4 stars I enjoyed my read of The Brothers Hawthorne but I don’t think it’s as strong as the original trilogy. In quite a few ways I am still a bit unsure of my thoughts surrounding this book, it wasn't a five star way but I think it could be four or four point five stars.
The Bothers Hawthorne follows Jameson and Grayson’s POVs instead of Avery’s which we get in the three books we’ve already had. Both brothers are facing a different mystery and issues surrounding their families. I enjoyed reading from both perspectives but for most of the book I preferred the mystery that Grayson was facing, at least until the last 100 pages when I was thoroughly invested in both mysteries. As well as following both Jameson and Grayson’s perspectives we get the odd flashback scene here and there which I really liked as it added more to understanding their characters and why they made some of the decisions they did.
While we are following Jameson and Grayson as our key characters in this story Avery, Xander and Nash are frequently involved and appearing in the story. We also see a lot of two characters heavily involved in Grayson’s story (mentioning who they are feels like a spoiler for the first three books). It felt nice to follow different characters in this world but still have all our favourite characters heavily involved in the story. I do need more Xander time at some point in this world, with one of our future books.
At some points in the story, I wasn’t very sure as to what the meaning of the book was and how it would add to what we already have. I think in many ways quite a bit of it was helping to build up to The Grandest Game which is releasing later in 2024 but there was a lot of stuff that was good on its own and I highly enjoyed reading it. I jumped between which perspective I wanted more of but I was so invested in everything Grayson was going through and I couldn’t wait to see what was going to happen, whereas with Jameson it took longer for me to be thoroughly invested but once I was I was right there with Jameson trying to get the answers and fiddle out all the riddles, except I’m not that great at solving these sort of things.
I was so excited by this story and each night when I picked it up I easily read 100 pages, with the short chapters and speed of the story. I found it difficult to put down and just got through it all so quickly. The short chapters make it a lot easier to get through and combined with jumping between perspectives I would say it helps build up the pace of the plot.
When compared to the first three books I would say it’s not as strong of a story but still one that was very enjoyable with some pretty great plot twists. There weren’t any that jump to mind as shocking ones still in my head but it was not a completely predictable story in every way. Since we had a resolution to the love triangle in The Final Gambit there wasn’t much romance if any in the story but in a lot of ways I liked it more for that because it meant that we focused a lot more on the plot and with how much romance we normally end up with in YA books, it was a nice change for once. I always enjoy a good romance but it isn’t always what I want.
If you were a massive fan of The Inheritance Games trilogy I would definitely recommend that you pick this book up but if you weren’t super thoroughly invested in those three books then I’m not sure that you would enjoy this all that much. I love these characters and will definitely pick up The Grandest Game, hopefully upon release so I don’t forget who people are again and I might end up rereading the previous three just to spend more time with Avery again.
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