🕵️‍♀️ Book review 🕵️‍♀️

What Have We Done
by @alexfinlayauthor
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4⭐️)

First off, thank you to @minotaur_books & @netgalley for the arc, this is out now! Swipe for goodreads synopsis.

This has a good prologue to hook you and great writing. It’s set in DC and has multiple pov including a trained assassin, aging rock star, tech billionaire, and reality show producer.

Sure it may be a little over the top but I enjoyed it! Finlay’s previous novel THE NIGHT SHIFT was one of my top reads of last year and this is definitely different, this one is more popcorn thriller and action packed but well done.

⚠️: violence, addiction, child abuse

This is another great one from Alex Finlay! The plot kept me guessing and I didn't figure out the ending. LOVE! I finishished in one weekend. Would reccomend!

Three friends from The Savior House, a group home for teens with no parents, each went their separate ways once the home was shut down. Now, twenty five years later they will come together again to try and find out why someone is trying to kill them, knowing it has something to do with the tragedy from their days at the Savior House. I found this to be an interesting fast paced, action packed thriller that kept me entertained from beginning to end.

I wanted to love this book but I had such a hard time getting into it. Then there were parts where I was like yes! I need to see what happens, only to struggle to get through it again. I think it might have been all the different characters and their stories. When I was only intrigued by certain characters especially Jenna. Overall just an ok read for me.

2.5 rounded up.

I had great expectations after reading The Night Shift. Like, SUPER great expectations. Unfortunately, I didn’t expect that they wouldn’t be even be great.
I wanted badly to love it. So much so that I made myself keep reading, something that I decided a few years ago I was going to stop doing because I had too many other books I wanted to read to spend my time reading books that didn’t deserve it. But, you know… The Night Shift.
I did love Jenna. A lot. Would’ve loved seeing her as the only character. The guys were meh. When the twins came in I was just over it.
I think this just suffered from over the top syndrome. There was way too much being crammed into one book.
I did like the full cast of characters on the audio. They did a great job. Each one brought zing to their character (even if the character didn’t zing.)

Thanks to Netgalley, St Martin’s Press, and Macmillan Audio for the early release copies.

This story follows the lives of 5 teenagers as they navigate adult life. What does a stay at home mom with a dicey past, a worn out rockstar with horrible coping mechanisms, a deadbeat tv producer with a gambling habit, a high profile judge, and the world's richest man have in common? Twenty five years ago they created an unbreakable bond between all five of them. Now that bond is coming back to haunt them all. This story does beg the reader to ask themselves, how far will they go to save themselves?

Alex Finlay has a way with interweaving two different stories into one. The genre for this story is obviously a thriller but it also has the aspects of a coming of age story. I enjoy his character development and the way that he connects them all. He did a great job on presenting the way human nature may differ in different characters. People are uniquely different and that is what makes life interesting. It is important for authors to find a way to differentiate their characters from one another while still keeping their bond front a center.

What Have We Done is the first book of Alex Finlay’s I’ve read and I’m looking forward to reading his backlist.

This one is told from the point of view of Jenna, Nico, and Donnie, who grew up in the same group home. Twenty five years later, someone is trying to kill them and they find themselves reunited back where everything started.

The story was intriguing from the very first chapter, which ended with me wondering what the heck was going on. I loved learning the backstories of our main characters and how what happened in their pasts played a part in their futures. There are plenty of secrets and when I thought I had figured out what was going on, it went in a totally different direction. While I wasn’t really a fan of the very end, it was still an action packed read that would make a fun movie.

I had a hard time getting into this book even though I have been a fan of Alex Finlay's previous work, I just seemed that the characters were not that relatable. This is totally a personal thing but it made it hard to find anyone really likeable.

Really enjoyed this one and couldn't stop reading it. The tension, drama, and mystery kept me in a chokehold.
Love the vibes it gave and would definitely recommend it. A great page-turning thriller!

3 stars

You can read all of my reviews at Nerd Girl Loves Books.

This was a fun, twisty mystery about three adults that grew up together in an abusive group home. After several kids went missing the group home was shut down and they all went their separate ways. All three became successful but troubled adults and had no contact with each other until someone started trying to kill them. They eventually get together to solve the mystery, causing them to re-live some of the trauma they endured growing up.

This book started off really well and it kept me interested. I liked Jenna and her storyline. She really seemed to want to live a different life with her husband and step-kids and was determined to use her skills to keep that safe. The other two guys, Donnie and Nico, were a hot mess and that didn't really change throughout the book. I wasn't as interested in their story. As the book progressed things became more outlandish and I lost interest. For me, all of the flashbacks to the group home dragged the story down and could have been trimmed to keep the story moving. But look, I'm a hard reviewer and I think a lot of people will like this book. I didn't dislike it, it just wasn't as good as I wanted it to be.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley and St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books. All opinions are my own.

Another great piece of work from Alex. Kept me engaged the whole time, found it hard to put down. 10/10.

Thank you @netgalley and @stmartinspress for the copy of this book! I was so excited to read this one and I did not see the twist at the end 😵😵25 years ago, a group of teens lived in a house for parentless teenagers. They did something terrible. They were separated when the house got shut down after several kids went missing. Now somebody is trying to kill them and they have to reunite to find out why. The

I loved the characters in this book. Each grew up to be so different. This is one novel where I’m even more curious about the backstory. What a prequel would be when they lived in this horrible group home together.

Similar to 'The Night Shift' I felt like this story had a good premise. I had high hopes based on the synopsis but unfortunately it didn't keep my interest.

This book has multiple POVs and lots of action packed scenes. I felt like it would have made a better action movie than it did a thriller book. I found it hard to get to know the characters and follow their development when there was so much going on.

Overall it was a quick read but I just could not get into it.

I am an Alex Finlay super fan, and when I heard he had a new book coming out in 2023, I was beside myself. “The Night Shift” and “Every Last Fear” are two of my go-to recs to bust out of a reading slump.

This book felt like a departure from “Every Last Fear” and “The Night Shift” in that it was a lot less murdery and more action-driven. But it was also true to Finlay’s style of perfectly tying together plot lines in a way you never saw coming.

I absolutely loved Jenna’s character and wished she told even more of the book (she already tells the majority). Jenna and Special Agent Sara Keller, who was in Finlay’s first two books, are two of the most badass female characters ever created. I am very picky about my crime fiction but Finlay always hits the mark 🎯 Pick this one up as soon as you have a chance!

I’m hard on thrillers. Remember Lois Duncan’s I know What You Did Last Summer? This is like the adult version involving a group of adults who were children in a group home where something happened that they’ve kept a secret for decades. This is one of those action thrillers like Lisa Scottoline’s What Happened to the Bennetts? If you liked that one.

The Night Shift was one of my fav thrillers from 2022 and I kept recommending it to everyone, so I was really excited to read Alex Findlay’s latest book, What Have We Done.

The story centered around childhood friends from Savior House, an orphanage. They grew up and realized someone has found out an evil act they did in the past and trying to assassinate them.

The story was fast-paced and got right into the action with an attempted assassination and cat-and-mouse chase. Multiple POVs in the story but there’s one that’s a bit unhinged and felt out of place. As the story progressed, it got more ridiculous and some of the dots didn’t feel connected to me.

My biggest disappointment was the last 2-3 pages though, just felt that was a bit unnecessary. What Have We Done felt more like a action-packed and fun B thriller movie than a carefully crafted mystery/thriller. It was a quick and fun read but not my fav Findlay.

Thank you NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

3.5 ⭐️

A group of kids living in a group home do something terrible.
Much later in life they are being picked off one by one for reasons they can’t decipher. Meanwhile the FBI has joined into the fray.
All of these people have a variety of careers and lives and the only common denominator is that terrible thing they did long ago.
Fraught with tension , action, and suspense. This is a great read. I highly recommend it.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me this ARC.

I have only read a couple of Finlay's books to date. He seems to have a knack for a taur mystery filled with secrets and twists that you think you know, but you don't really know.

This book intrigued me from the start. I thought I had all the characters figured out, and I was sure I had all the mystery figured out. Until I didn't. I was engrossed in these characters' stories, both past and present.

I defintely wanted something a little deeper for the who and why by the end of the book. I wasn't necessarily disappointed. It all fit. However, I just wanted a little something more of a wow factor for that ending.

All in all, this was a fun, engaging, and twistful read. I would definitely receommend picking this one up.

This was my first book from Alex Finlay so I wasn't sure what to expect. That said, this was more of an action-packed crime thriller than I anticipated it to be based off the synopsis and what I've heard about the author's style, so it ended up not being a great fit for me. I was unfortunately only invested in one of the main characters, and since the story switches to two other POVS, that left me only feeling engaged for 1/3 of the story. I wanted to get to know the characters more and to feel like I cared about them, but I felt like the action was overshadowing the character development. Overall, not for me, but I wouldn't discount it for readers who enjoy action-packed crime thrillers.

Thank you to the publisher for granting me access to an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley, Alex Finlay and St Martin’s Press for the free e-book in exchange for an honest review.

Another good novel from Finlay! This one wasn’t my favourite, but I still really enjoyed the entire thing. It’s a fast paced novel with a ton going on, but that’s what kept me so interested. Definitely recommend.