About the Book
-
Author:
- Mackenzie Reed
- Genres:
- Contemporary
- Mystery
- Voices:
- Cis Girl
- Straight
- White (Non-Specified)
Cover Story: The Red Clue Hunt
BFF Charm: Destiny’s Child
Talky Talk: Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Is That You?
Bonus Factors: Badass Heroines, Found Family
Relationship Status: Let’s Keep This Good Thing Going
Cover Story: The Red Clue Hunt
The cover is striking: the title in red, plus the ruby necklace that Lily inherits, the red wax seal from the inheritance letter that Lily receives, and roses from the Rosewood manor are all there. Then there’s the one striking thing that seems out of place: the golden key. It’s pretty obvious that the story within is going to be fun just based on the cover alone. To the designers: bravo! You did a great job.
The Deal:
Lily Rosewood has big dreams: to go to a fashion institute, get her credentials, and come back to Rosetown to run Rosewood, Inc., owned and operated by her grandmother. What she doesn’t expect is that her grandmother would pass away unexpectedly from a heart attack. And that she left Lily a clue about the missing Rosewood fortune, which none of the Rosewoods – a basically orphaned Lily, Lily’s cousin Daisy, and Daisy’s father Arbor – inherited.
Lily is surprised when Daisy doesn’t receive a puzzle clue, but instead, several townspeople – young high school seniors like herself – show up with pieces of the treasure hunt. And so Lily teams up with them to try to find her inheritance. But Daisy is seething and sharing about the missing fortune on social media, so Lily and the gang are suddenly racing against real treasure hunters. Hunters who wouldn’t mind seeing Lily dead…
BFF Charm: Destiny’s Child
Imagine a seventeen-year-old who has lost nearly everyone around her: her father died by suicide, her mother left soon after, she has no siblings, she’s ostracized by the townspeople, her best friends stopped talking to her, and even her cousin Daisy, whom she used to be so close with, has pulled away. The only person Lily has left in the world is her grandmother, and she dies suddenly, and – get this – leaves Lily a ruby necklace and that’s it. Even the chair position on the board of Rosewood, Inc. is left without her name on it, and that’s all that Lily has wanted – to live out the legacy of her Gram by running the family business.
Wouldn’t you want this person to get everything their heart desired? Fashion school, trips to Milan, the inheritance, the position on the board of directors? Lily has to fight her way through the storm of loneliness, puzzles her Gram left her, and trying to reconcile with old friends while making new ones, in order to find her fortune. She’s gone through it!! But we have the utmost confidence in Lily… right?
Swoonworthy Scale: 7
One of the townspeople who finds a clue to the inheritance puzzle is Leo, Lily’s old best friend from when they were kids. He’s grown up as Daisy’s best friend, ignoring Lily around the same time her father’s misgivings – that the mishandling of his investment business left a lot of the town broke – and subsequent death came to light. But Leo is all grown now, with tousled hair and a full smile that makes Lily’s heart jump. They get deliciously close as they solve Gram’s puzzle, and if Mackenzie Reed can make a gas station bathroom a swoony place, I bow down to thee!
Talky Talk: Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Is That You?
It’s not lost on me that there’s a very similar premise of a book (girl must complete puzzles with the help of a swoon-worthy boy (or boys) in order to gain an inheritance) that is already a NYT bestseller. So this might feel a little redundant to folks who read the genre widely. There are some twists, but there aren’t any manor boys who pout and give sultry stares to our protagonist, so some might be a little disappointed.
Bonus Factor: Badass Heroines
Every female character, from Gram to Lily to her cousin Daisy to even Quinn, one of the townspeople who joins the puzzle hunt, is an interesting, three-dimensional person. You don’t have to worry about the Bechdel Test in this book, because it’s mostly woman-led and that’s enough to earn a fist-pump. Yeah!
Bonus Factor: Found Family
Lest you think it’s all girls, you will be wrong. There’s Leo, the swoony boy from Lily’s past, and Miles, a cinnamon roll of a best friend who has the hots for Caleb, a boy from a neighboring town. They and Lily and Quinn all make up a great little group of misfits, a la The Goonies.
Relationship Status: Let’s Keep This Good Thing Going
The end the book was pretty closed, but I want to see more adventures with Lily and her group of friends. The setting of the little insular, cozy town of Rosetown is pretty interesting, too: can we get more drama from the townspeople?! This is ripe for a series. Let’s petition the publisher.
Literary Matchmaking
Bianca Torre Is Afraid Of Everything by Justine Pucella Winans follows a character solving a mystery left behind by a dead person.
If you enjoyed this book and you haven’t read The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, well, then, you should.
Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows has a little gang of misfits too, though they’re trying to pull off a heist (rather than a hunt).
FTC Full Disclosure: I received a free copy for review from the publisher. I received neither kittens nor compensation in exchange for this review. The Rosewood Hunt is available now.
