A Cinderella story with deadly stakes and thrilling twists.
Summary: Avery Grambs has a plan for a better future: survive high school, win a scholarship, and get out. But her fortunes change in an instant when billionaire Tobias Hawthorne dies and leaves Avery virtually his entire fortune. The catch? Avery has no idea why--or even who Tobias Hawthorne is. To receive her inheritance, Avery must move into sprawling, secret passage-filled Hawthorne House, where every room bears the old man's touch--and his love of puzzles, riddles, and codes.
Unfortunately for Avery, Hawthorne House is also occupied by the family that Tobias Hawthorne just dispossessed. This includes the four Hawthorne grandsons: dangerous, magnetic, brilliant boys who grew up with every expectation that one day, they would inherit billions. Heir apparent Grayson Hawthorne is convinced that Avery must be a con-woman, and he's determined to take her down. His brother, Jameson, views her as their grandfather's last hurrah: a twisted riddle, a puzzle to be solved. Caught in a world of wealth and privilege, with danger around every turn, Avery will have to play the game herself just to survive.
Review: My rating: 4 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
This was so good! I loved both the mystery and the characters from the start! The mystery of why Avery, who's a complete stranger to Tobias was inherent so much of his money and property, while his own family got less, was really intriguing and mysterious! The plot twists and clues were interesting too, what with the riddles and sayings and numbers. The part with their last names was clever too and the part with the red ink!
One of the other main reasons I like this was the characters. I really liked Avery from the first few pages with her playing chess with the homeless man and saying if she won he had to buy food with her money, to her proving her principal wrong, and talking to Max. She had this really fierce and clever type of vibe that was unlike any other character I'd read before.
I also really like all the Hawthorne brothers (especially Xander!) because each of them was different in their own way and they all played into the mystery in some way or the other.
If I liked it so much why did I give it a four stars and not five? Chapter 73 is why.
I get that this book is supposed to be Knives Out meets Rebecca but that doesn't mean the author can just steal a scene from there and use it as her own. I really enjoyed the book until then, because of the character, the mystery and how original it seemed until I read that scene and realized it practically exactly like the one from Rebecca! I read Rebecca recently(a few days ago), and so it's fresh in my mind and I distinctly remember the famous ball scene(which is sort of the climax) where Rebecca came downstairs wearing the same dress and hairstyle as Maxim's dead wife and he was really upset. In this book, Avery wore the same dress, hair, and makeup as Emily whose the dead ex of the Hawthornes. I can tolerate a lot when it comes to books, but this scene made me take off a half star :(
The other reason for this being a four-star and not a five is that the clues weren't the types of clues the reader could solve along with Avery, they were all mostly physical clues. So, it didn't feel like we were right along-side her thinking through everything, it was more like them sliding their fingers along letters and finding numbers carved in trees. The only clues I really liked were the riddles since the reader can solve those too.
Despite this, the book was still really great and I would recommend it to anyone who likes mysteries and riddles!
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