Do you ever start reading a book and feel chills of anticipation because you know it's going to be good? That happened to me about 15 pages into What Have We Done. Even though this has been a busy week adjusting to being back to work after my Rio trip, I have been inhaling snippets of the book as often as possible, even just a few pages while waiting for a bus home last night.
Twenty-five years ago, the main characters met and bonded over shared abuse and trauma in their group home for parentless teens. But after the home was shuttered, each of them went their own way. Now it seems like someone wants all of them dead - but who, and why?
Alex Finlay is quickly becoming one of my favorite thriller writers. Last year's The Night Shift was great, and I really LOVED Every Last Fear, published in 2021. This one was a slower read for me than either of those, but I was still buckled in for the wild ride! There are MANY different POV, with each wonderfully short chapter (out of 85!) changing to a different character's viewpoint. I loved Jenna the most - she's a total badass. I did predict a major plot point pretty early on, but I was proud of my skills picking up foreshadowing details and it didn't lessen my reading experience.
Thanks to Minotaur Books for the ARC via NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion. I can’t wait to hear what others think when this one publishes on Tuesday 3/7!

This was my first Alex Finlay read and it definitely won’t be my last!

In “What Have We Done”, the author breaks the book down into three sections: The Targets, The Reunion, and The Truth. In each section you get to know about a lot of different characters who all started out at the Savior House, a foster home in Chestertown, PA. There are bad things going on at the foster home with girls disappearing. Nobody quite knows what’s going on.

25 years later, it seems that someone has taken a hit out on a few of the remaining residents of Savior House- Jenna, Nico, Donnie, Arty, and Ben. Ben is a federal judge and has been murdered. Donnie and Nico have had attempts taken on their lives. When will it end? What’s the reason behind the hits? Has someone discovered what they did 25 years ago to finally escape Savior House?

I found this book a bit lacking with the character background. I felt it would have been beneficial to have learned more about their time at Savior House in the beginning of the book versus later on to connect their stories. However, I still thoroughly enjoyed this thriller!

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC!

What Have We Done by Alex Finlay is a highly recommended suspenseful mystery/thriller.

Twenty-five years ago five abused and neglected kids, Jenna, Nico, Donnie, Benny, and Arty, are at from a group home for troubled teens, Savior House, when they take turns firing a gun into a shallow grave. What happened, why, and who is was isn't revealed until the end. There are numerous problems at Savior House, where young girls keep disappearing, and the friends have bonded together in order to survive the abuse. Now, twenty-five years later, someone is trying to kill them.

Benny, a federal judge, has already been murdered. Jenna, a stay-at-home mom with a sketchy past as an assassin is forced back into the role when she is contacted to complete an assignment or her family dies. When she realizes the target is Arty, she purposefully misses, but is then relentlessly pursued by a young woman determined to kill her and her family. Donnie, a rocker and alcoholic, is forced over the side of a cruise ship at gunpoint. Nico, a reality show producer and gambling addict, is trapped in a coal mine. These three former friends unite to try to discover who is trying to kill them and why.

The action races along in this action-packed mystery/thriller. This is without a doubt a genre novel and reads like an action movie, which does have a certain appeal. The narrative alternates between events in the past at Savior House, covering the character's backstories, and the present day threat. Finlay includes plenty of misleading clues and twists to keep you guessing who could be responsible and why. The answer has to be in their backstories because their past is what connects them, but what part and why?

Jenna, Nico, and Donnie are all unique characters, but also written as caricatures of a type of individual. This also makes What Have We Done read like an action movie, but a good one with a complex plot and surprises along the way. The suspense, fast-paced plot, and compelling action held my attention throughout.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of St. Martin's via NetGalley
The review will be published on Barnes & Noble, Google Books, Edelweiss, and Amazon.

Children in a group home experience abuse. One day they decide to take action. Twenty-five years later, they may finally be called to account for it. Told from multiple perspectives and timelines. Great for fans of psychological fiction.

This book started out strong for me but it just did not hold my attention. I was highly enthralled which each POV at the very beginning of the book and felt as if I were watching an action movie (in my head). But it lost my attention just as quickly as it initially gripped me. I didn’t particularly care for any of the main characters except the dead friend that was referenced frequently- he seemed to be the most developed and wasn’t even part of the story really. lol This was a bit of a letdown but I plan to check out some other work by this author because I have heard positive things.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

I enjoyed the multiple point of views and timelines. I enjoyed how the story unfolded and how all the characters were linked together from their childhoods and were now coming back together. The pacing seemed a little off - the beginning of the book started off so fast that I felt the book should have been shorter and the twists and suspense suffered for the length.

This review was originally posted on Books of My Heart


Review copy was received from Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

3.5 hearts

It took a bit to settle into What Have We Done because it starts with a prologue of sorts, then chapters are alternately from the point of view of Jenna, Donnie, Nico or a villain. It's weird because there are actually two more kids who were part of there history and secret, Ben and Artemis.

Things are fast and furious because someone is trying to kill our three people who are telling us the story. We don't know who or why or even what the secret is. Miraculously, they all live but there are some injuries. Each of them has different ideas about who is after them.

I liked Jenna. She is competent, smart and loves her family. She investigates with intelligent and sharp abilities. I was rooting for her all along as she gathered more information.

Donnie was harder to like. He is an aging rock star who drinks and takes drugs and just sort of stumbles through life. In fact, his murder attempt was initially thought to be an accident. He doesn't really even think of investigating. He's just trying to survive his own meager existence.

Nico also has some problems, and I like him the least. He also survives what looks like an accident. Nico is a gambler who owes a lot of money. He tries to find out who might have been trying to kill him. Most of his ideas don't pan out or even make sense.

Eventually, they all come together with the villains and things are dicey. The secrets all come out and the villains want no people who know the secrets. I enjoyed reading and trying to understand the mystery and secrets. The ending was mostly satisfying. There was one person who I thought should have ended up much worse as they caused the whole thing.

2.5 stars rounded down.

I feel like I can't properly rate this book and I'm assigning a star rating simply based on my enjoyment factor which, truth be told, wasn't great.

I really wanted to love this book as I'm a fan of the author. I was so excited to receive an arc of this one and the synopsis was really intriguing. Unfortunately, there was a disconnect for me - with the plot, with the characters, with the timeline - it was a little bit of everything to be honest. It was quite slow burn and took me a long time to get into it. Around the middle it grabbed my attention a bit which enticed me to keep reading. But then I slowly lost interest again and I'll be honest, I ended up skimming through most of it.

Plenty of good ratings out there for this one, so please don't judge the book based on this. This one just didn't really work for me.

The first third of this book, had me hooked on the stories as it was being told through multiple POVs. At that point, I didn’t know how they were connected nor where it was going to go. There was one storyline that I preferred more than the others and I wished it would have been given precedence. The bulk of the middle section (part 2) was boring to me, and it caused my interest to wane. The ending Part 3, was the twisted conclusion of why they were brought together in such murderous fashion after 25 years being apart.

All in all, it was a good read especially if you enjoy multiple POVs. 3.5 stars

What Have We Done- Alex Finlay

Star rating- 4

Thank you NetGalley, Alex Finlay and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I sincerely could not put this book down. This book took off so fast and continued to keep me in suspense the entire way through. This book reminded me of Black Widow mixed with Jack Ryan and read like a movie was playing out before you. I loved every minute of it. The book had multiple POV and multiple timelines. The ending was unpredictable and all the characters were well developed. Honestly, this book was so much fun to read!
The story was based on Jenna, Donnie and Nico who were friends brought together by the horrible circumstance of all being placed in the same group home. After the group home shut down because of some mysterious disappearances the group separated and all went on to live their lives. When out of nowhere 25 years later all of these friends are being hunted and their lives and their loved one’s lives are now in danger. They must figure out who is doing this, and why this is all happening.

This was an OK thriller. I don’t quite get all the hype surrounding it, but to each their own! There are a lot of characters to keep track of and I got confused about who each person was at times.

I received an advanced copy. All thoughts are my own.

It was a good read, not a great read.
The story line was there & it’s pretty fast paced but the characters seemed a bit too juvenile. Overall it was a quick fun who dunnit. Thanks NetGalley for the Arc 👍🏼

Finished ✔️ What Have We Done by Alex Finlay and enjoyed this one. 😉
4 ⭐️’s
Publish Day: March 7th, 2023
My first book by this author and won’t be my last
Top-notch mystery thriller
Stay-at-home mom with a past
Has-been rockstar with a habit
Reality TV producer with a debt
Three desperate lives
One deadly secret
Holds your attention very well
Brilliantly written
A very good book for my first book by this author
Twists and turns I never saw coming
Twists and turn that left me wondering what would be next
Engrossed by this book
Yes, I’d recommend this book
#DeesReading #DeesRecs #DeesBookRecommendations #BookNerds #BookNerdProblems #BookNerdsUnited #BookProblems #BookProblems101 #BookNerds101 #Bookworms #BookwormProblems #BooksOfFacebook #DeeTheBookReviewer #BookReviewer #NewToMeAuthor #AlexFinlay #ReadOfTheDay #BookOfTheDay #MysteryThriller #MysteriesAndThrillers #WhatHaveWeDone #NetGalley

Another enjoyable, fast paced, dramatic thriller from Alex Finlay! It was tense as the three main characters work to find out who has been trying to track them down and kill them, assumably in revenge for an act they were all involved in while living in the same group home as teens. The story gets a little muddy at times- there is a lot of backstory to keep straight- and the different perspectives weren't equally compelling to me. The moments on which readers and the characters have to reckon with the really unfair circumstances that led them to that night as teens are surprisingly poignant.

Another DNF for me. I loved the description and idea of the concept of this book. Everything a thriller could want.

25% read and it was confusing and I couldn’t get into it. No part of the plot was really catching and I had very very little interest in the characters.

Life’s too short for books you don’t love.

"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, having forged a bond through the abuse and neglect they endured as residents of Savior House, a 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 accomplished—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 survive, the group will have to revisit the nightmares of their childhoods and confront their shared 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."

At the book's start, I was not sure if I was going to like it. The beginning seemed a bit disjointed. However, once the characters were fully introduced and the story, continued to build, I was hooked. I could not put it down. Alex Finlay has crafted a brilliant, intriguing, thriller novel.

**3.5 Stars**
Thank you NetGalley and Alex Finlay for the advanced reader copy! I recently read The Night Shift and jumped at the opportunity to read and review this book before release. This book was definitely an action-packed thriller, but by the end, I felt that I didn't really know all the characters and wish there was more insight into their backgrounds. The book throws you right in the middle of the action and reveals bits and pieces from the characters' pasts. Alex Finlay's writing style is always enjoyable to read, and as a result, I got through this one very fast.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a free arc in exchange for an honest review.

What Have We Done is a thriller following a group of people who are all connected by their shared past. As teenagers, they all lived in Savior House, a foster home for teenagers, where they committed a horrible act they’ve been covering up ever since. Now, decades later, someone knows their secret, and someone is coming for them.

This was a fun, fast paced thriller that I enjoyed. This book is non-stop action and plot twists, with a lot happening. It is a little unrealistic, you’ll definitely need to suspend disbelief to enjoy this one, but it would make a great pool or beach read. Some sections did feel like they could have been a bit more fleshed out then they were, but if you’re just looking for a fun, fast paced book, this is a good one to try.

3.5 stars rounded up. This was my first Alex Finlay, having heard about them first via Mara from bookslikewhoa. It was propulsive and a lot of fun, but also full of trauma and ugliness, so folks should be aware of that balance.

For fans of books like The It Girl and In My Dreams I Hold a Knife, What Have We Done is about a group of people who grew up in a group home where people disappeared and shady shit happened. Now they're grown up and one of their fellow residents has been killed, and attempts have also been made on their lives, so they have to figure out who and why before they become the next victim. The story is told in alternating POVs: Donnie, a dried up rock band dude; Jenna, who was taken and trained as a spy; and Nico, a TV producer. In their group was also Artemis, aka Arty, who grew up to be a tech genius.

I found myself wishing to just be seeing Jenna's point of view. It was like watching a Bourne movie and I love those, bananas as they are. And it was fast paced, but there were some things I didn't love and felt a little hokey. Overall, a pretty middle of the road experience for me but I had a good time while reading it. It's a great airplane book.

cw: sexual assault, childhood sexual abuse, trafficking, gun violence, alcoholism, slurs, homophobia

A secret five teenage friends from a group home have kept for twenty- five years.
Now one of the five has been murdered and the other four have had attempts made on their lives. Who would be targeting them and does it have to do with that long kept secret? The surprise is well worth the read.