I was so excited about this, desperate to see where things would head after book one, and I’m grateful to NetGalley for allowing me to read it before publication but it didn’t feel as satisfying as I’d have liked.
The book picks up with Avery trying to come to terms with her new wealth, and dealing with the problems posed by the will. She is starting to feel part of the Hawthorne family but she remains at risk.
There are new dilemmas to solve here, and Avery has to contend with the realisation that certain people remain desperate to remove her from the equation. During the course of her investigations we learn that things have been covered up, the family are no strangers to doing whatever is necessary to preserve their choices and Avery remains somewhat on the periphery.
Part of the issue for me with this was that I had such high expectations, and nothing quite seemed to gel as I was reading. Not much really happened to begin with, and there were a lot of rather conveniently revealed details to allow another phase to play out. The big secret around Avery didn’t really come to anything, and the ending felt just a little too vague to make sense. I can only guess that this was done deliberately to get readers clamouring for book three…but I’m not sure it’s done that for me.