Audiobook Review: The Brothers Hawthorne by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Edition: Audiobook
Publisher: Hachette Audio (August 29, 2023)
Genre: Young Adult, Mystery
Synopsis
Grayson Hawthorne was raised as the heir apparent to his billionaire grandfather, taught from the cradle to put family first. Now the great Tobias Hawthorne is dead and his family disinherited, but some lessons linger. When Grayson’s half-sisters find themselves in trouble, he swoops in to do what he does best: take care of the problem—efficiently, effectively, mercilessly. And without getting bogged down in emotional entanglements.
Jameson Hawthorne is a risk-taker, a sensation-seeker, a player of games. When his mysterious father appears and asks for a favor, Jameson can’t resist the challenge. Now he must infiltrate London’s most exclusive underground gambling club, which caters to the rich, the powerful, and the aristocratic, and win an impossible game of greatest stakes. Luckily, Jameson Hawthorne lives for impossible.
Drawn into twisted games on opposite sides of the globe, Grayson and Jameson—with the help of their brothers and the girl who inherited their grandfather’s fortune—must dig deep to decide who they want to be and what each of them will sacrifice to win.
My Review of The Brothers Hawthorne
The Brothers Hawthorne is a fun and glitzy follow-up mystery in the Inheritance Games series but ended up not quite hitting the mark for me!
I received a free digital ALC from Hachette Audio in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.
Fun Puzzles and Rich Boy Shenanigans
I have to be honest, my expectations for The Brothers Hawthorne were pretty low when I started listening. If you’ve read my reviews of the main Inheritance Games series, you will know that I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with the books! I like the glitz and high-society drama mixed with puzzles and a mystery…I did not care one bit about the romance! So reading a whole book dedicated to two brothers I didn’t have much interest in when reading the previous books was a bit daunting.
While my hopes ultimately weren’t quite fulfilled, The Brothers Hawthorne delivers some cool puzzles and all the rich boy shenanigans I was hoping for! There’s drama and intrigue and rich people crimes. Overall, it was a very fun ride in the world of the Inheritance Games, considering I didn’t particularly care for Grayson or Jameson going into it!
I Still Hate Jameson, Unfortunately
Speaking of the latter, while his little adventure was undoubtedly fun, I despise this boy so much. While Avery is in this book, we only ever get to see her from his perspective and respectfully, ew. Every time this boy looks at her it’s just about her looks and weird sexual tension, I understand having the hots for your girlfriend but it felt objectifying in gross ways and I kept waiting for there to be more to there relationship than making out while telling each other how smart they are. In short, this version of Avery 100% felt like Jameson’s fantasy version of her and not the character we got to meet in the other books which I found deeply disappointing and kind of icky!
A Shining Audiobook Performance
The Brothers Hawthorne is narrated by Jay Ben Markson and he truly managed to capture the unique personalities of Grayson and Jameson in his narration! In the Inheritance Games trilogy, I often struggled to tell the brothers apart and their personalities felt a bit flat, but Markson’s narration completely solved this issue for me in this book! He managed to make me feel for the brothers (yes, even Jameson) and succeeded in creating an equally fun and immersive listening experience. Personally, I think Jay Ben Markson was an excellent choice as a narrator for these rich boys and their shenanigans and his performance brought the allure of the glittering (and occasionally seedy) world they inhabit to life.
Where It Fell Short
One of my biggest disappointments craft-wise with this book was how extremely repetitive the writing was throughout, with certain phrases being repeated over and over. My best guess is that this was an attempt to hammer in certain themes and characters’ motivations, but it got annoying really quickly! I overall really like Jennifer Lynn Barnes’ writing so I wish she would trust her readers more to pick up on threads without needing to be reminded of every important details every single chapter!
Ultimately, despite the hints at some big secrets and danger, the stakes didn’t feel particularly high in this book. Overall, I really found myself wishing the plot had felt more expansive! Things wrapped up pretty easily for my taste and I was left feeling disappointed. So while this was undoubtedly a fun book and I enjoyed my time with it a lot, I also couldn’t help feeling that there was something missing to really draw me back into this world and its secrets.
Overall…
…my love-hate relationship with this series continues because it’s fun and addictive but always seems to fall short of the potential I see in it. Will I devour the rest of the books set in this world? Absolutely!
This book is for you if…
…you liked the Inheritance Games series and wanted more of the brothers!
…you are looking for an audiobook to immerse yourself in
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One Comment
Bianca
This has been on my shelf for a while and I have zero interest in reading it lol. While I loved The Inheritance Games, the rest of the series fell flat for me.