Review: The Hawthorne Legacy by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (Blog Tour)

Intrigue, riches, and romance abound in this thrilling sequel to the New York Times bestselling The Inheritance Games perfect for fans of Karen McManus and Holly Jackson.

The Inheritance Games ended with a bombshell, and now heiress Avery Grambs has to pick up the pieces and find the man who might hold the answers to all of her questions – including why Tobias Hawthorne left his entire fortune to Avery, a virtual stranger, rather than to his own daughters or grandsons.

Thanks to a DNA test, Avery knows that she’s not a Hawthorne by blood, but clues pile up hinting at a deeper connection to the family than she had ever imagined. As the mystery grows and the plot thickens, Grayson and Jameson, the enigmatic and magnetic Hawthorne grandsons, continue to pull Avery in different directions. And there are threats lurking around every corner, as adversaries emerge who will stop at nothing to see Avery out of the picture – by any means necessary.

With nonstop action, aspirational jet-setting, family intrigue, swoonworthy romance, and billions of dollars hanging in the balance, The Hawthorne Legacy will thrill Jennifer Lynn Barnes fans and new readers alike.

Ah this was such a perfect continuation to the series. And I’m happy to say that for the first time in…ever?…I actually liked the second book more than the first one.

For anyone who isn’t familiar with the plot of the series but would like to know more: In The Inheritance Games, we have Avery who’s been living with her older sister ever since her mother died. She gets invited to the will reading of a man she didn’t know, Tobias Hawthorne, who is also a billionaire. When the will is read, it’s revealed that Tobias has left everything to Avery. Well, on the condition that she spends a year at the Hawthorne Estate. Confused about why a man she never knew and has no relation to would leave her his entire, Avery and Tobias’ grandsons set out to find the reason behind it all. They follow clues and uncover lies and overall, the book was just incredibly interesting and the idea, wholly original.

In the second installation of this series, the book continues almost exactly where book one ended and Avery’s gunning to prove that something she’d found out in the first book is indeed true. There’s no shortage of the usual mystery and thrill in this book. There’s many clues to be unearthed and followed, many lies to be revealed, betrayals to be known and more.

The book, just like it’s first one, hooks you in from the very first page and considering it’s a series, keeps you hooked I preparation for the last book as well. There’s hints dropped that pave the way for the third book while there’s always twists and turns to keep you intrigued.

The writing, as always, is immaculate. I’d know considering I read book one of The Naturals series a while before this series and I was instantly in love. Jennifer’s mind creates such original wonders. I can’t wait for the third book to come out next year!!

Jennifer Lynn Barnes (who mostly goes by Jen) was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She has been, in turn, a competitive cheerleader, a volleyball player, a dancer, a debutante, a primate cognition researcher, a teen model, a comic book geek, and a lemur aficionado. She’s been writing for as long as she can remember, finished her first full book (which she now refers to as a “practice book” and which none of you will ever see) when she was still in high school, and then wrote Golden the summer after her freshman year in college, when she was nineteen.

Jen graduated high school in 2002, and from Yale University with a degree in cognitive science (the study of the brain and thought) in May of 2006. She’ll be spending the 2006-2007 school year abroad, doing autism research at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.

---