The Hawthorne Legacy (Inheritance Games Book 2) - Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Publisher Summary:

"The Inheritance Games ended with a bombshell, and now heiress Avery Grambs has to pick up the pieces and find the man who might hold the answers to all of her questions—including why Tobias Hawthorne left his entire fortune to Avery, a virtual stranger, rather than to his own daughters or grandsons. Thanks to a DNA test, Avery knows that she’s not a Hawthorne by blood, but clues pile up hinting at a deeper connection to the family than she had ever imagined. As the mystery grows and the plot thickens, Grayson and Jameson, two of the enigmatic and magnetic Hawthorne grandsons, continue to pull Avery in different directions. And there are threats lurking around every corner, as adversaries emerge who will stop at nothing to see Avery out of the picture—by any means necessary."

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My Review:

Rating: 7.5/10

The plot thickens! Avery's story is no longer that of figuring out the reasons behind her inheritance, but has turned into a discovery of the story of the Hawthornes and herself. While the story does very much encompass the mystery left behind by Tobias Hawthorne, it is now much more than a set of clues left behind, and has taken to the real world.

The writing of the book was of the same quality as the first one, though I do wish that a little more time was spent either on recapping events or clarifying events. Especially because the book centers around a mystery, I found myself getting lost with all the clues, people, and places. I also felt like I couldn't understand some of the conclusions Avery and the Hawthorne brothers reach, however I was not too invested into this book, and was just reading it in my free time. This could be the reason as to why I was unable to follow the story, so the book might be better read in as few sittings as possible.

I thought the plot continued very naturally, but it almost felt like too much happened in one go. There was a lot of excitement throughout the book, but this is much better than having little to nothing happen instead. There was a lot of movement and action, including one scene which was very much something I could see happening in an action movie. One thing I will criticize though was the romance that Avery had. I found it somewhat unnatural, but this may have been due to the writing. I felt like it wasn't shown enough in the book to play a big part of Avery's story, but it also was present too much to act as a romance subplot. While it's not the actual romance I am against, I just wish it had been written a little bit differently. However, this didn't take away too much from the actual plot, so I wouldn't consider it too big of a point.

Overall, I think this was not to bad of a book, and a good continuation of the series. For people who want to read a modern YA mystery novel, this isn't too bad of a pick.