This book is indeed a combination of Knives Out and The Inheritance Games. It’s incredible.

One of my favorite old-time series is The Inheritance Games and the way this book got me just as excited as I was when I first read TIG was amazing. I can’t say enough about how good this book is. I thought it was going to start a bit slow, but nope, it went straight into the mystery, and at the end of every chapter I just needed to know more!

The writing is so simple and amazing. I loved the characters so much. I love how you learn to love even those that at the beginning you are skeptical about. Seriously, this book is the perfect mystery, suspense read for this Halloween!

(reviews on Goodreads, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and/or other social platforms soon to come).

A fun and thrilling treasure hunt, The Rosewood Hunt sends you spiraling through riddles and racing against villains in hopes of finding a happy ending.

The story definitely had a found-family feel. I loved seeing Lily connect (and reconnect) with Leo, Quinn, and Caleb. I also really enjoyed Lily and Leo’s storyline. I am always a sucker for the used-to-be-friends-now-we’re-enemies type of romance. In middle school and high school, your friends and relationships definitely are in flux I liked watching Lily try to rekindle and navigate them.

Overall, The Rosewood Hunt had a great mix of being light and fun while also being somewhat mysterious and thrilling. Definitely a great one to pick up if you’re looking for an entertaining, quick read.

What a delight! This thriller is a fun treasure hunt featuring the granddaughter and rightful heiress of the fortune-holder. It's also a beautiful story of friendship and love and fighting for what's good. I really really enjoyed it!

This book is fun and addictive. It has a treasure hunt plot that’s fast-paced and full of surprises. I loved the characters and their friendships, there’s found family vibes throughout and plenty of banter. The teenagers are off on an adventure full of mystery and danger with a big money prize at stake. It reminded me of Outer Banks, National Treasure and The Goonies at times. Utterly unputdownable. I even read the acknowledgments which were heartfelt, the authors passion translated well into the characters and plot. Thank you to NetGalley and HarperTeen for an E-ARC. This is a voluntary review of my own thoughts.

Perfect for fans of a series of unfortunate events, we were liars and six of crows.

Before reading, please note that the treasure hunting in this book is a high steak's one, with a lot of risks.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.
The Rosewood Hunt drew my attention due to its interesting premise, promising a fun treasure hunt thriller. And while it was a bit weirder than I expected, I still mostly enjoyed it.
I love that the relationship between Lily and her grandmother remained at the heart of the story. Puzzles and scavenger hunts were something that always bonded them throughout their time together, so while the story took some odd turns, I like how the book ultimately tried to reinforce that. And there’s a great juxtaposition between their relationship and the other familial relationships, especially the toxic relationship between Lily’s late father and her uncle. This is also reflected in Lily’s relationship with her cousin, Daisy, which is very tense at the beginning of the book, for reasons related to family tensions, as well as rivalry over a guy, Leo.
But I love how her grandmother’s imposed treasure hunt challenges Lily to work out her issues with both Daisy and Leo, taking on a leading role to recover the family fortune and following Gram’s clues. The team is very much a ragtag one in ways, but I loved the bonds they formed with one another in the process of learning to work together.
The romance was sweet, and Leo’s a pretty solid love interest, past transgressions aside. I did feel like the romance was a bit overshadowed by the rest of the story, but as far as romantic subplots go, it’s not terrible.
The plot and pacing were fairly even and kept my attention for the most part. The treasure-hunt aspects kept things interesting, keeping me guessing, while the more introspective moments provided character growth.

Scavenger hunt books are by far my favorite collection of books/genres, but there isn't nearly as many as there should be. This book somehow managed to surpass my expectations of what this book could be and set my bar a little bit higher for the books that I read after this. There is so much to cover and not enough lines, so let's hit the big stuff. Lily has had a rocky past and has been living with her grandmother for a little bit. They have always had a relationship that involves games, and clues, and invisible ink... sound familiar? (Here's my hint that if you like the inheritance games, you will LOVE this book). Lily is one of those characters that you are able to watch grow throughout this book. It takes her a little while to realize but this whole hunt wouldn't be able to happen without her. I won't unpack everything about the rest of the squad but picture the breakfast club/the goonies all coming together to save the town and become besties. This book has many MANY twists and turns; it has manhunts, it has secret passageways, it has escape vans, and it has romance.. everything you have ever wanted, this book has. Lily, Leo, Quinn, Caleb, Daisy, and the other mix of cast are incredibly written and this book exceeded my expectations. Now the next question is... when is the second book coming out?????

*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC. All opinions are my own.*

What a great debut! The Rosewood family are the original founders of Rosetown and to this day they host lavish parties. Unfortunately the Rosewoods have made some enemies and when the matriarch, Iris (Gram) passes, the fortune is missing. Lily, the eldest grandchild finds a clue from her Gram which leads her and three other local teens on a hunt to find the lost fortune. Unfortunately, tourists and treasure hunters are also on the lookout for it and the search becomes deadly.

This was a fun read and I enjoyed most of it! Unfortunately the last 20% dragged and I felt like the ending was a little too convenient. Overall I would recommend this though if you’re looking for a fun read with wonderfully fleshed out characters!

Read if you like:
• treasure hunts
• The Inheritance Games
• found family trope
• complex family dynamics

This was an exciting YA Mystery that I couldn’t put down!

The book is told from one point-of-view and it comes from Lily Rosewood. She comes from an elite family that built the town they live in. She has been living with her Gram for about a year after her dad died and her mother left, hoping that she will learn to take over the family business called Rosewood Inc. All of her hopes and dreams change when her Gram suddenly dies and everything she thought she would get was wrong.

I thought this was a really good setup for the story. Even though as the reader you don’t get to know Gram really well, you still get to know her character a bit through the stories the characters share. Gram was a real firecracker and knew what needed to be done. She wanted everyone to learn some lesson and loved games. Everything with the inheritance was built around clues and one last game for Lily. It also brings other characters into the mix and Lily learns to have friends and rebuild those friendships once again. She learns a lot about herself and finds love as well. I liked that the relationship with her cousin grew too.

The plot was pretty intense and I couldn’t believe the plot twists that were happening! I thought that the person behind all of the danger was someone else. Lily and her friends handle it all really well and learn to trust one another. It was a found family situation and I was happy to see Lily have people she could rely on. There is also talk about TikTok and how viral videos can make things even more chaotic.

Overall, this was an enjoyable read! I loved the romance between Lily and another character. I also liked the mystery of finding the inheritance. It kept me reading until the very end!

Thank you Harper Collins Children’s Books, Harper Teen and NetGalley for the arc of The Rosewood Hunt by Mackenzie Reed in exchange for my honest and unbiased review!

The Rosewood Hunt was a fun, fast paced coming of age novel in which Lily Rosewood and three other teenagers embark on a scavenger hunt, following the clues left behind by Lily’s grandmother.

This was a quick read, and I didn’t feel like the plot dragged, which I very much appreciated. While there were romance aspects, they weren’t central to the plot. Lily’s development took center stage, and we got to see her grow in the span of a few days, which felt appropriate for the stage of life she’s in.

Overall, I loved this book, and I will be recommending it!

Thank you Harper Collins Children’s Books, Harper Teen and NetGalley for the arc of The Rosewood Hunt by Mackenzie Reed in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

This was a fun fast paced read that I flew through in only a few hours! Reed pulls together an intriguing and enticing plot that definitely has Inheritance Games vibes, albeit centred more in modern day.

The plot is centred around the death of the family matriarch Iris Rosewood aka Gram and the subsequent treasure hunt that draws together an unlikely group of teenagers.

Of course there’s a little more to this, including a high speed chase and a few other high intensity moments but, the central theme is around friendship, family, loyalty and relationships.

The central character Lily initially appears to an entitled individual but, her arc shows greater depth of character and as the gang develops, other interesting characters and back stories come to light. This really brings home the message that no one truly knows what others are going through, what their past is and how important relationships really are.

I found this to be a fun read, and if you’re looking for treasure, this little gem of a debut is worth hunting out.

An inheritance game, a hidden treasure, and a friends-to-rivals-to-lovers romance. Lily Rosewood has lived with her grandmother since her father's death. Gram is a wealthy woman who is the chair of their family's luxury coat business that has inspired Lily's love of fashion. Lily hopes to follow in her Gram's footsteps but then suddenly her grandmother has died and has left behind cryptic gifts and clues for Lily, her cousin Daisy, and her Uncle.... but in Lily's clue is instructions to playing a game that could lead to the family's hidden treasure. In order to solve the game, she'll have to team up with Leo, Lily's ex best friend and the yard boy who became close to her grandmother, Quinn a chaotic girl who has a history with Lily's cousin Daisy, Daisy, Lily's cousin and ex best friend, and Caleb, a mysterious boy. They all have something in common, they all knew Gram and they are all desperate for money. Lily will have to face her complicated feelings about her ex best friends and also face off against other treasure hunters who are after her family's fortune...yet the real danger might be closer than she ever knew. This was a mix of The Inheritance Games and Knives Out, but just lacking interesting characters. I love a game, especially an inheritance game but I really did not care for the romance in any way at all, in fact I would have preferred it if this book didn't have the romance. I just didn't feel the chemistry between Lily and Theo, which is unfortunate because I'm normally a sucker for romances. The game itself was fun and probably the best part of the book. Overall, it was an okay read for me. I was expecting something more and had higher hopes for this and it just didn't quite live up to my expectations sadly. Overall if you enjoy young adult inheritance game stories with a bit of romance and a fun group of individuals, then give this a go.

*Thanks Netgalley and HarperCollins Children's Books, HarperTeen for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

I am a huge fan of any sort of inheritance treasure hunt/ contest for money novels, so it was a no brainer to request this one on Netgalley! While I know readers out there will completely eat this book up, I have to come to terms with the fact that I can no longer read YA novels like I used to. I just can't get into the high school drama with the characters and how they act like they've found true love at 16. I would have gone crazy for this book if I read it back in high school!

Getting down to it, I liked the treasure hunt part of the novel and the twist at the end, but I had a few problems with some of the characters. It felt like the author wanted to create characters that were the stereotypical high school personas: the jock, the geek, the rich girl, and the troubled teen. A little cliche, but I can get past that. What I couldn't quite get past was Lily and how spoiled and entitled she seemed. Daisy was also pretty entitled, but Lily was meant to be a humble character who rose above hard times. She didn't quite come across that way to me and it was a bit off putting.

Overall, I give this one 3/5 stars!

The Rosewood Hunt is the perfect book to give to fans of The Inheritance Games! This is the story of the Rosewood family, and essentially a treasure hunt to "win" the family fortune. I really enjoyed the pacing--super quick and fun to read! The teen characters are all likable and relatable in their own way and the found family aspect of the story was great. This is going to be a great addition to classroom libraries, especially for students who want a suspenseful and dramatic story, but without the death and violence that a lot of thriller and mystery books contain. There are also some through-provoking elements to the story regarding the potential for wealth and greed to cause harm.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-ARC of this book!

This was so good!!!! I can not wait till the full release so I can make all my friends buy it. The plot was so engaging and I could not put it down.

[4.5 rounded up]

“When you’re the matriarch of the richest family in southern Massachusetts, everybody wants a piece of you.”


This was a compelling premise and a suspenseful read.

And if you are interested in a suspenseful read that doesn’t have death in it or a murder to solve, this would be a great option for you!

After her grandma’s sudden death (okay ONE death…), almost 18-year-old Lily is sent on a ‘treasure hunt’ for her supposed inheritance.

Some have said this book has The Goonies vibes (which is actually referenced in the book) or is similar to The Inheritance Games. I haven’t seen the former or read the latter, so I can’t speak to whether those are accurate comparisons.

However, I just googled The Goonies and I see it’s described as a group of misfits who find a map and go on a treasure hunt, so (minus the pirates), yes, it does appear to be similar.


Lily is a loner and jealous of her cousin, Daisy (who is essentially the Spare), and her group of friends.

“I’d rather be alone than feel alone with friends who only care about my last name and how much money is in my bank account. Which is currently, like, none.”


Part of the treasure hunt seems to be Gram bringing people into Lily’s life and creating an unexpected group of friends, bonded by the hunt and the danger that it puts them through.


I liked the premise of this book and the context of where the treasure hunt starts. If you haven’t noticed yet, flower names are the theme in the Rosewood family. Hyacinth was the first matriarch and managed to create an entire town (with the family namesake). Then there was Petunia, then Iris (Lily and Daisy’s grandma). Iris had twin sons named Arbor and Alder.

The setting of a town kinda ‘ruled’ or ‘reigned over’ by the Rosewood family creates a close-knit community (with flowers planted everywhere). Lily’s dad and uncle ended up getting a lot of the townspeople into some financial trouble so when Gram dies and the family fortune appears to have ‘disappeared’ it sends the entire town into a hubbub.

“Not only are we up against whatever tricks Gram has in store for us, but now we also have competition? If we don’t solve her clues fast, someone else could get to it first.”


One thing that I didn’t like was the map. Lily ends up having to find three other people with pieces to the map. I wish the map had served more of a purpose than just bringing the four people together. There weren’t really any clues to be found in the map, and they didn’t really need it to solve the clues. I think it should have played a bigger role.

The clues the teens follow are also story-specific so it’s not something the reader can ‘figure out’ alongside the characters. It can be done either way in books, and sometimes it’s fun to be try to solve a riddle or something, but it worked out just fine to merely be a spectator in this story.


I wouldn’t say that I was shocked at any point in the story and I could kind of predict most of the ending. Again, it was okay in this book. It’s a YA book so it makes sense that the author isn’t going to create an overly complex plot line. It didn’t make it less enjoyable for me to read. I was still curious what Gram was up to and how it would all play out.


A major thread in this book is friendship. Reed writes in her acknowledgements, “While The Rosewood Hunt is a story about many things, at its heart, it’s about the friendship that blooms during an unexpected journey.”

(Again the connection to flowers!)

I have mixed feelings about the friendship vibes. With the exception of Gram and Daisy and Lily’s relationship, almost every other familial relationship in the book was strained, negative, or non-existent. This was a story where friendship really seemed to replace family.

I think for teen readers, friendship will hit a lot of chords and is something they are interested in reading about. That’s cool. But at the same time, I feel like it’s pretty rare to maintain high school friendships beyond high school. Friends aren’t always, or usually, forever… at least in a consistent way.

I get it, Lily has lost all her family (besides Daisy) and so in some ways friends will become her family. But I don’t think this is the norm for teens. It almost seemed to glorify friendships above family relationships. And it’s hard to argue when their parents are all terrible. But as a reader who IS a parent and already sees ways the family structure and the role of parents in a child’s life is being undermined, I guess I would have liked to see some more positive family relationships or at least some sort of reconciliation with teens and parental figures.

I could see teens reading this and thinking— ‘all I need is my friends; they will love me better than my parents.’ And the majority of the time, that’s just simply not true.

But, I would be curious what teen readers think when they read this. Perhaps their perception of the story understands those idiosyncrasies.



Another thing I noticed, which I’m not sure I would necessarily want changed, was the caliber of dialogue these teenagers are engaging in. It’s a typical observation I make when I read YA novels so it’s probably just ‘the way it is,’ but sometimes these teenagers are way more self-aware than they would be in reality. And able to articulate some of the feelings in a very mature way (i.e. why they struggle with relationships and getting close to people and why they find it hard to connect with people).

Daisy’s character seemed more in line with what I would expect. But I’m not sure I would want to read a book full of Daisy-caliber characters so I’m not sure how much I should request realism here haha.

And actually, most of the dialogue was well-done and interesting to read. I enjoyed some of the humor sprinkled in as well.



Most YA novels with an adventure have a character who says something heroic like- ‘I can’t have any more people I love getting hurt, so I’m going to finish this by myself. I love you guys and need to protect you because this is all my fault anyway.’ The Rosewood Hunt is no exception.

Do I think teenagers would do this? No. But at the same time, I suppose it’s not a bad thing to portray a character thinking about someone other than themself. I remember being a teen and teens are pretty inward focused and can’t always see how their choices or words affect others. If a character in a book makes them look outward more and desire to put others ahead of themselves, that’s probably a good thing for teens to be reading.


I thought Reed did a good job with the hunt- making it work in the modern setting and considering it came on the heels of the death of a loved one. Sometimes I wondered why characters did or didn’t do something or say something, but for the most part, those ‘holes’ were explained by the end.

Except for Lily’s mom. I’m still not sure what the deal is with both of the moms, really.

And, I do have a money question… if there were very large trusts heavily invested in Rosewood Inc. and then their owners were able to just pull them all out, wouldn’t that tank the company? Also, I really don’t think the trusts should have been fully available at the age of 18— that’s way too much money for a person whose frontal lobe is not fully developed yet…



Recommendation

I would definitely recommend this for an adult audience, but for a YA audience I would see my content advisory below to see if it’s something you would want your teen reading or not.

It’s not a dark, twisty, murderous thriller; it’s a lighter, yet suspenseful read with a fun adventure inspiring friendship. It’s a quick read and one I think a lot of people would enjoy.

I do wish it had less swearing (it seemed to increase in the last 2/3 of the book) and more emphasis on family, but I still liked the book. Especially for a debut novel, I think Reed has crafted a great book!


**Received an ARC via NetGalley*

[Content Advisory: 43 f-words, 54 s-words, 7 b-words, no sexual content, four prominent characters are LGBTQ]

I really enjoyed reading this one! It was my first by this particular author and now I can’t wait to read more from them!

3.75 rounded up —

This was a brisk and enjoyable YA read, with intriguing plot choices and a
great hook to boot. I see The Inheritance Games vibes that people have been touting for sure, but I do think that these titles manage to hold their own, slightly differing spaces within their shared scope of genre.

The thriller elements were not as high-stakes as billed, and I do think the story leans more drama than thriller. The pacing was quite quick as well, which led to certain arcs falling flat sometimes, primarily because this didn't leave much room to flesh out important nuances of relationship dynamics. Also, a lot of the key moments were presented in info dump form; they were more tell than show, and I would have preferred the latter.

That being said, this book was a truly FUN read. The vibes were immaculate, and I did find myself loving the found family crew situation a lot more than I initially thought I would.

All in all, a solid debut, and a great way to kick off the autumnal reading season.

The characters of this story are giving quirky group of unlikely friends.

The plot is a pretty straight forward treasure hunt story. Follow clue A to clue B to clue C find treasure. Defeat bad guy. Don’t get killed. The ending is satisfying but nothing over the top special.

(3.5) This was cute and exactly what I thought it would be. At its core it’s about friendship and found family & I eat that UP. There was a lot to enjoy like the hunt, the riddles, the characters, etc. And there were some cliches, like A LOT but I know the YA girlies will eat it up. Overall, I really enjoyed it!