Blurb: Lily Rosewood dreams of taking over her family's company one day. Her grandmother, Rosewood Inc's current chair, has always encouraged her, and Lily can't wait for Gram to teach her everything she needs to know to run the business...but then Gram dies suddenly, and Lily's world is upended. When it's revealed that Gram's quarter of a billion dollar fortune is missing, Lily can't fathom what her future will hold now. Even in death, Gram has a few tricks up her couture sleeve; a last letter with a cryptic clue sends Lily and three other teens on a treasure hunt that could change their lives forever...if they can survive it. If they pull it off, they may be rewarded with more than just money...but they're not the only ones hunting for Gram's treasure, and soon, the hunt becomes more dangerous than they ever could have imagined.
Mackenzie Reed writes an almost heist-like novel that is taken from the perspective of seventeen-year-old Lily Rosewood, granddaughter of our recently deceased millionaire Iris Rosewood, owner of Rosewood Inc. Action packed and full of heart, Lily joins strangers who soon become her found family in a treasure hunt for her grandmother’s missing fortune. Where this novel is fun and games, with the fast-paced mission, armed guards, and almost goony vibes, this novel does not set up for a sequel, but I do wish for a prequel. Reed writes Iris Rosewood to be this clever matriarchy woman and kills her almost imminently from the story. Thus I felt a disconnect from Lily who seemed bent on finding the treasure, and not so much mourning the loss of her loved one, after it had been less than a year after losing her dad. For someone that young to face so much loss, I felt like Lily should have had more emotions and grievances, instead of doing a scavenger hunt with the “friends” Iris thought she could make.
Characters:
I wish these characters showed more emotion, but my jolly they were fun together. The novel is taken from the first perspective of Lily, and she is… okay. Lily does give off the white privilege-rich girl, who truly thought her grandmother was going to hand over the mass sum of wealth to her with little fight. She is a bit of a smart mouth, so when Daisy cut her out of the friend group, Lily did not seem to put up much of a fight. For Reed to write such a traumatic backstory for our character, they also wrote her to be that cold poise that rich mean people can be. Girlie should be bawling for days over her grandmother, not sneaking into museums to find clues. But, Iris knew her granddaughter was not a mourner, so maybe this adventure was what Lily needed… and a set of friends. Iris sends clues to several young people in town who also need cash for their big life dreams, and forms her own Goonies squad of Leo, Quinn, and Caleb to help Lily solve the clues. The group dynamic is fantastic, and I loved how Reed gave each character their own moment with Lily, and moments with each other that we do not see. Sure some romance was not between Lily and her ex-bestie Leo, as they are now back in contact and made for some incredibly awkward forced chemistry scenes. I love Found Family, it's my favorite vibe, but the romance between Lily and Leo seemed extremely fake and forced.
Plot and Writing:
If the characters do not hold you to this novel the plot will! Reed wastes no time killing off Iris, kicking Lily and the rest of the Rosewood family out of the house, and giving Lily the first clue in a “blank” letter. From there Lily soon meets up with the rest of the crew, and the novel is spent solving one riddle to the next until our teens find the boatload of cash, escape some bad guys, and almost drown. I only wish I could play along! The clues were so Lily-specific and Rosetown in general, that you as a reader were forced into the passenger seat for this wild ride. Later on in the novel, there is one (maybe two) mystery you could follow, but the majority of the time it was just Lily and co doing the mystery solving.
Conclusion:
For me it took a while for me to grasp the love for the novel, I think mainly due to the high-speed plot without getting to love the characters, and Lily herself giving readers the cold shoulder sometimes. Lily is loyal in the end but is far too calculating at the start. Still, this is a wonderful novel and I am glad Reed created this world and introduced us to these characters!
It feels like we've gotten to see a lot of stories that involve a death & a huge fortune, made kinda popular from Knives Out & The Inheritance Games trilogy. I've been loving this genre (sub genre?) for a long time - it started with the Professor Layton games on Nintendo DS! So of course I'm a sucker and want to read anything that falls in this category
Not to mention, a new Professor Layton game recently got announced for the Switch 👀
Despite being about death & a massive fortune, the author stated that this book focuses more on "friendships that bloom during an unexpected journey," and there's definitely more emphasis on those friendships than anything else.
The mystery itself feels pretty simple, and if you read enough books like this you'll likely guess the "twist" early on. The hunt really served to bring people together more than anything else.
I'm left wanting a more complex hunt, but I like what I read. This was an easy read, even if it wasn't particularly twisty, but I would be interested in seeing what the author writes next.
Until then, I'll be dreaming about Professor Layton & the New World of Steam!
[Thank you @netgalley for the #gifted e-arc]
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Would you ever join a hunt to inherit a family legacy?
by: Mackenzie Reed
Published: Oct 31, 2023
Genre: Young Adult, Mystery, Fiction
368 Pages, E-Book ARC Courtesy of NetGalley
★★★
GoodReads Synopsis:
Lily Rosewood dreams of taking over her family's company one day. Her grandmother, Rosewood Inc's current chair, has always encouraged her, and Lily can't wait for Gram to teach her everything she needs to know to run the business.
But then Gram dies suddenly, and Lily's world is upended. When it's revealed that Gram's quarter of a billion dollar fortune is missing, Lily can't fathom what her future will hold now.
Even in death, Gram has a few tricks up her couture sleeve. A last letter from her with a cryptic clue sends Lily and three other teens on a treasure hunt that could change their lives forever-if they can survive it. And if they pull it off, they may be rewarded with more than just money. But they're not the only ones hunting for Gram's treasure, and soon the hunt becomes more dangerous than they ever could have imagined.
My Summary:
Silly hijinx. Teenagers. Family drama. This hunt for the Rosewood fortune gives National Treasure but with teenagers.
We're introduced to Lily Rosewood, the eldest granddaughter of Iris "Gram" Rosewood who is at the helm of the Rosewood family business. Lily is looking forward to taking over as Owner/CEO of Rosewood upon the death of Gram but instead, she is sent on a high-stakes treasure hunt for the billion-dollar fortune left behind by Gram.
With riddles and puzzles and clues to gather from all around town, Lily, with the help of some friends - who also have a connection with Gram - must get to the treasure before the treasure hunters who are also looking for the money.
My Review:
The Rosewood Hunt was a slow burn for me. It took me a few days to get into it and even once it started getting better, I skipped the descriptive paragraphs and only read the dialogue. The whole premise and plot felt dry to me. I sniffed out where the treasure would be; who was involved with the hunters, and figured out the ending almost to a "T".
The book's pacing was slow in the first half but, once it picked up toward the middle, everything moved quickly with the exception of a big final moment where there is way too much talking and observing when they should have been moving! To be fair, I also hate this in movies but, why is there so much dialogue and reflection with others when someone is chasing you?... R U N!!
This idea of a treasure hunt has been done before. There is a need for antagonists and others who throw a wrench in the plan, to throw you off the hunt. That's a given. The family drama is not new either. But my one real complaint is that I wish the drama had some more depth. For me, it seemed like all the conflicts were surface. The two cousins, once their "issue" is revealed is something so basic and immature -- well, they're young so *shrug*. Then the family drama with Nonna and Leo also made no sense. Why would his grandmother have an issue with HIM, of all people involved, his own grandson? That didn't make sense to me. However, I did like Caleb's story about being brave.
Final Thought: Where are Lily and Daisy's mothers? Why did they just run away never to be heard from again? That has bothered me since I finished the book.
