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354 reviews
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
A really lovely, cozy read about witches, found family, and a “coming of age” later in life. Relatively low stakes but still interesting and engaging.
Why are grumpy Irish men always so attractive? I guess they just are.
Summary of the story for my own records
Mika is a witch who is hired to teach some little kid witches how to control their magic. the kids live with the household help (housekeeper, gardener and his husband, and a librarian- an adopted person)and they are basically a big found family. The kids are all different races because apparently witches are cursed to become orphans at birth.
She ends up falling in love with the whole family and they love her back. Then she learns they have been lying to her the whole time: the witch who they worked for was not actually traveling but had died and the adults buried her in the back yard. But they did that because they knew what was in her will and didn’t want to have to give up the kids.
The reveal is that Mika’s caretaker (like her mom or parent, but didn’t actually raise her) was actually the twin sister of the witch who had died - I basically guessed that. Primrose (Mika’s caretaker) pretended to be her sister (Lily) and fired the lawyer who had been poking around and threatened to come to the house (which meant he’d have to execute Lily’s will if he thought she was dead)
Everyone was happy in the end.
Why are grumpy Irish men always so attractive? I guess they just are.
Summary of the story for my own records
Mika is a witch who is hired to teach some little kid witches how to control their magic. the kids live with the household help (housekeeper, gardener and his husband, and a librarian- an adopted person)and they are basically a big found family. The kids are all different races because apparently witches are cursed to become orphans at birth.
She ends up falling in love with the whole family and they love her back. Then she learns they have been lying to her the whole time: the witch who they worked for was not actually traveling but had died and the adults buried her in the back yard. But they did that because they knew what was in her will and didn’t want to have to give up the kids.
The reveal is that Mika’s caretaker (like her mom or parent, but didn’t actually raise her) was actually the twin sister of the witch who had died - I basically guessed that. Primrose (Mika’s caretaker) pretended to be her sister (Lily) and fired the lawyer who had been poking around and threatened to come to the house (which meant he’d have to execute Lily’s will if he thought she was dead)
Everyone was happy in the end.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual content, Death of parent
Minor: Death
The Majesties by Tiffany Tsao
Gwendolyn and Estrella are sisters in a rich Chinese family living in Indonesia where they are part of the elite upper class. They have money from business dealings and benefit from the corrupt government that allows them to stay in a higher class level from everyone else
Throughout the book we see the two sisters grapple with growing up in this lifestyle and doing what’s expected of them: starting their own lucrative businesses or taking over the family’s. And also the expectation that they will get married (to others in their same class) and expand the family fortune.
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Not the type of story I would usually read but this was one of the selections from the Storygraph Reads The World challenge. It was slow and depressing but I also felt the urge to keep going as each mystery and story unfolded.
The narrators sister Estrella is really the main character here. I did get kind of confused at the end but will include that in the spoilers.
This part is mostly a summary for my own memory
The narrators sister Estrella is really the main character here. I did get kind of confused at the end but will include that in the spoilers.
This part is mostly a summary for my own memory
Gwendolyn and Estrella are sisters in a rich Chinese family living in Indonesia where they are part of the elite upper class. They have money from business dealings and benefit from the corrupt government that allows them to stay in a higher class level from everyone else
Throughout the book we see the two sisters grapple with growing up in this lifestyle and doing what’s expected of them: starting their own lucrative businesses or taking over the family’s. And also the expectation that they will get married (to others in their same class) and expand the family fortune.
Everything is centered around money (which, as an American born Chinese person, seems like it’s a pretty consistent thing for all Chinese families to want regardless of what country you live in). The fact that Estrella ends up dating a rich guy (Leonard) from a more successful family, is something that Estrella and Dol’s parents (Estrella calls Gwendolyn “Dol”) think is great for the whole family.
Estrella basically gets guilted into this marriage by everyone around her and feels like she loves this guy despite him being a giant walking Red Flag. Things just get shittier for her after they get married.
Eventually her husband “finds god” and starts to threaten going public with all the corruption and both families strong arm Estrella into poisoning him. Once he’s dead Estrella sees how corrupt the family is and she ends up poisoning the whole family in the same way at their patriarch’s birthday bash.
Estrella basically gets guilted into this marriage by everyone around her and feels like she loves this guy despite him being a giant walking Red Flag. Things just get shittier for her after they get married.
Eventually her husband “finds god” and starts to threaten going public with all the corruption and both families strong arm Estrella into poisoning him. Once he’s dead Estrella sees how corrupt the family is and she ends up poisoning the whole family in the same way at their patriarch’s birthday bash.
Heres where I get confused In the end I THINK Estrella and Dol are actually the same person?! Dol seems to be the made up identity that Estrella has for herself and it seems to go WAY back into childhood. I did not care to go back and actually figure it out though because the whole book is depressing AF and I don’t need that right now. Give me fairies, elves and magic.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Murder
Minor: Domestic abuse
The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin
But I agree that this book didn’t need to be so long, hahaha. It would be great if there was a cliffs notes version for those who just wanted the lunchables version and then this version for those who want the full buffet.
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
4.25
There are concepts in this book that aren’t necessarily new, it’s always nice to hear more than one person say/confirm them:
- Don’t do art for money. Think about your art and your money separately. If you make money making art that’s great but it shouldn’t be your driving force if you want to make your art pure/great.
- Ideas exist in the ether. Some people are better tuned into receiving them. And sometimes the ideas come to fruition because it was the right time for it. Just because you thought of it first maybe it wasn’t the right time for the idea.
- Related to the previous: Those people being the most sensitive to pulling these ideas out of the ether are also sometimes the people most sensitive to life in general.
- I also like the preface he gives at the start: you don’t have to listen to any of this advice, take what you like, leave what you don’t like or doesn’t make sense to you.
But I agree that this book didn’t need to be so long, hahaha. It would be great if there was a cliffs notes version for those who just wanted the lunchables version and then this version for those who want the full buffet.
Starling House by Alix E. Harrow
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Similar to the previous book I read from Harrow (The Once and Future Witches) I felt like this book was only okay and was more style than anything. It had a great set up but the resolution wasn’t very satisfying.
It took about halfway through the book to get to truly fantasy - which was what I was mostly interested in. Then it was mired in a lot of reality, just not where I was hoping it would lead.
Summary with spoilers for my own reference:
Opal and her brother Jasper are homeless “kids” (I think Opal is 20 something) who live in a small Kentucky town. They were never wealthy but their mom died about 12ish years ago in a car accident in the winter.
Opal takes a job cleaning this old beat up mansion, and was hired by some guy whose parents used to own the land but he had abandoned them and returned when they died. The house seems haunted but nothing bad happens to Opal.
She’s saving up the house cleaning money to send her brother to a private boarding high school. Opal and Arthur (the haunted house owner) have a strange relationship in which he tries to keep to himself and seems tortured in some way.
Eventually Opal is propositioned by some lawyer lady working for the power company who want to buy the land the house is on to mine it for coal. They start to give Opal money for pictures or notes/info about the house. being an opportunist she goes along at first but then she starts to feel bad and Arthur keeps doing nice things for her like giving her a wool coat and his old car, etc.
When she starts to pull back from the power company they threaten her and her brother. Anyway that’s the most boring part. The more interesting part is what happens with the house. It seems to be alive and seems to be the fulcrum of some mysterious power. All the previous homeowners and caretakers had dreamed about the house and were drawn there. They ended up taking the last name Starling.
It seems like the house is alive in its own way and brings people to it. It has whatever they seem to need. The lore is that the original owner and builder of the house was a woman who was to get married to a man and on their wedding day he died mysteriously and she inherited everything. Then she built this house. Arthur’s parents were there and fought back demons and monsters that came from the depths of the house. Like it was at the Hellmouth in Buffy and Arthur didn’t want to take this on but he ended up doing it when his mom and dad were killed by these beasts.
In the end we learn that the original owners soul was trapped in a river under the house and her imagination had created those monsters, the beasts that she cared for. And that the only thing that really happens is that the homeowners dreams cause the things. I don’t know how or why exactly it didn’t really make sense why her beats continued to exist and needed to be cut down and nobody ever tried doing something different. That’s where the book falls apart I feel and I was a bit disappointed at the end with the outcome. Opal basically figures it out, saves Eleanor (or puts her soul to rest) and saves Arthur and saves the house and the town and everything is fine.
It was a NICE ending but not what I was hoping for.
It took about halfway through the book to get to truly fantasy - which was what I was mostly interested in. Then it was mired in a lot of reality, just not where I was hoping it would lead.
Summary with spoilers for my own reference:
Opal takes a job cleaning this old beat up mansion, and was hired by some guy whose parents used to own the land but he had abandoned them and returned when they died. The house seems haunted but nothing bad happens to Opal.
She’s saving up the house cleaning money to send her brother to a private boarding high school. Opal and Arthur (the haunted house owner) have a strange relationship in which he tries to keep to himself and seems tortured in some way.
Eventually Opal is propositioned by some lawyer lady working for the power company who want to buy the land the house is on to mine it for coal. They start to give Opal money for pictures or notes/info about the house. being an opportunist she goes along at first but then she starts to feel bad and Arthur keeps doing nice things for her like giving her a wool coat and his old car, etc.
When she starts to pull back from the power company they threaten her and her brother. Anyway that’s the most boring part. The more interesting part is what happens with the house. It seems to be alive and seems to be the fulcrum of some mysterious power. All the previous homeowners and caretakers had dreamed about the house and were drawn there. They ended up taking the last name Starling.
It seems like the house is alive in its own way and brings people to it. It has whatever they seem to need. The lore is that the original owner and builder of the house was a woman who was to get married to a man and on their wedding day he died mysteriously and she inherited everything. Then she built this house. Arthur’s parents were there and fought back demons and monsters that came from the depths of the house. Like it was at the Hellmouth in Buffy and Arthur didn’t want to take this on but he ended up doing it when his mom and dad were killed by these beasts.
In the end we learn that the original owners soul was trapped in a river under the house and her imagination had created those monsters, the beasts that she cared for. And that the only thing that really happens is that the homeowners dreams cause the things. I don’t know how or why exactly it didn’t really make sense why her beats continued to exist and needed to be cut down and nobody ever tried doing something different. That’s where the book falls apart I feel and I was a bit disappointed at the end with the outcome. Opal basically figures it out, saves Eleanor (or puts her soul to rest) and saves Arthur and saves the house and the town and everything is fine.
It was a NICE ending but not what I was hoping for.
The Palace of Eros by Caro De Robertis
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
A tough one to rate because I want to give the book points for having strong and loving sapphic and intersex characters, but I also don’t know if a lot happened. So giving it a high three star rating for being something I at least enjoyed reading.
Below are notes for myself. These notes contain spoilers.
There weren’t really any major plot points that happened. I think I was also trying to relate the story of Eros and Psyche to what I had read in Lore Olympus, not sure if that helped or prohibited me from best understanding the relationship.
The first third of the book was sad and depressing. Just the regularly old patriarchal BS of selling your daughters off, rape, etc.
The second portion was a lot of sapphic sex in the dark with secret gods and a vacation from real life (living in the palace, unlimited food, sex, and hobbies - just being really fucking unbothered - a real fantasy) but in the last third Psyche seems to long for the complications of other people again and her head gets the best of her (I assume that’s the story behind Psyche).
She wants to talk to her shit sisters because she forgot how shit they are, I guess. And when they come to the palace they are petty PoS. Finally Psyche does something kind of stupid - instead of being honest I mean - and tries to spy on Eros in their bed and fucks it all up. But in this story everything ends well. Not quite a Greek tragedy.
Below are notes for myself. These notes contain spoilers.
There weren’t really any major plot points that happened. I think I was also trying to relate the story of Eros and Psyche to what I had read in Lore Olympus, not sure if that helped or prohibited me from best understanding the relationship.
The first third of the book was sad and depressing. Just the regularly old patriarchal BS of selling your daughters off, rape, etc.
The second portion was a lot of sapphic sex in the dark with secret gods and a vacation from real life (living in the palace, unlimited food, sex, and hobbies - just being really fucking unbothered - a real fantasy) but in the last third Psyche seems to long for the complications of other people again and her head gets the best of her (I assume that’s the story behind Psyche).
She wants to talk to her shit sisters because she forgot how shit they are, I guess. And when they come to the palace they are petty PoS. Finally Psyche does something kind of stupid - instead of being honest I mean - and tries to spy on Eros in their bed and fucks it all up. But in this story everything ends well. Not quite a Greek tragedy.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Rape, Kidnapping
Looking for Smoke by K. A. Cobell
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
A mystery told through various character POVs. Was able to be educational/informative for non-indigenous people while also being an extremely engaging crime mystery.
Summary of the book - for myself:
This starts with one girl already missing and another close friend who is found murdered within the first few chapters. The rest of the story is different people trying to figure out who killed them (it’s revealed later - or officially confirmed - that the other girl was indeed murdered)
We learn about how FBI come in to investigate murders but generally don’t have much invested in the community and therefore don’t care much about trying to resolve the missing and murdered indigenous women. (MMIW)
It turns out to be a friend’s brother who is a drug dealer and the terrible friend. In the end it’s the murdered girls friends and grand mother who learn what really happened and not the rez police nor FBI.
Summary of the book - for myself:
This starts with one girl already missing and another close friend who is found murdered within the first few chapters. The rest of the story is different people trying to figure out who killed them (it’s revealed later - or officially confirmed - that the other girl was indeed murdered)
We learn about how FBI come in to investigate murders but generally don’t have much invested in the community and therefore don’t care much about trying to resolve the missing and murdered indigenous women. (MMIW)
It turns out to be a friend’s brother who is a drug dealer and the terrible friend. In the end it’s the murdered girls friends and grand mother who learn what really happened and not the rez police nor FBI.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Murder
Where the Dark Stands Still by A.B. Poranek
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
A solid PG-13 fantasy romance. There’s conflict, a villain, a mystery, loss/grief and great characters. Definitely recommend this if you’re looking for a dark but easy romantasy read that isn’t too spicy.
Below is a summary for myself, spoilers in here:
I think this takes place in Poland? The writer is Canadian, of Polish descent and the monsters mentioned in the book, like the kikimora and striga (which are ones that appear in The Witcher - also from Poland).
The book is about a girl, Liska, who has been able to talk to demons as a child. She’s been hiding this from the ppl in her village because it’s rare and humans are generally afraid of magic. But in the woods she knows there are magical creatures there - although none of which she thinks are kind.
She runs away to the woods after a falling out with her cousin and best friend who married a guy suspicious of
Liska. In the wood Liska meets an antlered fey who promises to teach her magic. She doesn’t know but he’s struck a bad deal with a spirit/god and has been deemed a warden of the wood (like dryads?). His original goal was to teach her magic and sacrifice her to the God in place of him, which he has been doing for centuries. But they end up falling in love and she is special - she kills the wood spirit/god/demon and thinks she saved her love but he ends up sacrificing himself because he can feel it coming back.
In the end she returns to her mother’s home. Reconciles with her cousin whose husband is dead now (maybe Liska killed him?) and decides she is going back to the woods. The epilogue closes with her taking on an apprentice (another little girl) to teach magic. At night Liska will go out into the woods to look for a stag and when she tries to touch it she can’t. Until one night she can.
Below is a summary for myself, spoilers in here:
I think this takes place in Poland? The writer is Canadian, of Polish descent and the monsters mentioned in the book, like the kikimora and striga (which are ones that appear in The Witcher - also from Poland).
The book is about a girl, Liska, who has been able to talk to demons as a child. She’s been hiding this from the ppl in her village because it’s rare and humans are generally afraid of magic. But in the woods she knows there are magical creatures there - although none of which she thinks are kind.
She runs away to the woods after a falling out with her cousin and best friend who married a guy suspicious of
Liska. In the wood Liska meets an antlered fey who promises to teach her magic. She doesn’t know but he’s struck a bad deal with a spirit/god and has been deemed a warden of the wood (like dryads?). His original goal was to teach her magic and sacrifice her to the God in place of him, which he has been doing for centuries. But they end up falling in love and she is special - she kills the wood spirit/god/demon and thinks she saved her love but he ends up sacrificing himself because he can feel it coming back.
In the end she returns to her mother’s home. Reconciles with her cousin whose husband is dead now (maybe Liska killed him?) and decides she is going back to the woods. The epilogue closes with her taking on an apprentice (another little girl) to teach magic. At night Liska will go out into the woods to look for a stag and when she tries to touch it she can’t. Until one night she can.
Rainbow in the Dark by Sean McGinty
This is a story about a young teenager who is depressed (perhaps also suicidal) mysteriously finds herself in a “magical” realm. It’s magical in that rules of the real world don’t necessarily apply here but parts of it still feel real. Gravity and some of those basics exist but so do classes, levels, XP and spellcasting. She ends up being paired with another “player” who has much more experience and is looking for a portal home. The more time you spend in this realm, and the more XP you gain, the less you remember about her precious life.
Cut in between her questing with Chad001, Lark, and Awlsey are chapters that represent those memories. Sometimes those memories tie into encounters that the party has and they seem to be specific to Rainbow’s experiences. They go through some scary and emotionally scarring shit together and end up getting pretty close. Meanwhile the chapters about her memories reveal snippets of what happened to have led her here. She was having a bad time after her parents divorce, it was coming through in her school work and her teachers didn’t know how to cope with that. Her brother ran over a cat she inherited from a neighbor and she got pissed at him and ran away.
As we get closer to the end, we, and she, realize that she had walked off a cliff and fell into the ocean. It’s unclear when or how the magical realm stuff fits into that episode - did it all happen as she was unconscious from hitting the water? Did she make it up afterwards? All that is unknown but the magical journey is a dip into surreality and the memory chapters keep it grounded.
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
What an adventure. Dark, sometimes hopeful, and sometimes confusing, I really enjoy how this story unfolded. There were some parts that I had to go over again because some of it was so surreal I needed a second listen to picture it in my mind.
Would recommend to anyone who likes exploratory video games, surrealism, emotional exploration of oneself.
Summary for my own reference:
Cut in between her questing with Chad001, Lark, and Awlsey are chapters that represent those memories. Sometimes those memories tie into encounters that the party has and they seem to be specific to Rainbow’s experiences. They go through some scary and emotionally scarring shit together and end up getting pretty close. Meanwhile the chapters about her memories reveal snippets of what happened to have led her here. She was having a bad time after her parents divorce, it was coming through in her school work and her teachers didn’t know how to cope with that. Her brother ran over a cat she inherited from a neighbor and she got pissed at him and ran away.
As we get closer to the end, we, and she, realize that she had walked off a cliff and fell into the ocean. It’s unclear when or how the magical realm stuff fits into that episode - did it all happen as she was unconscious from hitting the water? Did she make it up afterwards? All that is unknown but the magical journey is a dip into surreality and the memory chapters keep it grounded.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Violence
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Vomit, Suicide attempt
The Brothers Hawthorne by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
This book felt darker. It was a little hard to get behind the brothers’ PoV at first, probably mostly because of the change of narrators for the audiobook.
Overall though, the split storylines between Jameson and Grayson was fun and kept me engaged. I actually think this is one of the stronger books of the series.
Including a summary of the story for myself:
Mostly interested in the Grayson storyline here - maybe I just feel like the Jameson and Avery one is gross? I dunno it feels like they act like the are in their mid to late 20s but Avery is only about 18. Grayson’s story is more about finding belonging. Finding more family -Although Jameson finds more family too. I still don’t understand how Skye and Jameson’s dad connect or why she would decide to even have his kid - that part of the story is the hardest to understand/accept.
Definitely a lot of Daddy derived issues in this book. Jameson’s desire to connect with his dad but ends up getting used by him. He wins a big puzzle game and gets Vantage - a whole estate in England.
Grayson finds out his dad has a family - a wife and twin girls. He helps them get out of financial trouble after the dad goes “missing” (he was shot by Oren in the previous book but he also was hell bent on killing Avery because she’s the daughter of Toby - except she’s not actually his daughter by birth. Toby had accidentally caused the death of Cullen - a guy he was friends with as teenagers, and Sheffield Grayson’s adopted son.)
Sheffield Grayson had twin girls named Savanna and Juliette (or Gigi) who Grayson Hawthorne felt an obligation to look after them when their dad died he ended up getting emotionally involved. In the end he gained two sisters. Gigi learned that Grayson was trying to cover up their dad’s death. So now they both know and are covering it up from Savanna and Acacia (the girls’ mom)
Overall though, the split storylines between Jameson and Grayson was fun and kept me engaged. I actually think this is one of the stronger books of the series.
Including a summary of the story for myself:
Mostly interested in the Grayson storyline here - maybe I just feel like the Jameson and Avery one is gross? I dunno it feels like they act like the are in their mid to late 20s but Avery is only about 18. Grayson’s story is more about finding belonging. Finding more family -Although Jameson finds more family too. I still don’t understand how Skye and Jameson’s dad connect or why she would decide to even have his kid - that part of the story is the hardest to understand/accept.
Definitely a lot of Daddy derived issues in this book. Jameson’s desire to connect with his dad but ends up getting used by him. He wins a big puzzle game and gets Vantage - a whole estate in England.
Grayson finds out his dad has a family - a wife and twin girls. He helps them get out of financial trouble after the dad goes “missing” (he was shot by Oren in the previous book but he also was hell bent on killing Avery because she’s the daughter of Toby - except she’s not actually his daughter by birth. Toby had accidentally caused the death of Cullen - a guy he was friends with as teenagers, and Sheffield Grayson’s adopted son.)
Sheffield Grayson had twin girls named Savanna and Juliette (or Gigi) who Grayson Hawthorne felt an obligation to look after them when their dad died he ended up getting emotionally involved. In the end he gained two sisters. Gigi learned that Grayson was trying to cover up their dad’s death. So now they both know and are covering it up from Savanna and Acacia (the girls’ mom)
The Final Gambit by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
Okay this installment was pretty fun. It felt dangerous and mysterious again. I think the second book was a bit too tame and felt repetitive of the first one. This one introduces a new player and the some that are even more unhinged and unpredictable (in my opinion anyway). I also found the end to be pretty fun.
Some notes for myself about what happens in the book:
In this one, Toby/Harry’s daughter comes back and plays the part of the villain for most of the story. Grayson lets his emotions for Emily get the best of him and just falls for anything Eve says. And sides with her instead of Avery until Eves full plan is revealed (talking too much, basic villain shit). I know Barnes (the author) explained it in the previous book but I don’t understand why Eve looks SO much like Emily - like, I guess they would have been cousins but who looks exactly like their cousin? Maybe I just haven’t met anyone like that.
Anyway Eve is trying to get the disc that Avery has because she what’s the Victor Blake fortune. He basically has these discs or coins, like a John Wick coin, that gives you access to everything and a portion of the Blake fortune when he dies. So apparently she doesn’t want it from the Hawthornes but does want it from the Blake’s. I guess because she feels like she doesn’t have a legal stake in the Hawthorne fortune be had she’s not blood related - but it’s not like she was going to get the Blake fortune because of her blood either. She still had to “fight” for that too - despite being a blood relative.
It all ends with Victor making Toby, Avery, and Eve playing chess at each other for what they want. Toby and Avery both throw their games so Eve gets what she wants. Avery hustles Blake and begs for one more chance then beats him at chess. Toby loses both his games - one on purpose but the other not. He basically has to rejoin the Blake family but seems like he’s am fine with it since he has to watch over Eve as her real dad.
Avery wins back safety for herself and the Hawthorne family forever by winning her game against Victor Blake. She finally turns 18 and gives her inherited billions away. Keeping something like 2 or 4B for herself. She sets up a foundation to figure out the best way to give the money to people who can make the best use out of it. That’s the best part of the book and series honestly.
Some notes for myself about what happens in the book:
In this one, Toby/Harry’s daughter comes back and plays the part of the villain for most of the story. Grayson lets his emotions for Emily get the best of him and just falls for anything Eve says. And sides with her instead of Avery until Eves full plan is revealed (talking too much, basic villain shit). I know Barnes (the author) explained it in the previous book but I don’t understand why Eve looks SO much like Emily - like, I guess they would have been cousins but who looks exactly like their cousin? Maybe I just haven’t met anyone like that.
Anyway Eve is trying to get the disc that Avery has because she what’s the Victor Blake fortune. He basically has these discs or coins, like a John Wick coin, that gives you access to everything and a portion of the Blake fortune when he dies. So apparently she doesn’t want it from the Hawthornes but does want it from the Blake’s. I guess because she feels like she doesn’t have a legal stake in the Hawthorne fortune be had she’s not blood related - but it’s not like she was going to get the Blake fortune because of her blood either. She still had to “fight” for that too - despite being a blood relative.
It all ends with Victor making Toby, Avery, and Eve playing chess at each other for what they want. Toby and Avery both throw their games so Eve gets what she wants. Avery hustles Blake and begs for one more chance then beats him at chess. Toby loses both his games - one on purpose but the other not. He basically has to rejoin the Blake family but seems like he’s am fine with it since he has to watch over Eve as her real dad.
Avery wins back safety for herself and the Hawthorne family forever by winning her game against Victor Blake. She finally turns 18 and gives her inherited billions away. Keeping something like 2 or 4B for herself. She sets up a foundation to figure out the best way to give the money to people who can make the best use out of it. That’s the best part of the book and series honestly.