What Have We Done...more like What Did I Just Read?! Wow - a wild, fun ride that truly had me racing through to finish it. 3 people that have a shared past suddenly find themselves in sticky situations that ultimately leads them back to each other and the place where their paths first crossed and where their secrets are buried. Jenna, Donnie, and Nico are all racing against the clock, and the people who are trying to kill them???, to figure out the truth.

This is a fast fast paced thriller that jumps around from person to person and past and present. A LOT happens and it definitely requires you to buy in and suspend belief in reality but it is fun! I loved Jenna's perspective the most and wanted to hear more from her.

The narrators did a great job with the story and switched up based on the gender of the character which really moved the story along and created a faster dynamic with the audio.

Really entertaining and fun read - What Have We Done is out 3/7/23 - thank you to Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for the ARC!

Alex Finlay has become one of my new favorite thriller writers. What Have We Done is his new thriller.

"Twenty-five years ago, Jenna, Donnie and Nico were residents of Savior House, a group home for teens. The home was closed after several girls and the home's adult manager disappeared.
Now someone is trying to kill them and they must revisit their childhood trauma to find the one who wants them dead."

On the surface this seems like it may be a typical thriller trope. Something happened years ago - now someone wants revenge. It is that but Finlay puts these wonderful characters and fast-paced writing to pull you in - an assassin, a rock star and a TV producer. And the psychopathic killers are way out there - especially one of the weapons.

There are some twists along the way and a a couple of big ones near the end.
This is a full cast audiobook with a great performance from the cast - especially rock star Donnie.

A wild story from Finlay. I think you'll want to add this one to your beach list this year.

Thanks to Macmillan audio for the advanced listening copy in exchange for my honest review.

What Have We Done by Alex Finlay

A small group of kids meet in at the very misnamed Savior House, a group home for teens without parents. The place is a house of horrors with bullying and inappropriate adult caretaking. And girls go missing, never to be seen again.

I couldn't get into the unlikeable characters but I'm sure many will many will enjoy this book.

Expected publication March 7, 2023

Thank you to St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books and NetGalley for this ARC.

Alex Finlay’s What Have We Done is a chilling and suspenseful Novel. This action packed and tense story will keep you on the edge of your seat and includes a jaw dropping and remarkable twist that you’ll never see coming.

Alex Finlay did an incredible job with this unique story that not only keeps you guessing, while keeping your heart in your throat, but also demonstrates excellent character development.

Multicast Audiobooks can be hard to get right, but the narrators worked perfectly together. As always Brittany Pressley does a fantastic job, and always amazes me with her talent for changing voices and not sounding like she’s reading directly from the dialogue but telling a story like she’s there. James Patrick Cronin, Jon Lindstrom, and Maggie Thompson all also did a wonderful job bringing the story to life. I was able to visualize each individual character and follow their story.

In What Have We Done, we visit the lives of Jenna, Donny, and Niko following the murder of their childhood friend, Ben. The four of them, as well as Artemis all got close during their time living at Savior House, a group home they were all placed at, as teens. After the group starts questioning why kids are going missing; they end up getting split up and places at other homes or heading off on their own. One night before they all left Savior House the five teenagers demanded answers, but after an incident, they all now carry a dark secret.

After Ben was murdered, the other four all have near death experiences and now they need to figure out whose out to kill all of them, why, is it the same person/people that killed Ben, and does that mean someone else outside of their group knows their deepest secret? While following the present day lives of the four, and looking a little into the past, clues start coming together forming the answers they’ve been looking for, but not necessarily what they want to learn. A few of them may actually hold secrets of their own that may end up changing everything.

I found this book to be fine. There’s a lot of good action and intensity to keep you on your toes. However I had a hard time finding any of the characters likable, a lot having to do with there not being any character building. Finlay throws you into the action right away and it all ties up in the end but I found it to be a bit confusing at time because I just had no idea what happened yet.

If you like action packed thrillers with a couple twists and just continuing on with the events, this one’s for you.

What Have We Done was my first book by Alex Finley and it hooked me as soon as the cute little suburban mom sent the kids to school, went to the gym, aaaaaand them turned out to be a former hired assassin. This thriller is intense. You need to pay attention. There is a lot going on. Twists and turns. An intricate plot.

Jenna, Donnie, and Nico were childhood friends from an abusive group home. But when students started disappearing the school shut down and they were separated. Surprisingly, they each succeeded on different paths. But they are forced into a reunion of sorts when someone wants them dead.

Although I enjoyed this book I don't think audio was the best format for me. If I'd had a paper copy I would have been flipping back and forth to review. I had trouble finding my place at times with the format of the netgalley audio. Chapters were told from the different character's point of view - and Jenna's chapters were most clearly understandable to me. Donnie's chapters were always colorful. Nico's were a bit confusing for me. The "twins' were very interesting characters but the fact that they met each other at school after being raised separately was just a little too "Parent Trap' to believe!

💭Thoughts:
This book was not what I was expecting. I thought it was going to be more of a physiological thriller, but instead I got a fast passed thriller with lots of action. There are assassins and unusual weapons and lots of chases. I was definitely on the edge of my seat wondering what was going to happen next. It’s a compulsive read.

I felt like the character development was a bit lacking because their was so much going on and so many different characters. If you like plot driven stories, than this is definitely for you. There are multiple POVs and timelines to keep track of too. It got a little confusing at times, especially because I was listening to the audiobook and found myself getting distracted. You really have to pay attention to every detail in this book. The narrator did a great job with the story and really brought the characters to life.

I definitely recommend this book if you like fast paced thrillers with lots of action.

Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC audiobook.

Someone is trying to kill 4 people who happened to be at the same abusive group home for parentless teens. Jenna, a stepmom to 2 girls, Donnie, an alcoholic rock star, Artemis, a tech genius, and Nico, a TV producer. Ben, a judge, was already killed.

The book is told mainly from 3 points of view - Jenna, Donnie, and Nico. As the novel progresses, we also get the point of view of the baddie.

I really enjoyed Jenna's POV and her backstory. I honestly would have preferred a book that was solely about Jenna and her experience with "The Corporation." I feel like the ending was fairly obvious because of Artemis' POV being left out of the rest of the novel. If he was really a victim, why didn't we get portions from his perspective. It kind of ruined it for me.

I also feel like it could have ended right after the scenes back at Savior House. It didn't need to continue with one of the twins being alive and coming for Jenna.

Middle of the road, not terrible or special. Focus on Jenna and her story.

This book was just OK for me. There were some very promising moments in the story, but I felt like it was disjointed at times. Some of the plot twists were a bit outlandish to me and I found myself losing interest.

A big thank you to St. Martin’s Press, Minotaur Books and Netgalley for the ARC! This book will be published on March 7th, 2023.

I thoroughly enjoyed getting the opportunity to read and review Alex Finlay’s new book - as I have heard amazing things about another one of his books, The Night Shift, - which I just snagged on kindle with no-rush credits.

What Have We Done is a very fast paced thriller - which is something I enjoy, so I devoured this book in just a few days! I enjoyed the way in which the book was structured - chapters separated out characters - and it kept me guessing as to what each person’s role was & how the characters were connected to one another. The flashbacks between past and present did keep me intrigued and wondering about what the actual heck happened! 🤣

I also was able to rotate between the ebook/eARC and the audiobook formats - which I also enjoyed, especially with the voice changes between characters & the clarity of the narrators as well. With these elements it made the book easy to follow and remember important details.

As a social worker, who is familiar with various group home settings - that aspect of the book was something that hit me in the feels pretty quickly. Especially the different situations that landed each of the children in that residential setting.

Everybody has secrets, some people more than others.
When old secrets threaten to come to light, a group of old friends must come back together to help keep them buried.

This was a fast moving story that had me pretty confused at first. I had a tough time keeping the characters separate, but that was on me. Once I had everybody figured out the book flew by.
Lots of twists and turns.
The characters were all different and interesting and the story flowed well.
I would rate this one 3.5

TW: Murder, alcoholism, cancer, death of parent, use of f*g word, bullying,

*****SPOILERS*****
About the book:A stay-at-home mom with a past.
A has-been rock star with a habit.
A reality TV producer with a debt.
Three disparate lives.
One deadly secret.

Twenty five years ago, Jenna, Donnie, and Nico were the best of friends, a bond forged as residents of Savior House, an abusive group home for parentless teens. When the home was shut down—after the disappearance of several kids—the three were split up.

Though the trauma of their childhood has never left them, each went on to live successful, if troubled, lives. They haven’t seen one another since they were teens but now are reunited for a single haunting reason: someone is trying to kill them.

To save their lives, the group will have to revisit the nightmares of their childhoods and confront their past—a past that holds the secret to why someone wants them dead.

It’s a reunion none of them asked for... or wanted. But it may be the only way to save all their lives.
Release Date: March 7th, 2023
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 368
Rating: ⭐ (I wish I could give negative)

What I Liked:
1. The cover is okay
2. Plot sounded interesting

What I Didn't Like:
1. I guess I'm reading a Jason Borne book 🤷🏻‍♀️
2. Shepherd's pie is from the United Kingdom not Ireland
3. Not enough back story to care about characters
4. Completely different story than plot described

Overall Thoughts:
I am so sorry. I got almost 200 pages into this book and I just could not stand it anymore. I was reading it and I just did not care. I just wanted all the characters to die and I didn't even care who did it.

I despise the way the author continued to use the characters name in almost every paragraph. It makes no sense if you're talking about yourself. Who thinks in the 3rd person? The characters perspective is coming from the actual person so you wouldn't think that way.
(insert Jimmy gif Senfield)

A fucking random woman that's a person that does hits. Talk about how random and unrelatable is that. Is this Black Widow or Alias?! How ridiculous! Oh and her husband knows everything about her past life and her killing people, but he's okay with it. Gotta love the crazy foreshadowing that Jenna was going to be a spy - "She blends into the background and people forget she's there" and the way she beat up the bullies and spider crawled up the wall.
(alias gif)

This book feels so disjointed. We are just thrown into these people's lives, which made it hard to care about them. I didn't build up to getting to know them enough to care that they were being killed off. You get almost 100 pages into the book before we get a description of what life was like for them in the group home.

The random flashbacks of the characters is confusing. They are just thrown into the middle of when a character is talking/thinking and suddenly you're in 1990's and then thrown back to the present.

Oh and I love how they just let Jenna leave behind the hit game. She has ALL their secrets and they just let her walk out free. There would be ZERO reason to keep her alive once her worth was over.

Donnie is gross. The way he talks about a younger woman taking off her shirt and her boobs is just yuck. Dude got on my nerves.

Final Thoughts:
I feel completely hoodwinked by this story. I thought I was getting a thriller that kept me guessing on who was trying to kill them and what I got was some ridiculous spy book about a woman who's an assain and a washed up rocker. Nico felt forgettable and honestly I have no idea anything about him. Oh and the Irish mob. Like what is this book??

Recommend For:
• Spy books

This was my first Alex Finlay book. I’ve been wanting to read one of his books but this one fell flat for me.

I almost DNF but kept expecting it to pick up. I was very bored and found the plot to be OTT.
The multiple point of view felt like it was too much to keep up with. There is a lot of action which is great. Has a nice strong start but I was confused at first because you jump right into present day with no information about their past lives until later in the book.

Although this book wasn’t for me, if you love action and over the top stories then maybe this book is for you.


Thank you Macmillan Audio for providing me with an audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Alex Finlay brings us another great mystery thriller in his newest release. This book has one of my favorite tropes which is when something happens to a group of friends when they're younger and then they reunite years later for one reason or another. Jenna, Donnie, and Nico bonded as teens when they lived together at a group home. The environment was abusive and led to events that would haunt these three for years to come. As adults, they begin to be pulled in when a mutual friend winds up dead and the others are each attacked in various ways. Will they be able to stay alive long enough to solve the mystery of who is coming after them?

Finlay does a great job of building the suspense and keeping the reader on their toes. The narrative switches from one friend to the next so you can never see clearly what is coming next. While this was tricky to track when listening on audio, it wasn't an issue with the print copy. The narration is great. I just had to really concentrate to keep track of who was narrating each section. I found each of the characters engaging and their stories unique. I wanted them to win in the end and wasn't sure they would. They have to face their horrid past and you feel for them and dread it right along with them.

If you are a fan of suspense, you will enjoy this book. It has twists and turns with each page that keep you reading since you cannot put the book down. I look forward to reading more from Finlay in the future.

Thanks to NetGalley & MacMillan Audio for providing an audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was my first time reading Alex Findlay, and I was curious to see what all the hype was about. I'm guessing that his previous outings are a bit more on point, because this story is just lazy. Another reviewer assessed it as Orphan X meets James Patterson, and that seems about right.

If you have consumed any entertainment media, this story will be familiar to you: a bunch of kids in a shitty group home in Delaware County (the town is called Chestertown, but it reads kind of like Chester, PA, only smaller) run by the mayor's ne'er-do-well brother SOMEHOW all grow up to be extraordinary; one is taken away by an elite organization that trains assassins (La Femme Nikita, anyone?), one grows up to be a respected judge in Philadelphia, one becomes a C-list rock star, one becomes a TV producer, and one becomes one of the richest men in the world (the description is basically if Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos had a child). WHAT ARE THE ODDS?

The premise is that someone is trying to kill all of these people 25 years after they did Something Terrible. One of them has already been killed. and the rest have serious attempts made on their lives, but of course these attempts are not just mimicking "mugging gone wrong" or any basic execution; they are complicated and ridiculous, and the now-grown kids are clever/gritty/lucky enough to survive. The killer(s) who are out to get them are self-styled, home-trained twin sisters who were separated at birth but are apparently both sociopaths who just like to kill people and have hung up a shingle on the Dark Web.

Significant portions of the plot rely on the right people being in the right place at the right time. Of course, the person behind the plot to kill all these people has a dastardly plan that kind of relies on his targets doing what he wants them to do, which is not necessarily the natural order of things (especially when one of the targets is a functioning alcoholic and all of them have been injured in the attempts on their lives). Really, it's just too much lazy plotting.

This book goes quickly and it's not like it's not entertaining, but it feels like a badly-cobbled TV movie in book form. The voice acting is really good, though, so that's a definite plus. The chapters with the twins are quite interesting, even if their backstory beggars belief (essentially The Parent Trap but without the parents and with burgeoning sadism).

Thank you Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for this alc.

In this suspense novel we follow three teenagers living at Savior House, a home for parentless teens. Together they did something terrible. And now, twenty-five years later, they are brought together to face their past. And someone wants them dead.

Told through different points of view, this book is fast-paced and the characters are not exactly likeable but interesting in their own way. The plot has some twists and surprises. I liked the fact the story depicts the power of friendship on overcoming obstacles and secrets but this book was an ok book, not a hit for me.

The audiobook is narrated by four different narrators: Brittany Pressley, James Patrick Cronin, Jon Lindstrom, and Maggie Thompson. They provide a gripping listening experience. It was a good experience listening to this book. I am sure the thriller fans will like this one.

What a wild ride! Alex Finlay has done it again with his latest book, What Have We Done. I love thrillers that keep you on the edge of your seat and keep you guessing (at least for a good part of the book).

The story centers on five teens who became friends in an abusive group home, who are now adults, and someone is trying to kill each of them. They jointly harbor a secret (hence the title!) from back then, but have each gone their separate ways and have not been in touch for years and years. You gradually learn their backstories and how their lives have evolved and brought them to their current situations. Be prepared for frequent switches between the present and the past.

The chapters vary in terms of POV (point of view) - either Jenna, Donnie or Nico. Their friend Ben is dead and we don’t get a chapter from Arty’s POV. Finlay does a great job with the atmospheric details; I could “see” the group home and the rundown neighborhoods he describes. A particularly creepy section focused on being in an underground mine.

I bounced between the audiobook and the ebook for this title, which was very convenient. The audiobook has a number of distinct narrators who all do a wonderful job: Brittany Pressley; James Patrick Cronin; Jon Lindstrom; Maggie Thompson. I love it when audiobooks have more than one narrator.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to an advance copy of this audiobook and to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance reader copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Huge disappointment! I had rated both of Finlay’s previous books well (4 stars) and was eagerly anticipating this one. It was boring 🥱 and poorly written. I would have DNF’d but kept going expecting it to get better.

The main storyline is old and stale, the “bad guys” are cartoon villains, and the rest of the novel is shallow in development yet also requires the reader suspend disbelief. I also found all of the characters rather boring and the multiple POV exhausting.

Definitely a huge miss for me.

I found the “success” and how each foster kid grew up ridiculous and unbelievable;
the missing girls preemies is stale and the identical twin teen girl-ish assainis initially intrigued me but were so cartoonish. The author also made the point at least twice to say they were identical twins separated at birth for scientific study but does literally nothing with that? What was the point then?


Thanks netgalley for my ARC.

Dear What Have We Done,
You were so intriguing for me! You had some maybe delicate threads that you brought together. I loved each of the three characters. Jenna was such a unique female character, especially given her history with The Company. I think a whole story about her time with The Company would be fascinating! Donnie and Nico were also so interesting. Iso successful, but so troubled about their past. None of them could escape what happened to them at Savior House and the thing that brought them together. Each one of them were fighting their own addictions and hurts, trying to bury secrets and not succeeding. The way everything was brought that to a head, with so many twists and turns was interesting and sometimes surprising as well. You were quite the thrill ride!

I was really excited to get my hands on this book because I love Alex Finlay’s books. Unfortunately this one just didn’t do it for me. The concept was definitely interesting- three friends individually dealing with the aftermath of one fatefully night 25 years later, but it didn’t hold my attention. There were some great moments where I was surprised by the twist and I truly enjoyed the pacing. There was just something missing for me. I’ll definitely continue reading Alex’s books in the future and look forward to the next one.