A review by jtbrooksbooksandreviews
The Art of Inheriting Secrets by Barbara O'Neal

3.0

**Spoilers**

I listened to this book while I was driving to and from work. However, as I got about a little over half-way I had to know what happened and would start to read or listen to it while at home too. I really enjoyed the narrator’s voice. The characters were interesting and the secrets from the past were intriguing and kept me wondering. The relationship with Samir was interesting and I liked how he tried to help prop Olivia up and make her more independent in her new world. I appreciated that Olivia was respectful of Samir’s boundaries around his writing. I liked their dynamic with each other and there were a few swoony moments.

I did feel like the clues about the past were revealed kind of slowly and that the treasure hunt clues were just kind of forgotten about at times. This then leads to the end of the book kind of shoving all the clues at you at once. I was also a bit weirded out by the end of the book where Olivia learns that she is really a few years older than she thought. How can an almost 40 year-old not know that they are actually already 40? I found this part very unbelievable. I also was left with more questions about the past that were never going to be answered. I also was curious if Olivia’s mother knew that that estate’s money was slowly being stolen? I was a bit bummed that more wasn’t explored about Haver and Rebecca’s involvement in the estate’s money.

While I enjoyed the characters and the world that Barbara O’Neal created I just had trouble with the ending of the book. It left me with more questions and a bitter taste about Olivia’s true age.