Reviews with content warning for Death - The Brothers Hawthorne

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.

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rinku's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious reflective slow-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? It's complicated

2.0

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savheath's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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courtneys_reading's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Honestly didn't know where this book was going after the trilogy left things off in a nice place. But these Hawthorne brothers just have more and more going on.

I have to say though I enjoyed diving in with Grayson and Jameson this time and leaving Avery as a side character. These boys have got their own stories to tell. That being said, this could have easily been two different books. At first the switching was taking a while to get used to but then sunk into a groove.

I was thinking the only reason they would be interwined would be

because they somehow were connected but that was wrong.

On top of that, they still left a few questions up in the air...

First off, what is Eve planning? I guess she just wants some attention because she's jealous of Avery but like what's her game?

Second of all, who is the mysterious woman calling Grayson and what will we find out about that?

Oh! And Jameson revealing his grandmother is alive?! Not what I was expecting for his big secret in Prague but they have to tell us more.

I suppose these things will be answered in the next book - because ya know there's going to be another one. I am just wondering how long this goes on. Not that I'm complaining, I'm enjoying the series but I hope it doesn't become one of those things that keeps going just because there is money to be made. Because even I know there's only so far this mystery and puzzle thing can be taken...

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bujo_bellel's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious 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

3.5

I didn't really enjoy this book because the povs kept changing and it was really disorienting and frustrating when we finally get to something interesting in one pov then it's just abruptly changed to the other pov like there were plenty of parts where the pov could have been changed when there wasn't any new discovery where the pov could have been changed but that did not happen at all. Another thing is (spoiler for the earlier books in the series) I didn't really like being in Jameson's pov and seeing what he thinks about Avery and how they are together, idk if it's because I'm on Team Grayson, but like how they are together kind of annoyed me, like it feels like something isn't right. (spoiler over) Anyway I think like after the 60% mark it started getting interesting and got my interest but before that I wasn't hooked and kept putting the book down to read other books. The mystery of the safe box at the bank plot line was quite intriguing and more interesting than The Devil's Mercy plot line so I was definitely more interested and got more frustrated when the parts of the pov got cut off and switches over to the other pov. I liked seeing Grayson's family and getting to know his sisters and his mother and basically the history behind them and I like their characters and am now interested to see what Grayson does about the ending in the next book. About Jameson's family I would say his uncle is interesting but we didn't get much about their history and all that and I'm assuming we get to learn more about them in the next book.

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kirstenpod_'s review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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avidreaderandgeekgirl's review against another edition

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emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

The first The Inheritance Games full-length book strictly from the Hawthorne brothers' POV.
I know this is probably the publisher's fault, not the authors, but I hated that it was two different stories going on at once and switching back and forth. This book really should have been two separate books! The constantly switching POVs took me out of the story. I would have preferred it as book 1 and book 2, one with Jameson's story and one with Grayson's. Plus, they didn't even have different narrators for each brother!
I didn't enjoy this book nearly as much as the others. I don't know if that's because this is the first one I listened to on audio, or if it's because of the problem of it being too long and the POV switching all the time.
Overall it was okay to good, but nowhere near great. It was also a bit predictable.

Narrator Rating: 3 stars
The narrator was good at doing different voices. But not great at changing tone for mood shifts. And didn't use much emotion in the reading.

Extra ratings: Fluff - 3/5 Heartfelt- 2/5 Helpful -NA Horror -NA Inspiration -NA Love aka Romance- 2.5/5 Mystery -2/5 Predictability -3.75/5 Spice-0.5/5 Suspense - NA Tear- 2/5 Thrill - 1.5/5 Humor-2.5/5

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