It Takes Two: Our Story

Lovers of HGTV and the Property Brothers, this book is likely beckoning your name. While it stars the Scott brothers, Drew and Jonathan, and ultimately ends with details about their various home improvement shows, the book is a let down as it spends the majority of its time focusing on the twins’ love for magic and basketball with realty always mentioned in the background but never being given the prominence it deserves based on the life they live now.

I love a good backstory, don’t get me wrong, but there was SO MUCH backstory on a love for magic and an attempt at playing college basketball that I genuinely forgot these were two men who hosted a wildly popular HGTV show.  Did I need to know about the time the wannabe magician was scammed and how that taught him to be more discerning? Sure. Did I need an in-depth look at how the Scott brothers started making money when they were young and how that instilled in them a spirit of industriousness? Sure. What I didn’t need was entire chapters donated to their clown job in high school,  a detailed look at what a magician needs to be successful, or the nitty gritty on the surgery for a torn meniscus. I didn’t hate this book because I can appreciate backstory, but if you’re looking for a book about how they got their show and their background in realty and DIY home improvement, you won’t find it here.

Another big issue I had with this book is that I listened to the audiobook and Drew and Scott sound nearly identical. I honestly can’t tell you which one wanted to be a magician and which one wanted to be a basketball player because both provided commentary on every chapter and made the whole thing more confusing. Unfortunately, it didn’t make it that much more interesting, though some of their jokes were humorous.

Some of the redeeming parts of this book came in the opening introduction from the Scott parents, the early chapters on their first jobs, and the final chapters on finding love and settling into life on the road for their many shows. The middle got a little lost and left me wondering if they even did realty and home improvement before getting an HGTV show.  If their realty business was always booming in the background, as they claim a couple time, why did they never mention it or focus on that instead of trying to become actors? I think we all know the answer to that.