Book Review: The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

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The Details

Media Type: Audiobook
Title: The Inheritance Games
* Series: The Inheritance Games #1
Author(s): Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Publisher: LBBFYR
Pages/Length: 10 hours and 45 minutes
Release Date: September 1, 2020
Source: Library Borrow

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Avery Grambs has a plan for a better future: survive high school, win a scholarship, and get out. But her fortunes change in an instant when billionaire Tobias Hawthorne dies and leaves Avery virtually his entire fortune. The catch? Avery has no idea why — or even who Tobias Hawthorne is.

To receive her inheritance, Avery must move into sprawling, secret passage-filled Hawthorne House, where every room bears the old man’s touch — and his love of puzzles, riddles, and codes. Unfortunately for Avery, Hawthorne House is also occupied by the family that Tobias Hawthorne just dispossessed. This includes the four Hawthorne grandsons: dangerous, magnetic, brilliant boys who grew up with every expectation that one day, they would inherit billions. Heir apparent Grayson Hawthorne is convinced that Avery must be a con-woman, and he’s determined to take her down. His brother, Jameson, views her as their grandfather’s last hurrah: a twisted riddle, a puzzle to be solved. Caught in a world of wealth and privilege, with danger around every turn, Avery will have to play the game herself just to survive.

The Review

This book and I had such a rocky relationship. Let me be clear, I don’t really read a lot of young adult books anymore. Mainly because it feels like a lot of the characters are rather flat lately, and I am not a big fan of love triangles. Yes, we all know that YA books adore a love triangle. I was willing to give this a shot though because I love the premise. A young girl thrown straight into a world of wealth and intrigue? A puzzle she must solve while staying alive long enough to get that money. Yes, please.

On the surface, The Inheritance Games is exactly what I expected it to be. If you’re a fan of The Westing Game, or movies like Clue, that’s pretty much what you’ll get here. We meet Avery as she’s attempting to keep everything in her life on track. Juggling school work, trying to stay under the radar socially, and doing her best to navigate a family life that isn’t exactly solid. I admit, I liked Avery! Her intelligence, her sharp wit, and the fact that she didn’t let people push her around made me smile. I was hooked.

Then the big twist happens, and suddenly Avery is navigating an even more difficult world. If she thought that money would solve all her problems, I don’t think she was under that same misconception once the Hawthorne family came into play. I appreciated that Barnes didn’t allow Avery to slip too far into the new life she was handed. Avery stayed the same smart and sassy protagonist I had fallen in love with, at least for the most part.

See, the Hawthorne boys came into play and we all know that no YA female protagonist can resist a hot, broody teen boy for long. If I’m being honest, I didn’t like either of her potential love interests. Grayson’s personality irked me to no end, and Jameson felt like a cardboard cutout of a rich kid. If you want to know, I’m team Xander. Although the book doesn’t really mention how old any of these kids are so possibly he was too young for her anyway? I don’t know. At least he had an actual personality, and was kind. The person that Avery was around these guys drove me absolutely insane.

As for the mystery portion of this book, it started out fairly solid. I loved the idea of an eccentric rich man carefully laying out clues for his grandsons to follow. The way that Barnes lays out the vastness and the beauty of the Hawthorne home makes it a veritable playground for this mystery. I just wanted to watch them ramble around, discover more and more rooms, and if I’m being honest (I’m a bookworm after all) I really wanted more library descriptions. A house with multiple libraries? Count me in!

The problem is that the love triangle really takes over after a bit, and the mystery that the group is trying to solve falls further and further into the background. It felt like the clues that Avery found were less exciting every time, and more of just a necessary item to keep the story going. The house that I was once excited to get lost in now felt like a cavernous space where a Hawthorne boy could be lurking at any moment, trying to win Avery over. It was… odd. I’m not even sure how else to explain it. If I were her friend I would have told her to run for the hills.

By the time I reached the end, I was pretty underwhelmed by it all. So, 3 stars. Solid writing, okay characters, but the ending was so lackluster. I don’t think I’ll carry on with this series.