The Inheritance Games, The Hawthorne Legacy, and The Final Gambit were explosive reads for me. It was unexpected. Exciting. Romantic. Puzzling. Those books contained so much. The Brothers Hawthorne? Well, I can see where Jennifer Lynn Barnes wanted to stay true to the puzzles and the games and the riddles, but I honestly didn’t even like that part of the book. So, where do I start?

With the plot, you’re getting two different perspectives. One from Grayson. One from Jameson. Jameson’s perspective is the one that’s supposed to be the “ultimate game”. I found it boring and a little too… easy? There was a lot of talk in the book how hard it would be for Jameson and nearly impossible, but he went through it with ease. I found it highly disappointing.

As far as Grayson’s point of view goes, I loved his. I wanted more of his and less of Jameson’s. A lot of what Jameson did felt selfish and immature, but Grayson’s journey was so much more satisfying as he was doing everything for family and honor. If you’ve read my other reviews for this series, then you know that Jameson was always my favorite. In this novel, though? Grayson was my favorite all the way.

As always, the writing and new characters we meet in this novel are superb (I especially love Gigi). The main thing I couldn’t connect with was Jameson’s plot line. Don’t come for me for this, but I honestly couldn’t have cared less about his part in the book.

Spoilers ahead.

So, now for the spoilers. There’s really not much I’m going to talk about except the ending. How, in the course of four-hundred-something odd pages, the ending was one of the most exciting things to happen? I guessed who was taking advantage of Grayson’s sister and their mother. That’s a no-brainer. So the most unexpected thing happened in the last few pages. Eve coming for the Hawthornes? Yes, that was expected. But Alice Hawthorne being alive? Yeah, there’s gonna be another book.

Overall, this was a good read. It wasn’t the best in my opinion, but it was still good. I’d give it 3.5 stars (rounded up to 4 for Goodreads and Amazon). Grayson was the star of the show, though, and I really wish all of the chapters had been him haha.   

Source: Personal Copy

(P.S. You can read this book for free by signing up for a free trial of Audible, which gives you two free audiobooks of your choice!)