Wednesday, October 2, 2024

The Hawthorne Legacy (The Inheritance Games, #2) by Jennifer Lynn Barnes Review


This is a spoiler-free review! You can read my review of The Inheritance Games on my blog, here.

I completely forgot that this takes place in Texas and that everyone has Texan accents.. got the ick all over again. The first installment was a little slow to start and had me weary about continuing on with the series, but I kept finding myself thinking about what was going to happen next. However, this sequel was not what I had expected, and left me underwhelmed and unsatisfied with a number of plot issues and character development. From his first appearance, I stood by Grayson Hawthorne, and this book seems to abandon him as a possible love interest in trade for Jameson?? Am I supposed to be rooting for Avery and Jameson now?

Avery is on yet another hunt to solve what seems to be a hundred mini riddles in order to figure out exactly why Tobias left her everything, and yet she is the one who seems to be able to figure out the least -- she puts everything together at the last minute and only when every piece of information is set in front of her, practically gift-wrapped for her. There is some interesting stuff going on with her dad, and that was truly the only interesting part of the story for me. I frankly did not care for the other Hawthorne family members fighting the inheritance any longer, it became repetitive and juvenile. 

Are these characters allergic to using real curse words? It makes the story read as if it is taking place in elementary school instead of being young adult, and caused me to be thrown from the story every single time. It honestly was too much of a distraction than it should have been, and I wish it did not derail the tone of the book for me. The side characters are simply not that intriguing this time around, and their characterizations are pretty surface level, with the exception of a few that become more fleshed out in the last few chapters. There are far too many family tree issues and revelations that distract from Avery's story.

All of these private jet trips... oh I know their carbon footprint is off the charts. Avery constantly states how shocked she is that she has all of these things now, but girl, you are literally a billionaire, it should not surprise you for much longer. Her inheritance is still being handles by actual responsible adults, and she should be thankful for it -- she whines too much and does not seem to be able to get a grasp on the situation she is in. I was truly hoping that Avery would have a more well-rounded character arc in this sequel, but she was just a two-dimensional as she was in the first book. 

This dead old man really set up Avery to have the most complicated inheritance in history. He basically has set her up to go into dangerous situations, and seemed to not care at all when he decided to give everything to her. He gives nothing to his kids, and honestly I had to laugh. From the constant struggle with the will and inheritance, to the consistent arsons and bombings, the plot was lost and became erratic towards the end of the book. On top of Avery nearly being killed every other chapter, she is living her Mamma Mia moment with trying to find her biological father, and the Hawthorne family drama truly was dragging on.


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