The Brothers Hawthorne recap

The fourth book splits between two brothers on separate errands. Grayson goes to Phoenix to quietly look after the family his biological father left behind, a wife and twin daughters who have no idea the man is dead or that Grayson is related to them, and finds their money gone and their affairs being picked over. Savannah keeps her composure and her secrets; Gigi starts investigating her father's disappearance and pulls the whole thing open. Jameson, meanwhile, is approached by Ian Johnstone-Jameson, the English father he has never met, who needs him to win a favor from the Devil's Mercy, a private London club where the stakes are debts and favors rather than money. Jameson has to win his way in through trials set by Rohan, the club's factotum, with Avery beside him and his father's account of what he needs shifting every time it is told. Both brothers end up choosing honesty over the plan they arrived with: Grayson tells the twins the truth and claims them as family, and Jameson wins the club's game and refuses to be used by his father.

Avery Kylie Grambs inherited billions from Tobias Hawthorne, a Texas billionaire she had never met, who cut out his own daughters and his four grandsons: Nash, Grayson, Jameson, and Xander. Across three books she survived several attempts on her life, solved the puzzles the old man left behind, and found his son Toby, who had been presumed dead for twenty years. Grayson's biological father, Sheffield Grayson, was behind the second wave of attacks and died in the confrontation; the Hawthornes concealed it, leaving his wife and twin daughters in Phoenix believing only that he had disappeared. In the third book the family faced Vincent Blake, the patriarch of a rival clan who held Toby captive and knew what had become of Sheffield Grayson. Avery beat Blake on his own ground, freed Toby, turned eighteen, and took full control of the fortune, which she has been deliberately giving away ever since. She and Jameson are together, Nash and Libby are together, and Xander is pursuing his own projects. Grayson has never told the family his father left behind what really happened, and Jameson has never met his own father at all.

The book follows two brothers on separate errands. Grayson travels to Phoenix, where the family Sheffield Grayson left behind, his wife Acacia and their twin daughters Savannah and Gigi, are coping with a vanished man, a frozen estate, and money that has stopped arriving. Grayson does not tell them who he is or what he knows about their father's fate. Jameson, meanwhile, is approached by Ian Johnstone-Jameson, the English father he has never met, who wants his help winning something from the Devil's Mercy, a private London establishment where the currency is favors, secrets, and debts rather than cash.

In Phoenix, Grayson finds two sisters coping in opposite directions. Savannah is disciplined, guarded, and determined to give nothing away, while Gigi is relentlessly curious and has already begun digging into what happened to their father. Keeping his identity to himself gets harder the further into their lives he is drawn. In London, Jameson learns that the Devil's Mercy admits nobody who has not won their way in, and that the terms are set by Rohan, the young factotum who runs the floor for the club's unseen proprietor. Avery comes with him. Ian's account of what he needs, and why he needs a Hawthorne to get it, changes a little every time he tells it.

Gigi's investigation turns up the parts of her father's business she was never meant to see, and the people benefiting from his absence would rather the questions stopped. Grayson has to work out how much protection he can give the twins without explaining who he is, and finds himself acting like a brother rather than a benefactor. In London, Jameson takes on the trials that decide who is admitted to the Devil's Mercy, competing against people who have spent far longer preparing for the chance, and discovers that Rohan plays the club's games as well as any Hawthorne and knows the house's secrets besides.

Both brothers reach the point where the cover story stops working. In Phoenix the scheme around the Grayson estate comes into focus, Savannah reveals how much she has known all along about her father and what he was involved in, and Grayson's own connection to the family becomes impossible to keep from them. In London, Jameson wins his place inside the Devil's Mercy and finds out what his father actually wants the club's favor for, and how far Ian has been prepared to gamble with his son to get it.

Grayson decides that the twins matter more than the version of events he came to Phoenix protecting, and turns Hawthorne resources on the people exploiting their father's absence in order to salvage what is left of the family's position. In London, Jameson plays for the favor the Devil's Mercy grants, against opponents who know the house far better than he does and against his father's plans for the prize. Rohan's own ambitions for the club become clear, and Jameson has to decide whether his father is someone to be won over or simply another player at the table.

Grayson tells Savannah and Gigi who he is and what happened to their father, and rather than losing them he ends the book with two sisters, their mother's household on solid ground, and the scheme against the Grayson estate broken. In London, Jameson wins the game at the Devil's Mercy, takes his father's measure, and refuses to be the instrument Ian wanted, leaving Ian without the leverage he came for; Rohan's position inside the club is transformed by the outcome. Jameson and Avery return with a clearer sense of how far the Hawthorne name reaches beyond Texas, the brothers are reunited with a family larger than the one they began with, and Avery's plan to open the fortune up as a game ordinary players can enter moves toward its first running.

Grayson stops hiding: he tells Savannah and Gigi who he is and what he knows about their father, and instead of losing them he ends the book with two sisters, their mother's household secured, and the scheme that was stripping the Grayson estate broken. The twins are now part of the Hawthorne orbit rather than a secret Grayson keeps from it, and Savannah's own long silence about their father is finally out in the open. In London, Jameson wins his way into the Devil's Mercy and wins its game, taking his father's measure in the process and refusing to be the instrument Ian intended; Ian ends the book without the leverage he came for, and Rohan's standing inside the club is transformed by what happens. Jameson and Avery leave London with a much better sense of what the Hawthorne name is worth outside Texas. The brothers come home to a family larger than the one they started the book with, and Avery's plan to turn the fortune into a game that ordinary people can enter moves closer to its first running.