Book Review: The Brothers Hawthorne by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

“When words are real enough, when they’re the exact right words, when what you’re saying matters, when it’s beautiful and perfect and true—it hurts.”

Jennifer Lynn Barnes, The Brothers Hawthorne

Review:

The Inheritance Games is my guilty pleasure series. It’s so wild and something I wouldn’t normally enjoy, alas, here I am for the fourth installment. Though this wasn’t my favorite in the series, it was still a fun time by the end. 

Brothers Grayson and Jameson are at the forefront of the games this time around with a heavy focus on Grayson and his sisters. We see some over Avery, but this one is ultimately for the boys. 

It looks like I’m not alone in feeling like the first half of the book dragged. I was, frankly, so bored that at one point I stopped reading during a commute and opted just to stare out the train window instead. It took a little while to pick back up again. Thankfully, the last third of the book picked up immensely. 

Of all the brothers, Grayson and Jameson are the ones I care about the least. I felt like Jameson’s story was summed up decently in The Final Gambit alongside Avery. Grayson? Meh. I’m a Nash girl. (Side note: I think a lot of this book tried to amplify a reader attraction to the brothers and I am not in the age group where I have any interest on that front. So that was weird.) I was disappointed that we didn’t see much of Nash and Xander. 

The book left me more confused than pumped for another installment. There are questions left unanswered but without an urgency that was found midway through the first two books. I don’t think this book needed to exist to make the series complete. Will I read a fifth book? Sure. Will I have the same level of excitement I initially had about book four? No. 

Likes & Dislikes:

What I liked:

• Maintains the adventurous spirit of the first three books.
• Enjoyably unrealistic.

What I didn’t like:

• The first half was painfully uneventful.
• It felt like fanfiction more than source material.
• Too many questions left vague or unanswered.

Afterthoughts:

This was a buddy read with my friend Desiree!

Where to buy the book: