This is a spoiler-free review!
I fully walked into this book with the idea that it was essentially Knives Out but with young adults, and I seemed to have been a bit off the mark. I must have somehow missed the part that this book takes place in Texas, because imagine my surprise when everyone was suddenly speaking with Texan accents -- for the entire book, I was picturing everyone in cowboy hats, no matter how much I tried to picture them as they were actually described. Imagine literally inheriting billions of dollars out of the blue, and the requirement is that you have to live in a mansion with four hot brothers... Avery needed a little reality check because she should have been jumping up and down.
Every single old Hawthorne family member was out here bullying a seventeen-year-old girl they had known for about forty-eight hours... embarrassing! Yes, I understand that they were weary of her being named as basically the sole inheritor of the fortune, but the way they jumped to conclusions of elder abuse was wild. The author seemed to love reminding readers that Libby has blue hair, and apparently it is such a major piece of information because it is mentioned almost every other chapter... we get it.
I will admit, Avery with Grayson and Jameson was very much giving Katherine "It's okay to love them both, I did" Pierce and I have to respect her game on that front. Both Grayson and Jameson were such interesting characters, and the mystery behind both of them certainly had me invested on what their next moves would be, and how Avery would handle her attraction to both of them. Jameson's little nickname for Avery had me giggling and kicking my feet, it was cute and snarky. On the other side of the coin, Drake was literally the opposite of these boys, and was giving me an aneurism every single time he showed up. Libby needed to get a restraining order against him, and yet barely seemed concerned that he was actually like an obsessed stalker.
Why was Avery so incredibly impressed when the girls doing her hair did two french braids? I honestly was so confused because it is such a common hairstyle, and considering that this book was published in 2019, it was even more popular, especially pinned to her head in the style depicted. A lot of the commentary in this book was a little dated, and I much prefer authors that try to avoid locking a specific time period's outfits, styles, etc. into a book.
The mystery and intrigue throughout the book definitely kept me interested, but the riddles/puzzles/clues felt a little lackluster compared to what they could have been. They were easy to solve and left me feeling as though anyone in the book could have put two and two together, and did not need Avery to solve them. Chapters moved quickly enough that the story moved at a decent pace in order to keep the reader locked in, but some went on for much longer than necessary. Tobias Hawthorne really decided to leave nearly every single one of his family members with more trauma the second he died, and while some members needed a reality check, others were put through the ringer more than they deserved.
I have to say I stand teetering on the edge deciding my overall feelings for this first installment. This was a really interesting idea to put to paper, but the execution fell off for the middle portion, leaving me wanting more to be on the line for the characters. A lot of the reveals were a touch predictable and made me feel as though there was not as much to lose as it was made out to be. Whenever I decide to continue on with this series, I hope the other brothers because more fleshed out and are more involved in the plot along with Grayson and Jameson.
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