The Hawthorne Legacy by Jennifer Lynn Barnes: Second Verse, Pretty Much Same as the First (and that’s okay)

The Hawthorne Legacy by Jennifer Lynn Barnes Series: The Inheritance Games, #2 Hardcover, 352 pg. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2021 Read: September 27-28, 2021 Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

What’s The Hawthorne Legacy About?

Almost all the puzzles in The Inheritance Games were resolved by the end, just in time for it to introduce a new one in the closing paragraphs. Which is where we pick this up—and it casts a little doubt on some of what we thought was resolved before.

Essentially the core of this book focuses on Avery. Why was she chosen to be Tobias Hawthorne’s heir? What is her connection to the family?

Avery and the brothers (with some assistance from her sister, best friend, and her staff) plunge into this mystery and end up unearthing—and shedding a lot of new light on—Hawthorne family secrets and history.

Also, someone is pretty determined to kill Avery. Somewhere along the way, that should be dealt with, too, right?

Beyond that, it’s pretty near-impossible to talk about the book’s plot without giving everything past page 3 away.

Max

Avery’s best friend, Max, was one of the brightest points in the previous novel—despite her minimal appearance, and I’d hoped that we’d get to see her more in this book.

My wish was granted and we got plenty of Max. It’s the one improvement to The Inheritance Games. She’s just a lot of fun. Thanks to her particular brand of minced oaths and personality—and being one of the few people who don’t assume that their position, money, and privilege will get them what they want in the book—she shines brightly against the rest of the characters.

Also, whatever is going on between her and one of the Hawthorne brothers? I’m digging it. No matter what the next section may indicate.

Young Love

In The Inheritance Games there was a romantic subplot or two right underneath the surface—well, one or two involving Avery, anyway, plus some others. They’re not under the surface anymore. And I frankly couldn’t care less about them.

The novel doesn’t need them, the characters aren’t made more interesting because of them, and the almost-triangle nature of it seems overly stereotypical.

But I know that I’m the statistical outlier for the reader of this book, it wasn’t written for me and my typical tastes. So…take this griping with a giant rock of salt.

So, what did I think about The Hawthorne Legacy?

Bottom Line: If you enjoyed The Inheritance Games, you’re going to like this—it’s more of the same. The two could’ve been one really long book. But thinking of it as “one really long book,” it sounds dull, and it’s anything but that. I guess it’s better to think of it as Season 2 of the series, adding layers or dimensions to the ideas from The Inheritance Games and carrying the storylines forward. It might have been easier to just repost what I said about it with a minor tweak or two than to write something new.

I’m not sure I appreciated it as much as the first book—and a couple of times I sort of rolled my eyes at it, but…there’s something about Barnes’ storytelling that gets under your skin and keeps you turning the pages as fast as you can, you just need to find out what twist is coming next and what will be revealed as a result of it. Compelling feels like a slight understatement.

I think my lack of enthusiasm comes from the way that Barnes showed off all the same tricks in the previous book that she does in this one, so the “discovery” factor isn’t there. So the problem* I have with the book is that I was wowed so much already. She lived up to expectations rather than surpassing them is a really lousy complaint.

* Other than the YA Romance/kind-of-triangle. But that’s just me being a guy way outside the target audience and my inherent immunity to that.

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