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sloanerangerlibrary 's review for:
The Hawthorne Legacy
by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
While I still enjoyed this book, the last 75 pages felt very rushed. There was too many crazy (and at times, confusing) things happening in rapid succession. The DNA test changing was annoying, but I hope in the next book we find out that Alisa did it to protect Avery as the heir. I also thought the pages about her post-island incident were too cheesy and not well-written and same goes for the focus on the letters. I also wish there was more character development of Jameson and Greyson (why isn’t Greyson at college? Why does he want to run the foundation? What are his interests? What are Jameson’s dreams and goals? They seem to have no life or personality outside the family), especially as it was hard to be Team-Jameson when Greyson seems to be very similar to her and good for her. I was confused by Toby’s past - it was too confusing as they supposedly say everything that happened those years ago, but it actually made no sense. I am still looking forward to completing the series, but I hope the next books will be better and not only plot-driven. There is no sense of how much time is passing throughout this one year stay in the house - supposedly the first book only happens over the course of about 2 weeks? There is also no description of seasons or the setting beyond the house being huge and having many passages, so it doesn’t give the feeling of the type of place that the author explored while researching for the book. In these ways, Barnes’ books verge on Elin Hilderbrand territory, where everything seems too basic. Also sometimes the riddles didn’t make sense (For “how many sides does a triangle have?” if 1=0. How is the answer 2?? Would it be 0?) On a positive note, I liked that Max was featured more here and it definitely gave “Lane staying at Yale with Rory” vibes. I would love to see her enrolled at Avery’s school and being in that world with her again in the next book. I am half expecting it to come out that Emily is not really be dead either because of all the crazy cover-ups that were introduced in this book. I am annoyed that she never really explores things with Greyson. I kind of wish she would date both of them in the series at one point and the brothers can make a treaty and let her choose and not let it come between them, because right now it seems like she is only with Jameson because he is more present because Grey keeps his distance out of love for Jameson and fear of re-living the Emily experience, but also only because Grey tells Avery that it can’t happen, so she is left with no real choice to make. If she doesn’t get together with at least one of them in this series it would be very anti-climactic. Would also love to learn more about Libby and Nash’s connection and the history between Nash and Alisa and how Alisa came to be the family attorney. I also enjoyed how we see how Alisa really does fight for Avery to get through the year even if it makes her unpopular and even though she is no longer on the marriage track to becoming a Hawthorne herself - she is such a great character. It was also cool to take the characters out of the house to explore the other Hawthorne properties, but again these were not described in much detail, which felt like a missed opportunity. I love that the author is an academic and a scientist, but also a prolific YA writer, very cool, unconventional and impressive. The main character, overall feel of the series and the author’s background makes me think a bit about Leigh Bardugo’s Ninth House series too, which I like. In conclusion, Team Greyson forever.