Four brothers. Two missions. One explosive read. Jennifer Lynn Barnes returns to the world of her #1 bestselling Inheritance Games trilogy, and the stakes have never been higher.
Grayson Hawthorne was raised as the heir apparent to his billionaire grandfather, taught from the cradle to put family first. Now the great Tobias Hawthorne is dead and his family disinherited, but some lessons linger. When Grayson's half-sisters find themselves in trouble, he swoops in to do what he does best: take care of the problem—efficiently, effectively, mercilessly. And without getting bogged down in emotional entanglements.
Jameson Hawthorne is a risk-taker, a sensation-seeker, a player of games. When his mysterious father appears and asks for a favor, Jameson can't resist the challenge. Now he must infiltrate London's most exclusive underground gambling club, which caters to the rich, the powerful, and the aristocratic, and win an impossible game of greatest stakes. Luckily, Jameson Hawthorne lives for impossible.
Drawn into twisted games on opposite sides of the globe, Grayson and Jameson—with the help of their brothers and the girl who inherited their grandfather's fortune—must dig deep to decide who they want to be and what each of them will sacrifice to win.
Title : The Brothers Hawthorne
Author : Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Series : The Inheritance Games (book four)
Page Count : 480
Genre : YA contemporary / mystery
Publisher : Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Release Date : August 29, 2023
Reviewer : Hollis
Rating : ★ ★ ★
Hollis' 3 star review
You know, it was one thing when the mysteries and elaborate puzzles and riddles and hidden clues , etc etc, were confined to just the Hawthorne immediates but in this instalment, which is both the side-quest I imagined it to be but also a very definite set-up for what's the come in book five (both plot and antagonist-wise), everyone seems to have some proficiency or tendency towards cloak and dagger and puzzles. And that is.. hard to believe.
But. Was this more fun than book three? Mostly. I think I just liked being in someone else's head for once -- and we had two someone elses as our POVs are Grayson and Jameson and one surprise (ugh) guest for the final chapter. Through them, we're sent in very different directions, with very different goals to accomplish, and it felt like a good balance. On the one hand, we have one character achieving some self-realization and acceptance of who they are as well as a long overdue meeting with a certain someone; and on the other, being open to caring again and learning to forgive one's self for past mistakes as well as the mistakes to come.
Part of me wants to say this would've been better off as a novella so as to significantly tighten it up (ditch the flashbacks where child!Hawthornes act basically like their adult selves which doesn't work at all) but at the same time I'm glad both these characters had time to confront and process what needed confronting and processing because it means it won't spill out into the next; or at least not as much. And I think that was deliberate as I feel like Barnes is going to lean heavily on Grayson going forward -- and rightly so -- and maybe shift gears a bit as a result.
I really don't love that one of those gears is one of the leftover loose ends from book three but.. it was inevitable. I do feel intrigue about a certain phone-caller though. I have many questions but, nonetheless, intrigue.
Also, side note for something I can't quite find a good way to segue into, I really dislike how almost every character in the YA age range (it's less noticeable in the adults which is why I'm being specific) is forced to become a caricature of themselves (Nash, Xander, Gigi being the main offenders) but alas.. we can't always get what we want.
Having said all that, this brings the series catch-up to a close and while it's technically not complete (because at the time of committing to it, I thought it was, and I was w r o n g) it's as complete as can be right now. So, success! Another series off the list.
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