This past week, I read the Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. It came to my attention when I got an ad that the second book just released. The description was really interesting to me though I couldn’t tell how dark it would get. The writing was really good though the plot could have given me more (which I’ll get into later). Overall I’d give this book 3.5/5 stars.
PREMISE
Avery Grambs was living a pretty unextraordinary life. After her mom passes away, she lives with her half sister Libby. Unfortunately, Libby’s kind soul leads to her letting her abusive boyfriend back into the girl’s lives. This turn of events causes Avery to live in her car and dream of her life after high school. Her entire life is thrown into disarray when the neatly dressed Grayson Hawthorne comes into her life. He brings news that she was added to his grandfather, Tobias Hawthrone’s, will. Avery is confused because she and Tobias have never met. The will can’t be read until everyone is present so Avery and her sister get whisked away to Hawthorne House. There they discover that Tobias left his fortune to Avery. The catch: she must live in Hawthorne House for one full year.
Now she is stuck living in a house filled with pissed off and jealous Hawthornes. The most prominent in her life being Tobias’ 4 grandsons, Grayson, Jameson, Nash, and Xander. Grayson thinks she is a gold digger and wants her out of his life. Meanwhile, Jameson thinks she may be a riddle left behind by their grandfather; one that he decides to solve.
“Everything’s a game, Avery Grambs. The only thing we get to decide in this life is if we play to win.”
Jennifer Lyn Barnes
Avery is swept up into a world of riddles, games, and chaos. She must learn to navigate her new surroundings and play the game. Too bad that the stakes may just be her life.
‘PINION
Overall, I really liked this author’s style of writing. I thought that it moved the story along and it was very easy to get swept up into. My biggest problem with the book is that the premise made it seem much darker than it was. The danger only lasted a couple chapters and was solved without any real consequences. It’s not a young adult book, but it felt like it might as well be. Plus even the riddles were pretty simple. They were time consuming but there were not any stakes involved. For example, one of the riddles led our main character to check the books in the library in search of finding one where the dust cover did not match the book. Due to the simplicity of the challenges, it made them less interesting to envision. It was emphasized that Tobias liked riddles, but since I could solve some of them they felt like mediocre brain teasers.
I want to preface this by saying I hate love triangles. I don’t know why, but I always find them frustrating and it can ruin an entire show/ book for me if the couple I like less ends up together. I know that the author is setting up a love triangle between Avery, Jameson, and Grayson, but I didn’t really care. Avery and Grayson barely have any scenes together where they connect. Meanwhile Jameson has demonstrated that he is currently emotionally unavailable.
I mentioned the lack of danger earlier, but I want to reiterate that a little more bloodshed would have elevated this book to the next level. There was a lot of mentioning of threats to Avery’s life, however she’s barely attacked. She gets shot at from a distance that misses her completely. Then in the next chapter, her assailant is captured. It’s especially annoying that it’s just her sister’s abusive boyfriend who we met for two pages. It’s later added that the Hawthorne boys’ mom is also orchestrating the attack, but that it also resolved without any action… Grayson just asks her to move out. Let’s also talk about Emily, the girl who used to date Jameson that died on the property. That’s all that happened. She just died. She had a heart condition that re-activated when she was trying to be all adventurous. She did cause drama between the brothers by dating Grayson and Jameson, but that was the only thing her character added. It’s okay Jennfier, you can kill someone off. I vote for Nash since he’s mentioned too much for not doing anything!
PLOT TWISTS
For all of its shortcomings, I actually really liked some of the plot twists that the author put in. The biggest question the book sets up is: why did Tobias Hawthrone leave Avery all of his fortune? This is not totally resolved though the book sets up a few circumstances that could have led to this outcome. It’s turned out her birthday is the same day that Emily passed away. Forcing Jameson and Grayson to talk about the events of that day. Plus her name unscrambled to spell “a very risky gamble” which is a saying he liked. Later on it’s revealed the most likely reason could be correlated to the fact that she treated his son with kindness everyday. Toby Hawthorne is Tobias’ son that everyone believed to be dead after disappearing one night. In reality he’s been living as a homeless man in Avery’s hometown. Everyday she would bring him food and play chess with him. Those moments of kindness may have just gained her billions.
The main reason I liked this twist is that I somewhat predicted it. I knew that the man she played chess with was going to be important to the story. It was a dynamic opening that they kept mentioning early on. I thought the man was going to be Tobias, but I’m fine that I was wrong. I also believed that Toby could still be alive because it was something that was mentioned in passing. At first I thought that Toby was Avery’s dad but a DNA test squashed that belief. Therefore if you combined my two theories I was almost right!
ANother pleasant surprise was Xander’s character. The youngest Hawthorne spent most of the book as a background character. He helps our main three solve the riddles, offers some funny moments, and hints that there is more beneath his surface. It’s later revealed that Tobias tasked him with making sure Avery, Gayson, and Jameson solved all the clues. Any time they gave up, he had to draw them back in. Plus, in the epilogue he is talked with tracking down Toby, the undead heir. This shows that Xander will play a larger role in the upcoming books, and hopefully we will be able to see his mind in action.
PREDICTIONS
I still feel like there is a stronger connection between Avery and Toby that we don’t know. I’m excited to see how a reunion between the two may go. Especially since the entire Hawthorne family thinks that he is dead. I also think that the end of the love triangle will end up with Avery and Grayson. There are small moments that show that Jameson may not be able to handle a relationship. He clearly cares about AVery but it’s more about adventure rather than anything long-lasting. I can also see Nash and Libby getting together, which would pull the eldest Hawthorne back into the story. Xander was a pleasant surprise so I’m hoping we can see some of Nash’s depth. I also REALLY hope it gets darker. A little more grit and this book could be even better. The writing style is amazing but I need a more engaging plot to increase my star rating.
Overall, the book is a fun read if you want something to fill your time. It won’t change your life, but it may just make you want to try your hand at some riddles.