4.5 ⭐️

This book reignited my love for this series! I haven’t loved the last couple books in this series, so this one being so fun was such a pleasant surprise!

I loved the growth in Finlay and Nick’s relationship and I hope we see even more of this in the next book! Mrs. Haggerty was easily one of the best parts of this book. She’s grumpy but also still loving. I found her parts hilarious and I hope we get to hear more from her in the future.

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC!

Thank you to Netgalley and the published for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Finlay Donovan is one of my favourite series. I always read with a huge smile on my face and can't put them down. This was no exception and I cannot wait for more!

In Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave, Finlay heads to Atlantic City for an undercover mission with more chaos, disguises, and danger than she bargained for—all while trying to protect her family and stay out of prison.
While still full of Finlay’s trademark wit and wild misadventures, this installment didn’t grip me as much as the previous ones. I missed the tension and charm brought by the hot cop—his absence left the story feeling a little less fun and a lot less flirty.

Hello Again!

I love the Finlay Donovan books. Everything about them always makes me happy. The characters are great, the plotlines are always fun and have a good level of depth, and I can always count on these books to keep me from a slump. So when I saw that there was going to be another Finlay Donovan coming out in 2025, I immediately pre-ordered the audiobook (I do not own this series yet, but I will someday)! Once it came out, I saved it for when I was not feeling my best and dove in.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Mrs. Haggerty has been arrested for a body found in her background. While Finlay and Vero are not Mrs. Haggerty’s biggest fans, they are relieved that it is not their backyard and not their murder. When Mrs. Haggerty is finally released from jail, she comes directly to Finlay’s house and has her grandson drop her off there. She says that since they are neighbors, this is the only place she feels comfortable. Her home is still a crime scene and needs to be cleaned up as well since the power has been off the whole time she was in jail. Now, Finlay is stuck with her grumpy neighborhood watch leader living with her while her and Vero are still up to their sluething ways. Oh, and they are trying to potty train Finlay’s son and deal with her daughter getting suspended from Kindergarten. With all the things going on in Finlay’s life and her relationship with a cop, Finlay and Vero will have to make some hard decisions.

I love these books so much. They are a comfort read while still giving some of the murder mystery vibes I love. This is the perfect combination of cozy and mystery. I loved seeing Finlay and Vero’s parenting problems, as well as Finlay’s relationship issues. I know it’s so unrealistic, but I want her boyfriend to be accepting, should Finlay ever tell him the full truth. However, she did call on him for some help in this book. I am so excited already for the next book and I do plan to get physical copies of this whole series soon! If you have not a Finlay Donovan book, you should definitely check them out!

Goodreads Rating: 5 Stars

Finlay is back, and so is the crazy cast if characters with her. I love them all and the hijinks they get themselves into. I really enjoyed this one, especially since Mrs. Haggerty is back. She is able to steal the scene any time she comes into the story. This book made me laugh out loud and wonder who actually killed the man found in Mrs. Haggerty's backyard. I also loved Delia and Zach in this book. They added a dose of reality, especially as a parent. My only wish is that there would have been more Vero. But, this was a great addition to the series, and of course, I can't wait for the next one to come out!

I don't re-read the previous books prior to reading the newest one, but there was a good amount of exposition of previous plots in FD Digs Her Own Grave so I could remember. I loved how the plot here very nicely complements the things that happened in the first book- the women's forum, etc come up again.

Finlay and friends are back in this fifth installment about Finlay Donovan, her life, and all the crazy situations she finds herself in! I loved this one - it felt very much like the OG book, which is still my favorite in the series!

It's obviously difficult to review a fifth book in a series without spoiling them all (they MUST be read in order!), but what I can say is, Elle Cosimano is still bringing the fun, the chaos, and the love you've come to experience in all of the other books. Nosy neighbor Mrs. Haggerty plays a starring role in this one, and she had me laughing in every scene she was in. Plus, of course, all of the fan favorite characters (cough, Nick, cough, Hot Cop, cough) are back!

If you are looking for something silly and fun to get lost in this summer, the Finlay Donovan series is a no-brainer! It's got a little mystery, a little romance, and a little murder...

Elle Cosimano continues to kill it with her Finlay Donovan series. I love it so much and loved getting the whole series through Read Now, thank you!

(4.25/5 stars)

Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave by Elle Cosimano is another fun entry in the long-running humorous mystery series.

This time Finlay is not unwittingly part of a crime; a body turns up under the roses in the neighborhood busybody's back yard. And since Mrs. Haggerty's house is an active crime scene, she doesn't have anywhere to go except for Finlay's house across the street.

I borrowed the audiobook from my local library while following along in my review copy. I have a lot of fun listening to these books! I'm a big fan of the author's sense of humor and Angela Dawe does a great job expressing the humor on the written page.

This book appears to be a turning point in the series. The first several featured hijinks centered around some mafia business, and we seem to be out of the weeds on that topic now. We also got a good amount of character growth from Finlay, especially in regards to her deepening relationship with Nick. I absolutely am rooting for those two.

I got a real kick out of Mrs. Haggerty, and I hope we still get to check in with her in future installments! I also want to get to know more of her book club friends a little deeper. We got a little less of Vero in this book, but it looks like her story is going to be front and center in the next one.

I'd highly recommend you read this series in publication order, but you might be able to read this one as a stand-alone/starting point to get into the series since it appears to be the start of a new arc. All of the books tend to end on a cliff-hanger, so just head's up there. I'm excited to read the next one!

Just when things seem to be calming down, Finlay and Vero are thrust back into chaos when a body is found in Mrs. Haggerty’s yard, a neighbor that they don’t really get along with. Even though Mrs. Haggerty is only a suspect for a short time, her home remains an active crime scene, and she has nowhere to go. Being the great neighbor that she is, Finlay invites her neighbor to crash with her,and as expected, Mrs. Haggerty is just as big of a handful in the house as she is outside of it.

Rating: 3.5/5
Spice:0/5

Tropes:
Cliffhanger
Small Town Mystery

Triggers:
Unalived Body


My Thoughts:
This book is hilarious! It was fun to catch up with the zany Finlay Donovan again, and I think we can all relate to having at least one neighbor like Mrs. Haggerty. I also enjoyed learning more about Nick’s character, because, who wouldn’t?! The ending felt a bit rushed for me, but this was still a great read! I recommend it if you like a cozy mystery!

This whole series was a dnf for me. The first book I liked the premise and it intrigued me enough to move on to the next story. Unfortunately after that it seemed that there was a lot more language and innuendos than the first book. And I wasn't enjoying the story enough to move on and continue.

Another great installment of this series. However, it is starting to get unbelievable that the entirety of this series has happened over the course of a couple of months.

Finlay Donovan's life is ridiculous and I can't stop reading about it! 😂

This newest book has all of the hilarious hijinks I've come to look forward to, plus we get a lot more of her nosy neighbor, Mrs. H, which I thoroughly enjoyed. What a character.

I've enjoyed watching Finlay navigate her rocky relationship with her ex-husband throughout the series, and that continues in this book. Even though the books are silly, the maturity with which she handles that relationship is admirable!

With the ending of this one being what it is, I am already anxious for the next book!

I like how every Finlay book brings on an entirely new plot; I'm never sure what I'm in for, other than mystery and laughs. I'm also happy with how her and Nick turned out in the end cause I wasn't sure how she was going to get around all of that. Overall, another fun mystery read and I'm wondering if this book will inspire a few new stories from other PoV within the book club. A few spin-off short stories would be a fun read from the various ladies.

*Provided a DRC (digital review copy) from the publisher for review. All opinions are my own.

I was a huge fan of the first Finlay Donovan book.... and the second too. But as they move on, I feel as though the author is grasping for straws a little in her plot lines. The latest book in the series just felt too silly and unstructured. It might be time to hang up the series instead of continuing to move forward.

I just love the Finlay Donovan books! I’m delayed in my review because I just had to start from the beginning so that I could reread everything before this one! It brought just as many laugh-out-loud moments as I have come to expect in this series. Each time a new one comes out I worry that it will be the last one, so I was so happy for another cliffhanger so that I know another book is coming!!!

Another fantastic installment of the Finlay Donovan series. Love watching the characters develop as the stories go on, but especially loved the focus of this book on the neighborhood itself. Maggie was one of our main characters this time around and honestly, I NEVER would have predicted the twist in this one! Not in a million years. Also love how far Nick & Finn have come. This story showed that while we may have done some questionable things in our past, it doesn’t make us “bad.” Loved this and cannot wait for book 6! Thanks for the ARC!

Is it a literary masterpiece? No, but will I continue with this series? Absolutely. It's a fun read that will keep you guessing.

Finlay and Vero are finally done with all the murder and intrigue that has plagued their lives for the past 4 months. Or at least they thought so until a body is found in their elderly neighbor's yard, and suspicion quickly falls on Finlay's ex-husband. As a tenacious detective starts digging into things they'd rather not get uncovered, Finlay and Vero find themselves back on the hunt for the real killer if they hope to keep their own secrets buried.

Another fun caper with quirky characters that has some deep topics without ever feeling dark. I really enjoy how Cosimano takes on murder and the reasons for it with such goofy flair while maintaining the seriousness of it. It's a very fine line, yet she manages it brilliantly.
I continue to be amazed at the dumb things that Finlay and Vero do and how they manage to always escape with a new piece of the puzzle. It's a bumbling sleuth story where the sleuths are so charmingly incompetent that you forgive and ignore the fact that they should have been caught by now.

Delighted thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the fun read!

I LOVE the Finlay Donovan series. Finlay, Vero, Nick....they all just continue to make me laugh as they stumble through their accidental antics. I was thrilled to be able to review yet another ARC from this series. This one really threw me for a loop by making some of the secondary characters become a little more important. I had no idea these people could be like this! I don't want to say much more because I want to avoid any possible spoilers, but this is not one of those series where you're just waiting for it to end. In fact, the cliffhanger at the end made me want the next one to come NOW.