BINGO – Cozy
Avery Kylie Grambs has been named as essentially the sole inheritor of a massive fortune (think billions and billions). That would complicate life for any high school student, but, in Avery’s case, she’s never even met her surprise benefactor, the late Tobias Hawthorne. Mr. Hawthorne’s two daughters are left reeling at the reading of the will, but his four grandsons suspect that a game is afoot. Their grandfather loved puzzles, and they suspect that this is one too. Avery is just caught in the middle. In order to secure her fortune, she must live at Tobias’ luxurious house, filled with odd wings, secret passageways, and hidden compartments, for a full year. But can she make it? Avery’s new fortune has made her a target both in and out of the Hawthorne family.
Essentially this house is one big escape room which was a delight. Tobias Hawthorne left clues, puzzles, and riddles throughout the house and his belongings for his grandsons and Avery to help solve the mystery of why all of his money was left to a stranger. And Avery is clever; she knows how to approach problems from creative angles in order to find solutions. Even though Tobias raised his four grandsons on these very types of puzzles and riddles, Avery can keep up and even outpace the boys. The pacing of the book is great. The chapters are short and add to the overall cozy vibe.
In addition to solving the mystery, Avery must learn how to navigate the world of the wealthy. She now has a staff including a very intrepid young lawyer and a very serious body guard. She has to handle very fraught relationships with the rest of the Hawthorne family who feel cheated out of their family’s money. There’s a lot for Avery to handle, and she doesn’t always do so well which I appreciated. She is a teenager, after all. No one without a fully formed frontal lobe would be able to make the best decisions in this situation.
The one negative I have is the the ending. Things were a little hamfisted. A sudden, new love triangle was introduced and multiple relationships were revealed to be more twisted than originally known to be. Truth be told, things got a little difficult to track and the reveals didn’t add too much to the plot or previously established relationships. Besides things are going to be a little messier moving forward. Overall, this didn’t detract from my enjoyment, and I’m definitely interested in reading more.