kids to be hurt but i also want steven to be able to spend time with his kids||
also, seriously finlay? ||the first book starts off with u in a writing slump, and now this one too?||
||Honestly I am so annoyed at them for taking irrational decisions. I think it's worth they get into conflict. If I were Finlay, I'd be pretty mad at her to contact the second lady Irvin? I forgot already. And then at the end of the book, Finlay opened up Steven's name...So I think these things will cause some kind of fight
||
||I definitely enjoy novels that are light hearted!! I need them cause I'm looking for a break from the opposite genre in my life
||
|| OMG So Steven is...well he must have done something super wrong. Given his history and really ongoing story he is a serial cheater but I'm thinking there is something else he does with these women maybe? But it has to be something different...the first book already covered a pervert and a murderer
||
||oh yeah about this...technically Finlay didn't really kill any of the men. Apparently they all died "by mistake." I would say Steven probably dies but not by her...||
Chp 19: ||ugh, imagine opening a package and having someone’s severed head fall out||
Chapter 4 ||I cannot believe Finlay just texted through her main account asking who FedUp is. That seems odd to me ||
I mean they don't really clarify ||how she approaches her but that's so strange !||
done! ||i agree with all of you when you say finlay has horrible decision making skills, but for some reason, its more entertaining than annoying. also i was on team lawyer, but once i saw them in a relationship...yeah julian's too young. plus this cliffhanger is nowhere near as interesting as the previous one, but i will be reading the third book. 4/5 stars||
I guess ||she was in the library and surfing anonymously||
I guess ||she was in
the library and surfing
anonymously||
I'm up to Chapter 12
And seriously not enjoying this book so far. It's actually not for the plot, but actually the characters.
||I'm not sure what it is but like Finlay and Vero are straight up acting like 13 year Olds for some reason and it's so triggering honestly. Like so much of their behavior is planned on such stupid recklessness, it actually makes me more appreciative of the route Good Girls Guide went and actually made the character deal with the trauma and impact. These women have literally been part of two very different and gruesome deaths and seen multiple other dead bodies and they are joking around about killing others and shit like it's nobody's business like what the hell. I have to constantly remind myself it's just a style of writing but ugh.. ||
@thin onyx @dim nexus @silk hemlock @rustic wyvern @viral tiger
@neon linden
@dull hinge
Hellooo! Sorry for being late with this check-in but life's been happening and I haven't had the time to use Discord much 
This BR ends on the 21st of June (4 days left). If any wishes for an extension, do lmk 
Finished : Vio, abi, Laelia, ravenclaw_bookworm
Still reading: DJSafyre, Shaq
And now for some questions -
-
The first book ended with some ||happier stuff with Finlay having gotten these book deals, some big bucks from the ‘accidental’ murders, etc.. how do you feel about this book starting on a similar note as the first with Finlay struggling to have her sh*t together yet again? || (spoilers for Ch.1 and perhaps 2)
-
How are you finding the writing so far?
Questions if you've finished or nearing the finish line -
3. Did you expect Finlay to ||collaborate with Feliks (in prison at that)? Did you rage out like I did or have you gotten accustomed to this very ‘Finlay-ish’ behaviour?
||
- ||Who do you suspect Easy Clean to be? Could he really be Officer Joey? Have you tried a bit of sleuthing and come up with a possible suspect list?||
I'm honestly quite grateful to have you all in this BR because it's a lot more fun sharing the angst and annoyance felt through the actions of the characters. Anyhoo, hope you've all been having a lovely weekend! 
- very frustrated. i hate it when this happens. if you made some progress, you better keep that progress!
- its very light and easy to understand, and thats all i need, honestly
- didnt expect it but im not surprised
- ||even though i feel all the clues are pointing towards officer joey, i also feel he's the obvious suspect. most murderers are the unlikely characters||
Ohayou, I would like another week to finish the book. I'm at 36%
Would that be okay?
Sure! I don’t mind 
Dearest most loveliest @rustic wyvern ,
Hope you’ve been well
Can I bother you a little with an extension for this BR? You can make it the 30th of June 
BR has been extended!
BR duration: <t:1684281600:D>-<t:1688083200:D>
BR leader: @dense prism
Link: #buddy-reads message
[Go to message!](#1108043009087516703 message)
no, how dare you /j 
Chapter 19 || Would any of you do what Finn did about the body found in the storage room? ||
no of course not. i would run far far away and try forget everything that happened
Ch 27 || OMG this mother is so annoying ||
Ch 40: 
Late reply but basically ||when his roommate Parker came over, she told Finlay that Julian thinks she's a hot mess or something along those lines. But it was definitely uncalled for. I guess it's a trope.. ||
Ch 42: || "True, Vero was impulsive. She took risks but calculated ones." ||

I finished the book 
- ||Usually I resonate with the constant up and down and the up of struggles in a person's life. It's quite common to sometimes have good things happen to you and sometimes bad. But with Finlay, I couldn't help but eyeroll ||

- Omg, I feel like the writing was with the intention of the book being adapted not into a movie but a cartoon
Some of the actions were just too...comical and cartoon like
- ||Nooo I don't think I'm used to this Finlay behavior. I'm expecting of it but her actions always making me table flip at times. ||
Oh back to 2 again, I kind of liked the writing though, in general it's easy and chill to read
The book is 3 star for me and I think the way its written probably scored the 3
It's light and easy to read which I'm enjoying a lot!!
- || Probably not Officer Joey, what if it's Nick? He knows everything too. How much do we even know about Nick? I want it to be Nick. || || Even if he's a good guy||
Oh wait
||If Nick is the one, she'll go back to Julian. Idk I don't like Julian too much for Finlay. ||
End of book spoilers: || also, I cannot believe all the stuff happened because of venting on a forum.||
||Jeez, only because the writer wanted to surprise, she went this way but like idk but this book's trope was making a molehill out of a mountain.||
yep go to one of those telephone booths or get a disposable phone, call the cops, and get as fast as i can out of there LOL
So at least now we know how dangerous it is to ||vent on the internet
||

#venting channel be like whaa
||Omg Nick yesss, he's been on my sus list too like he's the one person that no one would ever suspect but like what if he had a different motive or like playing a character to sniff out other criminals or whatever lol||
LOL, I'd probably watch if it were a cartoon 
i like ||Nick now
at least he's not as annoying as Finlay and Vera or Stephen||
yes yes I like ||Nick|| too but like reading too many mystery books has trained me to always sus the character that is never sus kinda thing 
are you calling me naïve
/j
but then again, this book's more comic relief than actual murder mystery
you always suspect the ones i like smh my head /j
noooooo, I was just um okay I give up brain's not braining enough to form coherent thoughts rn 
it's okay lmaoooooo i get it 
for the record, I do like ||Nick and like didn't think of him as a bad guy, just sus||
but he could be.. everything's possible but ||i also doubt there are plot twists coming regarding Nick because this is not like an actual murder mystery with the whole, everyone is a suspect kind of vibe lol ||
yessss,|| he's just the good guy, the good cop love interest so far, like this book isn't serious enough for him to be anything else
||
ouch LMAOO
though at least in this one, at the end ||he proved that he had some brains LOL bc up until then I was like, how the bloody hell is he a police officer if his own romantic interest is doing some funny business right in front of him??||
||EXACTLY!! But yes, we should give him some credit ( at least having read the third one) I think yeah, he deserves more
||
Honestly though, ||As much as I like Nick, I feel bad for him, because Finlay definitely doesnt deserve him. If she wasnt the main character of the book and therefore Im sure the author is going to invent some ridiculous way for her to get scott free from everything, but if it wasnt for the case, shes actually just a timebomb thats going to take down as many people out with her when she would go off. Murder, Obstruction of Justice, Kidnapping, Connections to Mafia, her list of things that she is guilty for is insanely high for a lawman to be seeking an interest in her, and because he actually cares for her, he actually ends up making stupid things like putting his job on the line and overlooking things in order to impress her||
yes omg completely agree, especially that scene in the first book ||she obviously used him and wrote what he shared with her in the book without his knowledge and he got upset of course, i mean, i would too!! He bends a lot of the rules just for her and he could get in a hell lot of trouble because of her..||
Okay so like overall thoughts of the book:
||Honestly like the truth is that this book annoys the crap out of me. Like this book has a weird way of keeping me wanting to read but at the same time it feels like I'm punishing myself for reading it too. I don't think I've ever come across a more hate able main character than Finlay.
The story is something that I can imagine laughing at if it was like 'for a moment I thought...' kind of a situation but the fact that these grown ass women take informed decisions that lead to such events triggers the crap out of me for some reason. And yet I hate myself for knowing that I'm going to be reading the third book and hating on it too||
I agree with you guys sooo much, especially with this book, I kept questioning whyyyy yet couldn't just drop it until I'd finished
With that, this BR has ended and here's the list of contributors -
Vio, abi, Laelia, ravenclaw_bookworm
, DJ Safyre, Shaq
Do lmk if I've forgotten anyone 
what about yourself
if you could just share one final post or something pls
points have been added (for now cough hanzy
)
I deem it unfair to not contribute through the thread and just post final thoughts as a contribution so I’ve chosen to stick myself out this time 
As the BR leader I felt it wasn’t enough 
is this you trying not to become a book alligator lol
Anyhoo, it’s alright, I’ve realised a couple more points and I’ll be losing the purple book role and I kinda wanted to keep that up for a tad bit longer
OMG HOWWW
i know you lol
for every BR you host and not participate in, you'll get -5 points from now on /j
I-
i can't tell if you can see it, it's -5 lol
I can see it but like it’s motivating yet it’d be like playing a game with me doing both to keep myself in the range
Contributing when I near the previous role and not contributing when I’m near alligator
Anyhoo, that’s all for this BR, thank you for the points Lae

no worries 
