Finlay and Vero are at it again! This time they’ve been hired to locate and identify Mob Boss Felik’s contract killer “Easy Clean”. Hijinks of course ensue (what else is new?!).

Even though Felik is in the slammer, he’s still running the show and expects Finlay and Vero to do his bidding. Trying to find “Easy Clean” of course isn’t that easy. When they find evidence linking him to the police force, Finlay and Vero take desperate measures to catch him. They join the Citizen’s Police Academy, a week-long civilian academy, led by Finlay’s cop friend Nick, in hopes of finding their target. On the plus side, they learn how to shoot, evade pursuers, and harm “bad guys.”

Talk about skills that will come in handy in their new line of work!

If Finlay and Vero can keep out of trouble long enough, they just might find what they’re looking for.

Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun is a wild, crazy, over-the-top read that will keep readers entertained.

Admittedly, this most recent addition to the series was a tad too over the top for me. While lots of hilarity ensued, as much of the novel was unrealistic, I had a hard time connecting. I am however only one reader, thus I suggest checking out other reviews.

Another buddy read with Kaceey.

Thanks to Minotaur Books via NetGalley for the arc.

Author and single mom Finlay Donovan and her nanny/partner-in-crime Vero are at it again. Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun begins with Finlay and Vero accidentally destroying a luxury car and finding themselves in the debt of a mob boss. Feliks tasks them with finding a contract killer before the cops do. However, the killer might be a cop. Fate drops a citizens police academy in their laps and Finlay and Vero set off to conquer Finlay's writer's block, hopefully catch a killer, and spend some time with a certain hot cop.

I loved the citizens police academy setting for this book! The proximity to firearms experts, forensic classes, police officers, and a coroner made the plot move forward quickly and helped Finlay to find answers to clues. Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun was a really satisfying installment in this series, and I was SO happy that we got some resolution to the romantic love triangle.

Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun was perfectly named and my favorite book yet in the series. I cannot wait to see what comes next for Finlay and Vero.

Thank you to Minotaur Books for an eARC in exchange for my thoughts.

Elle Cosimano's <i>Finlay Donovan</i> series is one of my favorites and the newest installment is on its way! Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press, I was recently able to read an ARC of <i>Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun</i> and it's just as hilarious and addictive as the first two books.

This time around, Finlay and Vero head to a citizen's police academy to get inspiration for the book Donovan's writing and to track down a contract killer who is almost definitely a police officer. If Finlay can ID the hitman before the cops do, she'll be able to get out from under the mob's thumb. But, her hot cop not-boyfriend Nick is wooing her, his partner is suspicious of her, and Vero's past is catching up with them both. It's a recipe for drama, lies, and hysterical misunderstandings, and they all happen at break-neck speed.

Cosimano has struck gold with the <i>Finlay Donovan</i> character and concept. It's a fun, fresh take on the mystery genre and I am always here for that. Every installment has proven to be just as fun as the last and I'm hopeful that Elle give us reports of Finlay's misadventures for years to come.

Finlay Donovan is back. This is a quick read but the weakest of the series so far. Finlay and Vero just make so many poor, ridiculous decisions. This book takes place at a citizens police academy, so Vero and Finlay are isolated from their usual world (except Hot Cop Nick) and the series is at its best when Finlay is juggling being a harried working mom with trying not to be a hit woman. I'll still give the next book a try but I wasn't impressed.

✨ Review ✨ Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun by Elle Cosimano

I LOVED Finlay #1 -- I laughed so much thinking about this single mom in all the situations she got herself in. Book #2 was fine but didn't match up for me.

The great news is book #3 -- this book -- is back in force, as Finlay and Vero get into situations only they could get themselves in. Filled with mishaps and miscommunications, laughs and always looming disaster, Finlay and Vero head off to citizen's police academy, a camp put on for wannabe sleuths led by Nick the hot cop.

Once again, Finlay and Vero get into all sorts of situations around parenting two young kids, sorting through a divorce and other relationships, and fighting back the stress of authoring books. While cozy mysteries aren't usually my jam, the Finlay Donovan books just hit the spot. If you liked book #1, I think you'll enjoy this one too!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: cozy mystery with laughable moments
Pub Date: 31 Jan 2023

Read this if you like:
⭕️ cozy mysteries
⭕️ mishaps galore
⭕️ parenting disasters always looming

Thanks to Minotaur Books and #netgalley for an advanced e-copy of this book!

Two of my favorite amateur sleuths return in Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun, book three in the award winning Finlay Donovan series. Readers can expect more zany antics and humorous dialogue interspersed within a really good mystery. I enjoyed every minute of it!

Unfortunately for sleuth hounds Finlay and Vero, Russian Mob Boss Feliks is privy to their dark, still barely buried secrets and is holding the information over their head to blackmail them into helping him identify Mr. EasyClean, a contract killer who may or may not be a dirty cop. Feliks is tightening the corkscrews via thinly disguised threats - help him or risk exposure of their illegal escapades . . . or worse. In a desperate counter move, Finlay and Donovan join a week long Citizen's Police Academy to hide out while getting the inside scoop on what's going down among the cops. With any luck, they'll glean a vital piece of information that leads them to EasyClean's real identity thereby saving their own necks. And wouldn't you know it - the academy is run by none other than the one sensuous cop Finlay has been avoiding . . . Nick. Their budding relationship is convoluted, mostly by Finlay's continued ventures on the wrong side of the law. Too bad because several women are lining up in hopes Nick will snap his handcuffs on them. As much as Finlay would love to be first in line, she has to face reality. There's no way she can risk Nick getting close enough to learn the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth of her illegal activities. She'll continue holding him at bay while she and Vero attempt to survive cop boot camp and weed out the bad cop. I mean seriously - piece of cake, right?

The Finlay Donovan series is first and foremost pure reading entertainment. It's sassy, ludicrous, sexy and believe it or not - delivered between the covers of a fantastic discover-the-bad-guy-without-getting-killed mystery. The antics perpetrated by the two main characters are hysterical, nonsensical and most certainly ill-advised, and yet I can't seem to get enough. Cosimano excels at delivering witty banter and dialogue rich with innuendos which add to the overall comic ambiance reminiscent of Lucy and Ethel of I Love Lucy fame. Books like this generally either come off as cheesy or they kill it, and I'm happy to say Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun slays it! All the gang is back including Finlay's on again/off again love interests - Steven, her deluded ex who's decided he made a mistake in letting her go, Julian, the delicious young lawyer who also appears to want a second chance, and then there's Nick, the sinfully sexy, dependable, unshakable cop who's interested in the long haul if she'll just trust him enough to come clean. Of course, it's complicated because the harder Finlay and Vero work to get out of trouble, the more it finds them and they end up digging their hole deeper. How much bad luck can two girls have?

Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun is another great addition to this marvelous series. The pace is insane, the characters larger than life and the plot line more twisted than it appears. It takes a master to manipulate the large cast through this tapestry of interwoven plot lines, and Cosimano does so with style. While it would be helpful to read the first two books in the series prior to this one, each book stands alone to a point. There's a cliffhanger ending, but only in the sense of setting up the next book while most plot points within this book are resolved satisfactorily. If you're a fan of crazy off-the-wall antics and hysterical comedy, sexy tension laden chemistry and an outstanding who's-the-bad-guy mystery, Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun is for you! Highly recommended to anyone who enjoys highly entertaining mysteries.

Another fun Finlay Donovan book! I loved getting back into the wild adventures of Finlay and Vero. I do wish the author had spent a little time in the beginning catching the readers up on what happened in the first two books. Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Minotaur Books for the ARC!

She is BACK!

I have been dying for the next Finlay installment since I finished the last one and this book will not disappoint.

This book picks up where book two left off. Finlay and Vero are back at it once again in trying to find Easy Clean to appease Zhirov, cover their own behinds, and help Vero pay off a debt to her loan shark. The two embark on a week long police academy camp with Nick and Georgia's department to see if they can learn which among them is the dirty cop. As per usual, the book is full of laugh out loud moments, along with exciting drama related to Finlay's romances.

I absolutely adored this book. I think it may actually be my favorite of the three. I cannot wait to see what book 4 brings and am PRAYING I get an ARC because I don't think I could wait that long!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

I absolutely loved this one! I was so excited to read this, and I can’t wait to add it to my physical collection!

A few years ago, I divested about two-thirds of my library when I moved to a smaller house in a different city. I no longer accumulate paperbacks the way I used to. But I held on to the first Elle Cosimano mystery, FINLAY DONOVAN IS KILLING IT, because it promised a fresh new series with a quirky concept and I wanted to see how Cosimano would sustain the conceit of the reluctant hitwoman without sacrificing the reader’s sympathy for her protagonist.

FINLAY DONOVAN JUMPS THE GUN, the third book in the series (I haven’t yet read the second one), fulfills the promise of the first book with engaging characters and their madcap adventures, adept writing, rapid-fire pacing, twisty plotting, and plenty of comedy. There is an extended period of romantic frustration — or foreplay, depending on how you look at it — that will no doubt please romance fans. Cosimano’s decision to set most of the book at a citizens’ police academy works brilliantly to ramp up the tension between her miscreant protagonists, who are hiding out from various thugs, and the forces of law and order, whose detection they’re also hoping to evade. Cue the small children, who bring their own threat of mayhem to the scene.

The biggest problem for readers is the sheer complexity of the backstory that Cosimano wants us to absorb and commit to memory in order to understand the situation, and I worry that some readers won’t make it past the information dump in Chapter 2. I’d read the first book in the series and yet I had a hard time following this account. There’s simply too much coming at us. Then Finlay’s agent calls, but we’re already on information overload, what with the threats of loan sharks, irate sorority girls, hitmen in pursuit of Finlay’s absent husband, the Russian mob, a contract killer trolling a women’s forum on the web, a bullet-riddled and possibly stolen Aston Martin, a buried body, and a hot detective. By the time we discover that Finlay is a novelist (no, that doesn’t explain the aforementioned circumstances), we’ve either been beaten into submission or already closed the book. This is a problem of editing as well as writing. I hope that Cosimano can figure out how to make it easier for readers to pick up any book in the series and feel welcome.
I received a free review copy of this book via NetGalley.

How is it possible that one book can pull in your heartstrings this much, and make you laugh that hard!?!

I LOVE THIS SERIES!!!

Holy cow. So hilarious. The way she writes about being a mom is my favorite. (Walmart?! Haha!)

If you loved the first two, it’s no surprise you’ll love this one too!!

Finlay Donovan, oh how I wish you could be my friend!! I love following her and her families adventures and the crazy scenario's she finds herself in. Elle Cosimano did a wonderful job at the third Finlay Donovan book, with a storyline that keeps you wanting more and more and more. Elle wrote in such an engaging way that it felt like you were right with them at every step of their crime ways. I throughly enjoyed it and can't wait for number 4!

Finlay Donovan is back again! This series is so much fun to read. I always look forward to finding out what kind of trouble Finlay and her nanny/accountant/friend Vera are going to get themselves into. My only complaint was that this third book in the series was a little messy at times and bogged down with too many characters. Overall though, it was lighthearted, silly, and mysterious, 3.5 out of 5 stars.

I've been endlessly recommending Finlay Donovan is Killing It and immediately read the second in the series when it came out this year. Now this newest addition, Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun isn't out until January of 2023. It features all the same characters as the two previous books and if you enjoyed those, you'll love this too. I highly recommend the whole series and starting them from book 1.

Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun is the third in the series and does not disappoint. This is the action, adventure, funny book Elle Cosimano does so well. Characters are flawed (very), make questionable decisions, give in to some bad choices, and eventually get to catch the bad guys. But the reader will not care, and will continue along for the very enjoyable ride.

Like the first two books in the series, this book has a bit of everything: mystery, suspense, humor, friendship, family, parenting, romance. The series has been described as twisty (Megan Miranda) and madcap (Ellery Adams), and those two words describe it perfectly. While I do suggest reading the series in order, this book provides enough of a summary of the back story that you could start here.

I absolutely loved the newest Finlay Donovan! Finlay is a great character- she's funny, realistic, vulnerable, honest, and exceptionally relatable. While the plot of every book is extremely far-fetched, that's what I love about the series. It's a smart, fun, and readable escape. The ending of Jumps the Gun had me excited and ready for another round! I plan on recommending this title to friends, family, and whoever needs a good break from reality!

Finlay and Vero are at it again! This time, the duo find themselves at a citizens’ police academy trying to identify a hit man and stay one step ahead of a mob boss. As one would imagine, hilarity, mayhem, and maybe a murder or two ensue. I enjoyed spending time in Finlay and Vero’s world again, and based on the ending, we aren’t done with them yet. Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy.

4.5/5 stars
I loved this first two books of this series and when I saw I could get the ARC from Netgalley, it was like Christmas came early for me. While I did love this book (love love love Vero and Finn), it was not my favorite in the series. This is due to the fact that I feel that EasyClean’s reveal was kinda sorta random. I will definitely pick this book up when it’s released in February 2023 to see if I can better understand the reveal. Thank you Netgalley for this ARC!

First off, thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review! This third book in the series will be released January 31, 2023 so I’m THRILLED to be able to read it in advance! I LOVE this series! It has mystery, romance and lots of humor! One part o especially love is how they literally pick up right after the previous! I think the longest may be 3 weeks after? The relationship between Finlay and Vero is amazing! These women love and trust one another with everything they have and it’s friendship goals! This book had SO MUCH NICK! I just love Nick! He knows Finlay is up to something but doesn’t seem to mind and still wants to be with her! The change in setting to the police academy and having them secluded with a bunch of suspects makes for an exciting change as well. Well now I have to hope for the ARC of the fourth book because now I’ll have a very long time between books! I will be buying this when it comes out though so I can definitely reread when I need to! If you have not read these books, pick up Finlay Donovan is Killing It and get started on this crazy ride!